Regional Marketing Director

Please read and respond to the attachment(s)

Overview

In this course, you will discuss your preparedness for upcoming weeks. You are encouraged to explore deeply the concepts presented.

Assignment Details

In this check-in, you will look at the project scenario for this course and have an asynchronous discussion regarding any initial concerns about the project scenario and the Milestone One submission.

Review the guidelines and rubric document for Milestone One, including the support documents. Then submit a word document sharing your expectations from and understanding of the scenario and corresponding requirements. Consider the following criteria:

Share your expectations and understanding of the scenario. Identify any initial questions or concerns you have regarding:
- The project scenario
- The deliverables expected in Milestone One

Identify a marketing topic from the course you are personally or professionally interested in, with a relevant rationale.
In preparation for the upcoming milestone, address the following:
- Identify topics in Milestone One you are familiar with. Address the following about the identified topic: Where and how did you learn/apply this topic?
- If you have any additional questions or require additional support from your instructor, let your instructor know either through this assignment or through an alternative format.

Submission

Submit a word document which will take 3–5 minutes to read.

Milestone One Guidelines

Page Contents

Scenario

You are the regional marketing director of a theme park in the southeastern United States that is part of a global brand. The chief marketing officer (CMO) of global operations has called upon you to help coordinate the marketing tasks related to rolling out an emergency response due to a recent safety and injury incident at one of the parks resulting in serious injuries to employees and customers. The parks were closed immediately following the incident to ensure safety measures for customers and employees and to deploy the needed safety measures.

Now, as the theme park is all set to reopen, the CMO has called you to take a lead in planning the marketing strategy for the same. Your responsibility is to design a phased strategy for marketing the reopening of all parks. Your strategy should address the critical objectives such as maximum safety, crisis communication, customer satisfaction, and profit potential. You must coordinate marketing strategy with corporate strategy, as failure or success of the marketing strategy can have a direct impact on the brand.

As a first step, you will perform an analysis to understand the implications of reopening on brand equity. In this analysis you will identify the groups of stakeholders that are affected by the reopening and also plan the communication strategy for before and after the parks’ reopening. Also, you will identify the roles and responsibilities of key functional departments that are going to play an important role in the reopening process. This analysis will help you develop a strategic marketing plan to address the reopening of the park and also to develop an effective crisis communication plan.

In this milestone, you will create a PowerPoint presentation that will include brand analysis and the implications of reopening on the brand equity and functional departments, including their roles and responsibilities in the reopening process.

Prompt

Brand Analysis and Implications—In this part of the project, you will present the brand implications of reopening the park in the course scenario. Your presentation should include the following critical factors:

Determine the essential factors that can impact the brand equity when reopening the park. (slides 1–3)
1. Describe the importance of brand equity to the organization. (slide 1)
2. Provide positive implications (slide 2):
  - Safety concerns addressed and communicated
  - Community and local government support for reopening
  - Employee support for reopening
3. Provide negative implications (slide 3):
  - Social media negative reactions
  - Employee negative concerns
  - Operational concerns for safety
Describe the strategic communication plan that should occur before and after the park reopens. Your responses should address the following (slides 4–8):
1. Identify three key stakeholder groups from this list:
  - Employees
  - Customers
  - Government agencies
  - Communities
  - Vendors
2. Describe each stakeholder’s interests in the organization.
3. Describe their communication needs.
4. Identify the best mode for communicating with them based on their needs.
5. Describe what impact reopening the park could have on each identified stakeholder (low, medium, or high). Why?

Functional Departmental Roles and Responsibilities—In this part of the project, you will identify three functional departments and describe their roles and responsibilities in making the reopening of the park a success. Your presentation should include the following critical factors (slides 9–12):

1. Identify three functional departments, including marketing, that play a significant role in the reopening process. Consider which departments will be most engaged in the reopening process. (slide 9)
2. Describe the roles and responsibilities of these functional departments in the safe and successful process of reopening the park. (slide 10)
3. Develop an internal communication plan that addresses the following (slides 11–12):
  1. How will you take feedback from the stakeholders?
  2. What could be the legal and ethical issues in reopening of the park? To understand the specific guidelines, refer to the Memo From Legal Team.
  3. What will be the frequency of meetings with stakeholders to share relevant information?

Guidelines for Submission

Submit a recorded PowerPoint presentation with 12–13 slides. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information.

Project Guidelines

Competencies

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies:

Manage elements of a sustainable global brand
Propose a method to market
Design a marketing strategy

Scenario

You are the regional marketing director of a theme park in the southeastern United States that is part of global brand. The chief marketing officer of global operations has called upon you to help coordinate the marketing tasks related to rolling out an emergency response to a recent safety and injury incident at one of the parks that resulted in serious injuries to employees and customers. This theme park was closed immediately following the incident to ensure safety measures for customers and employees and to deploy the needed safety measures.

Now, as the theme park is all set to reopen, the CMO has called you to take a lead in planning the marketing strategy to support the reopening of the park. Your responsibility is to design a phased strategy for reopening all parks, with critical objectives such as maximum safety, crisis communication, customer satisfaction, and profit potential. You must coordinate marketing strategy with corporate strategy, as failed or successful planning will impact brand success and recognition.

You have determined the scope of work and have outlined the high-level plan. As a first step, you decided to perform the brand analysis and identification of critical elements to successfully market the reopening of the park. Based on the outcomes, you developed a customizable marketing strategy template that can be used by other theme parks under the same umbrella.

