Touchstone 4: Create a Marketing Proposal

SCENARIO: Somethin’s Brewin’ Cafe has made it through its first year… and it has been incredibly successful! The owner has decided to expand the business by opening a second location in town in the busy downtown area. A downtown sandwich shop recently closed so the owners could retire, but the location is perfect to meet the needs of busy professionals, students from the local university, and families who take time to visit the shops, museums, and ongoing events downtown. Now, Somethin’s Brewin’ Cafe has taken over this spot as its second location.

The owner realizes that they need to take a more strategic approach to marketing to ensure that the community knows that the quality of service and fresh, organic offerings at the original uptown location will be duplicated in the downtown location. In other words, they need a marketing plan. The owner realizes that they need to remain very focused so that they don’t spend too much of their funds on promotions that will not grow the business, so they have hired you to help implement a marketing plan.

ASSIGNMENT: Your task is to prepare a detailed proposal that synthesizes and applies principles of marketing to help the owner achieve their goals. Your proposal will be 6-8 pages and it must include the following content areas:

Campaign Objective
Target Audience
Content Strategy
Digital Marketing
Budget Approach

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A. Directions
Refer to the lists below throughout the writing process. Do not submit your Touchstone until it meets these guidelines.

Step 1. Consider the Proposal Objectives
The owner has made some decisions about advertising for the second location. She wants to encourage downtown consumers to come in and try a free specialty item with a purchase. Another goal is to convince consumers to download the new Somethin’s Brewin’ app to earn points on every purchase and get free delivery within five miles of the downtown location. It will be important to get in front of as many consumers as possible to incentivize them to come into the cafe for the coffee, baked goods, soups, and sandwiches that have made Somethin’s Brewin’ a local favorite.

Step 2. Create Proposal Document
Use a Microsoft Word or Google Document to outline and organize your proposal by considering the information below and responding to the prompts in each section.

Creation of a Campaign Objective

The campaign objective will serve as the foundation for the campaign strategy, tactics, and metrics as you continue to develop your proposal. Respond to the following prompts:

Which objective would be appropriate for the new location’s advertising? Choose from: informative, persuasive, comparative, or reminder advertising. Write out the campaign objective.
Provide rationale for your recommended advertising objective. Your rationale should explain why your choice of the campaign objective supports the goals of the owner of Somethin’s Brewin’.
Analysis of Target Audience

The owner has stated that the target audience for the downtown location is based on their proximity to the new Somethin’s Brewin’ Cafe. Respond to the following prompts:

Describe why it would be important for the owner to develop a customer profile that characterizes consumers in terms of:
their proximity to the downtown location
their reason for visiting the café
what experiences they might be having before their visit
what factors might motivate them to use the app to learn about and order from Somethin’s Brewin’
How could the target audience be described based on demographics?
How could the target audience be described based on psychographics?
Do you recommend using a push or pull strategy to meet the campaign objectives? What reasons would you have for choosing a specific strategy?
Design of Content Strategy

Considering your recommended campaign objective, it is time to design the message content. Respond to the following prompts:

Discuss how you will design a campaign that will do each of the following from the 5A framework:
create awareness of the new location
appeal to those in the downtown location
ask consumers to try Somethin’s Brewin’
create a desire in consumers to act on their interest in the café
convince consumers to advocate or recommend that others try the new location
How would you pretest the content to ensure that it resonates with consumers? In other words, how will you put the content in front of the target customers to ensure that the messaging is clear, compelling, and likely to advance the business toward improved outcomes?
Consider the objective you have established for the advertising, as well as what the owner would like to achieve from their new location. How would the owner measure the effectiveness of digital marketing using post-testing approaches such as aided recall, unaided recall, attitude tests, or sales tests?
Digital Marketing Recommendations

Respond to the following prompts:

Pick three digital marketing tools and recommend how the owner should use each of these in a campaign:
content marketing
online video marketing
email marketing
social media marketing
website marketing
blogs and online forums
mobile marketing
Describe how each of the three tools you chose will accomplish one or more of the following outcomes:
spreading of information
stimulation of demand
customer satisfaction
stabilization of sales volume
managing cost of customer acquisition
Budget Approach Recommendations

Consider the digital marketing tools you recommended for the campaign. Now you need to recommend a budget approach for the new Somethin’s Brewin’ location. Respond to the following prompts:

Recommend which budget approach the owner should use:
percent of sales
all you can afford
return on investment (ROI)
competitive parity
objective and task
Describe how the budget approach you recommend supports the reach and frequency needed for the first six months.
Step 3. Submit Your Touchstone

Review the Rubric and Requirements (below) to confirm your Touchstone is ready to submit. When you’re ready, submit your completed Touchstone using the blue button at the top of this page.

B. Rubric
Advanced (100%) Proficient (85%) Acceptable (75%) Needs Improvement (50%) Non-performance (0%)
Creation of a Campaign Objective
Proposal effectively develops a campaign objective. (20%)
A comprehensive campaign objective that clearly supports the goals of the owner is described. A clear choice and rationale for the advertising objective is provided. A comprehensive campaign objective that supports the goals of the owner is developed. A rationale for the advertising objective is provided. A campaign objective that supports the goals of the owner is developed. A rationale for the advertising objective is provided but limited. A campaign objective is developed but may not support the goals of the owner. The rationale for the advertising objective is unclear. A campaign objective is missing, or so little work has been done that no credit may be given.
Analysis of Target Audience
Proposal effectively analyzes the target audience. (20%)
A comprehensive analysis of the target audience clearly discusses components of the customer profile, including demographics and psychographics. A clear choice of a push or pull strategy is identified and supported.  A comprehensive analysis of the target audience clearly discusses components of the customer profile, including demographics and psychographics. A push or pull strategy is identified and supported.  An analysis of the target audience identifies some components of the customer profile, including demographics and psychographics. The choice of a push or pull strategy is identified with limited rationale. An analysis of the target audience identifies demographics or psychographics. The choice of a push or pull strategy is unclear. An analysis of the target audience is missing, or so little work has been done that no credit may be given.
Design of Content Strategy
Proposal effectively designs a content strategy. (20%)
A comprehensive design of the content strategy addresses the 5A framework components. Pretesting and post-testing in content strategy are clearly identified and supported. A comprehensive design of the content strategy addresses the 5A framework components. Pretesting and post-testing in content strategy are identified and supported. The design of the content strategy addresses the 5A framework components. Pretesting
Composition must be at least six pages (approximately 1,500 words), double-spaced, with one-inch margins.
Use a readable 11- or 12-point font.