Developing and implementing a marketing plan
1
5
Step 4: Prepare a Situation Analysis Report
Required Readings
Chapters 1, 3, & 14
Lancaster, G., & Massingham, L. (2018).
Essentials of marketing management (2nd ed.). Routledge
INBOX: 1 New Message
Subject: Company Case File & Questions to Consider
From: Jillian Best, CEO, MCS
To: Team
Hi again. I wanted to provide you with the company case file and some pertinent questions for you to consider while you work on your B2B marketing plan.
As part of the preparation necessary to complete your business-to-business marketing plan, you and your team will need to do in-depth research on your client’s company, including its operations, global reach, and range of offerings.
By the end of Week 8, I need you to produce a situation analysis report explaining your team’s findings on the company. Be sure to include a
value proposition, essentially the promise that is made to the customer, explaining the reason a customer purchases a product or uses a service (i.e., the value that a company delivers to its customers).
Start by reading the attached case file and be sure to consider the following questions while you do additional research:
· Where is the company headquartered?
· What are the company’s major products and/or services?
· What is the company’s annual revenue in dollars, and what is its annual production in units?
· Does the company own its own facilities or does it subcontract manufacturing to others?
· Who are the company’s major suppliers of raw materials or parts, and where are they located?
· What is the distribution of the company’s workforce by country?
· How does the company differentiate its offering in its highly competitive markets?
· Does the company have exclusive marketing or distribution agreements or partnerships?
· Who are the company’s major global and US customers?
· What benefits does the company offer to its customers?
· Who are the company’s major global and US competitors?
When developing your situation analysis, you should also understand the importance of
vision and
mission statements and then research the company’s own vision and mission statements.
Write a four-page document detailing the main findings of your research about your client, including its mission and vision statement. Submit your document to your team’s study group.
That’s it for now,
Jillian
Attachments:
In the next step, you will complete your situation analysis by conducting an environmental scan that takes a comprehensive look at the many factors that you need to consider, exploit, or defend against in your marketing plan. This situation analysis will be incorporated into your B2B marketing plan later in this project, along with deliverables from the upcoming steps.