IMC PLan Proposed
Topic

Submit the name of your chosen product or service, plus five
research sources, in the assignment folder by the end of the first week of
class.

Research and submit at least five research sources you
consulted for your product selection. Review the requirements for product
choice in the IMC Plan template before submitting your choice.

Refer to the competitor analysis and SWOT worksheets for the
kind of information you will need for your plan.NOTE: be sure there are enough
research sources on your product before choosing it. For example: you will need
to review the product website & their competitors’ sites, review industry
sources, trends in the industry, etc.
Ask if you have questions.

Part 1 IMC Plan

Instructions

Integrated Marketing Communications Plan (15% of final
grade)

Development of an IMC plan is the major graded component in
this course. It will give you hands-on experience with the intricacies of
marketing communications that achieve marketing & communications
objectives.i is also a skill that you can list on your resume. An IMC plan is the next step after the
developments and approval of the marketing plan for the organization. It
provides the tactical level of detail to the marketing communications portion
of the marketing plan.

The IMC plan you prepare in this course will be staged in
three parts, allowing you to make modifications to submitted parts. This will
ensure your final IMC plan, incorporating all three parts, assesses your
understanding and application of best practices in marketing communications.
Building an IMC plan takes planning, research, strategic thinking, and hard
work. Do NOT make the mistake of working on sections of the IMC plan just
before they are due. That lack of planning and commitment to the course will be
reflected in your grade. Be sure to reference the Marketing Toolkit for
PowerPoint presentations.

Background on the complete plan: Your final IMC plan
incorporating all three parts will be submitted as a PowerPoint presentation at
the end of week 8. All three parts of the final plan will include all the
following:

– Executive Summary,
Title Page, and Table of Contents

Identifying the target market

Determining communication objectives

Designing the message

Selecting the media

Selecting message source

Selecting feedback metrics to measure success of the IMC
plan

Setting the promotion budget

Shaping the overall promotion mix

Integrating the promotion mix

Evaluation Metrics for the final IMC plan

Bibliography

Exhibits

Each of these topics is discussed in your readings, which
you should reference to ensure your Power Point presentation demonstrates you
can apply marketing and communications concepts to your IMC plan.

The strategic and promotion mix choices must be supported
with rationale from the readings or outside sources. Each slide should contain
enough details to understand how you arrived at your conclusions. These details
can come from external sources; or when information is not forthcoming from
your best ‘guesses.

Part 1 (worth 15% of final grade)

Product or service selection due end of week 1

Part 1 PowerPoint presentation due end of week 3

Select a consumer product or service you wish to explore in
this course. You might want to use the product you selected in MRKT 310’s
marketing plan if you recently took that course. You might want to pick a
product that you regularly use and to which you can assume you are a member of
the primary target market. You need to ensure that the product lends itself to
multiple promotion mix tools. Therefore, products of large, well-known,
publicly traded companies work best. You can select a brand instead of a
specific product. Be sure you understand the difference before proceeding.

Do not assume that what you believe is true for the product
is true for all members of the target market. Do your research and be unbiased
in your analyses. Remember, a product can be a good, a service, or an idea, or
a combination. Submit your product choice to your faculty member in the assignment
folder.

Once your product choice has been approved, prepare a
PowerPoint presentation for part 1 as follows:

1. Title slide—name of product, your name, date, course
information, plus part 1 table of contents

2. Description of product, providing details on what
consumer need the product fills, the physical description, any service
components that come with it, as well as any after sales support such as
guarantee, warranties or customer support, plus the other areas in the
template.

3. Product’s competitive position

4. Value proposition

5. Primary target market characteristics – ID 3 targets

6. Target market’s buyer decision behavior

7. Brand strategy

8. Product life cycle stage & benefit analysis

9. Channel design (channel members and role) and
distribution strategy (intensive, selective, or exclusive)

10. Communication objectives based on buyer-readiness
stages. Note: objectives must be stated
in measurable terms.

Part 1 of the IMC plan will be graded as follows:

Points Grading Standard

0–1 Appropriateness of product to analyze

0–1 Description of the three levels of the product

0–1 Description of the competitive position

0–1 Definition of the value proposition

0–1 Identification and characteristics of primary target
market

0–1 Discussion of primary target market’s buyer decision
behavior

0–1 Identification of the brand strategy

0–1 Identification and discussion of appropriate lifecycle
stage

0–1 Identification and discussion of channel design and
distribution strategy

0–4 Development of multiple measurable communications
objectives

0–2 PowerPoint presentation’s ability to communicate, free
of typographic or grammatical errors, proper use of academic writing style
guide, use and citation of external sources, timeliness of submission

15 points Total

Part 2 IMC Plan

Instructions

Integrated Marketing Communications Plan (75% of final
grade)

Development of an IMC plan is the major graded component in
this course. It will give you hands-on experience with the intricacies of
marketing communications that achieve marketing objectives. An IMC plan is the
next step after the developments and approval of the marketing plan for the
organization. It provides the tactical level of detail to the marketing communications
portion of the marketing plan.

