Part B: Your Marketing Plan Overview Using the same hypothetical company from Part A: Your Marketing Plan, for this assignment, you will focus on the company’s branding strategy, primary and secondary target markets, positioning statement, and consumer behavior. Note: You should make all assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment. Instructions Create the second part of your marketing plan in 8–12 pages: Describe or list the feedback you received on Part A of your marketing plan. Explain how you will use the feedback to improve your plan. Develop a branding strategy for your product or service that covers the brand name, logo, slogan, and at least one brand extension. Thoroughly analyze the primary and secondary markets that you want to target. Thoroughly include the demographic profile (age, gender, ethnicity, and so on), psychographic profile, professional profile, geographic profile, and any other segment you deem necessary. Prepare a positioning statement. Include a perceptual map that shows your company’s position against its competitors. From this map, create a statement that depicts your position. Examine the relevant consumer behavior for your target market. Explain the main reasons why the brand name, logo, slogan, brand extension, and positioning statement are right for the identified target market. Use at least three academic resources as quantitative marketing research to determine the feasibility of your product or service. These resources should be industry specific and relate to your chosen product or service. Use the Part B Marketing Plan Template [DOCX] to complete the assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other similar websites do not qualify as academic resources. This course requires the use of Strayer Writing Standards. For assistance and information, please refer to the Strayer Writing Standards link in the left-hand menu of your course. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are: Develop a branding strategy for a target market based on relevant consumer behavior.

 

 

 

 

 

Credit Wisdom LLC

MKT500 Marketing Management
University

Dr.

October 24, 2021

 

Introduction

Credit Wisdom LLC is a business idea developed after significant research indicated a high percentage of credit-based issues with individuals working in the Wall Street corporates. The enterprise aims at providing a solution for people at a convenient fee to alleviate the increasing problem. Therefore, the company is located in Wall Street, New York, strategically accessing the target market. Over the decades, technological advancement fostered the incorporation of strategies that boost service experience among clients. One of the major sectors that optimally uses computerization is the banking industry leading to the automation of transactions through cards and mobile applications. The organization provides an essential service to the clientele base that involves the correction of errors involving a person’s credit status. Apart from the service, the corporate aims to elevate the essential factor of online systems through artificial intelligence as an immediate solution provider via software integrated with mobile phones. The marketing plan explores the dynamic variables influencing the growth and profitability scale of the population.

Mission Statement

The mission is to teach people to understand credit, repair, and maintain the victims’ credit score, hence alleviating the core issue of insufficient funds facilitating a good quality of living.

Goals

The company aims at making enough profit margin for an optimal return on investment for the financiers while alleviating the issue affecting the target consumer base on credit-based services. Besides providing high-quality services, we also maintain a professional, creative, and innovative working environment, respecting socio-cultural diversity and appreciating new ideas. In this case, it is the responsibility of the management to establish effective strategies to enhance the performance and development of competitive advantage.

Short Term

We are improving the website outlook and navigation for the clients to attract potential customers within three months.

We are increasing the market share through the incorporation of competent promotional frameworks within six months.

We are establishing a new product adoption rate based on the diversification of credit-based services.

Enhance customer engagement through the website features and in-person sales as a competitive advantage.

Implement dynamic marketing initiatives to render a higher profit margin score within the first three months.

Long Term

We are promoting the services using affiliate referrals from loyal customers.

The utilization of paid advertising features through online platforms.

Intensify the leverage regarding email-based marketing among global customers.

We are enhancing the cumulative online reviews from our clients as a marketing strategy and build-up of confidence index.

Increase the return-on-investment mark through the increase in profit margin.

Diversify the service offered from specific training towards incorporating an artificial intelligence system that automates the process for our clients.

Environmental Analysis

Human society has evolved under the gradient of technological advancement hence fostering a change in the business culture operations. It is a phenomenon that renders proficiency in the competence across the global enterprise market. Researchers argue that the intensification in the incorporation of automation structures and the customization of services for clients is an ideology that is a competitive advantage in corporate banking. Examples of the systems attributing to computation as an emerging trend encompass immediate payment service (IMPS), online banking, telebanking, national electronic funds transfer (NEFT), and real-time gross settlement (RTGS) (Shilling & Celner, 2021). The industry demands the incorporation of dynamic shifts to enhance the growth, development, improvement in the operations, and performance outlier.

Business activities encompass an interplay of different entities that enhance the satisfaction of stakeholders’ needs while spearheading growth and development. In this case, Hearit (2018) establishes that one of the factors to assess during strategic management approaches is the enterprise environment. The researcher establishes three levels of a locale and includes relevant, competitive, and task-oriented. The corporate banking sector is service-based hence the prominence determining the various elements attributing to customer’s experience. Online banking as an emerging trend significantly enhanced the evolution of the environmental structure based on the establishment of niche variables.

Competitive Analysis

The major competitors include multinational corporations that offer solutions to poor credit scores and other emergent customer issues. The diversification of the services renders the significant acquisition of the market share. In this case, Capital One, JPMorgan Chase, American Express, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Discover Financial. These enterprises pose direct competition to the organization due to the significant profitability and popularization across the New York region. However, the direct competitors mainly focus on upper-class entities and firms, posing as a weakness and opportunity for Credit Wisdom LLC to attract the locally-based clientele optimally. The indirect rivals include Wells Fargo and Regions Bank. The institutions offer credit repair services as a complementary and sub-standardized approach, which is a significant weakness of the competitive advantage. It is an opportunity for Credit Wisdom LLC to establish a significant contest against the indirect combatants.

Economic Analysis

Sustainable financing is another emerging trend in corporate banking due to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic. In the research by Shilling and Celner (2021), the authors note a profound impact on the capital markets across Europe, Asia-Pacific, and American regions. Although the sector encountered emotional challenges pre-pandemic era, the emergence of the event triggered the process based on the lockdown, social distance, and virtual work from home concept. Shilling and Celner (2021) further establish that International Monetary Fund approximates at least a 4.4% decline in the global gross domestic product that is equivalent to US$ 6.2 trillion. The distinction between the current pandemic effect and the global financial crisis encompasses the ability of the institutions to adopt proactive measures for minimal impact on depression.

COVID-19 rendered adopting a different system and human behavior mainly on the types and level of engagements. Due to the decline in economic activities, Shilling and Celner (2021) postulate that banks across the various regions will loan at least US$318 billion between 2020 and 2022. It is documentation that is lesser than the recorded loss incurred between 2008 and 2010 at 6.6%. However, the comparison between the US, Europe, and Asia-Pacific indicates that in the second fiscal quarter in 2020, the best performing banks had issued loans totaling US$4103.4 billion, US$62.5 billion, and US$68.8 billion, respectively (Shilling & Celner, 2021). Primarily, the pandemic fostered the emergence of the trend as a necessary measure to boost the performance of enterprises within the various regions, with Asia-Pacific posing a higher chance of recovery. The global positioning of the entities in the sector encounters the opportunity to boost the competence based on the necessity to remit loans to individuals to grow their businesses. In this case, the emergence of sustainable financing is a strategy featuring a baseline solution to the ideal operations within America.

Sustainable finance is a multifaceted phenomenon that involves the integration of dynamic facets during investment decision-making. The initiative’s main goal encompasses fostering a long-term effect and security for the client through the projects and activities. As a result, it is vital to consider the social structure, governance, and the environmental state. The initial policy in corporate financing engulfed the provision of capital without regard to its benefit to the region (Lurie et al., 2021). However, the onset of the post-pandemic era renders the prominent factor in considering the importance of the facility to individuals and the effect on the governance structure in America. The significant products involved in the conceptual framework encompass savings, insurance, credits, and investment funds.

Political and Legal Analysis

The American government plays a proficient role in regulating credit scores and the investment portfolio based on the country’s economic growth index. An excellent example is the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic that led to a significant decrease in the activities and the flow of monetary elements leading to a rise in unemployment. In this case, the administration focused on implementing policies that enhance the remittance of credit finances to the American population to facilitate a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, the political and legal analysis involves regulating taxes and trade operations to boost the safety and capacity for growth and development.

Technological Analysis

Over the decades, technological advancement intensified the quality of business competition and management strategies. In this case, a significant percentage of enterprises focus on the essence of incorporating designs that elevate productivity and customer service experience. Another factor that attributes to the prominent aspect of innovation enshrines the emergence of a well-informed consumer baseline. Artificial intelligence is the key solution to the contemporary challenges encountered during service delivery. According to researchers, relevant stakeholders must incorporate approaches that integrate the computerized tool with discrete distribution statistical formulas to enhance the performance across the organization (Shilling & Celner, 2021). There is a profound interdependent relationship between purchasing behavior and the cultural structure of a company.

Sociocultural Forces Analysis

Corporate and credit banking is part of a vast community whose capital fosters the growth and development of the industry within America. Shilling and Celner (2021) indicate that the pandemic exacerbated the disparity in the distribution of income among the various parties, in addition to the integral values of racism and gender discrimination. An excellent example of a company that spearheaded sustainable financing during the COVID-19 era is JP Morgan that committed US$30 billion, aiming to enhance the welfare among personnel and reduce the marginal difference in wealth acquisition. The researchers argue that it is a practice that is an insight to the ideal solution in the expansion and articulation of ethics and moral ideologies across the region. Forest Jr. (2019) depicts that the externality is the ability of an institution to enhance the relationship with different stakeholders across the industry to enrich the network. It is an approach that renders the social sphere empowerment due to implementing policies intensifying the trickle-down effects.

Under the spectral view of sustainable financing, a significant paradigm shift in corporate responsibility focused on safety and preventive activities. The consequences of climatic change triggered a difference in the strategic management and public relations among companies. As a result, the organizations established affiliate relationships with the parties identified with the green initiative. It is a practice that led to the improvement incompetence across America based on the association with the green initiative entities (Lurie et al., 2021). In this case, the components focused on boosting the value chain by incorporating the concept in the dynamic activities and engagements such as distribution of reliefs to communities highly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak.

A firm’s profitability relies on the interdependence between the macroeconomic conditions in the industry and the positioning to determine the performance. In this case, the various dimensions of the sector include customers, products, geography, production stages, and abound activities (Hearit, 2018). Primarily, integrating the dynamic components that influence the operations fosters the advancement to competence based on the outlying conditions of effective management.

SWOT and Needs Analysis

The establishment of a credit repair company in America is a strategic initiative due to the proficient diversification of customers’ choices based on pricing and quality of service experience. It is essential to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to determine the competence level of the organization. In a different spectrum, the analysis significantly alleviates the adherent challenges while implementing the management approaches.

Table 1

SWOT Analysis

Strengths Offering a wide variety of credit-based services. A continuous growth from the total revenues. Excellent employee-customer relations	Weaknesses Not strong online presence. Increased issues while solving the credit-based problems. Limited financial capital for expansion.
Opportunities Geographically expand to other regions. Diversify to different domains, such as advisory services. Merge with other companies to enhance competence.	Threats Declined business operations due to COVID-19 pandemic impact. The entry of new players in the market. Vulnerable to the change in regulations and policy framework.

Note: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for the company.

 

Strengths

The intensification of the interaction between the employees and the customers offers a profound alternative solution to ethical issues. In most instances, the employees get poorly nurtured and limited to utilizing their creative aspects. In a different perspective, the workers acquire poor interaction techniques from the senior management mentors. As a result, the laborers use the derailing interacting techniques that eventually affect the company’s productivity (Wigert & Harter, 2017). Apart from establishing a channel of communication with representatives from different departments, the system promotes the creation of a platform to address networking. Essentially, networking enables the attendant to interact in a safe environment to understand and appreciate each other’s differences on social and personal value. Therefore, the integration of excellent relationship-building among the parties and the diversified service portfolio, as stated in Table 1, poses an intensified continuous growth in revenue margin.

In a different scenario, employees from various religions, races, and ethnicity use diverse slang language that increases the tendencies of harassment in the workplace. The use of slang language among the workers poses a significant challenge in the flow of information across the distinct departments. Additionally, language proficiency differences highly affect the coordination among personnel in delivering services to the consumer. In essence, poor networking is an ethical issue mainly because staff members constantly maintain contact channels with clients (Wigert & Harter, 2017). Therefore, a translation of the communication challenge during an interaction with the buyer renders a poor service experience that eventually affects the customer’s confidence and loyalty.

Weaknesses

The company faces dynamic weaknesses due to its status as a start-up for the market locally and internationally. One of the challenges is poor online presence over the competitors, as stipulated in Table 1. It is crucial to establish the value of the internet and the global outreach for potential customers. Additionally, the organization encounters a significant hindrance encompassing the limited financial resources for the expansion. Well-established multinational corporations dominate the industry. As a result, the necessary value for sustainable competition involves alleviating the hurdles experienced during the service delivery by incorporating an automated system to elevate efficiency.

Opportunities

One of the opportunities involves geographically expanding to other regions for significant market share acquisition. It is an initiative that boosts the presence both online and nationally. In a different spectrum, the company diversifies the service portfolio towards advisory services to increase the competitive advantage against other players. The enterprise faces another opportunity encapsulating merging with other institutions to intensify the growth and development scale, as stated in Table 1. Incorporating technological tools elevates the key value of effectiveness as the component of variant distinction in performance outlier.

Threats

The major threats include the entrance of new players, vulnerability to policy change, and declined business operations. It is essential to establish the significant factors affecting business growth and development within the industry. In this case, the management attains insight regarding the superior value of integrating technology and dynamic strategic management initiatives. The primary responsibility of a company’s administration entails implementing approaches that alleviate the imminent risks.

Needs Analysis

The primary purpose of establishing Credit Wisdom LLC involves alleviating the increased cases of credit errors and issues among Americans in the formal employment sector. COVID-19 fostered a decline in economic activities and an increased insolvency rate. Therefore, the institution contributes to providing a solution to the inherent challenge facing the target audience in the spectrum. Apart from the consumer’s needs, the organization faces a profound urgency to outsource additional financial resources to expand the operations. In this case, the enterprise intends to incorporate investors in exchange for equity percentage in the profit sharing and utilize artificial intelligence systems to automate the processes.

Conclusion

Credit repair is an essential factor in the business environment due to the trickle-down effect of the benefit to the clients. It is an approach that enshrines the prominent integration of values and ethical practices to intensify financial transactions. Poor implementation of the managerial strategies risks the lack of profitability regarding the significant competition from multinational corporations. Primarily, the advent of coronavirus fostered the profound loss of job opportunities globally, increasing the poverty rate. Lack of finances is an issue that affects the entire international community mainly because of the essence of poor living conditions, the flow of economic operations, the rise in debts, and dependence levels. As a result, it is the responsibility of the banking sector to establish green approaches in lending money while monitoring the optimal utilization of the resource to boost the quality of living within America. Notably, the enterprise ideological construct focuses on intensifying the value of capitalism and the quality of living among the Americans during the COVID-19 era.

 

Sources

Forest Jr, L. R. (2019). Inaccuracies caused by hybrid credit models and remedies as implemented by ZRE. Z-Risk Engine. Retrieved 22 October 2021, from https://www.z-riskengine.com/media/y5tj421m/zre_inaccuracies-caused-by-hybrid-credit-factors_sep19.pdf

Hearit, L. B. (2018). JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and the financial crisis of 2008. International Journal of Business Communication, 55(2), 237-260. https://doi.org/10.1177/2329488417753952

Lurie, N., Keusch, G. T., & Dzau, V. J. (2021). Urgent lessons from COVID 19: why the world needs a standing, coordinated system and sustainable financing for global research and development. The Lancet. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00503-1

Shilling, M., & Celner, A. (2021). 2021 Banking and Capital Markets Outlook. Deloitte Insights. Retrieved 22 October 2021, from https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/financial-services/financial-services-industry-outlooks/banking-industry-outlook.html.

