MKT301 - Principles of Marketing

Module 1 - SLP

Buying Behavior & Market Analysis

 

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to do something completely different?  Well here is an opportunity for you to combine your wondering with analysis and perhaps to put some flesh on those dreams.

Your SLP assignment in MKT301 is to develop a marketing strategy for a service business that you will (hypothetically) manage.  That is to say, you are to assume that you will be free to start a one-person business and are to examine yourself, develop a service business concept (for profit or not - the choice is yours) which you will provide, and to develop a marketing strategy for it.  You can assume that this will be a one-person business consisting of you alone, or that you will employ others.

In doing this project your fundamental goal is to demonstrate your understanding of and learning about what is being taught in the course.

Over the session you will conduct the necessary marketing analysis for your strategy and present this in your SLP.  In each module you will complete a section of the marketing strategy, building on the sections previously completed in prior modules.  What you are to submit in each module is as follows:

• MOD01:Title page, MOD01 section (see below), References & Appendices.
• MOD02:Title page, MOD01 + MOD02 sections, References & Appendices.
• MOD03:Title page, MOD01 + MOD02 + MOD03 sections, References & Appendices.
• MOD04:Title page, MOD01 + MOD02 + MOD03 + MOD04 section, References & Appendices.

Thus in Module 01 the marketing strategy paper submitted only consists of the sections indicated below.  For Module 02 the paper will consist of the sections you submitted for Module 01, plus those required for Module 02.  For Module 03 it will consist of the prior sections for Modules 01 and 02 plus the new section for Module 03, and so on.

We expect your learning in this course to be cumulative and that this will be reflected in the SLP.  Thus what you learn in later sections of the course will build on what has been learnt earlier, and as you progress through the course you should revise earlier sections of the SLP. 

Note that graders are instructed to grade your work when first submitted, AND TO REVISE THE FINAL GRADE AWARDED IN THE LIGHT OF IMPROVEMENTS MADE TO THE ENTIRE SLP AS SUBMITTED IN MODULE 4.  THESE GRADES CAN ONLY BE INCREASED, NOT DECREASED. 

Thus graders will assign SLP grades for each module but when reviewing the complete SLP in MOD04, will also review the preceding sections and may adjust upwards the Final Course grade to take account of improvements in the sections for MOD01-03.  Note that the final section of the project asks you to indicate how your learning from the project has improved both through your own thinking and via the feedback provided.

Thus it is to your benefit to keep under review the earlier sections as your knowledge and understanding improves and to ensure that at least the final document submitted in MOD04 has been revised to fully reflect your learning.  So that the grader can easily see where you have revised earlier sections you must draw his or her attention to these revisions e.g. by using the Track Changes feature of Word.

Excluding your title page and the prior sections (which you are required to include) the entire marketing strategy when completed will be about fifteen pages long, excluding title page, references and any appendices.

You should review the entire SLP by previewing the requirements of Modules 01 through 04 inclusive when you start the course.  The entire SLP and a presentation providing detailed notes regarding each section are provided for you in the Background Info section.  These required readings should be studied before starting the project.

TITLE PAGE

Include on the title page of the SLP the following information

• the name of the university, (Trident University International), - papers submitted with a different name will not be accepted.
• the course number, (MKT301),  
• the module number, (Module One),
• the term,
• the acronym "SLP" to indicate that this is a paper about your project,
• your name, 
• the name of the professor or instructor to whom the paper is submitted, (your assigned Professor or Instructor) and 
• the date on which it was written.

The title page for the SLP for later modules will be the same except for the module number and the date written.

SLP 01

For SLP 01, you start the strategy with the following information:  

1.    NAME, LOCATION & NATURE.

• The name of your prospective (hypothetical) service business and
• its probable location.  Note that you’ll be asked to examine location in more detail in MOD02.
• A brief description of the nature of the business, (“body-guard service”, “bar”, “child-care”, etc.).

