extra notes from lecture to clarify the assignment
1. First, your assignment is about writing a report the information of which might be used for a marketing plan. This is not a complete marketing plan. Therefore in writing this assignment, you are not required to follow the structure of a marketing plan shown in the textbook. Instead, follow the report format outlined in AIB’s Style Guide.
2. You can choose a product or a service. This choice is up to you and you can choose an existing product/service, a completely new one which has not yet been launched/offered, or even a fictitious one.
3. The first requirement asks to discuss the current marketing situation with background data on the market segments, product, competition, and distribution. Please keep this discussion brief and, where relevant, reference
the sources of information.
4. The next requirement asks you to do a market analysis through a SWOT analysis. Your discussion of the current marketing situation needs to be taken into account when doing a SWOT analysis of the product/service. This can be presented either as a table or within the main body – this is up to you.
5. The next requirement asks you to discuss objectives with goals for sales volume, market share and profit. You need to discuss your current sales volume and set the objectives for the future sales volume. You need to do the same for profit and market share. If you cannot obtain actual sales, profit and market share figures, you can use hypothetical numbers and you can develop hypothetical objectives as well if your organisation does not have any future objectives currently in place. It is, however, important that they are realistic, measurable, and derived from your previous discussion about the current marketing situation and SWOT analysis, and are achievable through appropriate marketing strategies. The goals should be realistic but may have to be somewhat hypothetical because of the lack of time and absence of market research to provide better ones.
6. The next requirement asks you to discuss marketing strategies with details of the 4Ps (i.e. Product, Place, Price, Promotion). There are several things to keep in mind when you start this section.
1. If you choose a service, you are only required to discuss the 4Ps. However, you can also consider the 7Ps
related to your chosen service as long as you do not compromise the depth of your discussion of the 4Ps and do
not exceed the word count limit.
2. Concerning your discussion of Promotion (in the four Ps), you need to identify the communication objectives, discuss and justify the communication channels and the communication mix you would use to address these objectives. You could use sub-headings to distinguish between different points.
3. The previous sections of the assignment need to be taken into account when recommending appropriate marketing strategies in relation to the 4Ps – that means, there should be a logical link to identified opportunities/strengths and weaknesses/threats need to be addressed.
7. Make sure you are not just descriptive in your assignment but analytical. You need to link both principles and applications and justify your recommendation using appropriate referencing.
8. Please make sure that you make linkage between the various sections in your assignment. You need to demonstrate that different sections are interrelated and complement each other. Your discussion of the current marketing situation needs to be taken into account when doing the SWOT analysis of the product/service. The SWOT analysis would need to be considered in your discussion of the objectives. And all these parts need to be taken into account when recommending appropriate marketing strategies in relation to the 4Ps.
9. Please make sure that you follow AIB’s referencing requirements. As with any other AIB assignment, an adequate number of in-text citations should be used to establish and support your discussion and arguments. You would need to use various sources in support of the discussions you make. These sources could be peer-reviewed journal papers, your textbook and/or learning materials, industry and organization reports, websites, or any other credible source. You could use a source to provide a definition of a theory/concept, to present data/figures, or more importantly as evidence in support of your arguments. Altogether, 6-12 different sources need to be listed in your list of references.
10. Finally, several things to keep in mind concerning the word count limit:
1. Word count limit is 2500 words and you have 10% extra allowance to reach a maximum of 2750 and a minimum of 2250. Address the assignment requirements as written in the assignment question. The assignment question is structured to be completed within this word count limit.
2. The executive summary and list of references are not included in the word count.
3. Tables and figures are counted as one word within the assignment.
4. There is no set requirement on how long each section of the assignment should be. You need to make sure
that you address each part using enough detail with convincing and justified arguments.
5. The appendices can be used to include appropriate, relevant materials and are not included in the word count. Please note appendices are not compulsory. But if used, you need to explicitly refer to an appendix in the text of the body of your assignment, with a very brief outline of its contents. That way you encourage the reader to look at the additional materials in the appendix.
