Overview
Hello all!
This begins laying a foundation for your marketing plan. We began the value proposition in class using the three levels of the product.
The assignment details are offered below. This a team project based on your "bother/remedy" creations. Only one submission is required per team.
Your paper must be at least 4-7 pages in length with references, in MLA format. ( one and half spacing, and Times New Roman 11-pt font). (500 words = 1 page)
Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to initiate the kind of thinking that makes for a successful marketer and to practice the strategy and creative thinking that builds a strong marketing mind-set. Many marketers fail because they run with an idea that they instinctively think is innovative. Whether it addresses a need or for how long the novelty of this idea will last is not often a consideration.
Skills and Knowledge: This assignment will help you practice the following skills:
- Looking at the marketplace with a new perspective. Instead of evaluating product offerings as customers, you will begin exploring the landscape for opportunities just as an entrepreneur or any business professional would.
- Observing trends by looking at the social, economic, political, technological and legislative influences on consumers. This relates to our in-class discussion, on the general environment and its relevance to marketers in their ability to create innovative product/service offerings
- Finding Gaps in the Marketplace
- What need is not being addressed in the marketplace?
- A good example of this might be the fitness workout chain Curves. Founded in 1992. Curves is a fitness center that caters just to women. Curves is targeted at a segment of the market being ignored by traditional workout centers—overweight, middle aged women. That is a gap that opened up an entrepreneurial opportunity.
- Identifying a Problem
- observe challenges everyday people encounter in their lives
- examine the challenges you face on a regular basis that do not have a ready solution.
- Solving a Problem
- Be realistic in your problem solving
- Offer solutions to the problem that you can provide
Task:
- Watch this very brief video on YouTube: The Value Proposition. Reference our Value Pyramid. Think about what “pain” you are solving.
- Before you create your own value proposition, you want to ensure you have a general understanding of what a value proposition is. The following text will help provide that understanding. Please read it:
- In simple terms, a value proposition makes a case for why a customer should pick one product over another, citing the unique value the product provides over its contenders.
- The value proposition provides a unique combination of products and services which provide value to the customer by resulting in the solution of a problem the customer is facing or providing value to the customer. This is the point of intersection between the product you make and the reason behind the customer’s impulse to buy it. A product can have a single value proposition or multiple value propositions.
- Most unsuccessful businesses fail to define their value proposition before they launch their products. This is because too much credence is given to the ‘idea’. A good idea, alone, does not make for a good opportunity.
- It is important for a product to solve a problem in a unique way. The problem could be unworkable, unavoidable, urgent or under-served. On the other end of the spectrum, the need for your product or service could be blatant, critical, aspirational or latent. A blatant need, as the word suggests, is one openly voiced and expressed by the customer. A latent need, conversely, is one which the customer himself may not be aware of having. A critical need is an immediate need that the customer MUST have fulfilled.
- Observe trends in the marketplace. For example, what are people willing to pay for? With intense competition and high cost, consumers are still buying Apple products. Why? What value is Apple providing that enables consumers to pay more for this product? It is in this section that you would do a lot of research to support your SWOT analysis. As we learned in our discussion regarding the situational analysis, consider such factors as:
- family and work patterns
- age of the population
- increasing diversity in the workplace
- computers and the Internet
- mobile technology
- increasing focus on fitness and diet
- Observe people – while waiting for a bus or a meal in a restaurant. What are people doing?
- Observe your daily actions. What is it that you do that you wish you didn’t have to do? What simple “fix” can you find for a regular nuisance you encounter. For example, do you hate to brush your daily every morning and night? Could you make it easier for others who share the same problem?
- Identify a problem for which you can offer a remedy. Naturally, creating world peace would not a realistic choice for this assignment.
- Answer the questions identified below.
- Remember the campus library search engine for trust worthy sources of information.
Criteria for Success:
- These are the components you final submission will include:
- SWOT and environmental analysis - what opportunities are available to you? What consumer needs are not being fulfilled?
- The target market
- The problem and remedy
- The three levels of the product - the core, the actual, the augmented
- The goals of your marketing plan
- You are being asked to complete each of these sections listed above.
- Thoroughly identify the problem, the remedy and the product features that directly speak to those concerns. The entire paper must be 4 to 7 pages in length so single sentences will not explain your proposition adequately.
- Communication is an essential part of marketing and selling a product. Consumers need to know what this product will do for them. Convince them and you may have identified a real business opportunity. Your wording will be critical to creating understanding. Be sure the reader understands what your offering provides. Write for clarity and thoroughness. Also, use references to substantiate your claims on, for example, the size of the problem, the size of the market and the offerings of the competition.
- Please remember our Student Resources module for information on MLA formatting, researching information and more :-)