 2.    Statement of your business's MISSION (what business are you in or what are you supposed to do).

 3.     The GENERAL OBJECTIVES or GOALS of your business (for example, achieving sales of X% by date A).

 4.    SELF-ANALYSIS.  For this you should

• assess your skills, abilities and competencies, (strengths as well as weaknesses) and
• compare these with the demands of potential markets, and
• the offerings of competitors.  

Ensure that the self-analysis is relevant to the proposed service and that you make the comparisons.

 5.    Analyze the MARKETING ENVIRONMENT. 

These are things which could have an impact on the success of your business but over which you have no control.  Excluding any factors which are not important or which are analyzed in other sections (e.g. competition), analyze the other major Marketing Environment factors that need to be taken into account in the development of your marketing strategy, e.g.:

• Political factors
• Economic factors
• Social factors
• Technological factors
• Legal or Governmental factors

6.    CUSTOMER ANALYSIS. 

• Identify potential customers you could serve.
• Identify the benefits they seek.
• Describe and label your market and any segments there are.
• Estimate the size and value of the potential market.
• Estimate the size and value of the (to be) served market. 

 7.    Initial ANALYSIS OF PRIMARY COMPETITORS:

In a table identify the main competitors and provide a brief summary of how each competes.  For example, does the competitor use low-price, reliability, reputation, high quality or some other basis for positioning itself in the market?   

8.    COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE ANALYSIS: How well does the proposed service meet the demands of the market compared with the competition?  To help do this analysis:

• create a Product/Markets Matrix.  This is a table listing the various segments you identified in the Customer Analysis section and the products those segments buy. (This is NOT to be confused with a table of a similar name developed by Igor Ansoff.)
• To analyze the competitive situation show the competitors providing those products for each segment in each cell as appropriate. (The MOD01 Background lecture Segmentation has a simple example of a similar "Product-Market Matrix" - Slide 6 dealing with the toothpaste market).
• Don't just present the matrix; explain what it shows.

9.    Which are MY TARGET SEGMENTS your business will focus on and why?  Using the information from section 6, present a table that lists the primary potential target markets with information for each drawn from all prior sections to explain your decision. 

10.To have completed the sections above you should have done some MARKET RESEARCH, e.g. talk to people and gather some data to get some relevant information for your business idea.  So in this section briefly indicate the sources you have used.  Update this list as the project progresses.

SLP EXPECTATIONS

The combined sections you complete for each module should cover no less than TWO and no more than FIVE pages in length.

Note that though the sections above are to be presented individually, the analysis which underlies them is inter-related and you should think about yourself, the possible market, and potential and actual competitors at the same time, and to revise your thinking about them as you progress.  Thus for instance for MOD01 you should expect to spend some time researching and thinking about your skills, the market and the competition together, before you can come to a conclusion about what service you will offer.

A set of notes giving guidance on each section of the SLP, and a Word document listing all the sections of the SLP for all modules are provided on the Background Info page.  PLEASE READ BOTH BEFORE STARTING YOUR PROJECT.

As far as style of writing is concerned do not write an essay, you will waste a lot of space that way.  A limit of fifteen pages for all thirty sections of the project is not a lot so you'll have to decide what you think is important to include.  Use the numbering and text in CAPS above as section headings for each of the topics indicated and elsewhere use words in bold as sub-headings.  What you write should be organized, succinct, and professional.

It is expected that you will explain the alternatives you considered and why you decided to make the recommendations you do.  This is very important.  Explaining the reasons for the decisions you have made and the analysis underlying them is a much more powerful way to demonstrate your learning than simply stating what those decisions are.

It is also expected that you will use information from the background readings as well as any good quality sources you can find to deepen your understanding of the project and cite and reference all sources and resources by adding to the list in section 10, Market Research.

The following will be assessed in particular:

• Your demonstrated understanding of the concepts used in the project.  Generally formal definitions are not required as understanding can usually be demonstrated by the way you apply or interpret the concepts.
• It is expected that you will select appropriate frameworks for analysis from the teaching materials and demonstrate your understanding of them through your application of them to the project.
• Your ability to conduct marketing analysis appropriate to the project.  Some sections above require simple description, (e.g. name and location) while others require analysis (e.g. market size).  Graders will place more weight on analysis than description.  

