MANAGEMENT 4210: ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONS
Spring 2004 Project Guidelines
Overview:
The development of a campaign plan will give you a hands-on experience in applying the
principles of advertising. This counts as much as your exams, but requires that you take that
information and actually apply it.
The project will be presented in written form. Projects will be done in groups of three to six.
Students are responsible for selecting their own group members. If you have difficulty finding
a group, or if your group is too large or too small, please let me know and I will assist. I will set
aside some class time to form groups in the second or third week of the semester. The purpose
of the project is to encourage students to develop an advertising and promotions campaign for
a new product to be marketed in Canada. Your project should detail all advertising and
promotions efforts to be undertaken in the first three months of product introduction.
In developing the campaign, you will need to:
A. Identify a consumer need and develop a product idea to fulfill that need.
B. Perform secondary research on your chosen industry and competitors.
C. Identify the best target market(s) for the new product.
D. Develop a general creative strategy for the new product that addresses customer needs.
E. Develop advertising objectives.
F. Develop a specific media plan for your campaign.
G. Find prices and develop your budget.
H. Develop promotional, public relations, and direct marketing objectives.
I. Specify a research plan to measure the effectiveness of your campaign.
By February 5 you should inform me of your product or service and your group membership.
You may email me the list.
Part 1: Marketing Plan
Due February 12
A. Identify a consumer need and develop a product idea to fulfill that need.
Focus on a consumer need or want that is currently not being met or not being met
satisfactorily.
Your proposed product or service should be developed to satisfy consumers. The proposed
product or service should be feasible to deliver without tremendous technological
development, yet may take the form of a new offering or a modified offering that satisfies
market requirements which are not currently being met.
You may position yourselves as a start-up company or as a new division of an existing
company. For example, if you select herb-enhanced soft drinks as your product, you may
choose to be a division of PepsiCo. If you choose to be a division of an existing company, your
creative approach must be reasonable for that company’s image and positioning.
[Tip: You’ll be better off choosing a need or want for a sizable segment(s) of the population].
MANAGEMENT 4210: Advertising and Promotions Project Guidelines
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B. Perform secondary research on your chosen industry and competitors.
In order to determine appropriate positioning and target market selection, it will be necessary
to perform secondary research. No primary research is needed in this project. You should
gather data regarding the structure of the industry you will be entering, your direct and
indirect competition, pertinent regulations, industry trends, industry and competitor sales, and
societal trends relating to the industry. [Tip: This can be a SWOT analysis]
C. Identify the best target market for your that product or service
In identifying the target market(s) for your product, (1) segment the market using a
segmentation strategy, (2) from the different segments identified, pick a target, and (3) choose a
positioning strategy that will tie you to a benefit and differentiate you from your competition.
[Tip: This is not “arbitrary.” It should build on what you learned in part B.]
Part 2: Creative Strategy and Media Plan [Include REVISED Part 1]
Due March 25
D. Develop a general creative strategy for the new product that addresses customer needs.
Build it around your Competitive Advantage or a Unique Selling Proposition. This will require
that you:
1. Know the competition. What are they doing and where will you fit in?
2. Know your consumer. Discuss psychological issues that are likely to affect your consumer,
such as their level of involvement and the consumer decision process you expect to occur.
3. Develop a campaign theme (the 'major selling idea') for your product or service that will
permeate all aspects of your campaign (e.g. Nike - Just Do It).
4. Discuss advertising appeal and executions used to attract attention and convey your message.
5. Develop rough conceptual ideas for your ads. These do not need to be beautiful artwork.
The idea is what is important. [Tip: take your time to work through these several times]
E. Develop advertising objectives.
Develop communications objectives – what goals will you set (DAGMAR, for example). The
importance of each of these promotional techniques will vary depending upon your selected
product or service and target market. All groups should focus some of their efforts on each of
these areas. If you believe that one of these methods would be especially effective with your
target market, then a higher proportion of your budget and efforts should be focused there.
1. Develop advertising objectives. What do you want to accomplish through advertising?
2. Develop promotions objectives. What do you want to accomplish with these?
F. Develop a specific media plan for your campaign. The media plan should full explain:
 your strategy and execution plan to fulfill your IMC objectives
 How you will use advertising to reach your target audience (magazines, newspapers,
television, and/or radio programs)? Provide a description of each audience.
 Where (if print) or what time (if broadcast) will your ads will appear? Be specific.
Create a flow chart for each week of your campaign.
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Part 3: Promotion and Evaluation Plan [Include REVISED Parts 1 and 2]
Due April 16
G. Find prices and develop your budget
You will have to develop a budget for your product. You should start with your sales estimate
from Part 1. Spend no more than 25% of your sales projections on promotions. Explain your
rationale for the overall budget recommendation.
