Strategic Marketing Plan: Positioning, Branding, and IMC Strategy for Starbucks

INSTRUCTIONS FOR WRITER: This assignment is only a portion of a larger assignment. ONLY complete the highlighted red portion below for this assignment.  ASSIGNED SBU – Starbucks

Introduction 

There will be strategic planning assignments in units 1-8. These assignments are designed to have you work through the sections of a strategic marketing plan. Each strategic marketing plan could focus on the current business where you work, an entrepreneurial startup, or another business.

Each unit will cover part of the strategic marketing plan as indicated below.

Unit	Strategic Planning Assignment
Unit 1	Identification of the Strategic Business Unit (SBU) and the Business Model for the Project.
Unit 2	Environmental Analysis and Strategic Implications
Unit 3	Segmentation Analysis and Target Market Recommendations
Unit 4	SWOT Analysis and Identification of Competitive Advantages: Setting marketing goals and objectives
Unit 5	Identification of a Product Mix Strategy
Unit 6	Branding and Positioning Strategy
Unit 7	Ethical Review and Value Strategies
Unit 8	GANTT Chart and Justification for Strategic Implementation & Executive Summary.

Each strategic planning assignment will include research analysis from secondary research using academic and industry trade data. You will make strategic recommendations in each section that will need to be justified through your analysis. Each section will need to be logically linked to the earlier sections and all strategic decisions will be used to build your GANTT Chart and implementation plan in Unit 8.

Directions 

Positioning, Branding, and IMC Strategy Evaluation

In this unit you will evaluate your branding strategy, product positioning strategy, and integrated marketing communication (IMC) strategy. Each of these marketing elements can be evaluated in-depth, but in this exercise, you will out outline your mix elements and then evaluate the synergies created by your mix elements as related to the market segments you have identified in Unit 3.

This assignment will have you create strategies for your primary market identified in Unit 3. It is important for you to justify your strategic decisions based on relevant research from credible sources. Ultimately, you will need to convince others of your strategy. These others could be marketing managers, investors, bankers, etc. Be sure you use the supplemental text Marketing: An Introduction by: M. C. Cant and the supporting unit material in developing your strategy.

These same questions can be used to evaluate competitive products and can give you a basis for analyzing their competitive strengths and weaknesses.

Positioning

A positioning strategy would normally be based on consumer research and the companies desired for a perceptual position in the customer’s mind. Customers will normally use a multi-attribute model in their purchase decision. This basically means that there is normally more than one criterion that are used in the purchase decision. The first part of this assignment is to determine the two most important criteria used in the purchase process. The two criteria will be used in the positioning map design below. The most important part of this part of the assignment is to justify your positioning map.

Note: This positioning map is created in Word’s Drawing Canvas. It works like a drawing canvas in PowerPoint or other Microsoft tools. You can click on each graphic and edit the text. You can move and resize each bubble to represent the relative position and size of the market share. When you are working in the drawing canvas, you can click on the outside border and copy and paste as a drawing canvas or picture.

I. Positioning Strategy

1. SBU Position Desired in The Marketplace: (How should the project SBU be positioned in the marketplace? This summarizes your branding strategy.) (½ page)
2. Identify and justify Anchor Elements 1 & 2 for a positioning map: (Justify why you chose the anchor elements. They should be related to the primary customer choice elements identified in Unit 3. The anchors have two sides, Element 1, Element 2 opposite.) (½ page)
3. Justify the SBU and Competitive positions: (Place and resize the SBU bubbles. Justify why you think these positions and sizes reflect actual positions.) (½ page)
4. Strategic Implications from the Positioning Map: (Describe the strategic implications from the map you have created including recommendations for changes in position.) (½ page)

Positioning Map

Note: This positioning map is created in Word’s Drawing Canvas. It works like a drawing canvas in PowerPoint or other Microsoft tools. You can click on each graphic and edit the text. You can move and resize each bubble to represent the relative position and size of the market share. When you are working in the drawing canvas, you can click on the outside border and copy and paste as a drawing canvas or picture.

II. Branding

Your branding strategy supports your desired SBU market position. Branding is a multi-faceted process to support your marketing mix strategy. Respond to each of the branding elements in the table below.

1. Branding Strategy ((Describe and evaluate the brand features for your SBU.) Include:
2. 1. Brand Name (Brand Name Strategy: Corporate umbrella, Family brands, individual brands, etc.)
   2. Brand Mark/Packaging (½ page)
   3. Other Brand Attributes (½ page)
   4. Other Relevant Branding Strategies (½ page)
   5. Describe and evaluate the brand equity strategy for your SBU. (Justify how your strategies above increase the overall value of your brand.) (1 page)

III, Integrated Marketing Communication Strategy

To this point, you have evaluated the marketing mix product, price, place concepts (Unit 5) and the target market (Unit 3) for your SBU. You have also looked at your product position and branding strategy. You will now develop an integrated marketing communication (IMC) campaign to support these strategies.

An effective IMC campaign should be based upon firm communication goals and objectives.  The communication system for a business requires that the message should be complex and include factors such as business and product positioning, competitive advantage, competition, the segment to be to communicate to and how can that message best reach the market.

The full development of promotional strategies requires setting marketing objectives and advertising objectives, developing a communication message, evaluating media, determining the communication message, and developing the advertisement.

IMC Strategy

To this point, you have evaluated the marketing mix product, price, place concepts (Unit 5) and the target market (Unit 3) for your SBU. You have also looked at your product position and branding strategy. You will now develop an integrated marketing communication (IMC) campaign to support these strategies.

An effective IMC campaign should be based upon firm communication goals and objectives.  The communication system for a business requires that the message should be complex and include factors such as business and product positioning, competitive advantage, competition, the segment to be to communicate to and how can that message best reach the market.

The full development of promotional strategies requires setting marketing objectives and advertising objectives, developing a communication message, evaluating media, determining the communication message, and developing the advertisement.

III. IMC Strategy

1. IMC Objectives: (Describe your IMC objectives {such as to inform about X, persuade the customer to…, remind about X}. Justify your objectives given your target market and SBU.) (½ page)
2. Communication Message: (Write out a message you would like to communicate to your market segment. This could include information from Tables 1 & 2 above such as branding, positioning, and communicating a competitive advantage over the competition.) (½ page)
3. Media Strategy: (Recommend a media strategy that would carry your message identified above. This could include a sales strategy. A media strategy should include more than just one media outlet. Identify all media you plan to use and justify your media choices.) (½ page)
4. Justification: (Justify the overall rationale for the IMC strategy you have recommended above. This should include references to sources of information to back up your ideas.) (1 page)