Now that we've spent the past couple of weeks with the Technical Marketing Materials Project, you likely have a pretty good idea of what kind of product you're going to work with, and of the approach you're going to take with it. Now it's time to put your plans in writing, via the project proposal.

Proposals for the Technical Marketing Materials Project should be 750 words, single-spaced, in length and incorporate/address the following items:

• a working title for your document (usually corresponds with the product and/or manufacturer)
• a brief description of the product, its features, the manufacturer, and your document's intended target audience
• a discussion of the approximate ratio of technically-oriented details and marketing-style presentation
• a brief discussion of how text (content and writing style) and images (of the product and/or its target audiences) identify/address your target audience, and how these items seek to entice your target audience to buy/use the product
• a brief discussion of how product/manufacturer research has helped you gain information to be presented
• a brief discussion of how audience analysis research has helped you gain information about those to whom you will direct your technical marketing document
• an overall assessment of how your technical marketing document will meet audiences' informational/personal needs, while effectively representing the product and its manufacturer

For those of you who would appreciate a bit of direction in
organizing these proposals, I would suggest a four-paragraph proposal
arranged in the following fashion:

• Paragraph 1: brief description of the product/manufacturer, as well as your intended target audience
• Paragraph 2: details related to how you'll incorporate technically-oriented information (such as features, technical definitions and/or descriptions, product specifications, and graphics) and marketing-style discussion (slogans, product/document introductions, and prose styles -- including sentence structure and word choices)
• Paragraph 3: discusssion/analysis of possible sources for
  researching the product/manufacturer and target audience -- presented in a way that highlights research
  *and* ties together points made in the first two paragraphs
• Paragraph 4: assessment of how your technical marketing document reflects the product/manufacturer and target audience

Keep in mind that while some who access your technical marketing document are looking to buy products for themselves, others will be buying for someone else. Especially since the holidays are approaching, consider those who are buying for someone else; they might need further education about the product and its uses, and might also need a bit more attention paid to selling the product.

Proposals are due on Wednesday, April 9.