Overview
Marketing Plan Report: Progress Report 1
COMPANY INTRODUCTION (1 page) The introduction should provide background/history on the company "Bath & Body Works", its owners, the industry sector classification, etc.
PROBLEM AND OBJECTIVE IDENTIFICATION (1 page) A formal problem statement is useful in furnishing your reader with some insight into your marketing plan. Be specific. Do not define or state a problem in vague terms or symptoms or alternative courses of action. USE FACTS. A single problem will give focus to your report. The “typical” problem in this course is a gap between actual and desired sales. In this section, you may show a graph of past company revenues and then desired revenue levels for the next year or two. Don’t confuse possible solutions with the underlying problem. A problem is NOT “to increase awareness through advertising.” This is a means to achieve a desired end – not an end in itself. Another weak problem statement would be “Market share is going down”. A better version would tell the reader the rate of decline, compare it to previous years and to industry trends. There could be many reasons why market share is going down, and thus many possible solutions. You will discover these reasons when you do your analysis in subsequent sections. Follow this, with the specific and measurable project objective which might cover the next year or two. This usually involve sales dollars and sales volumes to be achieved. Again, be careful that your objectives are not solutions to the problem. An objective “to advertise more” or “to develop a customer loyalty program” are solutions to the problem and should not be stated here.
MARKETING AUDIT (2 to 4 pages) Offer full details on the 4P’s, and target market. Defining the target market is critical – you must use geographic, demographic, and psychographic segmentation to get a full picture of target customers. ALL marketing practices are detailed in this section but not critiqued.