Wigert, B., & Harter, J. (2017). Re-engineering performance management. Katherinespinney.com. Retrieved 22 October 2021, from https://www.katherinespinney.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Re-Engineering-Performance-Management_012517_v11_rj.pdf.

 

 

 

 

Part B: ABC Marketing Plan (Change to your name of business here)

Your Name

MKT500 Marketing Management
University

Dr.

Date submitted

 

Introduction (note this is not bold)

Describe or list the feedback you received on Part A of your marketing plan. Do not just list the feedback. Explain how you will use the feedback to improve your plan.

Next, re-introduce your company you shared in Part A.

Lastly, review what you will share: branding strategy, primary and secondary target markets, positioning statement, and consumer behavior.

Branding Strategy

Write an introduction here (minimum of three sentences). Develop a branding strategy for your product that covers the brand name, logo, slogan, and at least one (1) brand extension. For each of these sections below, provide rationale. Each section should be a minimum of three sentences.

Brand Name

Text starts here, provide rationale (minimum of three sentences).

Logo

Text starts here (do not start with an image of your logo, describe first); provide rationale (minimum of three sentences). Relay what the logo means, example Nike’s swoosh logo. If you use an image of a logo, make sure you use APA formatting (labeled Figure 1 include description per APA). Example below:

Figure 1. Your company name logo and short descrption.

Slogan

Text starts here, (do not start with your slogan, describe first); provide rationale (minimum of three sentences).

Brand Extension

Text starts here, provide rationale (minimum of three sentences).

Primary and Secondary Target Markets

Determine the primary and secondary target markets for your company. Thoroughly include the demographic profile (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, etc.), psychographic profile, professional profile, geographic profile, and any other segmentation variable you deem necessary. Considerations for your target markets should be age, lifestyle values, attitudes, wants and needs, gender, number of kids, education income, stage in the household lifecycle, geographic location (urban vs. rural, etc.), or risk orientation, etc. This section is worth 48 points, make sure your target market is not too broad, be focused and concise using a multiple of characteristics. Target market and segmentation choices are perfect topics for scholarly references to substantiate your position (search in library for peer-reviewed, journals, see image below).  Also, see textbook for a variety of segments to consider, pages 93-104.

 

Positioning Statement

Start with an introduction sentence or two. Then state what is your unique selling proposition (USP), who do you consider to be your competitors, and how does their positioning statement (as they are seen in the marketplace, what’s their USP differ than yours.  Include a perceptual map that shows your company’s position against its competitors. You may use Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or other equivalent software to create your perceptual map (suggestion: use Snip-it or Jing to take an image to drop in Word to keep the formatting you created).  See textbook pages 107-113. Follow APA Figure formatting (your map should be labeled Figure 1 or 2, depending on if you used a figure for a logo, include description per APA). Figure 1 example is below:

Figure 1. Perceptual map representing Your Company Name in relation to competitors XYZ company, ABC company, and AAA company.

 

From this map, create a statement that depicts your position. Prepare a positioning statement (i.e., “For customers who want [segment], our brand is the best at [unique selling proposition—competitors and competitive advantage].”).  See textbook pages 107-113.

Under Armour example:

Under Armour’s mission statement is, “Under Armour’s mission is to make all athletes better through passion, design and the relentless pursuit of innovation.” A converted position statement might be: “For athletes who want to be the best, Under Armour is the best at making all athletes better through passion, design, and the pursuit of innovation.”

 

Note: See page 110 in the textbook for example of another perceptual map.

