AMD 275 Major Project Part 1 2021 PDF

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Summary

Dr. Arienne McCracken...

Description

AMD 275 Retail Merchandising

Major Project Part 1: Retailer Market, Customer, & Competitor Research ! (100 points) Due to Canvas: March 28 at 11:59 pm

Overview This project provides students with a comprehensive view of the structure, function, and operation of retail-related firms. Experience will be gained in assessment of financial and non-financial performance measures for the firm, market/customer/competitive analysis, and merchandising decisions related to line planning and related business strategies. The team format mirrors the typical contemporary work environment in the apparel industry.!

General Project Information •

Students will work with their confirmed project team to complete Part 1 of this project. They will then use knowledge from Part 1 to collaborate with their team and develop Part 2 of this project, the New Line/Strategy Proposal for their selected firm.

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The selected firm must be domestic in scope (corporate office is in the United States).

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The firm format may be a traditional store-based retail-, hospitality-, or event-focused business or a multi-channel operation.

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The company must be a publicly held company. This means the company is traded on a stock market. Information is much more accessible for publicly held firms. Also, firms that aggregate financial information (i.e., PVH) may pose research challenges.

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You will need to use information from the ISU Library Guide databases (link on Canvas) to complete the project.

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You may also use the company’s own website and sources obtained from Google searches for this project. However, you are expected to use a variety of reference sources—especially industry databases—and not just the textbook or company website.

Project Content and Research Approach •

The content you must include in the paper is shown below. PLEASE USE THE 9 CONTENT SUBHEADINGS AS LABELS for organizing your project. Slight adaptations may need to be made for retail versus hospitality versus events firms, but the approach should be broadly applicable.

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AMD 275 Retail Merchandising •

You will need to meet regularly via Zoom, group chat, text, emails, Facetime, GroupMe, or other online means to complete all facets of this project. You and your team must manage your time and schedules, divide work, and share information. All team members must meet their obligations to the team to be successful with this project.

Required Content Use these subheadings in your report: 1. Company Structure History, overview, mission, philosophy, firm structure, management style, culture, interaction of firm constituencies (voters, customers, supporters), stakeholders, and firm’s ownership. 2. Focus of the Firm and Business Model Overview of products, services, experiences offered. Your report should answer this question: How does this firm make money? 3. Scope of Operations Does your company sell domestically and/or internationally? Is it a retailer or wholesaler? What store and non-store aspects does it have? 4. Customer Base Target market(s), customer segmentation approach, does it sell business to business? 5. Performance and Profitability (Current year and last 3-5 years): industry benchmarking data, key performance ratios, and comparisons of firm to others in its industry sector. Be sure to explain and interpret—not just show tables—any financial data presented in the paper. 6. Competitor Analysis Who are the primary and secondary competitors of this firm? Do they differ in various markets? Discuss and compare your firm to major competitors in areas such as market share, sales, brand preferences, and other competitive information. 7. Competitive Capabilities of the Firm • Internal factors that impact this firm: o Are there any unique sources of competitive advantage held by this firm such as brand, service quality, private label, technology integration, or other? How is it differentiated in the marketplace? o Do a SWOT analysis for your firm and depict in a SWOT table. o Provide explanation for your SWOT table in paragraph form. • Discuss external market factors impacting this firm: o Competitive, political, economic, trade issues, social, technology, or other issues? 8. Merchandise Planning and Product Development Practices Product quality levels, assortment planning, pricing policies, inventory planning and control,

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AMD 275 Retail Merchandising timing, products outsourced, vertically integrated firm or not, brief overview of product development process for this firm. 9. Sourcing and Distribution Practices Domestic vs. off-shore sourcing, type of technology enhancements, QR and other vendorsupported relationships, distribution practices, inventory control, vendor relationships.

Formatting and Other Details •

The final project must be typed, spellchecked, and of professional quality.

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A minimum of 8 appropriate references are required for the project.

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APA (American Psychological Association) style 6th edition should be used for in-text citations, quotations, and references. An APA reference guide is available on Canvas.

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One electronic Word or PDF document of the report must be submitted to Canvas by 11:59 pm on March 28, 2021.

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Provide a cover page that includes: Name of company, Major Project Part 1: Retailer Market, Customer, and Competitor Research, all team member names, instructor name, AMD 275: Retail Merchandising.

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You should provide approximately 1/2 page of concise, well-documented information for each section, attempting to address all aspects listed.

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Information should be typed, single-spaced (this requirement is an exception from APA style) with double spacing between paragraphs and report sections.

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The final paper should be approximately 5-7 pages in length.

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Be certain to follow American Psychological Association (APA) carefully and that all work is well researched, supported, and documented with appropriate citations. BOTH a final reference list and corresponding in-text reference citations are required.

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Please be sure to use page numbers.

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You may include lengthy tables, figures, or visuals in an appendix section after the final reference list.

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This is a professional market research paper. High-quality written work that is free of errors is expected.

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The team evaluation form for Part 1 must be completed individually by each team member and uploaded to Canvas by March 28. The evaluation form is on Canvas.

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