assignment consists of two sections: a marketing plan (Word document) and Marketing Budget (Excel document) Note: You must submit both sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment.

For the first 6 months your company is in business—to give you time to perfect your product and to learn from actual customers—you will start marketing and selling in your own community, a radius of 25 miles from where you live.

For most non-alcoholic beverages, marketing (as opposed to the actual product itself) is key to success. Cola drinks, for example, are fairly undifferentiated, as are many energy drinks, juices, bottled water, and the like. Companies producing these types of beverages differentiate themselves and attract market share through marketing and brand awareness—both of which are critical to success.

Section 1: Marketing Plan and Sales Strategy (MS Word or equivalent)

Write the 3–5-page marketing plan and sales strategy section of your business plan in which you do the following:

1. Define your company’s target market.

   Analyze the types of consumers who will be drinking your beverage in demographic terms (i.e., age, education level, income, gender, ethnic group, etc.). Outline the demographic information for your company specified on the worksheet in the course text (p. 107 | Demographic Description).
   Support your analysis with actual data on the size of the demographic groups in your local community (nearby zip codes).

   Hints: At American FactFinder (http://factfinder.census.gov), you will find demographic information on potential consumers in your area. If you are selling through other businesses (such as grocery stores), indicate the number of those businesses in your local area. You will find information about such businesses in your local area at County Business Patterns (http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/). Check Chapter 2 of Successful Business Plan for more research sources.

2. Assess your company’s market competition.

   Use the factors listed in the course text graphic (p. 123 | Assess the Competition) to assess your company’s market competition.
   Defend your plan to differentiate yourself from the competition using the information detailed on the worksheet in the text (p. 131 | Market Share Distribution).

• Hints: Every business faces competition, and the non-alcoholic beverage market is an especially crowded market.
• Hints: For example, in the soft drink market, it is intimidating to try to compete against Coke and Pepsi. Newcomers in mature markets typically must pursue niche markets or even create new market categories, as Red Bull did with energy drinks. 

1. Clarify your company’s message using the information provided on the worksheet in the text (p. 160 | The Five F’s). Create a marketing slogan/tagline for your product.

• Hints: Before you choose your marketing vehicles, you must determine the message you want to convey through those vehicles.

1. Identify the marketing vehicles you plan to use to build your company’s brand. Justify the key reasons why they will be effective.

   Hints: If you plan to use online marketing tactics, refer to the worksheet in the text (p. 171 | Online Marketing Tactics) to aid your response. Remember that even if you’re selling through grocery stores, you need to build your brand and social media is a major part of that in regard to beverages. Some of the marketing tactics that beverage companies use include sampling in grocery stores, building a following on social media, sponsoring events, and exhibiting at trade shows attended by retailers. You will use a combination of these tactics. For example, if you decide to give out samples in grocery stores, promote your sampling on your social media networks and those of the grocery store.
   Hints: If you are planning to distribute through resellers, describe how you plan to reach them, for example, through industry trade shows or by establishing your own sales force. For information on trade shows, visit the Trade Show News Network (http://www.tsnn.com). You can exhibit or network at these shows.

2. Format your assignment according to these formatting requirements:

   Cite the resources you have used to complete the exercise. Note: There is no minimum requirement for the number of resources used in the exercise.
   The paper must be typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with 1-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA 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 page length. 

Section 2: Marketing Budget (MS Excel worksheets template)

Section 2 uses the “Business Plan Financials” MS Excel template (see: Required Course Files in Week 1). Use the Business Plan Financials Guide (see: Required Course Files in Week 1) to support your development of the marketing budget.

1. Complete the “Marketing Budget” worksheet for your company.

Note: Complete the Setup tab first based on the instructions located in the Business Plan Financials Guide (document you also downloaded from PlanningShop). Only the setup tab and marketing tab should be completed for this assignment.

• Hints: The goal of the marketing budget is to help you determine how much it will cost you to reach your market and achieve your sales goals.
• Hints: When filling out the “Marketing Budget” worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet, do the following:

  Begin in the current year and complete a marketing budget for the first year of your business. The information you enter in the marketing budget spreadsheet will flow through to your “Income Statement” in the “Business Plan Financials.”
  Leave the number at zero (0) for any marketing vehicles you do not intend to use.
  Remember that all marketing activities involve costs. If social media represents a significant portion of your marketing, assume you will incur costs of advertising and these should be reflected on your budget. Even if a social media site charges nothing to use it, you will need to use company resources to manage the site, pay someone to execute your social media marketing campaigns, and most likely pay for ads on that site.
  Do not leave the “Marketing Budget” blank assuming you will not have any marketing costs.
  Do not complete all the rows; only fill in the costs for the marketing vehicles you will actually use. These must match the content you describe in Question 4 Word portion of this assignment.

The specific course learning outcome associated with this assignment is:

• Create a marketing plan that identifies a target market, market competition, a company message, and marketing vehicles for a company.

marketingBUSINESS MANAGEMENTbusinessStrategic ManagementmanagementBusiness marketing

Running head: COMPANY NAME 1

COMPANY NAME
5

Company Description and SWOT analysis

First Name Last Name

Strayer University

BUS 599

Dr. Andrea Banto and Dr. Cynthia Parmenter

September 10, 2019

Due: Week 3, worth 100 points

Length: The assignment should be 3 to 5 pages, excluding title page and reference page

Important:

· Review the description of this assignment in the course guide or Blackboard and use the tips provided along with this template to help you in your writing.

· Use the textbook and review the recommended pages. Note that your textbook has sample plans at the end of each paper. They are great examples of content.

· Review the grading rubric before writing. Know what you are graded for. Always look at the “exemplary” section.

Notes:

· Please remove the text in red throughout the paper and replace with your information. Delete the videos.

· Leave the text in black as it is. You are required to have a heading for each of the sections in your paper.

· Use APA format. Your will respond to each question using indented paragraphs in font Times New Roman, size 12.

· The references must be on a separate page at the end of the paper.

VIDEOS to help you with this assignment (delete when done)

1.

How to use the Template

2.

How to get started on Assignment 1

3.

How to use Grammarly

Company Description and SWOT analysis

Company Name

· Provide a brief introduction of the NAB company (name)

· Explain the significance of the name of your NAB company.

· Describe the non-alcoholic beverage you will produce and sell.

· Video to help answer this question:

Company Name

Mission Statement

· Write the mission statement (use quotation marks). Use the Statement of Mission template on pages 72–73 of the course textbook, Successful Business Plan, to aid your development. The mission statement should include” who you are (as a company), what you do (focus on what you sell), and why you are in business (your purpose).

· Explain the components of the mission statement and the reasoning for their selection. In this section you will clarify why the information included in the mission statement is important and should be included there.

· Video to help answer this question:

Mission Statement

Trends in the industry

· Research and describe the trends in the nonalcoholic beverage industry. Try to be specific for your chosen category of beverage. Project future growth rate and why do you think this segment has potential. Use the worksheet in the course text (p. 88 | Past and Future Growth of Your Industry) to help you project the future growth rate. Consider the use of industry associations and search engines to find reliable and recent data.

· Video to help answer this question:

Trends

· Video:

How to find information on trends in the industry in the Strayer Online Library

Strategic position

· Choose one strategic position
from the text
(page 142-143) and discuss why you believe this would be the best position for your company.

· Explain the approach you will use at your company to implement this strategic position to stand out from similar products and competition.

· Video to help answer this question:

Strategic Position

Distribution

· Provide an overview of the company’s distribution channels. For example, will you sell your beverage in grocery stores, restaurants, or sports venues? If so, describe the types of resellers and distributors who will sell to resellers and fulfill their orders. If you are attempting to sell directly to consumers, for example, online via a monthly subscription, how will you manage warehousing/fulfillment/shipping? Clarify how the product will reach end users.

· Provide the rationale for your selected method of distributing the product.

· Video to help answer this question:

Distribution Channels

Risks

· Outline at least 3 types of risks your company is facing. One of the risks must be regulatory risks. In addition to the regulatory risks, you can select two others from the types of risk listed in the course text (pp. 148–149) or others. Regulation weighs more heavily on beverage and food businesses than many other types of companies, so be certain to consider any regulatory risks your type of beverage faces. For example, what kind of regulation and/or risks are you likely to face if you make health claims about your beverage?

· Discuss each of the risks you identified. Be specific in the context your NAB company. Explain how your company will mitigate each of the risks.

· Video to help answer this question:

Risk

SWOT Analysis

· Complete the table below (at least 4 in each category).
You must use this matrix (table).
Use bullets for each item in the SWOT matrix. Check out the hints provided in the description of the assignment for each item in the SWOT.

· Briefly describe the key items in each category under the SWOT table.

· Video to help answer this question:

SWOT

References

Be sure to cite all your sources. Use APA to format all the references. Wikipedia and other similar websites (blogs, opinions) do not quality as academic resources. You can use websites as long as the source is reliable (company websites, forbes.com, fda.com, census.com, etc.)

Here are examples of references (please deleted and replace with yours)

Bezzina, C., & Testa, S. (2005, June). Establishing schools as professional learning communities: Perspective from Malta. European Journal of Teacher Education, 28(2), 141-150. Retrieved from Academic Search Complete database. doi: 10.1080/02619760500093156

DuFour, R. (2004, May). What is a “professional learning community”? Educational Leadership, 61(8), 6-11. Retrieved from http://pdonline.ascd.org/pd_online/secondary_reading/el200405_dufour.html

Greene, T. S. (2001, June). Schools as “learning organizations.” Available from ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. (UMI No. AAI9994152)

Herbert, K. S., Murphy, K. M., Ramos, M. A., Vaden-Kiernan, M., & Buttram, J. L. (2006). SEDL’s Working systematically model: Final report. Southwest Educational Development Lab. Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/cgi-bin/pdfexit.cgi?url=http://www.sedl.org/ws/pdfs/WS-final-report

Hord, S. M. (1997). Professional learning communities: What are they and why are they important? Issues . . . About Change, 6(1). Retrieved from http://www.sedl.org/change/issues/issues61.html)

Answer 6

Answer 7