| Course | MT494 Bachelor's Capstone in Marketing |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 2 |
| Paper type | Client selection proposal |
| Length | About 890 words, 6 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | BS in Business Administration |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MT494 Unit 2
One Decision, One Gap, a Fixed Scope: An MT494 Unit 2 Client Selection Proposal for Sandberg Lanes
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
MT494: Bachelor's Capstone in Marketing
Unit 2 Client Selection Proposal
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
Sandberg Lanes, its owners and every business figure are composite; the sources cited are real.
Memo
To: Erik and Linnea Sandberg, co-owners, Sandberg Lanes From: Capstone student, MT494 Re: Proposed marketing plan and data access
Summary
I propose to write a twelve-month marketing plan for Sandberg Lanes that answers one question: should you fund a year of effort to sell weekday afternoon lanes to groups, chiefly local employers? The finished plan, due in Unit 10, will recommend a budget, a target number of weekday events and a way to tell within three months whether the effort is working. Everything in the plan will be built from your own reports, which you have agreed to share under the terms below.
Background
Sandberg Lanes opened in 1978 with 24 lanes, a kitchen and one party room seating forty. The second generation of the family now runs the business and keeps the books. The center earns most of its revenue from Friday and Saturday nights, weekend birthday parties and a shrinking league program. You already know this history, so I keep it to these four sentences.
The Problem
Your daypart reports show the gap in plain numbers. Over the past twelve months, lanes sold between noon and five on Monday through Thursday averaged under 15 percent of capacity, while Saturday evenings averaged about 85 percent. League revenue, which once filled weeknights, has fallen by about 40 percent in ten years as the number of leagues dropped from 31 to 12, a local echo of the national fall in league bowling that Putnam (2000) documented. During those weekday afternoons the building is heated, the kitchen is staffed and the lanes are maintained, so every lane hour sold then adds revenue at little extra cost.
An empty lane on a Tuesday afternoon costs the business almost as much as a full one.
You mentioned several other worries when we met: slow leagues, carpet that looks dated, and a new entertainment venue opening near the interstate. Only the first fits a marketing plan with a measurable target. The carpet is a capital question for you to decide on its own, and the new venue is a competitor the situation analysis will study, not a problem the plan can solve. League decline matters, but weekday afternoons are the larger pool of idle capacity, and leagues bowl in the evenings. The plan therefore takes empty weekday afternoon lanes as its one problem.
Scope
In scope: weekday group events for employers and other organizations, package pricing for those events, and the promotion needed to sell them. Out of scope: the bar remodel, because it is a capital project with its own budget; staffing and hiring, except for the cost of any role the plan itself requires; and the arcade, because it is leased to a vendor who sets its own prices. Weekend business is also out of scope, since Saturdays are already near capacity and adding promotion there would only shift bookings around.
Kotler and Keller (2016) note that a plan's objectives must be specific enough to guide spending, and a narrow scope is what makes that possible here. If the plan tried to fix leagues, the bar and weekends at the same time, the budget in Unit 8 would have to fund all of them, and no single target would show whether the money worked. Wood (2017) recommends stating what a plan excludes as plainly as what it covers, which gives every later unit a fence to stay inside.
Data Access
You have agreed to release four reports, each needed by a specific unit. Erik will supply lane hours sold by daypart for the past two years by the end of Unit 2, for the situation analysis in Unit 3. Linnea will supply the party and group booking log for the past year, with company names removed, by Unit 3. League rosters for ten seasons, again without names, will come from the front desk by Unit 3. Point-of-sale summaries of food and drink revenue per guest by daypart will come from Erik by Unit 7, for the budget.
Confidentiality
At your request, the business will be described in class as a family bowling center in the Quad Cities unless you approve use of its name. You may review any figure before it is shared with classmates, and I will not share customer names or individual payroll information. The signed permission note is attached.
Schedule
The plan builds in stages: a situation analysis in Unit 3, a planner survey in Unit 4, the choice of a target segment in Unit 5, a positioning statement in Unit 6, a budget in Unit 8 and a measurement dashboard in Unit 9. The complete plan and a short presentation arrive in Unit 10. I will send you each piece as it is finished, so the final plan holds no surprises.
Appendix: Permission Note
The owners of the business described above agree to share the reports listed in this memo for the purpose of a student marketing plan, subject to the confidentiality terms stated. Signed by both co-owners and dated in the first week of the term.