Next, you need to create a presentation (toolkit) to share your analysis and recommendations for the proposed marketing support of the park. But, as you are working to complete the final bit of the toolkit, your social media monitoring partner shares a report of the theme park’s social media image and performance. The report shows a significant spike in negative public feedback. The report states there is the perception of an uncaring, careless brand forcing a reopening for profit. Your presentation should also include strategies for how you will address the emerging negative perception on social media about the theme park. You will show this presentation to your CMO and other regional marketing directors of the park.

Directions

Part One: Strategic Brand Implication and Management

Record and submit a narrated PowerPoint presentation to share your analysis and recommendations for the proposed marketing support of the park. Ensure you address any feedback received in Milestone One before you submit the final presentation.

Brand Analysis and Implications —In this part of the project, you will present the brand implications of reopening the park. Your presentation should include the following critical factors:

Determine the essential factors which can impact the brand equity when reopening the park. (slides 1–3)
1. Describe the importance of brand equity to the organization. (slide 1)
2. Provide positive implications (slide 2):
  - Safety concerns addressed and communicated
  - Community and local government support for reopening
  - Employee support for reopening
3. Provide negative implications (slide 3):
  - Social media negative reactions
  - Employee negative concerns
  - Operational concerns for safety
Describe the strategic communication plan that should occur before and after the park reopens. Your responses should address the following (slides 4–8):
1. Identify three key stakeholder groups from this list:
  - Employees
  - Customers
  - Government agencies
  - Communities
  - Vendors
2. Describe each stakeholder’s interests in the organization.
3. Describe their communication needs.
4. Identify the best mode for communicating with them based off their needs.
5. Describe the impact that reopening the park could have on each identified stakeholder (low, medium, or high). Why?

Functional Departmental Roles and Responsibilities —In this part of the project, you will identify the functional department and describe their roles and responsibilities in making the reopening of the park a success. Your presentation should include the following critical factors (slides 9-12):

Identify three functional departments, including marketing, which play a significant role in the reopening process. (slide 9)
- Consider which departments will be most engaged in the reopening process.
Describe the roles and responsibilities of these functional departments in the safe and successful process of reopening the park. (slide 10)
Develop an internal communication plan that addresses the following (slides 11–12):

1. How will you take feedback from the stakeholders?
2. What could be the legal and ethical issues in reopening of the park? To understand the specific guidelines, refer to the memo from the legal team.
3. What will be the frequency of meetings with stakeholders to share relevant information?

Part Two: Customizable Marketing Plan Template

Based on the information provided to you, share a completed marketing plan template for the reopening of this individual park. Ensure you address any feedback received in Milestone Two before you submit the final template.

Your template should include the following critical sections:

Determine two methods to be used for consumer research in developing the marketing plan. Provide rationales.
Determine three traditional marketing methods you will use in developing the marketing plan and provide rationales. Your response should address the following:
1. How will the identified methods help in the acquisition of the new customers?
2. How will the identified methods help in the retention of the existing customers?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the identified methods?
Determine three digital marketing methods you will use in developing the marketing plan and provide rationales. Your response should address the following:
1. How will the identified methods help in the acquisition of the new customers?
2. How will the identified methods help in the retention of the existing customers?
3. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the identified methods?
Explain how the traditional and digital marketing methods you have selected will work together to optimize the brand. Your response should address the following:
1. Which method do you think could be most impactful in addressing your target audiences?
2. Which method do you think could be most effective in branding?
3. Can both digital and traditional marketing support the brand and growth of the business?
Explain the crisis management strategies to be implemented prior to reopening. Your response should address the following:
1. How can we focus on customer expectations to improve brand damage from the incident?
2. How can we support our employees’ needs in reopening the park?
3. What possible crises could arise relevant to the incident and reopening?
Determine one legal and one ethical issue that could arise and negatively impact the organization’s brand image upon reopening and provide proactive steps that could be taken now to prevent them.

Part Three: Measuring Your Strategic Marketing Plan’s Success

Record and submit a narrated PowerPoint presentation to share your analysis and recommendations for the proposed marketing support of the park.

Provide a marketing strategy that considers the following areas (slides 1–4):
1. Digital marketing strategy
2. Traditional marketing strategy
3. Communications and public relations strategy
4. Event marketing strategy

Monitoring Your Marketing Strategy— In this part of the project, you will explain how you will monitor the performance of your strategy. Your presentation should include the following critical factors:

Identify three SMART marketing objectives and describe how they align with safety, customer satisfaction, and profitability. (slide 5)
Identify one KPI that can be used for each of the marketing objectives. (slide 6)
Describe the methods that could be used to monitor performance of the three marketing objectives. Provide rationale. (slides 7–8)
Using plan-do-check-act (PDCA) methodology, provide a continuous improvement process for preserving brand identity and reputation. (slides 9–10)
Describe two marketing strategies to address negative public feedback on social media. (slides 11–12)
- Consider the role of public relations.
- Consider the role of crisis management.

What to Submit

To complete this project, you must submit the following:

Strategic Brand Implication and Management

Submit a narrated PowerPoint presentation with 12–13 slides. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information.

Customizable Marketing Plan Template

Submit a 4- to 6-page Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information.

Measuring Your Strategic Marketing Plan’s Success

Submit a narrated PowerPoint presentation with 12–13 slides. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information.

Note: Remember to use both onscreen text and audio narration or speaker notes in your PowerPoint presentations to convey your information effectively. If, due to technical challenges, audio narration is not possible, precise and extensive speaker notes should be used addressing all the critical elements in the presentation. For example, you can use brief bulleted lists on the slide and include detailed explanations in your audio narration or speaker notes.

Supporting Materials

The following resources support your work on the project:

Complete Answer: