34 Marketing Dynamics Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. 4. Why is it important to research competing businesses? 5. What factors can be used to estimate the portion of a market that each competitor holds? 6. Identify the components of the opening section of a marketing plan. 7. Describe the analysis section of a marketing plan. 8. Explain the best sales opportunities information included in the analysis section. 9. Discuss marketing strategy. 10. State the purpose of an action plan for a marketing plan. Apply Your Knowledge 1. List three topics you will need to research when writing your marketing plan. 2. Choose a local company with which you are familiar. Brainstorm what each of the four Ps of the marketing mix might be for that business. 3. Think about students at your school as a target market. What types of promotions appeal to students at your school the most? 4. Create a Venn diagram to compare two local businesses. Write the name of one local company as the heading for the first circle. Identify a competitor for that business as the heading for the second circle. In the first circle, list the strengths and attributes of the first business. In the second circle, list those of its competitor. In the center, list what the two businesses have in common. 5. Conduct a SWOT analysis for your school- based enterprise or for another local company. 6. Failure to conduct research is one of the reasons some marketing plans fail. List the ways you would research your idea for a marketing plan. How can you ensure that your plan will not fail? 7. The bibliography lists all of the resources used to develop the marketing plan. Make a list of resources you think would be useful when conducting research for your marketing plan. 8. The ideas that you explored in question one may be a starting place for the marketing plan you will be writing. Write a letter or e-mail to one or two businesses to request information about their marketing plans and what research they conducted. Explain why you chose those businesses. 9. Identify political, economic, social, and technological factors that affect the business you select for your marketing plan. 10. Choose a promotion or advertisement for a local business. How do you think the business tracks activity related to the promotion or advertisement? In your opinion, how could the business measure the success of the promotion or advertisement? Apply Your Math Skills Many businesses base the overall marketing budget on a percentage of company sales. Using this method, marketing budgets vary depending on the size of the business. Apply your math skills to solve the following problems. 1. Elaine opened a new specialty gift store. As a new business, she does not have an established sales figure to use in determining a marketing budget. She was advised to use 15 percent of her projected sales on marketing. Elaine’s business plan projects sales in her first year to be $150,000.00. What should her marketing budget be? 2. A small grocery chain has been in business for many years and is established within the communities served by its stores. The company has been successful with the marketing budget set at 7 percent of its annual sales, which average $22 million. However, the company has new competitors in several communities and plans to increase the marketing budget to 9 percent. How much will the marketing budget increase in dollars?