Module 7 Assignment
Marketing Plan Project Requirements
Component: Promotional Action Plan
General requirements:
1. This is a MS Word document, 12 point Times Roman, 1” margins
Should you choose to include designs for brochures or similar promotional items you may use any fonts, colors, graphics or layouts that you wish. Creativity is your only limitation.
Component requirements:
You must select five (5) promotional action items. You may use any of the mediums or
techniques found in the examples provided, those found in the text or in the PPT slides I
provided. The sky is the limit with four restrictions:
1. The medium must be available in your geographic market.
2. It must fit your budget. You are not required to actually check the cost of a given medium, however you are expected to be reasonable. Remember, you are a startup- a TV ad during prime time is probably unrealistic.
3. Each of the five must be a different medium.
4. None of your five action items can be a “brochure” or “flyer”, unless the printed material is part of a larger action item. For example, you may create a brochure to use at a tradeshow or as part of a direct mail campaign, however the brochure itself may not be the action item. Otherwise the only limit is your imagination.
You may use the format available (example below). You may also use any other format or supplemental format that you choose, however all the information that is in the sample format must be included in your plan.
The description of your action item is the most important part of the action plan. For example, writing that you are going to run a TV commercial is not acceptable. You must describe in detail what the commercial will be about, the theme, length, style and general content. This would apply to other mediums as well. Maximum points will be awarded for creativity and detailed descriptions.
Below is a partial list of potential promotional action items. There are many more, limited only
Ø by your imagination.
Ø TV commercial
Ø Radio commercial
Ø Magazine ads
Ø Newspaper ads
Ø Trade shows
Ø Local business association networking
Ø Direct mail
Ø Billboards
Ø Internet ads
Ø Brochures and handouts
Ø Web sites
Ø Email campaigns
Ø Social networking
Ø Mobile device (iPhone, Droid) advertising
Ø Campus Ambassadors
Ø Viral campaigns
Below is a chart that you may copy and paste to use as a template
Project
Action Item Name
Action item
What is the action item? Usually a sentence will be adequate
Description
This should be a very specific and detailed description of the action item including, but not limited to, the medium, message, theme, visuals activities and any other relevant information.
The description should be sufficiently detailed that the item could be implemented based solely this information
Objective
What do you hope to accomplish with this action item. Be specific.
Target market
What segment are you targeting? You need to be specific but concise.
Budget
How much will this action item cost your firm?
Metric
How will you measure success
Project
Action Item Name
Action item
Description
Objective
Target market
Budget
Metric
Additional item separate:
Your charity MUST be real and local. You may NOT use a national charity unless you have a local branch which operates its own marketing plan. You are the volunteer marketing manager for your charity. The board of directors has asked you to write an Executive Summary of the marketing plan for the next year. The audience is the board itself and a volunteer oversight committee made up of a handful of community leaders. You should expect that they are not marketing experts, but they are knowledgeable regarding business management.
For your opening post, start by describing the organization. A few sentences will be adequate and be sure to include their website address.
Then, include the following in your Executive Summary. All of these can be in brief narrative or bullet format, concise and high level. Remember, the individuals reading this are not the ones executing the plan, they simply need to understand what will be done and how the organization’s money will be spent. Be concise, yet specific. For example, an objective should not be “recruit volunteers” but rather “recruit 10 volunteers with child care experience.”
1. The objectives for the coming year (2-3)
2. The target audience(s) for the plan (remember the ways in which we describe target markets). Be detailed and specific! “Teenagers” is NOT a segment. However, “teenagers living in urban Tampa with a history of behavioral and academic problems” IS a segment. In most cases you should use at least two of the four types of variables (if you do not remember these now is a good time to look them up as they may be on the Final Exam).
3. The action items that you will use to accomplish the objectives. You do NOT need to describe these in detail but you do need to be specific about the media and message. For Example: a direct mail campaign to 20,000 homes to raise funds for our holiday drive with the theme “Bring Hope To Kids For The Holidays.”
Your entire post should consist of about 300-350 words and be professional in content and appearance – the Board for your charity will be reading, and acting on, your plan.