MT 330
Marketing in the Technology Enterprise

Market Plan Project Information

Purpose of the Marketing Plan

One of the key requirements of the course is to develop a marketing plan for a technology
company that you're interested in studying or for a technology that you would like to take to
a market. The marketing plan, in lieu of a term paper or team project, is a vehicle for integrating
and demonstrating your understanding of the concepts developed in the course, and for applying
the theory to a real-world company and product. The questions that you are asked to address
below are among the most difficult, yet important, that any technology company needs to consider
in developing its marketing strategy.
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Organization and Content of the Marketing Plan

The written marketing plan will consist of a cover sheet, table of contents, fifteen sections,
and appendices.

Sections 1-14 will address the following 14 questions. Each section should include a paragraph
or two of essay, supported by tables or graphics. If you use a chart or incorporate information
from an appended source, be sure to refer to it in the text. You may follow the format of the
XNP example to be provided.

Part I (Sections 1-5). Market Analysis (due Session 16):

1.Industry Analysis: Using Michael Porter’s industry forces model, identify the industries your
company  is competing in with this product and evaluate your company’s strengths and
vulnerabilities in that industry on each of the five forces. (Session 2). 
2.Capabilities Analysis: What core competencies does your company bring to bear on this
product in the market it intends to address? In which value discipline does it excel?
(Session 3) 
3.Leverage Points and Resistance Points: What role does the product play in the customer’s
value chain? Who within the customer organization are likely to be major buying influences
in the customer’s decision to adopt the product? What concerns (leverage points and resistance
points) might they have, and  how could you address them? (Sessions 6 and 7)
4.Market Segmentation: Which segments of the potential market would you attack first; which later?
e.g.: businesses vs. consumers, upgraders vs. new users, large companies vs. small companies,
heavy users vs. light users, companies with many locations vs. companies with few locations.
(Sessions 4, 8, and 9)
5.Demand Analysis/Forecast: Having identified the target market and market segments
you will pursue, how would you analyze and forecast demand for your company’s product?
What factors "drive" demand (both stimulators and inhibitors)? What are the key sources of
uncertainty, and how do they affect the forecast? (Sessions 10 and 11)
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Part II (Sections 6-14). Marketing Strategy (due Session 28):

6.Marketing Strategy I - Value Proposition: What is the value proposition for your company’s
product in the target market? How does it address the key leverage points and the resistance
points that you identified in Section 3 above? (Session 13) 7.Marketing Strategy II – Competitive
and Market Scope: Having pinpointed your market, what marketing strategy (e.g., which of
Porter’s four generic competitive strategies) would you apply to your product? Why? (Session 14)
8.Marketing Strategy III – Source of Sustainable Market Leadership: How will you sustain your
market position as competitors enter and the market matures? (Sessions 15, 17)
9.Product Strategy: How can your company create competitive differentiation from current
competitors and potential entrants (e.g., specific features, customer service, brand/reputation,
price, multiple products)? (Sessions 18, 19)
10.Pricing Strategy:path Formulate a pricing strategy for your company’s product. What market
entry price and price would this strategy suggest? Explain the rationale and assumptions behind
your recommendations. (Sessions 20, 21)
11.Partnering Strategy: What gaps or competitive weaknesses does your company have that
might be offset by an alliance with a partner? What are the characteristics of companies it should
seek out as partners? Which type of alliance would you recommend? (Session 24)
12.Channel Strategy: What distribution channels (or what combination) would you recommend
for your product? Why? (Session 25)
13.Marketing Communications Strategy: Having determined the message that your company
will convey to its market and the target audience to direct it to, what is the best marketing
communication strategy to deliver the message? Explain your reasoning. (Session 27)
14.Plan Validation Strategy (market research): In the course of formulating your market analysis
and marketing strategy, you have made a number of implicit assumptions about your market's
attitude and expected behavior (e.g., its willingness to pay a premium for your company’s product).
What are these assumptions, and how would you test them through market research? Consider
secondary research, survey research, user studies, and trials. (Session 12)

Section 15 - Executive Summary (maximum 300 words): The final section (which should appear
in front of the marketing plan, behind the cover sheet) is the executive summary. It is designed
to give a senior executive of the company a top-level view of the key conclusions of the analysis
and key elements of the strategy.

