Assignment

The complete Unit 9 Assignment should include a 4- to 5-page essay (and additional title and reference pages) using correct grammar, spelling, and the current APA format and citation style.

Choose one of the following scenarios for this assignment. In each scenario, the company is struggling in the areas of developing a promotion and distribution strategy.

In 2020, Toni of Tonis Pizza* launched a new concept of eating pizza pizza in a cone! Instead of eating pizza in its traditional form, the pizza dough is eaten like an ice cream cone. The cones are made through a patented device created by Toni. This technique allows consumers to eat pizza on the go with one hand. Therefore, the pizza does not drip with grease or sauce. The cones are personalized with whatever fixings the consumer desires. Toni is currently using a cost-based strategy for pricing.

Market research indicated this product would be a huge success. The organization even started franchising the concept in 2021. Nevertheless, the company has had lackluster sales. Gas prices have recently escalated, and people have stopped coming by his store in the mall where they are located. Toni wants you to help with the promotion and distribution problems.

Generic Goals:

• Sell several hundred thousand units.
• Create awareness of new product line to new, prospective clients.
• Incorporate digital marketing.
• Hire more employees.
• Target B2B clients.
• Identify the best distribution model for selling to customers.

Complete the following checklist items:

• Develop a communication plan using the six elements of an effective communication program.
• Integrate the four distinct levels of integrated marketing communication (IMC).
• Design an integrated marketing plan using a combination of traditional and online media.
• Create a proposal for implementing the six steps in the personal selling process to business accounts (Figure 14.1).
• Recommend a multichannel distribution strategy. Defend your recommendation.
• Propose a mobile retailing strategy.

Or

In 2021, Lee Jones put the final touches on a product she had worked on for years in her garage. Lee graduated with a degree in chemistry from a well-known school in Indiana. However, she has always had an entrepreneurial spirit. Initially called Lee's Artificial Flowers, the product broke new ground by creating patented, artificial flowers that look real and smell like a flower. In other words, roses smell like roses, and tulips smell like tulips. However, Lee's flowers will never expire. The scent typically lasts three months and can be replaced with new scented cartridges. As a lover of flowers and the environment, Lee has always felt flowers should remain on the earth.

She launched a website and opened a small store in a strip mall at the beginning of 2022. With modest sales, Lee hired several employees to assist with manufacturing, sales, and administrative duties. In the summer of 2022, a popular morning show interviewed Lee about her new product. This interview led to lots of other popular coverage on television, and in magazines, blogs, and podcasts. Because this product was starting to break on a national scale, she could secure a business loan for $500,000. Lee's biggest concern was her lack of business knowledge, mainly in marketing.

Lee has just hired you as a marketing manager/consultant to assist her in taking the business to the next level. In your initial consultation with Lee, she suggested that many sales were purchased as gifts. Another segment of customers applied to the home furnishings category. The raw materials required for artificial flowers are paper, cotton, parchment, latex, rubber, sateen (for large, bold-colored flowers and arrangements), and dried materials, including flowers and plant parts and berries, feathers, and fruits. For more upscale silk flowers, silk, rayon, and cotton are the fibers of choice. The cartridges that provide the scents are produced in Lee's manufacturing facility

There has been a downturn in the economy, and Lees sales are stagnant. Compounding her challenges, her distributors have been slow to supply her with the materials she needs to produce her artificial flowers because of her lackluster sales. She wants you to help her with her promotion and distribution problems.

Generic Goals:

• Sell several hundred thousand units.
• Create awareness of new product line to new, prospective clients.
• Incorporate digital marketing.
• Hire more employees.
• Target B2B clients.
• Identify the best distribution model for selling to customers.

*Disclaimer: The organization and characters depicted in this exercise are fictional. Any resemblance to real organizations or individuals is purely coincidental. This exercise may include actual companies and brand names solely for instructional purposes; this exercise is not associated with any such existing company or brand name. All trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.

Checklist:

• Develop a communication plan using the six elements of an effective communication program.
• Integrate the four distinct levels of integrated marketing communication (IMC).
• Design an integrated marketing plan using a combination of traditional and online media.
• Create a proposal for implementing the six steps in the personal selling process to business accounts (Figure 14.1).
• Recommend a multichannel distribution strategy. Defend your recommendation.
• Propose a mobile retailing strategy.