Marketing Strategy Project:

Evaluating a New Product or Service Opportunity

Objective
In this project, you play the role of a marketing manager/entrepreneur whose task is to study
the market and the strategy for a new product or service idea your company is considering
and develop a marketing plan. You must choose a new product or service idea your group is
interested in. Ideally, the product concept selected must not be a “me-too” business
opportunity that copies some existing product. You are encouraged to choose a product or
service relevant to the company or industry in which one or several group members are
interested. It could also be a business concept that you have been considering.

Assignment Report Format

The final written assignment should not exceed 6000 words (excluding the executive
summary). In addition, you may attach up to 5 exhibits that present any supporting analysis
you have done. The final report should contain the following:

1. Executive Summary: This would be about 1/2 to 1 page, succinctly summarise your new
product idea, your segmentation, positioning, and marketing mix recommendations (minus
recommendation support), and the key insights you derived. You do not need to add
implementation details. The executive summary must be kept to under one page and is not
included in the word limit for the report.

2. Products/Services Description: This should briefly describe the product or service and its
market. You can include the value proposition, core product benefit for the target market,
and the relevant product attributes and features. Some of the suggested questions are:
(a) What are the benefits of your product? Do your competitors offer any of these
benefits?
(b) Is there anything special about your product?
(c) Do you enjoy the favour of your customer? Alternatively, do they favour one of your
competitors?
(d) Which impacts (positive and negative), if any, do you expect the following factors to
have on both your product and company? Social factors, Demographic factors,
Economic factors, Political and legal factors, Competitive factors, Financial factors,
Special interest factors: Consumer rights groups, Attitude of media
(e) Describe each of the applicable consumer buying behaviour steps in detail (from your
customer's point of view): Problem recognition, Information search, Evaluation of
alternatives, Purchase, Post-purchase behaviour

3. Objectives: This is a brief statement of the ultimate business goal of the marketing plan. In
addition to the ultimate goal, you might also list necessary sub-goals to achieve the ultimate
goal (i.e., key targets and activities that must be accomplished to achieve the ultimate goal).
These will necessarily be of a marketing nature. Furthermore, this section should list the key
performance indicator(s) used to measure success and the timeframe in which you plan to
achieve the goals.
4. Segmentation, Target Market Identification and Positioning: You should conduct a
segmentation analysis considering various ways to segment the market and select the
optimal target market segment(s). You must consider alternative positioning platforms for
your chosen product concept and choose the optimal positioning for the product. In general,
two to three variables are enough to segment a market, so do not attempt to use all of
them.
Further, decide (here again, justify) which strategy for selecting target markets you will use:
undifferentiated targeting, Concentrated targeting, or Multi-segment targeting.

5. Marketing Mix Recommendation: You must specify what the marketing mix challenges are if
the product were to be launched and provide recommendations on the proposed marketing
strategy (product, price, distribution, promotion and advertising). You do not necessarily
need to cover every element of the marketing mix but may focus on the most critical ones for
your problem. This section will probably be the most significant section of the plan because it
is where most marketing recommendations are made and justified. Credit will be given to
groups that can integrate the components in #4 and # 5 and demonstrate their
interrelationship in the report. Groups will also benefit from applying the concepts and issues
discussed in the class throughout the semester.
Product-related decisions:
(a) Decide whether your consumers will view it as a convenience product, a shopping
product (homogenous vs. heterogeneous), a speciality product or an unsought product.
Defend your reasoning.
(b) Decide whether to develop a brand for your product or offer a generic product. Defend
your choice.
(c) If you decide to develop a brand, explain which of the following branding strategies
would work best for your product (here again, justify your choice):
Manufacturer’s brand: individual vs. family brand
Private brand: individual vs. family brand
(d) Explain which category of new products best describes your new offering:
(e) Decide on the product category your product belongs to (justify your decision) and
discuss at which stage in the product life cycle you would place this category and why.
(f) Discuss the implications of the product life cycle for your product in terms of product
strategy, distribution strategy, promotion strategy and pricing strategy.

Pricing-related decisions:
(a) Which pricing objective you will pursue (justify your choice): Profit maximisation, Target
return on investments, Market share (units or dollars), Sales maximisation
(b) Which pricing strategy you will follow (justify your choice): Price Skimming/Premium
Pricing, Penetration Pricing/Discounting, Going rate pricing, Perceived Value Pricing
(c) Which of the tactics for fine-tuning the base price will you choose (justify your choices)

Distribution related decisions:

(a) Choose which of the following distribution channels would be most adequate for your
product (justify your choice in terms of market factors, product factors and producer
factors):
Producer -> Consumers
Producer -> Retailers -> Consumers
 Producer -> Distributor -> Retailers ->Consumers
Hybrid Channels
(b) What level of distribution intensity will your product require and why?

Marketing Communication related decisions:

(a) Define the benefits your product/company has to offer.
(b) Based on these benefits, develop at least two advertising appeals and evaluate them
regarding desirability, exclusiveness and believability.
(c) State which of these appeals will be your unique selling proposition and develop a slogan.
(d) Decide on the execution style of your ad.
(e) Which Consumer Sales Promotion would you execute and why?
(f) Which Trade Sales Promotion would you implement and why?

6. Implementation Details – Action Steps, Financial Evaluation, Controls: here is where you will
include your essential action steps, your timeline for key decisions and actions, your
assessment of the risks you face with backup plans to mitigate risks if/when they arise, your
financial analysis that provides evidence that your plan could succeed, and a list of the
metrics and key performance indicators you will monitor to determine whether your plan is
working.

Time Line
The following is a suggested timeline. The only official date is when you must submit the
groups and final report.
Week 1:
a. Convene the group and pick a product idea
b. Conduct secondary research on product category, market, and competitive
environment.

Week 2:
a. Develop a Survey Questionnaire. Pre-test and refine the questionnaire on 2-3
consumers.
b. Collecting data (approx. 50 respondents) and analysing data. Make decisions
on STP and the design of products/services.

Week 3:
a. Make decisions on marketing mix recommendations
b. Write marketing plan report.

Submit a final report by Sunday, 6th April 2025