The document summarizes a marketing plan template for students to create a personal marketing plan to help guide their job search efforts. It includes sections for analyzing the job market and potential employers, assessing personal strengths and weaknesses, developing a unique positioning statement, and outlining strategies for promoting oneself to target employers through activities like networking, resumes, and interviews. The plan is intended to help students develop a focused approach for marketing their skills and experience to potential employers or industries.

1. MKT 300
Marketing
Melissa Luna
Session 16: October 21, 2010
Your Personal Marketing Plan
Multimedia Lecture Support Package to Accompany Basic
Marketing
Lecture Script 1-1
Chapter One
Marketing’s Value to Consumers, Firms, and Society
For use only with Perreault/Cannon/McCarthy or
Perreault/McCarthy texts.
© 2009 McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Overview of Marketing Strategy Planning Process
Marketing strategy is circle
Understand market first
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Marketing

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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
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Employers or industries
Most relevant TO YOU
Identify potential employers
By industry, company name, size of company, location
Other relevant differences
What industries/jobs are hiring? Not hiring?
Understand the customers – what are their “needs”
Skills they look for; experiences necessary
Generalize as needed
http://www.wetfeet.com/
http://online.onetcenter.org/
http://www.vault.com/wps/portal/usa
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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
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External market environment
Economic environment
What is impact of economy on job search?
Technological environment
How has technology affected job search?
Political/legal environment

3. Who is currently in office? What political agenda is being
pushed/
Are there job areas where laws/qualifications are needed?
Certification (CPAs for example) might fall into this category.
Cultural and social
Unique elements of particular industries. For example is
networking more or less a part of some industry cultures.
Are there social trends – Finance Planning “good old boys”
http://www.career.colostate.edu/explore-majors--careers/what-
can-i-do-with-this-major.aspx
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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
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Competition
Who are they competing with as they look for jobs?
How does that vary by major or job type?
What are the strengths of different types of competitors?
What are the weaknesses?
http://tools.businessweek.com/BSchool_Comparator/
http://www.usnews.com/money/blogs/planning-to-
retire/2009/3/12/baby-boomers-are-changing-their-retirement-
plans.html

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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
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Company
This is the student or job applicant
What do they like to do? Interests?
What industries do they like?
What constraints exist on their search?
E.g., have to stay in CO for financial reasons
What are student strengths?
What experience does the student have?
What are their motivators and values
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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
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SWOT
Student Strengths
Self-assessment
Student weaknesses

5. Opportunities from market (customer, competitor, or external
market environment)
Threats from market (customer, competitor, or external market
environment)
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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
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Which career path will be targeted?
The plan should focus on one career
Cannon will teach you a positioning statement. But it should be
something like:
Among all potential sales hires, Joe Cannon is the most
enthusiastic, hard working and experienced. - (Unique to you.)
Focus on those 2-3 benefits which give you competitive
advantage - quantify
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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
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6. List your target market.
This plan should focus on one target market
Career path type of job and
General type of company.
If you have more than one in mind, pick one for this plan.
Ex. if you know you want to work for a public owned IT
consulting company (mid-cap).
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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
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Product
What services can you offer a potential employer?
What product development activities can you engage in during
the next 18 months to make yourself a better “product”?
Classes you plan to take / additional minors/majors
Experience you might develop – internships, work, student
organizations, volunteer work
Others
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Marketing
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7. Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
Process
Place
Where would you want to work?
Geographic location
Any other special needs or wants
Work from home?
Travel
Etc.
http://www.careershift.com/?sc=colostate
www.bestplaces.net
http://www.bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm
Create a personal job offer spreadsheet – see handout
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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
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Price
What benefits do you expect?
What pay level?
What training level?
Other expectations?
www.salary.com
www.salarycalculator.co
www.monster.salary.com
www.salaryexpert.com
www.homefair.com

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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning
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Promotion (longest section)
How will you communicate your “product” to your target
market?
Networking –Where/Who are in my network and how do I
contact them?
Interviews
Resume/Cover Letter/Career Portfolio
Be specific. What will you say to these people? What will you
emphasize in cover letters or resume?
Join LinkedIn and possibly Twitter
Meet with Career Center Liaison to identify additional networks
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Personal Marketing Plan and the Marketing Strategy Planning

9. Process
Implementation
Utilize the Job Search Strategy Plan
Professor Cannon posted that for you on RamCT in “Resources
for your Personal Marketing Plan.”
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Guidelines for Writing the Personal Marketing Plan Project
Your personal marketing plan: (4-6 pages single space, double
space between paragraphs). Write a mini-marketing plan for
yourself. The plan should be written to give you a framework
for marketing yourself to potential employers or a graduate
school – or wherever you want to go next in your life. It will be
graded on how well it reflects the structure of a marketing plan
and applies the concepts to this situation. Therefore, it should
have the following sections:
Executive Summary – 1-2 paragraphs that provides an overview
that focuses on the strategy more than the situation analysis.
Situation Analysis [about 60% of the length of the plan]
· Customers. These would be potential employers, the
companies or industries you might target with your employment
services. Briefly describe the market with facts and data –
information you might gather online or from the College’s
Career Services professionals.
· Focus the section on the primary industries or companies that

