WebQuests (ICT Integration)

Marketing Plan

Can your ideas bear fruit? Do you believe that it is possible for your ideas about creating a product or service to sell to teens will actually succeed? What does it take to succeed as an entrepreneur? It certainly requires talent and hard work, but even the smallest business will not sustain itself in the long run without a market plan. In this unit you will build your ideas into a marketing plan.

Task

You are a member of a company with your friends. You have a product or service that teenagers will want to use. You would like to market this product, but you will require financial backing. You did some market research and took this to a small business funder. The funder listened with interest to your idea and seems very interested in supporting you. The funder has asked your team to produce a marketing plan.

Process

It is your task to think of a product or service that teenagers will want to use. You could use an existing product and service and adapt it, or you could consider a completely original idea. Once you have thought of this idea, produce a marketing plan for this product or service. The marketing plan must conform to the template but should be enhanced with whatever your team deems appropriate. Your team will present the plan in the format of a presentation, accompanied by a printed document in the format of your choice.

For this assignment, you will work in teams of five and you will divide your task into roles as follows (click on each role for more information):

Product Manager

Your task is to understand your product from your consumers' point of view, in terms of its features and benefits. Know what the targeted customer wants and deliver it to them. You must be able to identify your product in one sentence that tells the audience about the type of product and the task it performs. You should also be able to describe it in detail. In your team presentation you will write your rationale for choosing this product or service. Be prepared to discuss your choice with the funder.

Packaging Consultant

Your task is to decide how your company will 'package' or present an attractive and identifiable image for your product? This includes a name and logo. Packaging and its design help set the product apart from all other similar products on the store shelf. They also include basic marketing materials or information necessary for use, such as a list of testimonials, customer statements, or quotes from users, statements about how the product is better than anything else on the market, etc.

Your team presentation will clearly show the identity of your product and provide an explanation of why you have chosen this packaging.

Financial Manager

Your task is to ensure that your product is creatively offered so that it will not be easy to compare the prices of other companies' products. Justify the product's pricing, in terms of the product's features. The pricing mustn't be too high (or it will scare away potential customers) nor too low (customers may feel something is wrong with a cheaply-priced product). It is important to understand your product's positioning in the market before you set a fair and reasonable price that will still make a profit.

Product pricing usually includes three kinds of calculations:
- Price/cost for producer (total expense of production)
- Price/cost for retailers (wholesale price)
- Price/cost for consumers (retail price)

Logistics Manager

Your task is to define where your product or service fits into the marketplace? How is your product or service distributed to the consumer? What are the channels through which your product is made available, e.g., nationally or internationally, on-line or in local stores, etc.? The places where your product is available and how it is sold say a lot about the status and quality of your product. Your product's image must match the place where it is made available. Your company must define its place in the market, before the competition does it for you.

Public Relations Officer

Your task is to decide how your company will remind, persuade, and inform consumers about its products. Promotions usually are linked to price, such as "Save 15% if you buy before…" Promotional efforts must be credible and truthful - if not, consumers will turn away. Promotion includes advertising, public relations, special events, the efforts of the sales force, and the way your company gets the word out to its consumers, and effectively makes them desire your product. As part of your presentation you will create:

1. A one-page colourful flyer advertisement with graphics.
2. Instructions on how to use the product, in a brochure.
3. A press release that would be intended for e-mail distribution.

Resource

» http://www.4children.org.uk/Resources/Detail/Market-Research-fact-sheet
How to do market research

» http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220148
How to put together a marketing plan

» http://money.howstuffworks.com/marketing-plan9.htm
How Stuff Works: How Marketing Plans Work

» http://tenonline.org/art/mm1.html
Marketing Basics

Conclusion

Hopefully you have gained a real insight into what it takes to plan a product release, from idea to action. You have experienced an important process in successful entrepreneurship. Now all you have to do is take your talent and work hard.

» Download the Presentation Assessment

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