The Marketing Research and Business Planning Process (Essay Sample)

Instructions
Learning Objectives:
• Describe small business marketing and the nature of the marketing research and business planning process.
• Apply the research to the hypothetical business and case scenario provided below.
Prompt:
Read the following case and address the 12 case scenarios below as you develop and write a well-written APA 7th paper (350-550 words).
Review Lesson 2 and Chapter 5: The Challenges of Starting a Business of your textbook Exploring Business. Pay close attention to section 5.6 for preparing how to address the 12 case scenarios.
Detailed Analysis -- Chocolate Chip Cookie Business Plan
Let's start with three givens:
(1) College students love chocolate chip cookies and will buy them if affordable and delicious.
(2) You have a special talent for baking cookies and want to build a business making and selling them.
(3) You're always broke and need to raise money to start the business.
Given these three conditions, you've come up with the idea of starting an on-campus business—selling chocolate chip cookies to fellow students. As a business major, you want to do things right by preparing a business plan. First, you identified a number of specifics about your proposed business.
1. You'll bake the cookies in the kitchen of a friend's apartment.
2. You'll charge $1 each or $10 a dozen.
3. Your purpose is to make the best cookies on campus and deliver them fresh. You value integrity, consideration of others, and quality.
4. Each cookie will have ten chocolate chips and will be superior to those sold in nearby bakeries and other stores.
5. You expect sales of $6,000 for the first year.
6. Chocolate chip cookies are irresistible to college students. There's a lot of competition from local bakeries, but your cookies will be superior and popular with college students. You'll make them close to campus using only fresh ingredients and sell them for $1 each. Your management team is excellent. You expect first-year sales of $6,000 and net income of $1,500. You estimate start-up costs at $600.
7. You'll place ads for your product in the college newspaper.
8. You'll hire a vice president at a salary of $100 a week.
9. You can ship cookies anywhere in the United States and in Canada.
10. You need $600 in cash to start the business.
11. There are six bakeries within walking distance of the college.
12. You'll bake nothing but cookies and sell them to college students. You'll make them in an apartment near campus and deliver them fresh.
Share anything additional that you would want to take into consideration.
Instructions:
• Address each of the 12 case scenarios noted above.
• Write an APA 7th paper (350-550 words) expounding on each of them.
• Make sure you use proper headings for each (don't merely rewrite the individual case scenarios, but develop unique headings for each). You can combine some of the various case scenarios into a single heading if they are relevant to one another. FOR EXAMPLE: You can combine 1, 3, 4, 9 & 12 for a heading called Product Description & Distribution. Or, Product Differentiation & Competition by combining 3, 4, 6 & 11. Or, Marketing, Sales & Pricing by combining 2 & 7. Revenue Projection, Financing & Financials by combining 5, 6, 8 & 10. Make sure you elaborate well in each section.
• Your paper should include an introductory paragraph/thesis (use your title for the heading), plus multiple content-related headings throughout the main body of your paper, a Conclusion section and References page.
• Support your work with at least 4 or more credible, academic and/or peer-reviewed sources beyond the course materials. Please note that Wikipedia, Investopedia and similar 'pedias' and are not very credible nor fully reliable primary research sources.
• An APA 7th template and guide is attached herein.
• Make sure you also study and review the iRubric so that you can make sure you achieve all the necessary elements of the assignment for maximizing points and grade score opportunities