Introduction 

There will be strategic planning assignments in units 1-8. These assignments are designed to have you work through the sections of a strategic marketing plan. Each strategic marketing plan could focus on the current business where you work, an entrepreneurial startup, or another business.

Each unit will cover part of the strategic marketing plan as indicated below.

Unit

Strategic Planning Assignment

Unit 1

Identification of the Strategic Business Unit (SBU) and the Business Model for the Project.

Unit 2

Environmental Analysis and Strategic Implications

Unit 3

Segmentation Analysis and Target Market Recommendations

Unit 4

SWOT Analysis and Identification of Competitive Advantages: Setting marketing goals and objectives

Unit 5

Identification of a Product Mix Strategy

Unit 6

Branding and Positioning Strategy

Unit 7

Ethical Review and Value Strategies

Unit 8

GANTT Chart and Justification for Strategic Implementation & Executive Summary.

Each strategic planning assignment will include research analysis from secondary research using academic and industry trade data. You will make strategic recommendations in each section that will need to be justified through your analysis. Each section will need to be logically linked to the earlier sections and all strategic decisions will be used to build your GANTT Chart and implementation plan in Unit 8.

Click here for Learning Outcomes

Directions

Segmentation Analysis and Target Market Recommendations

A market oriented approach starts with determining the needs, wants, and preferences of the markets served.  This requires developing an understanding of markets, market segments and segmentation techniques.

MARKET:A market is the larger set of consumers who buy goods and services.MARKET
SEGMENT:A market segment is a cluster of individuals who will react in the same way to marketing efforts in the same way (this often means that they have the same basic needs). For example, an older demographic market segment may react differently than a younger demographic market segment to a specific marketing mix.SEGMENTATION:Is the process used to determine a target market profile that clearly identifies market segments. The segmentation process uses identifying characteristics to develop a market segment profile. This will normally include a combination of characteristics such as indicated below. (Note, business segmentation criteria are also included on the assignment worksheet.)

• Demographics
• Geographic Location
• Values
• Psychographics
• Basic Needs, Wants, Preferences, or Requirements
• Buying Habits and Preferences
• Consumption/Disposition Characteristics

PRIMARY
MARKET
SEGMENT:The first market segment you should identify should the primary market segment you plan to target. This is the segment that would most likely provide the majority of your sales, where you plan to build your brand image, or you have some other strategic reason to target this segment. Identifying the primary market will allow you to determine what other markets will “fit” with this segment. An example could be a Facebook which originally targeted a college student market.SECONDARY
MARKETS
SEGMENTS:

Secondary market segments are those which would strategically follow the primary market. Again, using Facebook as an example, they expanded into a number of secondary markets. These markets can now be micro targeted across a variety of segmentation profile factors.

Researching Your Consumer

Introduction

In each unit, the students will be assigned discussion questions concerning unit topics, examine the presented topics, and complete the discussion tasks. After submitting the initial posting, the students will provide constructive criticism of at least two peers’ initial postings, including the perceived strengths, weaknesses, and specific opportunities for improvement.

The initial post should be a minimum of one page double spaced in length. Refer to the discussion rubric for grading criteria which includes using credible sources (properly cited in APA format) and linking in the unit’s concepts and terms for critical analysis.It is recommended that your use a word processer, such as MS Word and use both spell checking and grammar checking tools. You should expand your grammar checking tools in Word to cover any writing weaknesses (such as setting to Grammar and Style in Word). You can then copy and paste your post into the discussion forum. While there is no minimum or maximum word expectation for peer responses, they are expected to be substantive in nature and linked to credible sources. All work should reflect graduate-level critical thinking, as well as an ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate given scenarios and tasks.

Directions

The core of marketing is an understanding of your consumer. There is a difference between a customer and a consumer. A customer is the actual or prospective purchaser of products or services. This can include intermediary customers such as manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, etc. End user consumers are the ultimate users of a product or service. For this discussion, you will research consumer segmentation using academic articles through Park Library’s Pirate Search.

Reading academic research articles requires and understanding of how they are constructed. These articles are often very “thick”, not in the number of pages, but rather in the density of concepts and wording. While these articles are usually designed to be read by other academic researchers, they can provide deeper insight into specific theories and techniques that can be used in developing marketing strategies.

Most academic articles start with an abstract which outlines the focus of the paper. Use the abstract to identify if the article you find is appropriate for your research. The article flow normally starts with an introduction and then a literature review. The next section is the method. This can be the most complex part of the paper because of the research techniques used which may include advanced statistical techniques. The paper will then have a results section where findings are summarized and often implications are discussed. Your company has asked you, as the marketing expert, to provide a brief summary of consumer segmentation decision processes for your industry. Since you are working on your MBA, you have access to Park University’s Pirate Search to identify relevant academic articles.

• For this assignment, go to Park University’s Pirate Search.
• Check the Limit To: radio buttons for: Full Text, Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals, and Academic Journals.
• Use the Keyword field to search:
  • Consumer segmentation (then include an industry or topic you are interested in).
  • Note, you should review the abstracts of more than one article.

Discussion Issues

1. Specify the search terms you used in your search including your industry term.
2. Place the reference for the article using APA 7th Edition formatting.
3. Give a brief summary of the article including any of the following that are relevant:
   1. The focus of the article.
   2. Major concepts or theories identified in the literature review.
   3. Description of the data collection method used in the study (some articles may only be a literature review).
   4. Implications of the results of the data analysis (if included in the article).
   5. Any other conclusion you find from the article.
4. Explain the larger strategic implications that this article may have for your company’s segmentation strategy including the consumer decision process.

The Case Analysis Outline

Please select a company for your Integrated Project by the end of Week 1 (August 25) subject to the approval of the instructor. The companies selected for analysis must be public companies for which there are published data.

Such data are available from the company’s annual reports, journals, magazines, periodicals, Internet, and industry analysis. All case analyses must adhere to the following conventional format:

1. Introduction: brief summary of the firm, officers, industry and location; and the       purpose of the project.

2. Problem Identification: major problem(s) to be resolved-use the 4Ps model.

3. SWOT Analysis: strengths; weaknesses; opportunities; threats.

4. Alternatives: strategic options-solutions to the problem(s) identified.

5. Analysis of Alternatives: cost/benefit analysis of the solutions identified.

6. Recommendation: best/optimal solution based on the cost/benefit analysis.