There are three major assignments in the class: a marketing project, a critical bibliography, and a group-led class exercise. The project counts for 60% of the grade and may be done individually or as a team of two. The bibliography counts for 20% of the grade and must be done individually. The class exercise counts for 20% of the grade and must be done as a group. Further detail on each assignment follows.

1. Marketing Project. This project is in two parts followed by a presentation to the class. Part I (which counts for 20% of the grade) constitutes the framework. It is a description of an organization with which you are familiar assessing it from a marketing perspective. Part I is to be submitted in four short assignments due over a 7 week period. Part II (which counts for 30% of the grade) constitutes your best consulting advice presented as a marketing plan for the organization. You will have 6 weeks to complete it and it is due in its entirety on Nov. 25. The 5-10 minute presentation should summarize both Parts I and II for the class. Presentations will be scheduled on Nov. 25, Nov. 30, and Dec. 2. Further detail on Parts I and II are provided below. In addition, please see Marketing Process notes and Marketing Plan notes.

2. Critical Bibliography. You are asked to keep a reading journal during the class commenting on reading that you do in addition to the textbook. An extensive reserve reading list is provided keyed to the chronological treatment of the topics. You have complete freedom to select from this material or to find your own readings that you may find more relevant. Plan to read 2-4 outside items in addition to the text each week. You will be asked to post an entry from your reading journal on the discussion list from time to time throughout the course. At the end of the course from your reading journal, select the 10-12 most important items and turn in an annotated critical bibliography of these items. The bibliography is due Dec. 11.

3. Group-Led Class Exercise. You will be assigned to a group of 3-4 class members early in the semester. For one topic, you will have 20 minutes of class time to design and lead a class exercise. You have a lot of flexibility as to how you wish to define the exercise. You may use it for discussion with the whole class or you may divide the class; you may use the chat room function of WebCT; you may do a focus group exercise; you may ask the class to engage in an exercise of some kind; you may assign a short case study for analysis; you may develop a presentation if you wish. The exercises at the end of each chapter in the Kotler/Andreasen textbook may be useful to you. I will meet with each group at least a week ahead of their assigned time to discuss your plans. The class-led exercises will take place during the period between Oct. 19 and Nov. 23.

Marketing Project Detail:

• Part I:

  • Section A. Due Sept. 9. Select an describe an organization with which you are familiar. Perform a market audit. The market audit consists of collecting information to answer the following questions:

    • What is the organization's mission statement (stated or inferred)?

    • Who are the publics being served?

    • What kind of image does the organization project?

    • What products/services does it offer?

    • What do the customers perceive the price of each product or service to be?

    • How are these products/services delivered?

    • What kind of promotional activity does the organization do now?

    • In your view, how satisfied are the publics with the organization?

    • In your view, how satisfied are the staff with the organization?

  • Section B. Due Sept. 21. Identify and list the various "publics" served by the organization. Determine the best way to segment these publics into markets. Describe the exchange that takes place between each of these publics and the organization. (One way to think about marketing is to see it as a process that helps an organization exchange something of value for something it needs. Example: An AIDS project wants a school board to approve introduction of its prevention curriculum. The school board accepts the offer because it desires greater student awareness in service of student safety. In exchange, the school board has the authority to approve the curriculum and gives its permission and cooperation to the project.

  • Section C. Due Sept. 30. Set some marketing goals and a positioning strategy for your organization. The marketing goals should be of two types: Action goals producing specific, measureable results (Example: A help desk operation wishes to continue answering 500 assistance questions each year) and Image goals stating the organization might be better known in some way or how it might change the way it is seen (Example: A library reference dept. wishes to be seen by faculty as the best place to send their students for assistance in preparing research papers). Include at least a couple of action goals and at least one image goal. The positioning strategy is an outgrowth of the image goal. Positioning means finding and establishing a niche or unique role in the community. Three ways to create a postioning statement from the organization's perspective involve filling in the blanks in the following statements:
    • "We're the people who ...

    • "No one can ___________ as well as we do."

    • "We want to be seen as ... "

  • Section D. Due Oct. 14. This part asks for an assessment of the resources available to the organization and what kind of dependencies are generated in garnering these resources. Please consider and respond to each of the questions below:

    • Does the organization raise funds through some kind of development activity (e.g., gifts, grants, use of endowment funds)? If you haven't already described the public(s) who contribute these funds and the benefit the public derives from the donation, do so here.

    • Does the organization rely on volunteer labor to any extent? Who is the public from whom volunteers are recruited? What benefits do the volunteers receive in exchange for their work?

    • Does the organization partner with one or more other organizations -- in the private sector? in the public sector? What benefit does each partner from the partnership accrue? What do they offer in exchange?

    • Does the organization rely on funds supplied directly from its parent organization? What benefit does the parent organization perceive in supplying funds?

    • Who are the competing organizations in each of these areas? How do the benefits they confer compare to those of your organization?

• Part II. Marketing Plan. Due Nov. 25. At this point you should understand your selected organization well, have described its historic marketing efforts, identified target markets, established some goals and a desireable niche, and analyzed its resource base. Now it's time to develop a marketing plan for your organization. The marketing plan should take the form of a consulting report of which Part I constitues an appendix (supporting documentation). For each part of the plan first indicate What should happen and then describe your rationale for recommending it. In the marketing plan you should:

  • Define the offer -- Describe the product(s) and service(s) that the organization should offer to its primary publics. Provide sufficient detail for each product and service. Describe any social marketing plans. If any of the offerings are new, describe the strategic thinking behind their development.

  • State the price to the customer -- The price may be in dollars or in time or in psychological cost or some combination of the three. Indicate what you think the cost will be to the organization and explain the basis for your pricing strategy.

  • Describe the delivery options -- State how the services or products will be delivered (the place of delivery and the channels through which delivery is provided). If there are options, describe them.

  • Recommend a promotion strategy -- Indicate what mix of advertising, sales promotion, publicity, personal selling you think will be most effective for the products and services and their intended publics. If you can, indicate how resources might be allocated for promotion purposes.

  • Test the effectiveness of the plan -- Indicate how you will determine if the products, price, place, and promotion strategy you recommend is effective for the organization.

Rev. 8/12/98.