- MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS
ANSWER ALL TASKS
In your role as a Marketing Manager for your organisation (or one of your choice), you have
been briefed by the senior management team to develop a marketing plan in relation to ONE
of the following options:
Option One: To improve the conversion rate by x% (as stated by the candidate,
including the timescale) of the target audience from initial enquiry through to purchasing
the product or service
Option Two: To increase brand awareness by x% (as stated by the candidate, including
the timescale) through the use of digital methods and techniques.
In order to develop the marketing plan in the context of ONE chosen option, you are asked
to carry out three tasks (outlined below) that require you to produce three component parts
to this brief: marketing audit, marketing plan and evaluation report. These three parts
will be presented during the next senior management meeting.
You are asked to provide an executive summary (500 words maximum, excluded from the
word count) in response to the overall brief. In addition, you are asked to provide a brief
background to your chosen organisation, to be placed in the appendix.
Task One: Marketing audit
You are asked to prepare a marketing audit that considers the current and likely future
challenges for your chosen organisation, in order to form a basis for the marketing plan. The
marketing audit will be attached to the marketing plan. Marks will be awarded for the content
of the marketing audit and its application within the marketing plan and evaluation report.
Produce a marketing audit that:
identifies and provides a rationale for the chosen option
provides an evidence base for the development of the marketing plan.
Audit: six sides of A4 maximum to be attached as an appendix to Task Two: Marketing plan
Task Two: Marketing plan
You are asked to prepare a marketing plan that is based on information contained within the
marketing audit, contextualised to the chosen option.
Produce a marketing plan that:
summarises the findings from the marketing audit
evaluates the detailed findings from the marketing audit based on the selected option
identifies the key issues from the selected option.
In creating the marketing plan, up to an additional three sides of A4 may be included as
tables, models, etc, to support the plan. These pages do not form part of the word count.
Any other tables or models that are additional to those included in the marketing plan may
be attached to the marketing plan as appendices (up to three sides of A4). Specific
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Marketing Planning Process Assignment Brief June 2014
reference must be made to these in the marketing plan but their content will not attract
marks.
Marketing plan: 3,000 words maximum
Task Three: Evaluation report
You are asked to produce an evaluation report that considers the contribution of marketing
planning and some of its key aspects to the success of your organisation.
Produce a formal report that:
explains and assesses the way in which marketing planning can benefit your chosen
organisation
critically evaluates the role of the marketing audit as part of the marketing planning
process, and identifies the problems of information gathering and analysis encountered
in undertaking the marketing audit
explains and justifies how an appropriate competitive strategy has been developed as a
part of the plan for your organisation, utilising a segmentation-targeting-positioning
approach; this should evidence how the marketing mix will be used to achieve the
desired positioning, and how the performance of the plan will be evaluated
identifies the possible issues that may be encountered when implementing the marketing
plan in the context of your organisation over a stated period, and presents practical
proposals for resolving them.
Appendix
Provide a brief background to the chosen organisation, its current product(s)/service(s)
range and its customer base (up to two sides of A4 maximum, no marks awarded).
Evaluation report: 3,000 words maximum
