MNM4805 - Department of Marketing and Retail Management

Assignment Task

1. Introduction

This tutorial letter contains the THREE compulsory assignments that you must complete and submit for this module. The due dates of these assignments are included in Tutorial Letter 101. Note that all three assignments for this module are compulsory.

Assignment question

The strategic marketing plan is a crucial element of the course in strategic marketing. As a marketing student, you are approached by the marketing director of one the sports brand manufacturers. During your conversation, he mentions that his company wants to develop a strategic marketing plan for a five-year period, and he desperately needs your assistance. You are required to compile the first part of a strategic marketing plan for a sports brand manufacturer of your choice. There are many books in the library that deal with the marketing plan. I encourage you to make the effort to use these books in your studies.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

While the framework given below does not necessarily represent the perfect framework, it does cover the most important elements to be addressed. Use this framework as a starting point and make adjustments where appropriate.

2. This assignment follows on Assignment 01 and the headings used there. It completes the content of the rest of the strategic marketing plan for your chosen topic. Use the following headings to structure your assignment.

Market and marketing strategies

General detail of the overall generic strategies, market and marketing strategies

• Set out the overall generic strategic direction or market and marketing strategy (e.g. growth, differentiation, focus, low cost, harvest). Discuss in detail the overall generic strategy you intend to follow with the company’s strategic marketing plan. Do not simply state that you will follow a differentiation strategy. Identify which differentiation strategy you will follow and explain the basis of this strategy. You can also combine certain market strategies. For example, you may choose to follow a differentiation strategy based on unique features combined with a focus strategy. Make sure that you describe the combination in detail. 
• Define target market(s) in detail. Use the different bases of segmentation to describe your target markets (demographic, psychographic, behavioural and geographic variables) or link your target market to the various LSMs or other segmentation criteria.
• State how the marketing objectives should be achieved. Specify the strategies followed for the product, price, promotion and distribution for each specific target market. Apply the additional Ps (people, physical evidence and processes) where appropriate for a service business.

Marketing strategy is the most important component of the marketing plan and therefore should be your main focus. Develop your strategies in detail. Refer to your Marketing I to III textbooks or any other marketing textbook to determine which topics you should address when developing strategies. Remember to be creative. Do not simply restate the company’s old strategies – develop new and innovative ones. The marketing strategy should follow the objectives that were set. For example, you cannot set a marketing objective to withdraw some of the products and then formulate a strategy to increase the sales of the same products. The objectives and strategies must correspond.

It is important to realise that the marketing objectives, strategies and action plans are the most important components of the marketing plan and thus you should focus on them when compiling the marketing plan. Too many students write 12 pages on the situation analysis and then only four pages on marketing strategy and action plans. Devote a lot more effort to developing DETAILED marketing strategies. Broad and vague strategies are meaningless. Develop your strategies in detail by stating exactly what you will be doing over the next five years.

Marketing budget

Provide a forecast statement of income and marketing expenditure for the planning period. The information does not have to be accurate, but at least try to keep it realistic. As long as the MNM4805/102 10 marker can see that you know what kinds of income and expenditure relate to the marketing of products, you will be awarded marks.

With regard to the budget, it is important to remember the following: if your strategies will cost money to carry out, it should be in the budget. Training costs money, therefore include it in the budget; competitions cost money, therefore include them in the budget. Do not forget to identify sales targets.

With a bit of effort you can find out what the actual costs incurred by a company would be. If you log on to the websites of many magazines, newspapers, television channels or any other media, you can access their advertising rates. For example, brochure development costs can be obtained from advertising agencies and from printers. All that is required is a bit of initiative and effort.

Control

Firstly, it is important to identify what will be controlled. Then you must indicate who will exercise control, and how, when and how often control will be exercised over the marketing plan. Identify the key areas or aspects that need to be controlled and then address each of the questions mentioned previously. It is particularly important that you spend some time and effort on explaining how you will exercise control over the many aspects. Identify the methods and give a bit of insight into what will be done.

3. Students do not write an examination for this Unisa module. Assignment 03 (Examination Portfolio) replaces the traditional examination. This assignment requires that you combine all that you have done in Assignments 01 and 02, but this time with consideration of the comments and guidelines that you have received on the other two assignments.

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