MBA 560 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric

Overview
For this summative assessment, you will act in the role as a consultant for the firm to which you have been assigned. You will build a comprehensive business plan to address the company’s problem statement or stated goal. It could be growth in revenue of a key segment, territory, consumer target as defined by the firm or company. Your plan will evaluate current branding strategies, describe the target market and its unique features, assess existing organizational strengths, weaknesses, and core competencies with respect to the project, determine pricing strategies. You will also consider how consumer trends and ethical business practices might impact your plan.

The project is divided into five milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Week 8, Week 11, Week 12 and Week 13 Rough Draft. The final product will be submitted in Week 16.

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:

· Evaluate branding strategies by applying appropriate marketing and management analysis

· Defend target market choices by analyzing the unique characteristics of potential markets that impact business success

· Justify pricing decisions based on relevant target market analysis, business goals, and market conditions

· Assess the strengths and weaknesses of organizations in strategically planning new business activities

· Assess consumer trends and business ethics for determining their potential impact on branding image and business success in a global environment

· Design business-wide continuous improvement processes for regularly reviewing branding and business activities and implementing needed change

Prompt
You will be producing a comprehensive business plan to present to management/client. Your plan should focus on key elements of marketing and strategy,

such as branding, customer base, existing resources and capabilities, pricing, and other factors that could affect the project’s success. It should highlight the merits of the project based on a detailed internal analysis, showing how the idea fits with the company’s mission and vision. Remember that a well-constructed business plan provides concise, accurate information that allows busy executives or investors to quickly grasp the essentials of your idea, the key need or want it addresses, and how you will meet that need or want.

Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:

I. Executive summary. Briefly explain the key features of your business plan and why your product or service is better than that of your competition in the eyes of the target market. Remember that your goal is to give the intended audience the most essential information up front, while convincing them to read further for details.

II. Context. This section should provide leadership and potential investors with background information on the company’s current brand and how the new product or service fits with that brand. Be sure to do the following:

A. Identify they key industry, category and market in which the firm conducts business. Assess the health of the overall market, key competitors, categories and products within.

B. Lay out the key defining features of your company’s brand and how these features drive business decisions. For example, how are these factors an extension of the company’s mission, vision, and values? What are the non-negotiables for a product or service to carry the company name?

C. Assess how the market approach or new product fits with the company’s existing brand and how that impacts your business plan. Support your response with relevant research and analysis. For example, will the product or service be part of a new brand or an existing brand? How will that affect the way you market the product both within the company and to consumers?

D. Evaluate the effectiveness of the company’s existing branding efforts (or branding efforts for similar products or services if yours is a new company). What does the evaluation suggest for the new product or service? Support your response with relevant analysis.

III. Need. Use this section to define your target market and explain how your product or service fills a critical need or want for that market.

A. Define your target market and its unique characteristics. Be sure to discuss the following:

i. Basic demographics. What are the key demographic features of the individuals or businesses who are most likely to purchase your product or service? Support your response with relevant market research. For example, how might age, purchasing power, decision- making authority, or other factors affect the product or service’s appeal to potential customers?

ii. What other behavioral or psychographic characteristics of your target market might affect their purchasing decisions? Support your response with relevant research.

B. How does the new product or service meet a specific want or need of the target market that you identified? In other words, what principal benefits or key features would the target market find appealing? Support your response with relevant market research.

C. Based on your analysis above, why is this target market the best strategic choice for the success of your product or service?

IV. Strengths and weaknesses. In this section, you should assess the ramifications of the new business idea on branding, operations, and planning within the organization, based on internal analysis.

A. Assess the company’s tangible and intangible strengths in providing the new product or service, along with any weaknesses or gaps. Your response should comprehensively address different aspects of the business, establishing clear links between the strengths and weaknesses you identify and how those affect planning for the new business activities. The factors you identify will depend on your business and idea, but might

include things such as staff capabilities and turnover, organizational culture, production capacity, location, customer loyalty, supply chain relations, financial stability, or ability to acquire funding.

B. Assess the opportunities and threats that emerging consumer trends and company ethics may present to the success of the new idea.

i. Consumer trends. How might emerging trends in consumer preferences (e.g., buying local, support for green technologies, organic foods, etc.) impact the branding and business success of the new product or service you are launching in the current global marketplace? Justify your response, identifying the trends that are most relevant to your product or service and how they apply to your target market.

C. Core competencies. Assess aspects of the company or new idea that set you apart from the competition and provide long-term sustainability in the market. How do those competencies affect your business plan? In other words, what things about your company, product, or service provide significant value to the customer and are very difficult to duplicate? How can you use that strategically?

V. Pricing. Use this section of your business plan to develop and justify a pricing strategy for the new product or service. Be sure to address the following:

A. How much is the target market willing and able to pay for your product or service? Use target market analysis and research on competitors’ prices to support your answer.

B. Are targeted consumers willing and able to pay more for your product or service if it (or the organization, more generally) aligns with their

preferences for socially responsible and ethical behavior? Justify your response with evidence.

C. In light of your analysis, what pricing strategy and price is most appropriate for this product or service and why? For example, would skimming, penetration, economy, or premium pricing be most appropriate? What should the initial price be or remain at?

VI. Marketing Strategy, Marketing Plan and 12 Month Calendar. Once you have done your assessment of the industry, reflected on the companies SWOT, develop a marketing strategy for the firm to follow (Remember this is a longer-term plan), create a supporting marketing plan (shorter term) for them to go after the opportunity and create a 12 Month activity calendar in support of that annual marketing plan.

Milestone One: Industry analysis, SWOT Milestones

In Week #8 Module, you will submit a short paper covering context and marketing tool analysis. This milestone provides your base of knowledge to understand the situation and the business challenges under which the firm operates. This is important because it drives the subsequent activities, milestones, and the final project. You will need to explore the industry, market, category, and product offering looking at key firms, and products in both the firms and competitors’ product lines. In this milestone you will also be covering Strengths and Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats faced by the firm and identify its core competencies. You may also utilize other tools (PESTLE, BCG, PLC) that are most pertinent to addressing your company’s problem statement. For the company you have chosen, write a short paper that identifies and analyzes at least four strengths and four+ weaknesses. Continue your paper by identifying and explaining three to five core competencies for the company you have chosen. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone One Rubric.

Milestone Two: Target Markets and Buyer Personas

In Week 11 Module, you will submit a short paper focusing on the core consumer targets of the firm. Without a strong sense of the organization’s purpose within the marketplace, knowledge of consumer trends, and how to meet target market needs at the appropriate price, management is less likely to maximize the efficiency of business activities and more likely to miss fully meeting the needs of its chosen target market. This milestone establishes how the organization will differentiate itself from its competition through branding with a unique product or service offering designed to meet specific consumer needs or desires that are shaped by their demographics, personality, or buying style. You will create a buyer persona(s) for your brand using both demographics and any pertinent psychographics. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Two Rubric.

Milestone Three: Marketing Strategy, Marketing Plan and 12 Month Marketing Calendar

In Week 12 Module, you will submit a short paper covering the over- arching Marketing Strategy which spans a longer-term horizon. You will then devise the tactical marketing plan and create a supporting 12-month strategy in support of the marketing plan. You will also need to put in metrics that measure the plans effectiveness (ROI), Social media, digital goals, revenue targets etc. This milestone will be graded with the Milestone Three Rubric.

Milestone Four: Draft submission of the paper

In Week 13 Module, you will submit a draft of the final paper. This will NOT be graded but will allow for feedback prior to final submission.

Final Project Submission: Comprehensive Business Plan

In Week 16 Module, you will submit your final project. It should be a complete, polished artifact containing all of the critical elements of the final product. It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained throughout the course. This submission will be graded with the Final Project Rubric.