View the “Week 8 Scene 1” and “Week 8 Scene 2” scenarios. From the scenarios, Chris and Erica are having problems assigning managerial responsibilities. Suggest at least three (3) ways in which they could effectively address these problems, and explain why you believe your suggested approaches are appropriate.

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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).
   • Outline the demographic information for your company specified on the worksheet in the course text (p. 107 | Demographic Description). Click here for help accessing a specific page number in your eBook.
     • 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/). Check Chapter 2 of Successful Business Plan for more research sources.
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.
   • 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).
     • Hints: Every business faces competition and the non-alcoholic beverage market is an especially crowded market.

1. Clarify your company’s message using the information provided on the worksheet in the text (p. 160 | The Five F’s).
   • • Hints: Before you choose your marketing vehicles, you must determine the message you want to convey through those vehicles.
2. 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, refer to the worksheet in the text (p.171 | Online Marketing Tactics) to aid your response. 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.

1. Format your assignment according to these formatting requirements:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.

1. 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.

Grading for this assignment will be based on answer quality, logic/organization of the paper, and language and writing skills, using the following rubric.

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Jim and Laura Buyer visit the local car dealership because they are interested in buying a new car. The car they currently have is aging and is starting to have mechanical problems. Jim and Laura would share the new car, and use it to go back and forth to work and school. Before going to the dealership, Jim and Laura decide that they can only afford $400.00 a month in car payments.

Once at the car dealership, Jim and Laura meet Stan Salesman. Stan shows them several vehicles and Jim and Laura test-drive several of the cars. Jim and Laura particularly like the blue 4-door sedan.  Therefore, they agree to give Stan Salesman a $100.00 deposit to hold the car for a day. Stan Salesman does not give them the receipt but guarantees that the $100.00 is refundable. No documents were signed. 

The next day, Stan Salesman calls Jim and Laura to ask them when they would like to take delivery of the car. Jim and Laura, on the way home from the dealership, decided that they were not going to buy the car because they did not want to spend that money each month. Therefore, Jim and Laura tell Stan salesman that they have decided not to buy the car and request their $100.00 deposit back.

Stan insists that the $100.00 was a deposit on the car and was meant to be part of the contract to buy the car. Stan is very persistent and insistent that Jim and Laura have contracted to buy the car; therefore, the $100.00 will be applied to the purchase price of the car. Jim and Laura are shocked and angry as not only do they not want to spend the money, but now feel as though they are being duped by Stan Salesman. 

Jim and Laura have an appointment to see a lawyer in a few days, but know you are a student taking a business law class and come to you for advice. They are very frazzled, and understandably upset that they may have just purchased a car. Since you have been taking business law, you have read and understand the elements of a contract and the defenses to a contract. Therefore, although you are not a lawyer, you provide some basic advice from what you’ve learned in your business law class.

In three to five (3-5) pages, advise Jim and Laura based on the above facts as presented, the material provided in the text, and material covered in the lecture. In your paper, be sure to address the following:

1. Define the elements of a legal contract using examples from the scenario where applicable.
2. Decide whether or not there was a contract for the purchase of the automobile. 
3. Identify the facts from the scenario which support your decision on whether or not a contract exists for the purchase of the automobile. 
4. Use at least two (2) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as quality academic resources.
5. Format your assignment according to the following formatting requirements:
   • Typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides.
   • 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 is not included in the required page length.
   • Include a reference page. Citations and references must follow APA format. The reference page is not included in the required page length.

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Using the ideas of structure and agency, analyze a media event to determine how media coverage did or did not construct, regulate, and maintain the social reality of the audience. 

• What kinds of coverage were given or shown about the event? (You may want to look for printed, broadcast, and online coverage to get the full picture of the media event.)
• In what ways did the media regulate and maintain the reality of the event? Did media reflect the reality of the event, or did it construct reality?
• What legal or ethical issues were apparent in the coverage of the event? How did these issues affect, or not affect, the ways in which media constructs, regulates, and maintains the social relations among people?

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For this assignment, select one of the above changes (or another one that you are particularly interested in) that has occurred since 9/11, and do some research by consulting authoritative sources. Then, in a 1-2 page paper, respond to the following:

• What was the primary purpose of the change, and in what specific ways did it seek to prevent future terrorist attacks?
• What challenges does the change create in terms of resources and legal issues?
• What are the impacts on citizens in terms of their right to privacy and their right to freedom from government intrusions?
• Based on the above, do you believe the change is beneficial to society? Why or why not?

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