Appendices. The appendices should contain copies of the original source material you used
in building your market plan, as well as any additional tables, charts, etc., that you choose
not to include in the body of the market plan. The appendices should be numbered, with a
list of appendices in front. When drawing on information from one of the appendices in the
market plan itself, cite the appendix by number and page.
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Suggested Approach to Building the Market Plan

Build your marketing plan in stages over the semester, after each topic is concluded. Twice
during the semester (Sessions 16 and 28), you'll be asked to present your plan.

Get a "feel" for the company and the industry. Once your proposed company and product
are approved, select from the sources below some product literature and three or four articles
from the trade or business press. Reading them should give you enough of a "feel" for the
company, the product, and the industry to carry out the assignment. You can always seek
out additional information later.  Familiarize yourself with the concepts and tools for each
section. For each section of the plan, start by reviewing the lecture notes on that topic. Then
review the example provided in the illustrative marketing plan
(Xerox Network Printer/Copier (XNPC)).  Stick to the schedule. Plan to complete each
section the week after the lecture on it. Time will be set aside at the beginning of the following
week’s session to discuss problems and issues with the assignment.  Tie it together for the
presentations.  For the two formal PowerPoint presentations of your plan to the class
(Sessions 16 and 28), review and revise the sections so that earlier sections are consistent
with those developed later. Presentations should follow the organization described above.
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Data Sources

The intent of this project is not to achieve a usable marketing plan based on detailed inside
knowledge of the company, the technology, or the product. When you are developing a real
market plan, presumably you will have access to this information. Rather, the intent, as discussed
earlier, is to give you a chance to practice applying the marketing tools developed during the
course. Accordingly, you are expected to have only a rudimentary knowledge of thecompany,
the product, the underlying technology, the industry, and the target market. This information may
be obtained from publicly available sources.

Some public sources of company, industry and product information:

• The company’s and its competitors’ corporate websites.
• ProQuest – an on-line data base indexing selected articles from approximately
  1200 international business and management periodicals. ProQuest is accessible
  from any computer within the Vanderbilt network. Ignore the password window
  and hit the Connect button to go directly to the search engine.
• Business & Industry - Complements ProQuest by offering access to 600 industry-specific
  trade journals and general business sources.*
• Business Dateline - covers harder-to-find local and regional business information,
  for example, on privately held companies, from sources that the other data bases
  might otherwise miss: city, local, state, and regional business publications, daily
  newspapers, and business-focused news wire services.*
• Other data bases available through Vanderbilt’s Walker Management Library.
  
  *Accessible only from a terminal at the Walker Management Library.
  
  Making Assumptions When Information is Not Available. Where information that
  you need is not available from public sources (for example, the company’s cost of
  manufacturing the product), you are asked to make an explicit educated assumption.
  Briefly indicate how the conclusions or recommendations would change if the assumption
  doesn’t hold (i.e., sensitivity analysis). In the final section of the marketing plan (validation),
  you will explain how you would obtain the information needed to confirm the assumption.
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  Grading Standards
  
  The marketing plan will consist of two parts, a market analysis, to be submitted Session 16,
  and a marketing strategy (accompanied by a revised market analysis), to be submitted
  Session 28. Each part will include both a written document and a PowerPoint presentation.
  The following criteria will be used to evaluate the marketing plans:
  
• Conclusions and Recommendations. Sound, well-reasoned conclusions and recommendations
  for each of the sections based on the available data and the appropriate application of the tools
  to the situation. (Not every tool will apply in every situation.)
• Handling of Assumptions. Explicit identification of assumptions where they have been made,
  supported by sensitivity analysis.
• Consistency (the hallmark of a sound marketing plan). Consistency
  of the marketing strategy with the market analysis, and of the tactics (product,
  pricing, etc.) with the strategy and with each other.
• Presentations. Quality of the in-class
  presentations in Sessions 16 and 28.
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