Posted: April 6th, 2015

Marketing Strategy

MKT 306 – Marketing Strategy

Assignment Brief:
The task is divided into two parts (Part 1 & Part 2) and candidates are expected to address both.
Your task is to identify an organization, either producer and/or brand owner, who is involved in the marketing of an electronic tablet either single product or product line. (This excludes smart phones and laptops); and then analyse, evaluate and prepare an individual report (3500 words +/- 10%) addressing the following issues…

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??Part 1:
•??Using appropriate sources, undertake a full marketing audit (external and internal environments) and also assess strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your chosen organisation. Include details about the organisation’s position relative to other industry members including market shares. ?
•??Provide a critical evaluation of the organisation’s competitive edge (USP). Demonstrate the organisation’s effectiveness by providing an evaluation of competitive performance. Include other relevant market performance data to underpin your evaluation (e.g. growth, sales trends and/or profitability). ?[Weighting – 50%] ???Part 2: ?
•??Based on your Part 1 analysis and using your chosen brand select target segment/s and set clear marketing objectives to increase brand awareness, market share, and growth in sales volume and/or profitability. Your new marketing strategy should address these objectives with the application of the marketing mix to your chosen brand. ?
•??These suggestions should be your own ideas but may include marketing tactics and strategies used by other successful organisations or companies preferably from different industry sectors. ?[Weighting – 50%] ?Candidates are encouraged to evaluate, analyse, and recommend marketing strategies for their chosen company within a specific context of their choice (i.e. UK, Germany, Malaysia, Trinidad etc.). For the purpose of this assessment students need to focus on marketing strategies being used at the B2C level. ?Your arguments, findings and recommendations should be supported by theories, facts and figures published within academic books, journal articles, recognised business magazines and market intelligence reports. ?* Your chosen electronic tablet brand owner should be nationally and or internationally recognised (at least), and it MUST have a website. ?N.B. Please note the maximum word count excludes Appendix and References. ?

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Submission Policies:
1.    You are required to submit your work within the bounds of the University Infringement of Assessment Regulations. ?
2.    Your assignment must be submitted to your Study Centre in hard copy with an accurately and clearly completed Assignment Cover Sheet ?
3.    All Students must submit a Turnitin© report along with their assignments. If under any circumstances assignments are submitted without this, the final mark will be withheld and there will be potential delays. ?
4.    Students may submit drafts through Turnitin and generate reports prior prior to submission. The last submission prior to the deadline will be deemed to be the final submission for assessment purposes. Please note that you need to allow 24 hours between submissions through Turnitin to generate a fresh/new/different report so please do not leave submission to the last moment. ?
5.    All works submitted MUST be original. If under any circumstances a student is found to be violating any of the ‘Academic Integrity’ rules, the university deserves the right to take legal and disciplinary actions against the individual. ?

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Assignment Structure:
This is an individual assignment as a single report in two parts. Candidates are encouraged to be creative with their analysis and recommendations by using theories covered in the lectures and workshops.
This is a highly recommended structure. Candidates who put together their report according to their own preferences should ensure that all the essential elements are covered in their suggested strategy, omissions will lose marks.
Part 1.
??Title page???Executive Summary???Table of contents???Introduction???Situational Analysis – (PESTLE) (SWOT)???Differential advantages, competitive edge (USP)???Evaluation of current marketing strategy (Categorise) Part 2.
???Segmentation Targeting & Positioning (STP) ?
???Recommended objectives and goals (SMART) ?
???Recommended Marketing Strategies and Programmes to include amongst other ?strategies underpinned recommendations relating to implementation of the 4/7P’s ?
???Conclusion ?
???Bibliography (with references) ?
???A receipt from TurnItIn© ?Detailed Explanation of Individual Sections: ?

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You’re aiming for a 3500 word report following the given structure…
Title: In a short report this may simply be the front cover. In a long one it could also include Terms of Reference, Table of Contents and so on.
Executive Summary: Give a clear and very concise account of the main points, main conclusions and main recommendations. Keep it very short, about a page or a few % of the total length. Some people, especially senior managers, may not read anything else so write as if it were a short stand-alone document. It isn’t but for some people it might as well be. Keep it brief and free from jargon so that anyone can understand it and get the main points. WRITE IT LAST, but do not copy and paste from the report itself; that rarely works well.
Introduction: This is the first part of the report proper. Use it to paint the background to ‘the problem’ and to show the reader why the report is important to them. Give your terms of reference (if not in the Title Section) and explain how the details that follow are arranged. Write it in plain English.
Current Situation: This is where you report the facts as they are now. It will probably have several sections or sub-sections each with its own subtitle. It is unique to your report and will describe what you discovered about ‘the problem’. Make sure you answer the exact question which has been set –the assessment is about a producer and/or brand owner, who is involved in the marketing of tablet (computer). If in any doubt ask your tutor!
These sections are most likely to be read by experts so you can use some appropriate jargon but explain it as you introduce it. You are supposed to be demonstrating your understanding of the topic so this is a great opportunity to arrange the information logically, putting things in order of priority — most important first. In fact, follow that advice in every section of your report. You may choose to include a Discussion in which you explain the significance of your findings but remember to use a report style structure throughout your work.
Recommendations: This is the heart of your report. What do you suggest should be done? Don’t be shy; you did the work so state your recommendations in order of priority, and in plain English. Again it will probably have several sections or sub-sections each with its own subtitle
Conclusions: Present the logical conclusions of your investigation of ‘the problem’. Bring it all together and maybe offer options for the way forward. Many people will read this section. Write it in plain English. If you have included a discussion then this section may be quite short.
Appendices: Put the heavy details here, the information that only specialists are likely to want to see. As a guide, if some detail is essential to your argument then include it in the main body, if it merely supports the argument then it could go in an appendix. Make sure you signpost this information in the main body of your report.
Marking Scheme