2. Marketing Planning Process Assignment Briefing June and September 2013 Professor Neil Towers Senior Examiner Professional Diploma in Marketing

3. Aims To understand fully the requirements of the Marketing Planning Process (MPP) assignment brief for June 2013 and September 2013. To give you the tools that you need to maximise your potential. To ensure that you follow CIM policies and procedures.

4. Assignment Brief Choice of two scenarios. Scenario One: to respond to a competitor’s digital marketing campaign to aid business improvement or Scenario Two: to address trends in an area where performance could be improved for a chosen product or service. ‘Apply’ ‘Relate’ ‘Contextualise’.

5. Interpreting Scenario One To respond to a competitor’s digital marketing campaign to aid business development. Define digital marketing campaign. Define the context. Key features. Apply the context. Objectives linked to business development.

6. Interpreting Scenario One Objectives linked to business development. Define business development. Qualify and Quantify. Be specific. Apply and contextulaise.

7. Interpreting Scenario Two To address trends in an area where performance could be improved for a chosen product or service. Apply and contextualise. Available information. Qualitative and Quantitative information. Identifying your marketing response. Current performance, benchmarking data, target data and actual past performance.

8. Executive Summary Choice of scenario. Timescale chosen. How the scenario is being interpreted and applied.

9. Assessment Structure THREE tasks to answer in sequence. Task One: – Marketing Audit (10%). Task Two: – Marketing Plan (40%). Task Three: – Evaluation Report (40%). Format and Presentation: – Executive Summary, Harvard Referencing (10%).

10. Task One: Marketing Audit Purpose of the audit. CIM BPP Official Study Text. Key definitions. Relevant audit tools, models and frameworks. Short summary statement after each presented model. SWOT analysis.

11. Marketing Audit Helpful Tips: Thorough understanding of audit tools. Related to the scenario. Evaluate current position. Information sources. Relevance of models and tools.

12. Marketing Audit Findings Evidence base for the Marketing Plan. Current and likely future challenges. Short summary after each model. Presenting the audit findings.

13. Task Two: The Marketing Plan Context and timescales. Position statement based on the audit. Critique and analysis. SOSTAC. Constraints. Relevance to scenario. Word count. Use of tables and charts.

14. Task Three: Evaluation Report Evaluation of marketing planning process not the plan. Four sections: – Benefits of the marketing planning process. – Auditing the audit process. – Appropriateness of competitive strategy. – Issues and constraints.

15. Task Three: Evaluation Report Critical evaluation. Relevance, validity and reliability of sources. Difficulties encountered. Gaps in data. Use of examples to illustrate points. Four sections of equal marks. As important as other sections in the assignment.

16. Format and Presentation Professional tone and formatting. Relevance to tasks. Use of supporting concepts and frameworks. Referencing. Students never plan to fail they simply fail to plan.