10 Jan Metrics for overall plan:

Question
Development of an IMC plan is the major graded component in this course. It will give you hands-on experience with the intricacies of marketing communications that achieve marketing & communications objectives.i is also a skill that you can list on your resume. An IMC plan is the next step after the developments and approval of the marketing plan for the organization. It provides the tactical level of detail to the marketing communications portion of the marketing plan.

The IMC plan you prepare in this course will be staged in three parts, allowing you to make modifications to submitted parts. This will ensure your final IMC plan, incorporating all three parts, assesses your understanding and application of best practices in marketing communications. Building an IMC plan takes planning, research, strategic thinking, and hard work. Do NOT make the mistake of working on sections of the IMC plan just before they are due. That lack of planning and commitment to the course will be reflected in your grade. Be sure to reference the Marketing Toolkit for PowerPoint presentations.

Background on the complete plan:Your final IMC plan incorporating all three parts will be submitted as a PowerPoint presentation at the end of week 8. All three parts of the final plan will include all the following:

– Executive Summary, Title Page, and Table of Contents

· Identifying the target market

· Determining communication objectives

· Designing the message

· Selecting the media

· Selecting message source

· Selecting feedback metrics to measure success of the IMC plan

· Setting the promotion budget

· Shaping the overall promotion mix

· Integrating the promotion mix

· Evaluation Metrics for the final IMC plan

· Bibliography

· Exhibits

Each of these topics is discussed in your readings, which you should reference to ensure your Power Point presentation demonstrates you can apply marketing and communications concepts to your IMC plan.

The strategic and promotion mix choices must be supported with rationale from the readings or outside sources. Each slide should contain enough details to understand how you arrived at your conclusions. These details can come from external sources; or when information is not forthcoming from your best ‘guesses.

Part 1 (worth 15% of final grade)

Product or service selection due end of week 1

Part 1 PowerPoint presentation due end of week 3

Select a consumer product or service you wish to explore in this course. You might want to use the product you selected in MRKT 310’s marketing plan if you recently took that course. You might want to pick a product that you regularly use and to which you can assume you are a member of the primary target market. You need to ensure that the product lends itself to multiple promotion mix tools. Therefore, products of large, well-known, publicly traded companies work best. You can select a brand instead of a specific product. Be sure you understand the difference before proceeding.

Do not assume that what you believe is true for the product is true for all members of the target market. Do your research and be unbiased in your analyses. Remember, a product can be a good, a service, or an idea, or a combination. Submit your product choice to your faculty member in the assignment folder.

Once your product choice has been approved, prepare a PowerPoint presentation for part 1 as follows:

1. Title slide—name of product, your name, date, course information, plus part 1 table of contents

2. Description of product, providing details on what consumer need the product fills, the physical description, any service components that come with it, as well as any after sales support such as guarantee, warranties or customer support, plus the other areas in the template.

3. Product’s competitive position

4. Value proposition

5. Primary target market characteristics – ID 3 targets

6. Target market’s buyer decision behavior

7. Brand strategy

8. Product life cycle stage & benefit analysis

9. Channel design (channel members and role) and distribution strategy (intensive, selective, or exclusive)

10. Communication objectives based on buyer-readiness stages. Note: objectives must be stated in measurable terms.

FINAL IMC Plan, incl. Part 3 Grading Rubric Instructor: Semester:

Overview:In Parts 1 and 2 of your IMC plan you needed to identify a detailed analysis of key marketing elements for your selected product, (value proposition, target audiences, its distribution channels, competitors, etc.) Part 3 covers the advertising objectives to be accomplished , the tactics, plus the evaluations that should be used to achieve the Communications Objectives. The minimum requirements for Part 3 and the whole IMC Plan are:

PART 3

General overview of Promotion Mix that you recommend to achieve the communications objectives and reach the target audiences you have set for your product (paid and non-paid communications vehicles.)

The rationale for why you are recommending them

The general media strategies (at least 2) you plan for the promotions

The overall budget, etc. recommended including budget type used. Also what are the allocations ( in percent or actual dollars) for recommended media, research and public relations, etc.

0 – 5

Promotion mix strategy: need to discuss the strategies and tactics you recommend to integrate the advertising, sales, sales promotion, etc,

Should personal, non-personal or both be used.
Recommend push, pull or both strategies
Timing of the promotions & why (fall for gift season, slow times to increase sales, etc.
0-5

Advertising objectives need to be stated in measurable terms (what % target do you want to reach and how often, what % coupon redemption, etc)

Message themes need to identify the message strategy & executional framework to use,
Media strategies & plan to target the right audience identified in Part 1.
0 – 5

Public relations strategies :

What publics do you want to reach, incl. consumers, investors, legislators/regulatory, employees, etc.
What p.r. tools do you plan to use: press releases, media events, publicity, crisis management plans, etc.
0 – 3

Personal selling strategies:

Need to identify which sales people you want to motivate, such as sales people, wholesalers, retailers for shelving position, etc.
What sales incentives, contests, sales brochures, etc.
0 – 5

Direct marketing, online & social media strategies to use:

Need to identify specific social media, online and direct marketing strategies and the rationale for using, etc.
Identify timing and target audience for each.
0 – 5

Evaluation Tools you plan to use & why. Examples could be ROI, metrics such as coupon redemption, tracking and click-though rates on website, research studies, etc.

0 – 2

Metrics for overall plan:

Title slide, Table of Contents-all 3 parts –
Executive Summary –
Revisions to Parts 1 & 2,
Bibliography with proper citations of sources and exhibits -.
Effective Powerpoint presentation with no typos or grammatical errors. Submitted on time.
0 – 5

PROFESSOR’S COMMENTS: Total Possible Points: 35 Yours: