Introduction
In this project, your client has tasked your team with creating a marketing plan with the goal of increasing sales to other businesses in the United States. This project has been broken down into several smaller tasks in the steps below:
Step 2: Review Information on Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
Step 3: Understand the Components of a Marketing Plan and Research Guidelines
Step 4: Prepare a Situation Analysis Report
Step 5: Conduct an Environmental Scan
Step 13: Submit Your Work
Competencies
Your work will be evaluated using the competencies listed below.
• 1.1: Organize document or presentation clearly in a manner that promotes understanding and meets the requirements of the assignment.
• 1.3: Provide sufficient, correctly cited support that substantiates the writer’s ideas.
• 1.6: Follow conventions of Standard Written English.
• 2.1: Identify and clearly explain the issue, question, or problem under critical consideration.
• 2.2: Locate and access sufficient information to investigate the issue or problem.
• 3.1: Identify numerical or mathematical information that is relevant in a problem or situation.
• 4.3: Contribute to team projects, assignments, or organizational goals as an engaged member of a team.
• 4.4: Demonstrate diversity and inclusiveness in a team setting.
• 6.1: Identify the general (external) environment in which an organization operates and discuss the implications for enterprise success.
• 6.2: Evaluate strategic implications for domestic and international markets of an organization’s industry.
• 6.3: Analyze an organization’s internal strengths and weaknesses for strategic value.
Step 2: Review Information on Business-to-Business (B2B) Marketing
As You Get Started
Jillian Best catches you in the hallway:
“Listen, before I send you the case file on our new client, I want to make sure you have a thorough understanding of the business-to-business relationships that will be at the core of the marketing plan you will be contributing to. Look for an email from me this afternoon.”
INBOX: 1 New Message
Subject: Case Primer for Marketing Plan
From: Jillian Best, CEO, MCS
To: You

As you have learned through your work with MCS clients, marketing is one of the most important functional areas in business. As you get oriented with the realities of business-to-business (B2B) marketing, I’d like you to do some more reading on two main elements: (1) business buying behavior, and (2) strategic alliances.
Business buying behavior relates to how business customers and their suppliers explore different avenues to manage relationships and enhance efficiency and effectiveness. Fostering the right relationship with businesses is crucial for any holistic marketing plan. B2B relationships are affected by supply, complexity of supply, availability of alternatives, and supply-market dynamism.
In addition, our new client may consider forming strategic alliances to expand its US operations. The twenty-first century has seen an increased use of long-term global strategic alliances among both producers and distribution companies. Organizations form these alliances in an effort to secure commercial advantage and eliminate waste from their distribution channels. They can be crucial to success.
Please review the information linked above before going any further. This is a big client and a tremendous opportunity for MCS. Let me know if any questions arise as you get oriented with your team.
Best,
Jillian
Now that you have read the introduction to B2B marketing, continue to the next step, where you will learn about the components of a marketing plan.
Step 3: Understand the Components of a Marketing Plan and Research Guidelines
The team’s marketing knowledge and data acquisition skills are crucial to the success of this project. Your team will collect and analyze the information necessary to develop a marketing plan for expanding the company’s operations within the United States.
Use this marketing plan template (see below) to help you create your situation analysis for your marketing plan.
Take Note
To carry out this assignment, your marketing team needs to understand the client’s customers, how to acquire market knowledge (through primary and secondary research), and how to turn that knowledge into offerings that are needed and wanted by a group of customers. You must also be able to invent market offerings that not only create value for the customer, but also create profitability for the client in a socially responsible and ethical way.
As you will recall from the previous projects, there are two types of market research: primary and secondary research. Both types of research are necessary when creating a marketing plan.
As you conduct research for your marketing plan, use the school Library’s Research Guides, specifically (1) Business and Management and (2) Marketing. Consult these two research guides and find articles that will help you complete your assignments. It is easier if you conduct a separate search for each section of your marketing plan. Also, use databases, such as Hoover’s and ABI/INFORM to research the client company and its industry.
Now that you understand the components of a marketing plan, continue to the next step, where your team will learn more details about your client and its industry.

Marketing Plan Template

2. Situation analysis
   2.1 Mission
   2.2 Product or service description
   2.3 Value proposition
   2.4 Internal environment scan (SWOT analysis)
   2.5 External environment scan (PESTEL & Porter’s five forces analyses)
   2.6 Critical issues

Step 4: Prepare a Situation Analysis Report
Required Readings
Chapters 1, 3, & 14
Lancaster, G., & Massingham, L. (2018). Essentials of marketing management (2nd ed.). Routledge
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INBOX: 1 New Message
Subject: Company Case File & Questions to Consider
From: Jillian Best, CEO, MCS
To: Team

Hi again. I wanted to provide you with the company case file and some pertinent questions for you to consider while you work on your B2B marketing plan.
As part of the preparation necessary to complete your business-to-business marketing plan, you and your team will need to do in-depth research on your client’s company, including its operations, global reach, and range of offerings.
I need you to produce a situation analysis report explaining your team’s findings on the company. Be sure to include a value proposition, essentially the promise that is made to the customer, explaining the reason a customer purchases a product or uses a service (i.e., the value that a company delivers to its customers).
Start by reading the attached case file and be sure to consider the following questions while you do additional research:
• Where is the company headquartered?
• What are the company’s major products and/or services?
• What is the company’s annual revenue in dollars, and what is its annual production in units?
• Does the company own its own facilities, or does it subcontract manufacturing to others?
• Who are the company’s major suppliers of raw materials or parts, and where are they located?
• What is the distribution of the company’s workforce by country?
• How does the company differentiate its offering in its highly competitive markets?
• Does the company have exclusive marketing or distribution agreements or partnerships?
• Who are the company’s major global and US customers?
• What benefits does the company offer to its customers?
• Who are the company’s major global and US competitors?
When developing your situation analysis, you should also understand the importance of vision and mission statements and then research the company’s own vision and mission statements.
Write a four-page document detailing the main findings of your research about your client, including its mission and vision statement. Submit your document to your team’s study group.
That’s it for now,