University of Montana Business Students Need Clients for Marketing Plans. This is a great opportunity for your company.

Course: MKT 461. Marketing Management

Senior undergraduate marketing majors work with a local business or non-profit organization to develop a comprehensive marketing plan for one year. Students will perform an in-depth assessment of the current status of the organization and its environment. Special attention is given to the market: students will engage in primary market research, such as customer interviews and competitor observation, in order to identify the factors that drive customer value and buying behavior and the competitive advantages and disadvantages of the organization.

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Based on the assessment of the organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, the students will recommend a set of objectives (e.g., customer awareness, traffic, and sales), target market segments, and the appropriate brand/product positioning for the respective segments. Finally, students will make specific recommendations for product/service design and store environment/layout (where applicable), pricing, distribution (where appropriate) and promotion.

While students are required to develop the set of promotional activities up to the concept, many students will also design sample promotional materials such as ads and flyers. The recommend promotional activities will be within the marketing budget of the organization.

For Spring 2008, the course starts on Tuesday, January 22. The projects will be finalized and presented to clients by the end of April. Clients do not incur any monetary costs for these projects but they need to meet with the students and provide them with information and feedback. The total expected time investment for clients is about 6 to 8 hours throughout the term. We cannot guarantee the ultimate quality of the marketing plans.

The value and usefulness of a marketing plan to a client depends on students’ effort and motivation but also on the client’s availability and involvement with the students. If you would like to serve as a client, please send me a brief description of your organization and core issues to be addressed in a marketing plan, along with contact information, by Monday, January 21, or as soon as possible.

Thank you for considering this opportunity to help University of Montana students to engage in experiential learning.

Simona Stan

Assistant Professor of Marketing

University of Montana

Tel: (406) 243-6027

E-mail: [email protected]