Posted: March 2nd, 2022

Project

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MGT 247 Advertising and Promotion Management

Winter 2021-22 Dr. Campbell

Final Project Description

The final project is a group project that you will complete with a four-person team.

Overall, your goal is to develop a well-conceptualized, research-based IMC plan for a brand of your own choosing. Specifically, your team will work to develop an integrated marketing communications plan for a brand; this can be a product, service, not-for-profit, charity or an idea that interests you and your team members.

Your team will identify appropriate goals and communication objectives for the organization. Your team will need to understand the competitive framework; evaluate current communications and conduct secondary research to identify your target and your target’s communication needs (that is, what you recommend that the organization say to whom). On the basis of your background analysis you will develop communications objectives and a plan to achieve them. Your integrated plan should be sure to include a variety (minimum of three) of recommended marcom tools (e.g., static advertising; sales promotion; social media) with support for why you recommend those specific tools). Your plan write-up should be 16 double-spaced pages or less with 12-point font – not including figures and appendices. Please provide an Executive Summary upfront – this can be more than one page, but should be a short, concise summary of the major reasoning and recommendations (often all that the executives will read – at least to begin with). The written plan is due by 11:00 am Tuesday, March 15.

We will also have presentations in class Tuesday March 15 11:30 am – 2:30 pm in OLMH 1208 so other students can see what your plans are and learn from your group. Each presentation will be 8 minutes long, plus another 3 minutes for Q&A. Feel free to be creative, such as a demonstration or skit, etc. Presentations will be graded based on whether you communicate your ideas clearly, concisely and persuasively and whether you get the audience engaged and interested.

This is a lot of work, but it is good work because it will be so useful in terms of consolidating your knowledge of all the different pieces that are essential to good marketing communications strategy.

There are several tasks you will need to accomplish on the road to developing a plan.

Key Tasks:

1. Your first task is to put together a team (Due Monday 1/17/22 by 8 pm). 2. Second, pick an organization/brand on which you wish to work. You may develop a

plan for a product, service, specific brand, brand line, company brand, retailer, organization, or idea/message. See Appendix A for more information on clients. (Due 8 pm Saturday 1/22/22)

3. Analyze the organization’s current marketing situation. Conduct secondary research on the industry, competitors, the organization, and customers in order to gain a good

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understanding and definition of the issues and opportunities facing your client. (The library has lots of great resources and helpful reference librarians).

4. Identify how your organization is currently communicating and presenting the brand. Identify any distinct brand assets; these can include logos, brand colors, slogans, mascots, fonts, audiomarks, etc. Analyze some of the organization’s current marcom to understand and identify what they are currently trying to associate with the brand.

5. Decide on the segment(s) you intend to target with communications. Provide a research-based (either secondary or primary) rationale for the specific target audience(s) for your IMC program, how you define the target(s), and why you believe this is best for the organization at this time.

6. Develop a recommended positioning statement. Use either secondary or primary research to identify your client’s overall communication needs.

7. Develop specific communication objectives to guide development of your IMC plan. 8. Using your insights about the market and target(s), create a comprehensive IMC plan

for your organization. Evidence-based rationale is critical for a successful plan. a. Describe and justify all components of your campaign. Be sure to explain how

each will achieve the specified communication objectives to meet the recommended positioning.

b. The plan should incorporate all media deemed relevant and efficient in reaching the target(s). You should provide careful rationale for why each type of media is, or is not, included in the plan. Discuss how the different pieces fit together (how this is an integrated plan).

c. Develop communication/creative briefs for at least two of the types of media and provide a sample of at least one of the types of media included in the plan.

d. Be creative and thorough! 9. Detail a media plan and schedule. This should include the basic timing for each type

of media and discussion of the weight of the proposed plan over different time periods. Provide rationale. This should also include examples for each type of media, but does not need to specify every individual vehicle. (For example, a recommendation could specify print media, provide guidelines for the type of media and then provide one example of a vehicle that meets the specifications). Be sure to provide estimates of the reach and frequency of your plan.

10. Recommended budget. This should include the overall amount recommended for the plan, and how you arrive at this amount. The budget should also provide percentage allocations of the total budget for each type of recommended media. Do enough research to complete and justify the recommended allocations (e.g., you will need to know average costs for each type of media), but you do not need to specify every specific vehicle and its costs. Justify the recommended budget and breakdowns, being sure to draw upon consumer insights and the expected reach of the overall plan.

11. Provide insight into how you will assess the effects of your plan (how will you measure whether you are achieving your objectives?)

12. Develop a strong executive summary that powerfully presents the major points of your plan. Be sure that an executive who only reads that gets a good sense of the what and why. (The executive summary is developed at the end but will be positioned at the beginning of your plan.)

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Note that this project will require a considerable amount of outside work. All groups are expected to gather information about the industry, company, competitors, and customers in order to complete a situation analysis and identify relevant communication objectives. As part of this, you will need to analyze some of the organization’s and primary competitors’ current communications.

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Appendix A – Choosing an Organization for the Final Project

As noted, there are many different types of “organizations” that you may select for the final IMC project. You may choose an organization that is a for-profit or not-for-profit. Your final project can address a product class (e.g., Colorado Lamb or Beer), a specific product (e.g., Trible M Bar Ranch or Blue Moon), a service (e.g., H&R Block or Blue Apron), a specific branded good (e.g., Noosa Yogurt), a brand line that covers many products (e.g., Quaker), a company brand (e.g., Chevron), a retailer (e.g., Target), an organization (e.g., Doctors without Borders), or a message (e.g., “Get your kids to get more exercise”). The brand can be national or international with a large marcom budget, or something with a smaller budget, such as a start-up or small, local company. You have a lot of latitude in your choice. If you have a specific interest (e.g., working for a B2B company or working in a particular industry), this is a good opportunity to pick a project that enables you to learn more about your interest; do be sure that this matches interests of all team members. One thing to note is that information accessibility will be important to managing the time put into this project. Thus, be sure to choose an organization, product or service with this in mind. If you are choosing a project with which you have no connection, select a company that is publicly traded rather than privately held; it is much more difficult to get information about privately-held companies and their products. You are welcome to pick an “in-person” organization (an organization you work with directly) and work on a project for them. If you do this, you will probably get a project with a smaller scope and budget (e.g., you will probably work on a local, not a national, communications plan). However, you also are likely to get a challenging, creative, hands-on experience. The same is true of choosing a non-for-profit about which you feel passionate. These sorts of projects can be great learning experiences. Think about what type of marketing communications challenge you would most like to learn about and pick your client accordingly.

A typed description and basic analysis of your final client and how you plan to get information is due no later than 8 pm Saturday 1/22/22. Be sure to include the first and last names of all team members on this.

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