Specify how the money would be spent, as accurately as possible. First, estimate production
costs. Each b&w print ad will typically cost $1000, 4 color $2500 – more for specials. Radio
spots will run $5000 including talent and music costs. Television production will cost $100,000
a high-quality national ad. Don’t skimp.
Estimating media costs can be done in three ways. First, look at established prices (available in
Canadian Advertising Rates and Data [“CARD”] and online). Second, contact the media and ask
for price quotes; this takes time, so allow enough time. Third, in some cases you will not be
able to determine exact costs; for example if you plan to send out free product samples. You
may also have difficulty gaining access to exact pricing from some mass media vehicles. In
such cases you will need to estimate the costs, and to indicate how you arrived at your estimate.
In this case, develop estimates as accurately as possible based on what information you are able
to gather. Be sure to show how you arrived at your estimate.
H. Develop promotional, public relations, and direct marketing objectives.
Advertising is no longer expected to live or die on its own. But it is expected to create interest.
To create trials, other forces are also necessary. For this section, explain how the advertising
campaign will be supplemented by promotions, PR, and direct marketing efforts.
1. Discuss promotion ideas. What role will they play in the communications plan? Explain
any execution plans to fulfill your promotions objectives.
2. Discuss public relations ideas. Will public relations play a role? How will you get
publicity? Provide execution plans to fulfill your PR objectives.
3. Discuss direct marketing and/or Internet efforts. What can you accomplish through
these means? Give information on plans to fulfill your direct marketing objectives.
I. Specify a research plan to measure the effectiveness of your campaign.
Describe the research you would undertake in order to develop your IMC campaign. You do
not need to actually perform research on your ads – just describe how you would go about
measuring the effectiveness of your advertisements, including both pretests and posttests.
Written Report Organization and Length
Each section should be 5 to 7 double spaced-typewritten pages. I will provide comments for
each section, and each revised previous section should be turned in with each subsequent
section. The final written report should be 15 to 20 pages. Provide cogent, well-developed
rationale for every choice you make! Throughout your report you should support every
decision made with justification based on logic and/or secondary data.
How you write is as important as what you write. Effective writing will be rewarded in
grading. Poor writing (spelling errors, grammar errors, etc.) will be penalized. A bibliography
should be included, and sources should be appropriately cited within the body of the document, as well
as in the bibliography. Appropriate charts and tables, as well as rough conceptual artwork,
should be included. The written report is due during the last class period.
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The Process
Suggestions for Better Performance
The following suggestions may improve the quality of your work, and thus your grade. It is up
to you whether or not you choose to follow these suggestions.
1. You will need to spend a lot of time and effort to do a good job. This is hard. It counts
for half your grade.
2. Meet often instead of trying to accomplish everything at one meeting. Ideas need time
to develop and build, and to discover flaws. Consider ways to avoid “groupthink” –
such as assigning different roles for members.
3. Start on each task right after we discuss the topic in class. Then the information will be
fresher, and you will be able to ask questions before we have moved on. The best
strategy is to draft a section right after we cover it, and then revisit it later to make sure
the previous and subsequent parts coordinate with each other.
4. Make sure each group member knows the plans in every section in your reports. Not
only will it help insure a better project, knowing what comes in a previous section will
be necessary to carry out the later tasks.
5. Don’t compile the report at the last minute by pasting together pieces written by
different individuals. This leads to inconsistency, missing information, a generally
incoherent report, and redundancy. If you have different individuals composing
different sections, be sure to compile the document far in advance, so that everyone can
proof read it and revisions can be made.
6. Have the whole group responsible to final proof reading. Everyone should be on the
lookout for inconsistencies, unsupported ideas, missing information, and poor writing.
Problem Group Members
You may ‘fire’ a group member who is not performing. In order to ‘fire’ a group member, you
must first notify the group member and me that the member’s group position is in jeopardy.
The group member should be given a reasonable amount of time to mend his or her ways. If
their performance doesn’t improve, the entire group (except the member in question) must
agree to the firing. The ‘fired’ group member will be responsible for completing a project alone,
getting another group to agree to take him or her in, or completing the project with other ‘fired’
group members.
Consultants.
You can use me or other people in the advertising industry as a consultant. I will be happy to
talk through ideas at any point in the project. However, be sure to acknowledge contributions
as “consultants.” You will need to build them into the budget at the rate of $100-$200 an hour.
Final Note
This project is a hands-on learning experience. The harder you work, the more you will learn,
and the better your project will be. You will undoubtedly need to divide the labor in some
way. But you will be better off if you find a way to get everyone to participate in each of the
tasks, so that you have everyone’s suggestions and criticism. Good luck, and have fun!
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