Author: chris

This week, you will finalize your marketing plan for your selected product or service. Do not incorporate Part I in this week’s submission. However, in preparing for Part II, you may have to consider some of the suggestions made by the instructor in Part I.

Complete the following for your marketing plan:

Determine the pricing strategy you will employ along with your justification. Perform a breakeven analysis to determine how many customers you will need to make your business financially viable.

Outline your distribution strategy. Determine if there are additional channels you should pursue and why.

Prepare your integrated marketing communications plan. Discuss the key themes of your campaign and link them to how your business, service, or product will satisfy your target market needs. Describe each element of the promotional mix in detail and explain how you will integrate the different elements of your promotional mix toward the target market using the key themes. This includes the following elements:

Advertising

Public relations

Sales promotion

Personal selling

Direct marketing

Interactive marketing

Develop an implementation schedule for your marketing plan. Outline the time frame for the different media campaigns and specify milestones. You should outline who will be responsible for each action item and how you will track the deadlines to ensure the plan stays on schedule.

Explain how you will evaluate the effectiveness of your marketing plan. Discuss the use of a marketing dashboard and provide a sample dashboard for your plan.

Submit a 5- to 6-page paper written in APA format. Search the South University online library for peer-reviewed articles to justify your marketing plan. Include a minimum of three peer-reviewed articles for your paper.

Additionally, you have been asked to prepare a budget. The budget should include estimates of forecasted sales, direct cost of sales, and your marketing expense budget. (Create an Excel sheet with the budget estimates and then copy/paste into your Word document.)

Prepare a report comparing and contrasting generational and gender challenges facing today’s work environment.   Include examples as appropriate.

Discuss the impact these challenges have had (or are currently having) on the healthcare industry.

Describe an organization’s strategy for addressing these challenges (use a small medical facility for the organization).

Explain to what extent an organization’s leaders can successfully address these challenges, while creating minimal distractions in the workplace.

Support this assignment with at least three current scholarly articles (published within the last five years).

Case analysis: United States Postal Service (USPS) vs United Parcel Service (UPS)

You will assume a role of an outside consultant and examine the organization and make recommendations to improve the organizational strategies to achieve its goals.

Introduction and background of the case, its products and/or services.

Current organizational structures and culture, current mission, major objectives, and strategies of each organization.

Identify industry trends and its major competitors with market share.

Identify line of products (label them as Cash cow, Star, Dogs and Question mark) ownership of the company (who owns it)

The results of your “situational appraisal” or SWOT analysis (key strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities, important environmental trends, industry and competitive analysis, External & Internal Factor Matrix etc.).

Key problems and ranking of those problems.

Alternative organizational strategies considered and evaluation of these strategies.

Your chosen strategy (ies) and why chosen.

Your specific recommendations and plan of action for implementing your strategy.

You will also provide background of the Organization and Strategy of the-Organization, and Competitive Advantage if any.

The basic criteria, which will be used in evaluating project and case analysis are:

Quality of research: thoroughness and accuracy in analyzing and updating information of a project/case

Quality of analysis: effectiveness in applying analytical tools, functional areas of knowledge, etc.

Quality of synthesis: a logical development of ideas and strategic alternatives and analysis of the situation with facts.

Quality of recommendations consistency with situational appraisal: appropriateness of the appraisal and evaluation for management decision, keeping in mind the values, attitudes towards risk and workability or practical application of ideas in solving real organizational problems.

For Assignment 1, you imagined that you were going to start a company that offered an innovative product or service. In Assignment 1 you also determined the business structure you would use for that venture. For this assignment, you can use that same idea and structure or imagine different ones. Use the Internet and the Strayer Online Library to locate any additional information needed to complete this assignment.

 

Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you:

1. Determine the steps you would need to take to officially establish your company with the business structure that you feel is most appropriate. For each of those steps, be sure to include specifics that are relevant to your market and geographic area.
2. Examine at least three (3) funding sources that might be appropriate for your business. Describe what those sources of capital are, and explain the pros and cons of each.
3. Select the funding source that you believe to be the best fit for your business and explain why.
4. Determine the form(s) of intellectual property that you will have to protect when starting your business. Develop a plan to protect these intellectual properties.
5. Choose one (1) of the following approaches: Assume you decide to revamp your product or service so that it is completely virtual / online and concentrates on fulfilling a social need. Propose two (2) ways that you would need to alter your preferred funding sources and explain why. Determine whether you would or would not have additional forms of intellectual property to protect. Support your decision. Or If your initial business product or service was already completely online and geared toward social entrepreneurship, determine ways that you might need to revise your funding and protection of intellectual property had your company not been rooted in social entrepreneurship and had a physical location.
6. Imagine that you established your initial idea for a company and have been successfully operating for five years (5). Describe how your hypothetical need for capital changed over the years. Determine which sources of funding would be the most appropriate if you wanted to raise capital to expand your hypothetical business. Examine how, if at all, those funding sources might have differed from those needed in early stage funding.
7. Use at least three (3) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

Scenario 1: You are the marketing manager for the firm of your choice responsible for developing the tactical and strategic marketing plan. You are also responsible for the successful implementation and evaluation of the plan and have full P&L responsibility for your product/service line.

 

In Week 3, you will answer the following:

 

• Outline your selected scenario and details about the firm and/or product line.