The criteria used for assessment will be those explained on the MOD01 Home page, namely:

• Focus.
• Breadth.
• Depth.
• Critical thinking, including selections and application of relevant frameworks.
• Effective and appropriate communication skills.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ASSIGNMENT TWO CASE

 

 

MKT301 - Principles of Marketing

Module 1 - Case

Buying Behavior & Market Analysis

CASE ASSIGNMENT

In bold below there is a list of three product categories.  Within the product categories listed below identify TWO purchases you have made.  ONE must be a High Involvement purchase, and ONE a Low Involvement purchase.  The two purchases can be from the same product category, or from two different product categories, as appropriate:

• Computer software (e.g. game or app/application)
• Underwear 
• Restaurant

Excluding the title page, any appendices or references, write a four page paper in which you do the following:

First Page

Applying the teaching materials, explain why one product purchase was a High Involvement purchase and the other was a Low Involvement purchase. (10%)

Using the five stage model of the Purchase Decision Process in the model of consumer buying behavior described in Module 1, describe in detail the process you went through in making each purchase.  Bear in mind that the purpose of the assignment is to demonstrate the depth of your understanding of the teaching materials.  (20%)

Second Page

Identify and discuss the differences between the way you went through the purchase decision processes for the two products.  (20%)

Third and Fourth Pages

Assume now that you are marketing brands in two of the product categories listed above.  Applying only the teaching materials, specifically the presentation "Uses of a Model of Buying Behavior", explain how you might use your understanding of the Model of Consumer Buying Behavior in marketing the two products.  (Note that you are asked to APPLY the teaching materials, and thus simply listing what marketers can do in general is not sufficient.  You should think about what is explained in the teaching materials and then apply that learning to two of the product categories listed above).  (50%)

List at the end all of the references you have cited in the body of the paper. 

Note that the weight that will be assigned in grading to each of the sections of the assignment is indicated as a percentage after each one.  Fifty percent roughly equates to a C grade.

Ensure that you include on the title page:

• the name of the university, (Trident University International).  Papers submitted with a different name will not be accepted.
• the course number, (MKT301),
• the term, (Fall 2011),
• the module number, (Module One), 
• the words in bold above including the product categories and the section starting "First Page" and ending "...the two products. (50%)"
• the two product categories and relevant brand names you chose for each type of involvement purchase, e.g. "High Involvement: Computer software: World of Warcraft.  Low Involvement: Restaurant: Denny's.
• your name, 
• the name of the professor or instructor to whom the paper is submitted, (your assigned Professor or Instructor) and 
• the date on which it was written.

IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU INCLUDE THE INFORMATION INDICATED ABOVE. IF YOU DO NOT INCLUDE THIS INFORMATION ON THE TITLE PAGE YOU WILL BE ASKED TO REVISE THE PAPER TO INCLUDE IT AND DOING SO WILL THUS DELAY THE GRADING OF YOUR WORK.

EXPECTATIONS

The notes associated with the question indicate that, as for other assignments in the course, you should demonstrate your knowledge and understanding of the taught materials in the specific context of this assignment.  The emphasis in grading is primarily on whether you show that you understand what is being taught.  In that regard some relevant concepts and frameworks to demonstrate your understanding of in this assignment include:

• The difference between goods and services.
• What is meant by Involvement and why it might be high or low.
• The stages of the Purchase Decision Process, (PDP) and
• How a potential buyer might follow this process
• How the differences between High and Low Involvement affect the way someone might follow the PDP
• How marketers might use their understanding of the model of buying behavior including the PDP to:

• Segment a market, including explaining what is meant by segmentation and why segmentation can be useful in marketing.
• Influence purchase probabilities as indicated in the relevant presentation.

Bear in mind that the main goal of the assignment is for you to use it to demonstrate your learning and understanding of the background materials.  In order to do well in this assignment you MUST apply and demonstrate your learning from the background materials.

I know that there's a lot in Module 1 to cover, but this forms the grounding for the remaining modules, so once you have conquered this, the rest will be a lot easier.