Marketing Plan

Put yourself in the shoes of the VP for Marketing and develop a marketing plan for the next step for J&J Guitars.

Overview: J&J Guitars has been designing, building and distributing guitars for the past 10 years. Recently through extensive R&D, our engineers have designed a new electric guitar that will revolutionize guitar playing for years to come. As the VP, you need to analyze and understand how to best market the company’s new innovation and craft a Marketing Plan. As you craft your plan, consider the iconic status of existing electric guitars, and the lack of any recent radical innovations in the category, which pose the major challenges in securing consumer adoption. If the company continues along the same channels with their other electric guitar lines, J&J potentially lacks the market penetration and sales that is forecasted for this new innovation.

Based on this information, create a go-to-market strategy addressing the following:
– Marketing Objectives: These could include marketing objectives such as market share, customer satisfaction, or loyalty, etc.
– Target Market (examples: professional players, hobbyists, etc) – Who have you identified as the most appropriate segment (target) for this product/service? Create a profile, and define a typical target consumer and describe them in specific detail. Why have you chosen this target market over others?
– Product/Service Strategies – Define your service/product features and benefits and performance characteristics versus competitive products. How does the product/service fulfill the value proposition? What are product/service changes you recommend? What attributes do you want to add/delete to your product/service? What do you recommend in terms of changes to package design, logos and/or brand identity? This may include the service promise, including any customer service and warranty information.
– Pricing Strategy – Outline your pricing objectives and explain how they relate to your marketing objectives. Present a list price ofr your product that retailers will pay you. Discuss payment terms/options including any discounts and allowances you will give to your retailer customers. Discuss how you will balance pricing issues amongst different channels. Provide rationale for your choices.
– Place Strategy – Define your distribution strategy. In which retail channels do you want to sell your product? Why? Provide rationale for your choices. Define your selling approach. What selling message will you use to persuade your retail partners to carry the product?
– Promotion Strategy – Discuss if/how/why you will use the following promotion tactics: advertising (TV, print, radio, outdoor, Internet), consumer sales promotions (display, price promotions, gift with purchase, sweepstakes/contests), even marketing/sponsorships, public relations, trade show and conference participation, direct marketing (mail, telephone, email), Internet marketing and Web 2.0 social media programs and other forms of communication. How will the customer receive information about the product? Be specific about what role each medium will play in the strategy and fulfill the overall marketing objectives. What is the recommended timing and frequency of the marketing communications plan.
– Action Plan – discuss timing, decide who should be responsible for the various aspects of implementation, and indicate the resources necessary to implement the marketing plan.

Your paper should be 6-8 pages excluding the title and reference page.