Homework Lance
Grand Canyon University
AMP-425: Annual Marketing Plan
Executive Summary
The organization whose annual marketing plan is being presented in the summary report is Coca Cola. It is a giant soft drink company which supplies its products all over the world. This summary report includes the situation analysis, marketing objectives, strategies, tactics, financial considerations and the implementation.
Situation Analysis
The market analysis of the organization includes both the external and internal business environment. It is critical that Coca Cola should monitor both the external and internal aspects as these will be responsible for the success and survival of the organization in the soda industry. The influence of the internal business environment to some extent is under the business’s control.
The main features of the internal environment include productivity in the production process which can be achieved through management effective communication channels and management skills. Coke needs to conduct continual assessments of it business operations so that it can readily act upon factors that may lead to inefficiencies. The external business environment is a very powerful force that affects an entire industry. (Dickson P.R & Ginter 1978)
Changes in external factors will create chances or threads for the company. So, company must be aware of the changes in the economy, customer values and attitudes and also the demographic patterns.
Marketing Objectives
The market objectives is the beginning of any marketing plan. These objectives will answer questions like “where the organization does wants to go?” The main motive of these objectives will include goals like to enable an organization to control its market plan, to help motivate the employees and groups in order to reach common goals, to provide an agreed focus on all functions of an organization. These objectives should be smart that is Measurable, Specific, Realistic, Achievable and Timed. Under marketing objectives comes the following time table:
To gain 60% holding of the market for the soda industry by September 2015, to achieve about 20% return on the capital employed by August 2015, to increase the awareness about the product in the market, to survive the war in the market between the competitors and also to develop a competitive edge, to increase the size of the worldwide Coca Cola organization by 10% till the end of this year. (Porter, M.E 1979)
Strategies and Tactics
Under the strategies and tactics, the foremost step is to select the target market. It is that segment of the market which has the greatest potential for sale. This is where the company focuses its market efforts as here the sale will be most productive and successful. As Coca Cola satisfies the need of many different customers so its market is very wide. The second step is developing the marketing mix. It refers to the combination of promotion, price, product and sale of the product which make up the core of any marketing strategy.
Coca cola provides a wide variety of soft drinks to its customers. The company needs to maintain high standards and high quality for its products as the customers will only buy it then. Then it needs to work for the positioning of the product which means creating a healthy image for the product in the minds of the customers with respect to the competing products in the market. (Dickson P.R & Ginter 1978)
Then the important step is branding. The popularity that the brand owes is mostly the deciding factor for the sale of product. Coca Cola has been working and spending millions of dollars for promoting its brand name. Packaging is also an important aspect of business as it protects the product during transportation and also helps in promoting and distinguishing product from the competitors.
Price of the product is also a very important factor as it decides the demand and supply for the product. So there is a need to set prices in a way that they are attractive to customers and also provide good level of profit for the business. (Porter, M.E 1979)
Financial Considerations
Financial Considerations are the future predictions of events that are strictly related to the costs and the revenue costs in future years. There are five major financial considerations that the organization needs to look after and they are product cost, product development costs, promotion costs, research cost and distribution costs. The most logical method of forecasting the revenue is the sales force composting. (Dickson,P.R., & Ginter 1987)
This particularly involves the estimations from the salespeople to sell the work out a total for the entire business. When these revenues and cost are projected out, the management then takes decisions regarding which of the combinations of the marketing mix strategy will be able to be delivered to the most possible sales revenue at the lowest price.
References
Dickson, P. R., & Ginter, J. L. (1987). Market segmentation, product differentiation, and marketing strategy. The Journal of Marketing, 1-10.
Porter, M. E. (1979). How competitive forces shape strategy.
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