The IMC plan you prepare in this course will be staged in
three parts, allowing you to make modifications to submitted parts. This will
ensure your final IMC plan, incorporating all three parts, assesses your
understanding and application of best practices in marketing communications.
Building an IMC plan takes planning, strategic thinking, and hard work. Do NOT
make the mistake of working on sections of the IMC plan just before they are
due. That lack of planning and commitment to the course will be reflected in
your grade. Be sure to reference the Marketing Toolkit for PowerPoint
presentations.

Background: Your final IMC plan incorporating all three
parts will be submitted as a PowerPoint presentation at the end of week 8. All
three parts of the final plan will include all the following:

– Executive Summary,
Title Page, and Table of Contents

Identifying the target market

Determining communication objectives

Designing the message

Selecting the media

Selecting message source

Selecting feedback metrics to measure success of the IMC
plan

Setting the promotion budget

Shaping the overall promotion mix

Integrating the promotion mix

Bibliography

Exhibits

Each of these topics is discussed in your text, which you
should reference to ensure your Power Point presentation demonstrates you can
apply text concepts to your IMC plan.

The strategic and promotion mix choices must be supported
with rationale from the text or outside sources. Each slide should contain enough
details to understand how you arrived at your conclusions. These details can
come from external sources; or when information is not forthcoming from your
best ‘guesses.

Part 2 (Worth 25% of final grade)

Due end of week 5

Based on your faculty member’s feedback, edit your part 1
slides, review Part 2 of Plan Template and proceed with the following topics.

11. Overall message design strategy

12. Message content

13. Message structure

14. Message format/executional format

15. Media channels (most likely will need a combination of
personal and non-personal communication channels)

16. Message source

17. Feedback metrics associated with marketing communications
objectives in part 1

Part 2 of the IMC plan will be graded as follows:

Points Grading Standard

0–4 Overall message design strategy

0–3 Message content

0–3 Message structure

0–3 Message format

0–3 Media channels

0–2 Message source

0–3 Feedback metrics

0–4 PowerPoint presentation’s ability to communicate, free
of typographic or grammatical errors, use and citation of external sources,
timeliness of submission, Title and Table of Contents and Bibliography slides

Part 3 & Final
IMC Plan

Instructions

Integrated Marketing Communications Plan (75% of final
grade)

Development of an IMC plan is the major graded component in
this course. It will give you hands-on experience with the intricacies of
marketing communications that achieve marketing objectives. An IMC plan is the
next step after the developments and approval of the marketing plan for the
organization. It provides the tactical level of detail to the marketing
communications portion of the marketing plan.

The IMC plan you prepare in this course will be staged in
three parts, allowing you to make modifications to submitted parts. This will
ensure your final IMC plan, incorporating all three parts, assesses your
understanding and application of best practices in marketing communications.
Building an IMC plan takes planning, strategic thinking, and hard work. Do NOT
make the mistake of working on sections of the IMC plan just before they are
due. That lack of planning and commitment to the course will be reflected in
your grade. Be sure to reference the Marketing Toolkit for PowerPoint
presentations.

Background: Your final IMC plan incorporating all three
parts will be submitted as a PowerPoint presentation at the end of week 8. All
three parts of the final plan will include all the following:

– Executive Summary,
Title Page, and Table of Contents

Identifying the target market

Determining communication objectives

Designing the message

Selecting the media

Selecting message source

Selecting feedback metrics to measure success of the IMC
plan

Setting the promotion budget

Shaping the overall promotion mix

Integrating the promotion mix

Bibliography

Exhibits

Each of these topics is discussed in your text, which you
should reference to ensure your Power Point presentation demonstrates you can
apply text concepts to your IMC plan.

The strategic and promotion mix choices must be supported
with rationale from the text or outside sources. Each slide should contain
enough details to understand how you arrived at your conclusions. These details
can come from external sources; or when information is not forthcoming from
your best ‘guesses.

Part 3 (Worth 35% of final grade)

Due end of week 8

Based on your faculty member’s feedback, edit your parts
1&2 slides, create an Executive Summary, complete Table of Contents and
title slide and proceed with the following topics:

18. Promotion mix tools (list and discuss how they will
support marketing communications objectives identified in part 1 (topic 10)
above

19. Promotion budget (general discussion on most appropriate
method to use, the overall $ amount and an approximation of the percent of
budget for each promotion mix tools and other costs).

20. Promotion mix strategy (push versus pull or combination,
integrated use of personal/non-personal communications) & your rationale.

21. Promotion mix tools

a. Advertising objectives, message and media strategies and
plan

b. Public relations objectives and tools

c. Personal selling objectives and strategy

d. Direct marketing, e-active and online objectives and
strategy

22. Methods to evaluate the overall plan results

23. Bibliography

24. Exhibits

Part 3 & final IMC plan will be graded as follows:

Points Grading Standard

0–5 Promotion mix tools, general overview and rationale

0–2 Promotion budget

0–5 Promotion mix strategy

0–5 Advertising

0–3 Public relations

0–5 Personal selling

0–5 Direct and online media

0–5 PowerPoint presentation’s ability to communicate, free
of typographic or grammatical errors, Executive summary, title of contents,
proper use of exhibits, use and citation of external sources (approx. 25),
timeliness of submission