The Marketing Plan: GAP Analysis

Business: Local Logistics Firm
-Responsible for the transport of freight locally. 
-Freight consists of home goods such as appliances and furniture for local businesses to their consumers.
Every business should determine its own standards for success when evaluating the attractiveness of a market, since every industry has its unique circumstances. Criteria that influence Segment Attractiveness include:

Market Growth (Market Size, Growth Rate, Market Potential)
Competitive Intensity (Number of Companies, Ease of Entry, Substitutes)
Market Access (Customer Familiarity, Channel Access, Company Fit)

While benchmarking based on criteria is beneficial in capturing the qualitative aspects of a market situation, the profit potential must also be assessed for all segments deemed attractive based on their market attractiveness indexes.
Segmentation Application

Provide a brief description of your chosen product/service. (This should be used throughout the class.)
Analyze customer needs for the target product
Discuss Segmentation Strategies based on two real competitors’ market position
Devise a niche marketing strategy that would be appropriate for your company’s product.

Gap Analysis, Benchmarking & Competitive Advantage

Implement a Gap Analysis of Two Competitors. Discuss how the findings would be used.
Develop Competitor and Competitive Benchmarking.

Competitor benchmarking involves identifying a business’s main competitors and then comparing itself against them in key performance areas. Competitive benchmarking involves going outside a business’s market or industry to study a company that excels in an area where the business is deficient.

Devise Strategies to Achieve Competitive Advantage for the Company

This is the main part of the assignment and requires extensive critical thinking. Do not rely on summarizing information; instead explain based on the definition of each virtue and vice how they apply to your chosen leader. Use your library articles to provide support for the analysis. Use the template and divide your paper into clear sections with headings based on each of the virtues and vices you are discussing.
Using articles primarily from Trident Online Library’s full-text databases (like Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete, and/or ProQuest Central), research the chosen topic and create a well-balanced 4- to 5-page submission that demonstrates evidence of critical thinking. Remember that this means your paper should not be just a summary of the articles and book chapters that you read, but rather an in-depth analysis that is supported by quality, professional, and graduate-level research.
Do not use any quotations. Since you are engaging in research, be sure to cite and reference the sources in APA format. The paper should be written in third person; this means words like “I”, “we”, and “you” are not appropriate. For more information see Differences Between First and Third Person.
Use the attached APA-formatted template (MKT501 Case2) to create your submission.