Assignment 3: Market Plan Section 1

Preface:

You are the new marketing manager to The Waters Bottling Company (WBC) of Munsonville, NH. They have never done any marketing for their water before so they will need to be educated as to the role of marketing in their company’s success. They started their company last year and want to “do it right” according to their president and founder, Dr. M. Waters. (The M stands for Muddy so he prudently only uses the initial. He also is rather fond of Blues music, which he would like to incorporate into the marketing plan in some way.) They want to sell their crystal clear, granite filtered mountain water to the “right” market. It is your job to identify that target market. At this point, they don’t even know how the product should be packaged or have a name to identify it. You will get to make that determination and carry that product through the entire Marketing Plan.

Imagination and creativity combined with solid marketing concepts will be the basic framework for your report. They will be relying on you for all of the details to make this product successful. They are well funded and ready to bring this product to market, with your help and guidance.

Use the attached Marketing Planning Guide to build your marketing plan for their naturally mineral rich pure mountain water. Be sure to relate the marketing concepts/ theories to this product/ company as you build the marketing plan over the length of the course. The competed sections of the marketing plan will be submitted in the Dropbox for each module. Use each of the outline items as headers/ subheads for your analysis. Be concise and apply each of the appropriate concepts to the WBC scenario.

Marketing Planning Guide

Section 1 – The Environment (Module 1)

Introduction to Marketing

The Marketing Mix

The Marketing Environment

Marketing and its relationship with other functional areas of business

Strategic Marketing

Planning Process

Strategy

Organizational Levels

Goals and Objectives

Planning Gap

Ethics in Marketing

You will create a complete Marketing Plan by the end of the course. You will write the first section of the Marketing Plan for this assignment. Use the guide to identify the sections of the Marketing Plan and the marketing elements contained therein. This assignment will focus on Section 1 – The Environment (Module 1).

Over the span of the course, you will gather information from a number of probable sources. Some of the sources may include, but are not limited to, the Internet, public libraries, business magazines, newspapers, the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, annual reports, consultant/industry analyst reports, databases, Department of Commerce publications, Temple and other university libraries, trade and academic journals, Moody’s, Value Line, etc.

You may be surprised and overwhelmed by the volume of information that is available for many topics, though you may have to do some “detective work” to locate them.

You may find Web sites such as Hoovers.com and Lexis-Nexis extremely helpful.

Create a 4- to 6-page Word document for your Marketing Plan Section. Apply a standard business writing style using the Market Planning Guide sections as your (headers/ sub heads/ bullets) to your work. Be sure to cite your work in the APA format.

Use the following file-naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M1_A3.doc. For example, if your name is John Smith, your document will be named SmithJ_M1_A3.doc.

By Wednesday, December 24, 2014, deliver your assignments to the M1: Assignment 3 Dropbox.

Assignment 2: Business Environment and Marketing Research

Using the Waters Bottling Companyin Module 1, continue to build the Marketing Plan Sections for the product you have selected/ invented/ created. Complete the following in MS Word: Be concise but complete in your analysis of each plan element. Your employer wants to know you have left nothing out in your analysis.

This assignment represents Section 2 of the Marketing Plan. Use the Marketing Plan guide to identify the sections of the Marketing Plan and the marketing elements contained therein. This assignment will focus on Section 2 – Marketing Research & Target marketing (Module 2).

Section 2 – Market Research & Targeting (Module 2)

Market Research

Research Methods & Data Mining

Market Research Process

Consumer Behavior

B2C vs. B2B

Consumer Decision Making Process

Factors Affecting B2C and B2B consumer behavior

Market Segmentation

Market Segmentation Concepts

Segmentation Process

Segmentation Strategies

Target Marketing

Relate all responses using the WBC scenario and the product you have selected to market in Module 1.

Create a 4- to 6-page Word document for your Marketing Plan sections. Apply a standard business writing style using the Market Planning Guide sections as your (headers/ sub heads/ bullets) to your work. Be sure to cite your work in the APA format.

Use the following file-naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M2_A2.doc. For example, if your name is John Smith, your document will be named SmithJ_M2_A2.doc.

Submit your Word Document to the M2: Assignment 2 Dropbox by Wednesday, January 7, 2015.

Assignment 2: LASA 1: Product & Price

Using the Waters Bottling Companyin Module 1, continue to build the Marketing Plan Sections for the product you have selected/ invented/ created. Complete the following in MS Word: Be concise but complete in your analysis of each plan element. Your employer wants to know you have left nothing out in your analysis.

This assignment represents Section 3 of the Marketing Plan. Use the guide to identify the sections of the Marketing Plan and the marketing elements contained therein. This assignment will focus on Section 3– Product & Price (Module 3).

Section 3 – Product & Price (Module 3 LASA 1)

The Product

Product Levels: Core, Actual, & Augmented (Packaging)

Product Life Cycle

BCG Model

Services Marketing

Price Determination & Pricing Strategies

Supply & Demand

Competition

Objectives and Strategies

You will create a complete Marketing Plan by the end of the course. You will write the third section of the Marketing Plan for this assignment. Use the Marketing Plan guide to identify the sections of the Marketing Plan and the marketing elements contained therein. This assignment will focus on Section 3 – The Product & Pricing (Module 3).

Relate all responses using the WBC scenario and the product you have selected to market in Module 1.

Create a 4- to 6-page Word document for your Marketing Plan Section. Apply a standard business writing style using the Market Planning Guide sections as your (headers/ sub heads/ bullets) to your work. Be sure to cite your work in the APA format.

Use the following file-naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M3_A2.doc. For example, if your name is John Smith, your document will be named SmithJ_M3_A2.doc.

Submit your Word document to the M3: Assignment 2 LASA 1 Dropbox by Wednesday, January 14, 2015.