References
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2016). Marketing management (15th ed.). Pearson.
Putnam, R. D. (2000). Bowling alone: The collapse and revival of American community. Simon & Schuster.
Wood, M. B. (2017). The marketing plan handbook (6th ed.). Pearson.
What the MT494 Unit 2 assignment asks for
In the second unit of MT494, the proposal commits to one client and one business problem the plan must fix. Open with the decision the finished plan will ask the client to make, then give a few sentences of background. State the problem using the client's own figures, and explain why other concerns the owner raised were set aside. A scope section listing what the plan covers and what it excludes protects the later budget from trying to fund everything. Name each report you will receive, who will supply it and when, and record any confidentiality terms the owner has set. A short written permission note, even an informal one, belongs in an appendix. Close with the schedule of deliverables so the client knows what arrives when.
How this MT494 Unit 2 example is built
Written as a memo to Erik and Linnea Sandberg, the proposal places a one paragraph summary first, naming the decision and the deliverables. Background stops at four sentences because the owners know their own history. The problem section sets weekday lane sales against Saturday nights and links the league decline to Putnam's national account, with a highlighted line noting that an empty Tuesday lane costs almost as much as a full one. A paragraph explains why the carpet and a new rival were not chosen as the problem. Scope follows, with a reason beside each exclusion and Wood's advice on stating boundaries. Four reports are listed by supplier and unit, the business name is disguised unless approved, and the signed permission note closes the memo.
Where the points sit in the MT494 Unit 2 rubric
Much of the credit rests on how specific the problem is. Instructors look for a gap stated in the client's own numbers, because a vague aim such as more customers gives every later unit nothing to measure. The scope section carries weight, since a proposal that promises to fix everything the owner mentioned leaves the budget unit impossible. Feasibility matters too: naming reports, suppliers and dates reads as a plan, while promising to gather data later reads as a risk. Written permission and a plain statement of confidentiality terms are generally credited. Long company histories earn little and crowd out the problem. Memo format, a decision in the opening lines and APA citations for any planning source used round out the proposal's points.
MT494 Unit 2 help from the desk
A frequent MT494 Unit 2 misstep spends a page on the client's founding story and one vague sentence on what is wrong. Another frequent issue accepts every concern the owner raised as part of the problem, so the plan has five targets and no priority. Scope sections are often missing or list only what is included, which lets later units drift into hiring or renovations. Students sometimes promise access the owner has not actually agreed to, and the plan collapses in Unit 3 when the reports never arrive. Confidentiality is easy to forget until a classmate asks for the client's name. Before submitting, check that the opening paragraph names one decision, that the problem contains at least two figures from the client's records, and that every excluded item has a one line reason.
Get an MT494 Unit 2 example written to your instructions
Share the business you have chosen, the problem its owner keeps raising and whatever figures you can already see, along with the Unit 2 proposal instructions. We draft the memo around your client, bracket every number as yours, and deliver the first one free in 24-48h, matched to your rubric. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More MT494 papers and BS in Business Administration samples
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MT494 Unit 2 questions, answered
How narrow should the business problem be in Unit 2?
Narrow enough that one plan and one budget could plausibly close it within a year. A single measurable gap, such as unsold weekday hours or falling repeat visits, usually works better than a cluster of complaints. Other issues can be noted and set aside with a reason, which shows judgment rather than neglect.
Does the owner need to sign something?
Requirements vary, but a short written note confirming permission and what may be shared protects you and reassures your instructor. An email counts in many cases. If the owner prefers anonymity, disguise the business name and any identifying details, and say in the proposal that you have done so. Keep a copy with your capstone files.
Can the scope change after the proposal is approved?
Some adjustment is normal once research comes in, but large shifts usually need your instructor's agreement. Keeping a scope table in the proposal makes that conversation easier, because you can point to exactly what moves in or out and why. A plan that quietly grows beyond its approved scope tends to strain the budget unit.
Where can I find a free MT494 Unit 2 sample paper?
The full MT494 Unit 2 proposal is on this page, written as a memo to a composite bowling center's owners with a measured problem, a scope table and data access terms.
Why does the MT494 Unit 2 sample leave the bar remodel out of scope?
It is a capital project with its own budget, and including it would force the marketing budget to fund work that cannot be measured against weekday bookings.