7600MKT Marketing Foundations Online Tutoring

Executive Summary

• This was not needed. If in doubt, refer to the template and only fill in those gaps.

Introduction

• Not explaining and justifying why the report is being written. It’s important to ‘set the scene’ for why the event is the focus of your marketing plan. What is the reason your company was investing in a marketing plan? Was it low sales, loss of market share, poor publicity etc. Be upfront on the purpose of the plan.
• Not referencing company information. Many assignments had information gleaned from websites, but this was not referenced.
• Copying and pasting information. Please remember you always need to put things to your own words (known as paraphrasing), and you cannot simply copy and paste anything into your document. This applies even if you put a reference in brackets at the end of your sentence.
• Not including a quick overview. Don’t forget to introduce the rest of the report. What sections are to come? What should the reader expect to cover? Just a sentence or two would have been fine due to word count.

Situation Analysis

• These were generally done to a very high standard, and there is little negative feedback I can give. Good job to those of you that gave very detailed information in this section, as it set the groundwork for your later marketing mix assignment.
• The market analysis section was generally the weakness here. As we discussed in the online classrooms, we begin by looking at the market generally, before honing in on market trends, statistics and other macro factors. This later sets you up for later discussing your competitors. However, too many students thought that the market was just the competitors.
• Marks were lost when students identified external factors but there was little alignment with the industry. Marks were also lost if you only gave one or two word answers at each dot point. You need to explain, in full sentences, exactly what relevance these points have, and what you mean.
• Not relating PESTEL factors back to the company. While it is important to understand these factors, some students were too vague or brief in relating these factors to the company and the impact they would have on the company. Eg. Don’t just say ‘food licencing laws’, but explain how the company has an obligation to meet these.
• Opportunities for improvement could have been introducing and discussing theory and marketing terminology. For example some students discussed and illustrated the product life cycle of the company. Additionally, there were many sites that gave you statistics on the market, and some students missed these altogether.
• The best situation analyses used a variety of facts and statistics to create an argument for why the company or product needs to be improved.
• Do not use untrustworthy sources. As we discussed in our online classrooms, business dictionary, Wikipedia and anonymous sources are not trustworthy and should not appear in a university level assignment.

Goals and objectives

• Only having one goal/objective. This is too narrow of a focus. Two to three is ideal. On the other hand having too many objectives means you are unlikely to be able to achieve this in only 12 months.
• Not adhering to the SMART principles. Each goal that you set should be Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic and set to a Timeline.
• Examples of correct formatting of goals was given in the online classroom.
• Justification of why you chose each goal was needed. Explain the why.
• Telling us how you’ll achieve these goals. Save this for the marketing mix section. No need to go into detail about the new ideas yet, when you haven’t researched the target market that you’re designing the marketing mix for.

Referencing

• Please check how to reference a website. You need more than just the URL.
• Don’t number or use dot points in your reference list
• Alphabetise your reference list
• Don’t list the authors’ first initial in an in text reference.
• Do not just copy and paste a website URL as an in-text reference
• Please read the APA referencing guide we have posted on the assessment tab on the course site and on Yammer.
• You can use the referencing tool on the Library website to see examples of how to correctly reference.
• Lastly, if you get stuck – ask on Yammer.

Overall

• Could be more well written and use correct academic language.
• Avoid sensationalist ‘advertising speak’. Eg. ‘We need to get on the ball’
• Don’t ask questions. Be more assertive and use powerful language.
• Do not use first person (eg. I feel that…) as this is not your opinion we are asking for in this assignment.
• Please do a basic spelling and grammar check before submission
• Not removing the placeholder text in assignments.
• Use only ONE font, font size and ONE type of line spacing throughout the document.
• Did not follow the template provided. Some students then left out important sections as a result. If you left out a section, you received 0 marks for that criteria.
• Label and refer to all figures. Eg. “As shown in Figure 3….” Don’t just place a picture in the assignment as decoration.
• Check for any formatting errors. Eg. Does a table trail over the page, fix this up.

My biggest tips for the marketing mix plan

1. It became clear to me after reading the assignments that many students are not reviewing the online classrooms. These are a valuable resource that is available to you. The online classroom schedule can be found under that tab of the course site, so you can see what topic we discuss in each class. If you can’t make it live, they are recorded each week and available for download in MP3 and MP4 format. In these classes we focus on your written assignments in a lot of detail. I walk you through each section of the assignment, answer all of your curly questions and there is time to clarify any points.
2. Be sure to check if your marketing mix strategies will actually allow the goals to achieve the goals you have set. Eg. if your goal is to increase revenues, what are you selling to bring in more money? If your goal is to increase awareness, perhaps you would use more promotions to draw attention to your message (which is what exactly?).
3. If I suggested you rewrite your goals, it is important to do this. In the marketing mix plan you need to discuss the goals in the evaluation section. Therefore if you’ve not made your goals SMART this will create a problem here. Introduce your new goals in the executive summary and again in the evaluation section. See the online class about each of these topics for examples of this.
4. Ensure that you fill in all sections of the template, use a minimum of 10 references, and adhere to the word count (2500 words, +/- 10%)
5. Join in the conversation on Yammer, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Better yet, use the search tool on Yammer (top left) to see if your topic has already been discussed. No need to wait for an answer this way!

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