• Discuss which of Michael Porter’s basic strategies you will use to market this product and why.

• As you know from your reading, consumers have different product needs and use products differently. Segmentation seeks to group different demands and needs into clusters with similar demand patterns. Using the dimensions of market segmentation, determine which markets you will target with your marketing plan. Outline your target market in detail.

• Outline the stages in the consumer decision making process for your selected product or service. Be sure to discuss how consumers evaluate alternatives and what mediums they use in the information search stage.

• Conduct research to determine where improvements should be made to your product or service line. Discuss these improvements and the estimated cost in developing and launching these enhancements. This could be a product line extension, a service improvement, new packaging, Web site enhancements, etc. The purpose of this element of the marketing plan is continuous improvement. You should justify the need of these enhancements based on your research, such as a review of the competition, feedback from customers, or a review of the marketing environment.

Submit a 4- to 5-page paper written in APA format; including a minimum of three peer-reviewed articles from SUO’s online library justifying your explanations.

Businesses have to make many financial decisions that have a direct impact on operations and the ability to successfully compete in the marketplace. Base your writing on the information from the course coupled with information located in the Strayer databases or Internet.

Write a two to three (2-3) page paper in which you:

1. Assume that you are financial advisor to a business. Describe the advice that you would give to the client for raising business capital using both debt and equity options in today’s economy. Outline the major advantages and disadvantages of each option.
2. Summarize the advice that you would give the client on selecting an investment banker to assist the business in raising this capital.
3. Explain the historical relationships between risk and return for common stocks versus corporate bonds. Explain the manner in which diversification helps in risk reduction in a portfolio. Support response with actual data and concepts learned in this course.
4. Use at least one (1) quality references. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources. However, you may use data sources, such as Yahoo Finance.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

o    Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

o    Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

o    Describe the characteristics and valuation of stocks and bonds, and how each is a key component in the financing of corporations.

o    Describe the key elements of the securities markets, and how the markets drive financial transactions, decision making, and risk analysis.

o    Use technology and information resources to research issues in finance.

o    Write clearly and concisely about finance using proper writing mechanics.

Suppose you were invited to join a team in charge of developing an organization’s Business Plan. Explain the strengths that you personally would bring to the team. Provide a rationale for your response.

Write a two to three (2-3) page paper in which you:

1. Identify a relevant economic article from either the Strayer Library or a newspaper. The article must deal with any course concepts covered in Weeks 1-4.
2. In the first two (2) paragraphs, identify at least four (4) key points that the article highlights.
3. In the next three to five (3-5) paragraphs, apply two (2) of the following economic concepts (supply and demand, market structures, elasticity, and costs of production) to the key points that you highlighted in Question 2.
4. In your concluding paragraph, state whether you agree or disagree with the author’s comments. Provide a rationale for the response.
5. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment with one (1) being your article.

 

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

 

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

 

• Apply the underlying principles of economics and the economic way of thinking to assess market issues and make business decisions.
• Analyze the dynamics of supply and demand to anticipate market equilibrium.
• Analyze the elasticity of demand and supply and its importance, and the effect of taxes or other public policies
• Describe the impact of various forms of competition on business operations with emphasis on perfect competition.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in principles of economics.
• Write clearly and concisely about principles of economics using proper writing mechanics.

Research a company that does both domestic and international business. Review the company’s profile, target demographics and market, human resource strategies, and human resource challenges. You will use this information to examine the human resource challenges that the company faces and to suggest one (1) human resource strategy that could improve the company’s competitive edge.

Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you:

1. Analyze the organization overall, its primary purpose, the customers that it serves, and its size.
2. Examine the common HR challenges that the organization currently faces (e.g., high turn-over, low wages, lack of skilled workers, etc.).
3. Determine the primary ways in which the international status of the organization influences these common HR challenges.
4. Recommend one (1) HR strategy from Week 4 that you would implement in order to overcome the common challenges assessed. Justify your recommendation.
5. Predict the degree of effectiveness of your recommended strategy in making the organization more competitive and more productive. Provide a rationale to justify your predictions.
6. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

• Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
• Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.

Reflect on the jobs that you have held. Next, create a job description and job specifications for your favorite position thus far. You will propose a training program for that position, and you will consider the primary ways in which someone occupying the position in question might experience the four classic career stages.

Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you:

1. Create a job description for and describe the job specifications of your favorite position thus far. If you have not yet been employed, create a job description for and describe the job specifications of your dream job.
2. Outline a compensation and benefits package that you believe would be appropriate for the position in question. Indicate the research that you have done and the relevant considerations that influenced the design of the compensation and benefits package.
3. Apply the four (4) classic stages of career development to the position that you have described.
4. Develop a plan to avoid declining employee performance during the maintenance and disengagement stages in which you:
   1. predict at least two (2) reasons why some employees might stagnate and ultimately disengage from their work
   2. suggest key strategies that employees may use to avoid such stagnation and disengagement
5. Use at least three (3) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and similar Websites do not qualify as quality resources.

Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Discuss job analysis, job descriptions, and specifications.
• Explain effective approaches to the broad spectrum of employee relations, including career development, fostering ethical behavior, discipline, labor relations, and dismissals.
• Analyze various techniques, considerations, and designs of employee compensation programs.
• Analyze orientation, training, and development programs that improve productivity.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in human resource management.
• Write clearly and concisely about human resource management using proper writing mechanics.