10. you will be targeting for your services.
· This section should also highlight what types of jobs they
offer and possibly estimates of how many openings are likely to
occur.
· Some recognition of the different types of firms in this
market.
· Note, if you are interested in multiple industries or different
types of jobs – focus THIS plan on one of those (on your own
you should develop plans for other firms).
· Who in these companies do you think (or know) would
influence or make hiring decisions?
· What are the customer needs? What skills do they need?
What will be keys to success among these customers?
· Top grades would show some effort to research the job market
using tools Melissa Luna suggested.
· Company. This is you. What do you want from a job? What
are your strengths and weaknesses?
· What are your passions?
· What are your strengths and weaknesses?
· Are there any constraints on your search (for example, family
matters require me to stay in Colorado)?
· Competitors. Who else is trying to get those same jobs?
· Identify competitors who might also be seeking the same jobs.
· What are strengths and weaknesses of each type of
competitor?
· This might be easy to present in a simple table – create a
competitor matrix (see example in the Marketing Plan Coach)
· Context - External market environment. Elements and issues
that may be important.
· There should be some discussion of each aspect of the external
market environment from chapter 3 – even if only a brief
mention of an aspect that it is not relevant.
· S.W.O.T.
· Include a S.W.O.T. (strengths & weaknesses are internal to
you – and opportunities & threats that are external)
· You probably want to list from 3-6 of each of these – choose

11. the most important factors.
Strategic Direction [about 10% of the length of the plan]
· Segmentation and targeting. From all these potential
employers, which one industry or few related companies will
you target? Why?
· This section should include a brief rationale for your decision.
The rationale for your choice should come by directly
referencing things you have already written in the Situation
Analysis.
· Differentiation and positioning. How are you going to
differentiate yourself from the competition? How do you want
employers to view you? [Note: because you have time to make
changes to your product, you can note things you plan to do
between now and graduation or job hunt time to enhance your
marketability.]
· This section should also have rationale that clearly describes
the competitive advantage you can offer to a prospective
employer. And how you would position yourself vis a vis
competition. Logic should come from all four of the C’s in the
first section]
· Summarize this with a clear positioning statement in the form:
· “Among all potential (job type) hires, (your name) is the most
(list 1-3 unique qualities you bring to a company) because
(proof that you actually have those qualities)
· The qualities you can bring to an employer (in the positioning
statement) should be demonstrable – hopefully with evidence or
perhaps stories you can tell that show you have that quality.
Develop and refine those stories – then look for ways to bring
them into your Promotion efforts in the strategy section (e.g.,
cover letter, resume, and interview.)
Marketing Strategy [about 30% of the length] [Note that
Product and Promotion P’s should get the most attention]
· Target Market. Simply re-state the target market identified in

12. the previous section.
· Product. What do you have to offer? What will you do to
enhance your offering?
· Here you should include what services you can currently offer
– and what additional services you expect to be able to offer
prospective employers in the future.
· Price. What is the salary or benefits an employer will have to
offer for your services? [You could include any type of
training needs, future opportunities, etc.]
· Place. Where would you want to work? Geography? Type of
work (indoor, outdoor, on the road, from home).
· Promotion. This is probably the longest section of the
strategy. How will you communicate your benefits to potential
employers? This includes your resume, personal selling
(interviews), networking, etc.
· This section should include promotion objectives and have
them tied to specific promotion media, and the message you
would try to use with each.
· Consider developing proof statements that support your
positioning and strategy
References Section (provide a bibliography that might include
online and offline sources you have used – include people you
have talked to about the job search process).
MKT310 1 Spring 2008
Personal Marketing Plan, Updated 8-11-11
Personal Marketing Plan – Grading Rubric Name
_____________________

13. Situation Analysis (25 points possible)
Relative to expectations?
/ 25
Customer Section –
· Level of effort – conducted outside research
· Quality of information – relevant to the job search
· Useful information – helpful to the job search
· Followed guidelines for section
· Far exceeds – excellent work (23-25 points)
· Meets expectations – good work (20 – 22)
· Fall short of expectation – missing some elements or
understanding (18-19)
· Disappointing – needs work, major areas lacking (17 or less
points)
Comments on section (specific weaknesses circled on left):
Competitor Section
· Level of effort
· Quality of insights – does the analysis make sense?
· Followed guidelines for section
Company Section
· Level of effort
· Thoughtful reflect on key elements
· Thorough
Context - External Market Environment
· All aspects at least mentioned
· Insights about key aspects
· Level of effort and thoughtfulness

14. Strategic Direction (5 points)
/ 5
Segmentation and targeting
· Clear rationale based on discussion of 4 C’s
· Quality of logic
· Far exceeds – excellent work (5)
· Meets expectations – good work (4 to 4.5)
· Fall short of expectation – missing some elements or
understanding (3- 3.5)
· Disappointing – needs work (2.5 or less)
Comments on section (specific weaknesses circled on left):
Differentiation and Positioning
· Clear rationale and logic based on 3 C’s
· Source of differentiation is clear
· Positioning is clear and understandable
Marketing Strategy (20 points)
/ 20
Product
· Level of effort
· Considers current and future “product”
· Reflects understanding of “Product”
· Far exceeds – excellent work (19-20)
· Meets expectations – good work (16-18)
· Fall short of expectation – missing some elements or
understanding (14-15)
· Disappointing – needs work (13 or less)
Comments on section (specific weaknesses circled on left):

15. Price
· Reflects understanding of “Price”
Place
· Considers possibilities and reflects on them
Promotion
· Level of effort
· Level of insight in analysis of possibilities
· Reflects understanding of “Promotion”
Writing Quality Adjustments
· Problems with writing quality – grammar, use of headings to
make it easy to read,
· References – do they exist? Can I find?
· Few if any errors and easy to read (0)
· Some errors (-1 to -2)
· Many errors difficult to read (-3 to -5)
Total Points
/ 50