A marketing plan is a key part of business success. You will begin this project by explaining the purpose of a marketing plan and how you believe it will be helpful to the sample business. You will then use the information in the vignette to create an appropriate Mission Statement and determine the business’s Competitive Advantage.
Before you begin, please ensure you have read the sample business vignette in the course project overview.
This week, you will submit Part A of your Marketing Plan.
Prepare this part of the plan in a Word document, using APA style. This portion of the plan should be approximately 1-2 pages long, not including the cover page and references page.
Ensure you write in paragraph form and sufficiently elaborate on the topics to be covered. One or two brief sentences in each area will not be sufficient.Use these headings in bold font in your plan and cover the points beneath each heading. 
Introduction 
Briefly discuss the main facts about the business.
Purpose of a Marketing Plan
You should write at least one to two paragraphs to explain this.
Explain the purpose of a marketing plan in general.
How will this marketing plan support this business’s organizational goals?  

Mission Statement

According to Stanford Professor Guy Kawasaki – your Mission Statement should be more like a Mantra than a long run-on sentence.   Keep it short and sweet!
Given the facts in the vignette, create a short mission statement that you believe captures the essence of this business.
Explain why you have selected the specific wording that you did. In other words, why did you choose to phrase it in this particular way?
Discuss what you feel this statement would mean to the customers and how you feel that it would drive their behavior.

Discuss how employees of this company would interpret the Mission Statement and how you hope it would drive their behavior.
Tip: Watch Professor Kawasaki’s 3-minute YouTube videoLinks to an external site. on How to write a Mission Statement (select “CC” for closed captions).

Competitive Advantage
Once you have written a mission statement, you can write your competitive advantage statement. This statement takes what you have said in your Mission Statement and proves it. It brags about the specialness of your business in just a few words. It says what you do that’s better than anybody else. Be sure to explain why you think this Competitive advantage statement compliments your Mission Statement and does justice to the uniqueness of this business.
Tip: Watch Professor Kawasaki’s 7-minute YouTube videoLinks to an external site. on “The Holy Grail of Marketing”. He explains creating Product Uniqueness and Customer Value. (Select “CC” for closed captions.)
The overall purpose and objective of any course project are to allow hands-on instruction and real-world experience. Projects provide an opportunity to actually apply what you are learning. If a company wants to succeed, it must have a written marketing plan. A marketing plan is a “playbook” that guides a firm’s analysis, implementation, and control of the firm’s marketing strategy. It analyzes the current situation and environment and defines marketing strategies. The marketing plan helps the firm to operate in the current environment, understand its own actions, and deal with future change initiatives.
For this project, you will create a simple marketing plan for the fictional business below (Barbara’s Bakery).
Barbara’s Bakery
Project Outline
Week 1: Part A – Marketing Plan purpose, Mission Statement, and Competitive Advantage.
Week 2: Part B – Situation Analysis and Brand Strategy
Week 3: Part C – Marketing Mix Analysis / The 4 P’s
Week 4: Part D – Digital and Social Media Strategies
Week 5: Part E – Evaluating the Success of Marketing Effort
1
Marketing Plan
Part A:
Marketing Plan Purpose, Mission Statement and Competitive Advantage
Jonathan Darnell
ECPI University
MKT214: Marketing Management
Instructor Name
5/12/2024
2
Introduction
(This instruction box is to be deleted before submission of your plan.)
Write a few sentences introducing this business.
1. Fully describe what products/services the business offers.
2. How long have they been in business? Include a brief history of the company.
Purpose of a Marketing Plan
(This instruction box is to be deleted before submission of your plan.)
1.
Explain the purpose of a marketing plan in general as described in your textbook.
2.
Discuss how this marketing plan will support the business’s goals.
You should write at least one full paragraph to explain each of these.
Remember to cite your textbook as your source.
Mission Statement
(This instruction box is to be deleted before submission of your plan.)
•
•
•
•
Given the facts in the vignette create a short mission statement that you believe captures
the essence of this business.
Explain why you have selected the specific wording that you did. In other words, why
did you choose to phrase it in this particular way?
Discuss what you feel this statement would mean to the customers, and how you feel that
it would drive their behavior.
Discuss how employees of this company would interpret the Mission Statement, and how
you hope it would drive their behavior.
3
Competitive Advantage Statement
(This instruction box is to be deleted before submission of your plan.)
Once you have written a mission statement, you can write your competitive advantage statement. This
statement takes what you have said in your Mission Statement and proves it. It brags about the
specialness of your business in just a few words. It says what you do that’s better than anybody
else. Be sure to explain why you think this Competitive advantage statement compliments your Mission
Statement and does justice to the uniqueness of this business.
4
References
(This instruction box is to be deleted before submission of your plan.)
Below is a sample References page with various types of resources. Use the formatting below
for each of your resources. You will add to your references list throughout your project.
Achterberg, J. (1985). Imagery in healing. Shambhala Publications.
American Psychological Association. (2017). Stress in America: The state of our nation.
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2017/state-nation.pdf
Baider, L., Uziely, B., & Kaplan De-Nour, A. (1994). Progressive muscle relaxation and guided
imagery in cancer patients. General Hospital Psychiatry, 16(5), 340–347.
https://doi.org/10.1016/0163-8343(94)90021-3
Ball, T. M., Shapiro, D. E., Monheim, C. J., & Weydert, J. A. (2003). A pilot study of the use of
guided imagery for the treatment of recurrent abdominal pain in children. Clinical
Pediatrics, 42(6), 527–532. https://doi.org/10.1177/000992280304200607
Bernstein, D. A., & Borkovec, T. D. (1973). Progressive relaxation training: A manual for the
helping professions. Research Press.
Bottomley, A. (1996). Group cognitive behavioural therapy interventions with cancer patients: A
review of the literature. European Journal of Cancer Cure, 5(3), 143–146.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2354.1996.tb00225.x
Cohen, M., & Fried, G. (2007). Comparing relaxation training and cognitive-behavioral group
therapy for women with breast cancer. Research on Social Work Practice, 17(3), 313–
323. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049731506293741
Freebird Meditations. (2012, June 17). Progressive muscle relaxation guided meditation
[Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDZI-4udE_o

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