Annual Marketing Plan for a Local Police Department
This paper presents an executive summary of an annual marketing plan for the Ft. Mitchell Police Department, a local law enforcement agency facing a community relations challenge following a publicized incident involving officers and minority community members. The plan outlines the department's marketing objectives, strategies, and tactics — including interactive "Coffee with Cops" sessions, a revamped department website, and social media engagement across multiple platforms. Financial constraints are addressed through low-cost, officer-driven approaches. The paper also discusses a timetable for implementation and the use of quantifiable metrics to evaluate success, with emphasis on summer programming for youth engagement.
- Introduction: Budget sources funding the department's marketing plan
- Situation Analysis: Rebranding need following a community incident
- Marketing Objectives: Four objectives guiding the department's outreach
- Strategies and Tactics: Interactive, digital, and social media approaches
- Financial Considerations: Slim budget and cost-conscious strategy choices
- Timetable for Implementation: Metrics and seasonal scheduling for plan rollout
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What makes this paper effective
- Applies standard marketing plan structure (situation analysis, objectives, strategies, tactics, financials, timetable) to a non-commercial public-sector context, demonstrating versatility of marketing frameworks.
- Grounds each strategic choice in a concrete rationale — for example, the "Coffee with Cops" tactic is tied to evidence from a cited source and budget logic simultaneously.
- Maintains coherence between constrained budget conditions and recommended tactics, showing realistic, cost-conscious planning rather than idealized proposals.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper integrates scholarly and practitioner citations to justify each major decision — Abbey-Lambertz and Erbentraut (2016) for community policing evidence, Bizzotto et al. (2014) and Leonhardt (2015) for social media effectiveness, Trout and Rivkin (2006) for differentiation theory, and Kerin and Hartley (2016) for metrics — demonstrating how an applied plan can be anchored in academic literature without becoming overly theoretical.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a classic executive-summary format: a brief introduction establishes context and funding; the situation analysis identifies the rebranding need; marketing objectives are enumerated in a numbered list; strategies move from broad (interactive, digital, social) to specific (platforms and programs); the financial section addresses budget constraints and differentiation; and the timetable section connects metrics to a seasonal implementation schedule, closing the plan's logic loop.
Introduction
The annual marketing plan for the local law enforcement organization Ft. Mitchell Police Department is based on the department's budget, which is financed by the public. State, local, and federal taxes, as well as bonds, all contribute to financing the Ft. Mitchell PD's budget. These funds are used to pay officers' salaries, pensions, and equipment costs, and they also fund the department's annual marketing plan.
Situation Analysis
The Ft. Mitchell PD is in need of rebranding following a local scandal involving some of its officers in what has been deemed by local community leaders and city council as a needlessly escalated conflict between police and minority members of the community. The department has set about developing a number of community policing and marketing approaches for its annual plan to help strengthen its image in the community and highlight some of the positive work the department is doing locally.
References
Abbey-Lambertz, K., & Erbentraut, J. (2016). The simple strategies that could fundamentally change how communities view their police. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/17/community-policing-police-trust_n_6607766.html
Bizzotto, N., Sandri, A., Lavini, F., Dall'Oca, C., & Regis, D. (2014). Video in operating room: GoPro HERO3 camera on surgeon's head to film operations — a test. Surgical Innovation, 21(3), 338–340.
Kerin, R. A., & Hartley, S. W. (2016). Marketing: The core (6th ed.). Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill.
Leonhardt, J. (2015). Going viral on YouTube. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 3(1), 21–30.
Trout, J., & Rivkin, S. (2006). Differentiate or die. In The marketing gurus (ed. Murray). New York, NY: Penguin.
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