Consumer Behavior of Target Market

Examine the relevant consumer behavior for your target market (use segmentation and targeting rationale from your textbook). Explain the main reasons why the brand name, logo, slogan, brand extension, as well as the positioning statement are right for the identified target market. Objective is to examine the marketing science of customer behavior and products in the marketing exchange process and create dynamic strategies for competing. Remember your target market should consist of more than one characteristic (e.g., age, lifestyle values, attitudes, wants and needs, gender, age, number of kids, education income, stage in the household lifecycle, geographic location (urban vs. rural, etc.), or risk orientation, etc.). Good place to use references on consumer behavior from Journal of Marketing. See above for how to find these in the library.

Conclusion

Summarize the plan to this point (minimum of three sentences) and you should not include any new thoughts (just summary).

 

Sources (note this is centered and not bold and on a separate page)

Use at least three (3) academic, peer-reviewed resources as quantitative marketing research to determine the feasibility of your product / service. Three academic, peer-reviewed references are proficient.  In order to receive most points as exemplary, submit four or more.

These academic, peer-reviewed resources should be industry specific and relate to your chosen product / service.  Quality, academic references are peer-reviewed and found in scholarly journals published in the last 5 years. A good way to incorporate is by using Journal of Marketing, as an example, for your theories and consumer behavior observations.

Newspapers, magazines, and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources and although you should reference if you use, they do not count towards your minimum.

Listing your references without applying them in your text (citations) is not acceptable!!! See proper formatting in SWS hints on page 7 of this document.

 

 

Tips and SWS Formatting (delete this from your paper)

Below are tips and notes to guide you writing an SWS paper. Use this information as a reference and ask if you have any questions.

Tips and Notes:

1. NEVER plagiarize: Plagiarism: act of using someone else’s ideas, words, figures, unique approach, or specific reasoning without giving appropriate credit.
2. Always include an introduction for your Heading 1 topic (example: Environmental Analysis) to explain to the readers what they learn in the section you are introducing.
3. Paragraphs should be complete, such as a minimum of three sentences:
   1. “Put only one main idea per paragraph.
   2. Aim for three to five or more sentences per paragraph.
   3. Include on each page about two handwritten or three typed paragraphs.
   4. Make your paragraphs proportional to your paper. Since paragraphs do less work in short papers, have short paragraphs for short papers and longer paragraphs for longer papers.
   5. If you have a few very short paragraphs, think about whether they are really parts of a larger paragraph—and can be combined—or whether you can add details to support each point and thus make each into a more fully developed paragraph.”
4. Do not use (or minimize):
   1. they (minimize, pronouns, use actual names/titles for clarity)
   2. these
   3. there are
   4. thing
   5. it
   6. this
   7. I
   8. we
   9. you
   10. one or ones
   11. some
   12. a lot
   13. a ton
   14. really
   15. very
5. Use of contractions – spell out
6. Findings: are past tense

 

SWS Guidelines:

 

1. In -text citations:

If the in-text citation appears at the end of a sentence containing evidence, the closing punctuation of the sentence must follow the closing parenthesis of the citation.

Use the author’s last name or publishing organization’s name and then a comma.  Then add the number indicating the placement of this source in the source list.

 

This is an example.

 

Studies have also indicated that the high concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is primarily due to humans’ use of fossil fuels. Atmospheric data shows “that levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are higher than they have been at any time in the past 400,000 years” (National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 4).

 

 

2. Sources:

 

An SWS format Source list citation consists of:

• The author’s name.
• If there are multiple authors, only the first author is used.
• The year of publication of the source.
• The title of the source.
• The page range.
• A way to locate the source (in this case, a permalink from the Strayer Library).

 

Here is an example of a Source in an SWS format.

 

Stephanie Herring. 2014. Explaining Events of 2013 from a Climate Perspective. p. 5. http://libdatab.strayer.edu/login?url=https:// search.ebscohost.login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=99124811 &site=eds-live&scope=site