This assignment consists of two (2) sections: a marketing plan and sales strategy, and a marketing budget. Note: You must submit both sections as separate files for the completion of this assignment.

For the first six (6) months your company is in business—to give you time to perfect your product and to learn from actual customers—you will start marketing and selling in your own community, a radius of twenty-five (25) miles from where you live.

For most non-alcoholic beverages, marketing (as opposed to the actual product itself) is key to success. Cola drinks, for example, are fairly undifferentiated, as are many energy drinks, juices, bottled water, and the like. Companies producing these types of beverages differentiate themselves and attract market share through marketing and brand awareness—both of which are critical to success.

Section 1: Marketing Plan & Sales Strategy (MS Word or equivalent)

Write the three to five (3-5) page Marketing Plan & Sales Strategy section of your business plan, in which you:

1.Define your company’s target market.

Analyze the types of consumers who will be drinking your beverage in demographic terms (i.e., age, education level, income, gender, ethnic group, etc.). Support your analysis with actual data on the size of the demographic groups in your local community (nearby zip codes).

Hints: At American FactFinder (http://census.gov), you will find demographic information on potential consumers in your area. If you are selling through other businesses (such as grocery stores), indicate the number of those businesses in your local area. You will find information about such businesses in your local area at County Business Patterns (http://www.census.gov/econ/cbp/).

2.Assess your company’s market competition.

Use the factors listed in the course text graphic (p. 123 | Assess the Competition) to assess your company’s market competition. Who are your major competitors?, On what basis do you compete?, How do you compare with the competition?, Who are your potential future competitors?, What are the barriers to entry for new competitors?

Defend your strategy to successfully compete against market leaders in your segment.

Hints: For example, in the soft drink market, it is intimidating to try to compete against Coke and Pepsi. Newcomers in mature markets typically must pursue niche markets or even create new market categories, as Red Bull did with energy drinks.

Defend your plan to differentiate yourself from the competition using the information detailed on the worksheet in the text (p. 131 | Market Share Distribution). Which competitors, if any, has historically been the market leaders?, Which competitors have increase market share substantially in the last three years?, Is the overall competition increasing, stable, or decreasing? 

Hints: Every business faces competition and the non-alcoholic beverage market is an especially crowded market.

3.Clarify your company’s message using the information provided on the worksheet in the text (p. 160 | The Five F’s). Functions, Finances, Freedom, Feelings, and Future. Which of these messages is the most important in motivating your target market to purchase?

Hints: Before you choose your marketing vehicles, you must determine the message you want to convey through those vehicles.

4.Identify the marketing vehicles you plan to use to build your company’s brand. Justify the key reasons why they will be effective. Provide examples of other non-alcoholic beverage companies that use these tactics effectively.

Hints: If you plan to use online marketing tactics. Remember that even if you’re selling through grocery stores you need to build your brand and social media is a major part of that in regard to beverages. Some of the marketing tactics that beverage companies use include: sampling in grocery stores, building a following on social media, sponsoring events, exhibiting at trade shows attended by retailers, and so on. You will use a combination of these tactics. For example, if you decide to give out samples in grocery stores, promote your sampling on your social media networks and those of the grocery store.

Hints: If you are planning to distribute through resellers, describe how you plan to reach them, for example, through industry trade shows or by establishing your own sales force. For information on trade shows, visit the Trade Show News Network (http://www.tsnn.com). You can exhibit or network at these shows.

5.Format your assignment according to these formatting requirements:

Cite the resources you have used to complete the exercise. Note: There is no minimum requirement for the number of resources used in the exercise.

Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.

Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required page length.

Section 2: Marketing Budget (MS Excel worksheets template)

Section 2 uses the “Business Plan Financials” MS Excel template (see: Course Required Files in Week 1). Use the “Business Plan Financials Guide” (see: Course Required Files in Week 1) to support your development of the Marketing Budget.

6.Complete the Marketing Budget worksheet for your company.

Hints: The goal of the marketing budget is to help you determine how much it will cost you to reach your market and achieve your sales goals.

Hints: When filling out the “Marketing Budget” worksheet in the Excel spreadsheet:

Begin in the current year and complete a marketing budget for the first year of your business. The information you enter in the marketing budget spreadsheet will flow through to your “Income Statement” in the Business Plan Financials.

Leave the number at zero (0) for any marketing vehicles you do not intend to use.

Remember that all marketing activities involve costs. If social media represents a significant portion of your marketing, assume you will have cost of advertising and that should be reflected on your budget. Even if a social media site charges nothing to use it, you will need to use company resources to manage the site, pay someone to execute your social media marketing campaigns, and will most likely pay for ads on that site.

Do NOT leave the “Marketing Budget” blank, assuming you will not have any marketing costs.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

Recommend effective business strategies based on an analysis of domestic and global operating environments, market dynamics, and internal capabilities.

Analyze competitive positions including foreign market entry and the resulting impact on business strategy.

Use technology and information resources to research issues in strategic management.

Write clearly and concisely about strategic management using proper writing mechanics.

