Introduction

SLP02 requires you to consider the service you have chosen to market and hopefully, are using to gain a “competitive advantage”. Here regard a competitive advantage as something you do better than your competitors in serving your target markets.

Note that excluding your title page, the SLP02 section of the marketing strategy should be approximately three pages long.

The New Section of the Strategy for SLP 2 for Grading

Make sure you use the following section headings (indicated in bold) for each of the Questions/Issues:

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ANALYSIS: How well does the proposed service meet the demands of the market compared with the competition? To help do this analysis:

• Create a Product/Market Matrix. This is a table listing the various segments you identified in the Customer Analysis section for MOD01 and the products which those segments buy. (This is NOT to be confused with a table of a similar name developed by Igor Ansoff.)
• To analyze the competitive situation show the competitors providing those products for each segment in each cell as appropriate. *
• Don’t just present the matrix; explain what it shows.

Which are MY TARGET SEGMENTS your business will focus on and why? Using the information from section 3, present a table that lists the primary potential target markets with information for each drawn from all prior sections to explain your decision as to which you will focus on.

Describe THE SERVICE that you will provide using your analysis of yourself, the market and the competition to explain how you reached this conclusion. Describe the People who will deliver the service, the Physical Environment (if any) in which the service will be provided and the Process through which the service will be provided.

Statement of your business’s MISSION (what business are you in or what are you supposed to do).

The GENERAL OBJECTIVES or GOALS of your business (for example, achieving sales of X% by date A).

* The MOD01 Background lecture Segmentation has a simple example of a Product-Market Matrix – Slide 9, dealing with the toothpaste market. There is a further example in the presentation about the SLP “Notes for the SLP” accessible on the MOD01 Background Info page.

SLP Assignment Expectations

Inclusion of Prior Sections

Each time you submit a new section of the Marketing Strategy, include the prior sections, revised in the light of feedback and any further research you have conducted, as necessary. Make those revisions in color.

Though these prior sections are not graded again, (they already have been graded when first submitted), including them helps the grader understand your analysis, and enables you to tell a coherent story.

For example in SLP01 you described the market and market segments for your firm’s products. Later you’ll provide an analysis of the marketing mix elements, (Product, Price, Promotion and Place), but your analysis of each of these only makes sense in reference to the segments described in the earlier section. If you don’t include SLP01, then the grader won’t know what segments there are, and so won’t be able to make as much sense of your analysis as if you included it. Similarly the various elements of the mix are related to one another and for this reason all prior sections should be included with each new section submitted for grading.

Thus, it is a REQUIREMENT that the prior sections, revised to reflect prior feedback, are included with each new SLP section.

Thus your paper for SLP02 should consist of the following:

• Title page (see MOD01 instructions for details)
• The SLP01 section of the strategy – revised as necessary. Three pages approximately. (No need to include the SLP01 title page)
• The SLP02 section of the strategy – as indicated below. Three pages approximately.
• References, Bibliography, Appendices etc.

It is expected that you will explain the alternatives you considered and why you decided to make the recommendations you do. Also that you will use information from the background readings as well as any good quality sources you can find to deepen your understanding of the project and that you will cite all sources and provide a reference list at the end of the paper.

The following will be assessed in particular:

• Your demonstrated understanding of the concepts and frameworks used to conduct analysis for the project. Generally formal definitions are not required as understanding can usually be demonstrated by the way you apply or interpret the concepts.
• Your ability to conduct marketing analysis appropriate to the project. The sections above require a combination of description, (e.g. what will be done) and analysis (explaining why it should be done that way). Graders will place more weight on analysis than description alone.

Write in a succinct, organized, and professional way. DO NOT USE ESSAY FORMAT – you don’t have the space in three pages.

The MOD01 Background Info section contains “Notes for the SLP” which gives guidance for ALL the sections of the entire SLP.

Rev. March 7, 2013