Step 9: Develop a Marketing Strategy Required Readings Chapters 4, 5, & 6 Lanca

Step 9: Develop a Marketing Strategy
Required Readings
Chapters 4, 5, & 6
Lancaster, G., & Massingham, L. (2018). Essentials of marketing management (2nd ed.). Routledge
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You and your team have been working around the clock to generate all the pieces for your new client’s requests. Jillian touches base to see how things are moving along and to provide additional instruction.
INBOX: 1 New Message
Subject: Pulling it all together
From: Jillian Best, CEO, MCS
To: Team & You
Hi Team,
Please develop a marketing strategy for this client based on your STP strategy. The following marketing strategy elements are interdependent and are crucial components of a successful marketing plan. Click each component for more in-depth information:
branding strategies—Describe the needs and wants of your target customers and how you intend to position the offerings versus the competition. Present a detailed description of the different types of products or services that you intend to sell in the US market, including their attributes, features, and quality level, along with the brand names, intended packaging, logo, and supplemental products and services. As you make these branding strategy decisions, it is imperative that you stay focused on the customer. Remember that the company’s customers do not buy features; they buy benefits, both tangible and intangible. It is also critical to understand the customer: think about who makes the purchase and who influences that decision.
pricing strategy—Pricing is very strategic, as it is the only marketing mix variable that generates income. As a marketing team, you need to decide on your price objectives and strategies. Think about pricing tactics like discounts and incentives. You need to decide whether your pricing strategy should be skimming, premium, or market penetration given the nature of the offerings, your customers, and your major competition. Profit margins and breakeven analysis will also need to be considered. As you determine your final price points, you’ll need to consider the perceived value of your offerings. Describe how you would go about making these decisions as well as the major issues involved.
distribution and supply chain strategy—Is it easy to transport your offerings, or are there issues involved in delivering them to the final user? These strategic decisions deal with how customers purchase your products or services. Will you market your products or services directly to your customers or through intermediaries like distributors and wholesalers? Will you follow an exclusive, selective, or intensive distribution? Distribution decisions focus on marketing channels as well as the physical distribution of the offerings. Explain the criteria you would use to make these distribution and supply chain strategy decisions.
integrated marketing communications—This is often the most visible element of a marketing strategy. The company’s communication strategy involves developing an integrative mix of a number of different tools, while keeping in mind the needs and characteristics of the target market. These tools may include a mix of traditional communication elements such as advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and publicity and public relations. It is essential that your promotion objectives are clearly defined, and that a holistic and integrated marketing communication approach is used.
Whew, that was a lot to cover, but all important info,
Jillian
Support your work with scholarly sources and reliable nonscholarly sources such as Reuters, Bloomberg, Yahoo! Finance, Barrons.com, Morningstar.com, Money, Forbes, Fortune, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and Harvard Business Review, as well as the UMGC Library databases such as Hoover’s and ABI/INFORM. All sources need to be cited using APA formatting, both within the text and in the reference list.
By the end of Week 9, submit your strategic analysis report your team’s study group.
Your team will prepare a financial analysis next.
Deliverable: Your final strategic analysis report by the end of Week 9 should include your one-page outline of marketing objectives, your six-page STP analysis, and a six-page marketing strategy. As follows, the final strategic analysis report should be 12 pages, excluding cover page, the reference list, and appendices. Any tables, graphs, and figures should be included as appendices. Your report should have one-inch margins and be double spaced in 12-point Times New Roman font. The report should be organized using headings and subheadings to improve its readability.