PREFACE:

The purpose of this paper is to help the marketing student with the systematic process of developing a Personal Marketing Plan. The strength of the Personal Marketing Plan comes from the skill of the planner in applying the marketing mix principles within a specific set of environmental conditions. The desired result is contribution to the career success of the NSU business student.

A Marketing Plan is usually prepared on an annual or fiscal year basis. The plan, however, can be either shorter or longer than on year to better "fit" with the product development, product life cycle, market buying conditions and practices, seasonal patterned or other significant considerations which may arise. Whatever the planning requirements, the basic approach is almost universally acknowledged as logical and effective.

The Basic Personal Marketing Plan Concept has helped the student identify:

1. The environmental conditions surrounding the individual student's current career situation;

2. The career goals and aspirations for individual student. That is, where would the individual student like to go with their career;

3. The specific set of strategies and tactics that focus on marketing's 4P's. That is, how does the individual student intend to accomplish the plan's strategies and tactics.

This Principles of Marketing Class with address points one and two. Specific sets of strategies will be developed in subsequent courses. Therefore, your specific project will consist of four sections:
 

(1) Prioritization and Delineation of one's five top core values/individual factors.

(2) Resume

(3) Environmental Scan

(4) Objectives (1) Prioritization and Delineation of one's 5 top core values/individual factors.

Clearly, the most critically important thing a person (or an organization) can develop is an understanding of one's values. To be useful, they should be both prioritized and delineated. This takes careful, deliberate thought because it should be used to guide all business and personal decisions. In absence of this understanding, a person is more likely to get into ethical dilemmas, and form suboptimal relationships; however, if all choices are compatible with one's core values, they are more likely to be viable. Examples of core values include: need for autonomy, need for remuneration, connection with God, closeness to family, need for recognition, need to help people, etc... Examples of individual factors include: your demographic profile or personality.

(2) Resume

At a bare minimum, this should include, name, location data, career objectives, work and educational experience, and skills. Attractive formatting is vital.

(3) Fact Base (The Environmental Scan)

Everything in your PMP will depend on a complete and comprehensive understanding of "facts." Not opinion, not rumor, nor gossip. (From a practical perspective, this means you will need to visit the library, use the Internet, or some other source of objective information. This also means that your paper must contain appropriate footnoting to give appropriate credit to the source of the information used and to lend credibility to your document.) The environmental scan will include every fact that has any significant relevance to your ability to be successful in accomplishing your stated career goals and objectives. Omitting any significant fact will endanger the logical process and possibly even lead to failure; costly; time consuming failure.

Issues to consider and items to include in your environmental scan fact base are:

1. Markets: Identify as many relevant issues and statistics as are available such as:
a. Current jobs available;
b. Growth rate projections for your chosen career field;
c. Recruitment details and tendencies;
d. Specific academic requirements and competencies
 

2. Competition: Identify direct. Indirect and general competitive factors which have any significant influence on your chosen career goals and aspirations. Perform a comprehensive competitive SWOT analysis.

3. Technological: Identify trends and implications for any technology that influences you as a viable product in the highly competitive global economy.

4. Economic and Financial: Identify the trends and factors that impact you as a viable product. Include:

a. Salary statistics;
b. Costs of living statistics
c. Rates of economic growth
d. Projections and trends

5. Customer attitudes: Identify facts that provide evidence of favorable or unfavorable attitudes and/or perceptions regarding you or your chosen career field that require specific planning considerations.

6. Legal/Regulatory: Identify legal or regulatory certifications, codes, obligations, or enforcement issues that must be adhered to or that present the potential for problems/opportunities.

7. Political: Identify and specify trends and tendencies within the internal and external political environments of the career field you have chosen to enter.

8. Academic: Identify the essentials for your academic planning to ensure that you, as a product, meet the competency requirements and expectations for your customers.
 

State Specific Objectives

The objectives of your PMP will be the natural extension of evaluating the environment within which you are working and considering your values and individual factors within that environment. An objective should identify an actual event with a measurable end result to be achieved by a responsible individual within a specified time frame. Objectives represent the desired solution to a problem or the exploitation of an available opportunity. For example, If you wanted to work in the area of sales, but you were very family oriented and did not like to fly on airplanes, your objective should be written to provide you with the opportunity to work in a sales position that did not require over night or air travel. An effective objective must be:

1. Action oriented and specific;
2. Measurable;
3. Time specific;
4. Achievable yet challenging;
5. Have accountability.

Objectives are not profits or salary goals. Rather objectives are the desired results that lead to profits or salaries. An objective should represent a solution to a problem or the exploitation of an available opportunity.