Bus599 Assignment1.docx 

choose one of the following and make response about your opinion -3-4 well developed sentences.

1.Nuclear Energy is a renewable resource that can be used safely well into the future.  The main fuel of Nuclear energy is Uranium-235 what is made up from only around 1% of the worlds Uranium.  Although with this being said, some of this Uranium is able to be re-enriched and recycled, making it renewable.

  The largest advantage of Nuclear power is creating a lot of energy with little pollution.  With fossil fuels, there is burning required to heat the steam required for generating electricity.  In nuclear power, the uranium, a hot rock, is used to generate this heat. The largest drawback is the nuclear waste.  This waste, as well as contaminated clothing or tools can hold radiation for thousands of years.  Storage facilities for this waste can be a problem.  The other problem is that there is radiation, and can be issues if there are natural or mechanical disasters, such as Fukushima, or Chernobyl where there was radiation that was let out into the environment.

  I would not mind living close to a nuclear power plant.  I have spent time living on a nuclear powered submarine in the United States Navy.  One this submarine below the ocean, I received less radiation that I would have from standing in the sun all day.  There are very strict protocol for anyone allowed access to these type of facilities and I would feel comfortable living by one.

  The world seems to use more nuclear energy than the US.  Although we have over 100 nuclear reactors, we still rely on fossil fuels and hydroelectric power plants to generate the majority of our energy.  Countries such as France, Lithuania, and Slovakia use energy almost completely obtained from nuclear reactors.  This may be due to the bad name that nuclear energy has made in the United States.  Or that the Uranium-235 is mostly imported into the US, where coal and oil can be obtained more easily.

LeCompte, C. (2014). Is Nuclear Power Ever Coming Back? Retrieved from http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/is-nuclear-power-ever-coming-back/373315/

2.Nuclear energy is a non renewable resource.  Nuclear energy is used to produce electricity. One of the advantages of nuclear energy is the cost. Little uranium is required  to make the same amount of energy as coal or oil which lessens the cost of producing the same amount of energy. Uranium is also less expensive to get hold of and transport and this lowers the cost. Another advantage is the reliability.  When a nuclear power plant is operating and running smoothly it can run without any troubles for up to 540 days. Another noticeable advantage is that although nuclear energy gives off radiation the plant does not present any greenhouse gases.

The disadvantages to nuclear power is the raw material that is used in nuclear power.  Uranium is a naturally unstable element and it must be looked at closely to ensure that radiation is not produced due to this.  Waste is another disadvantage and leaks play a major role.  Also nuclear power plants are targets for terrorist organizations. I would not feel happy if the county that I live in decided to build a nuclear power plant.  I would not like this idea because of the disadvantages and the harm it could cause being so close to homes.  The idea that radiation or even an explosion and the damage that it could do for miles would be detrimental. The United States has the most nuclear power plants but in other countries they do carry them.

Sources:

http://nuclear-energy.net/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-nuclear-energy.html

http://education.nationalgeographic.com/encyclopedia/nuclear-energy/

choose ttwo essays and make  responses of each one  of the following about desertification–3-4 well developed sentences

1.Desertification is the persistent degradation of dryland ecosystems by climate changes and human activities. In 2000, drylands were home to one-third of the human population. Desertification can occur naturally due to droughts; however, humans play a huge role in the process as well. For example, diverting rivers from their natural path so that we can use the water for agriculture. The area would no longer have a water supply, and vegetation could potentially die off.

Unsustainable use of resources and the lack of adequate infrastructures can lead to land degradation. Furthermore, the removal of most vegetation is a major factor that causes degradation. We can help control this by integrating land and water management to protect soils from erosion, and other forms of degradation. We can also give local communities the capacity to prevent this process and to manage dryland resources more effectively.

 In the 1930’s, poor land use led to awful dust storm in the Great Plains. A combination of farmers over using the land’s resources and horrible droughts, led to one of the worst environmental disasters of the twentieth century. Fortunately, I do not live in an area that is affected by desertification. I live in a rural area on about twenty acres and have a small garden. I sometimes use pesticides to keep the bugs away. It is very hot and muggy here and bugs are an issue. The use of pesticides could be causing desertification by putting chemicals in the ground.

2.

Evaluate the evidence. Create a draft of the findings of the articles you have selected and how they contribute to our knowledge of this problem. Be sure to address each of the following items in your draft:

1.  Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each piece.
2.  If the articles talk to each other (that is, if they support or contrast with one another), explain how and why.
3.  What does the evidence tell us?
4.  Is there another possible explanation you can think of?  Based on what you have read, what is your hypothesis?  In other words, what is your explanation for the findings?
5.  How can you refine your question or topic even further, now that you have described the findings?

Your draft should be double-spaced and in 12 point, Times New Roman font with normal one-inch margins, written in APA style, and free of typographical and grammatical errors.  It should include a title page with a running head and a reference page. The body of the paper should be at least 5-6 pages in length.

You will submit your Review Paper next week, so be sure to incorporate the feedback you receive from your instructor on this assignment into your final paper for next week. You may also want to review the following documents that are available in the Doc Sharing area of the course: