Business and the Business Environment
FC009
Summer 2013

The Marketing Plan

Below you will find the heading for a framework to aid you in preparing the group coursework report.

It is strongly recommended that you read the course text-book, the recommended supplementary book list and any relevant academic/professional resources in order to learn about the marketing planning process and framework in more detail, as the information included here is meant to serve as an introduction/overview only.

The Marketing Plan (proposed specifications) 1. Executive Summary
The executive summary describes the report’s objectives, major findings in relation to the analysis of the market, and strategic recommendations. It is designed to provide a busy reader with the major issues contained in the report. The executive summary allows the reader to gain insight to key outcomes without having to read all of the report. Bullet-points can be used to present the key points in the executive summary. 2. Business and industry background
A brief description of what your company is about and what is planning to do accompanied by a description of the relevant industry for your business. 3. Environmental Scanning
The environmental scanning is an essential part of the marketing plan as it based on auditing the external and the internal marketing environment of a business. It is a systematic examination of a business marketing environment, objectives, strategies and activities, with a view to identifying key strategic issues, problem areas, and opportunities. It provides the basis upon which a plan of action to improve marketing performance can be built. The external marketing audit focuses on the macro-environment and the micro-environment (mainly customer analysis and competitor analysis) of your business.
The internal marketing audit focuses on the activities and performance of the company in the light of the external marketing environment. You are not expected to present a lengthy discussion of these issues in your group project, as you are using a fictitious company and the only information you have on the company derives from the scenario. It is expected that SWOT analysis will provide you a good basis to evaluate the strategic position of the business by identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
In relation to the internal marketing audit, the SWOT analysis provides a simple method of synthesizing the results of the marketing audit by summarizing the company’s strengths and weaknesses as they relate to external opportunities and threats. Strengths and weaknesses will derive from the analysis of the internal marketing audit and micro-environment.