Assessment 1 brief PDF

Preview

Summary

individual assignment brief...

Description

Assessment 1: Project Report (Comprehensive Case Analysis) This individual-based assignment requires students to undertake a case analysis of a company's strategic marketing issues. In week 3, the tutor will assign a company case to the class and students are requested to purchase the case material from an online case publisher (costs around $10). The case materials typically provides info about a focal company’s background, products/services, customers, internal/external environments, and market opportunities/threats. Students are not required to do any additional research on the company. Students should consider primarily the info provided within the case in dissecting the core problems/challenges of the company and propose managerial recommendations based on a thorough assessment of the available facts & info. In other words, the case describes a focal company's situation that happened in the past rather than its current situation (e.g., dealing with the COVID19 pandemic). Students should assess the company's previous situations depicted in the case instead of its latest situations and developments.

 

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

       

Learning Objectives: Deepen your knowledge and understanding of strategic marketing concepts by applying theories and principles learned from the lectures and textbook to solve real companies' marketing problems. Develop your critical thinking and analytical skills by critically assessing info about a company's unique situations and market environments, and developing strategies based on the results of systematic assessments. How to Perform a Case Analysis? Preparing a case analysis typically involves the following steps: Understand the background of the company, including its products & value propositions, target segments/customers, business models, major competitors, marketing capabilities, etc. Analyse the general market trends of the product market in which the focal company operates Analyse the company's major competitors and their strengths & relative competitive advantage Analyse the company's external micro environments, in terms of supplier/distribution relationships, customer relationships, etc. Analyse the market opportunities and threats, and the causes of those opportunities and threats Identify various marketing and operational issues/challenges the company is dealing with Identify the core problems/challenges the company must address in the short-term and longterm Propose solutions and recommendations to tackle the identified problems How to Identify Core Problems? Next, on the basis of your analysis, you should identify the current problems of the focal company. It is important to distinguish between symptoms and causes of the problems. Students should dig deep to diagnose the underlying causes (not readily observable) of the obvious symptoms. Here are some examples of typical symptoms of managerial problems: Company X lost market share and face sales decline Company X’s sales fluctuated a lot over years Company X’s customers complained often Company X's new product launch failed to gain traction Company X's social media strategies did not receive positive customer response Company X's digital marketing programs did not generate sales increment Finding answers to the following questions will help you identify the underlying causes of the problems. Are the marketing programs well planned and laid out? Are the program consistent with sound managerial principles? To what target market are the programs directed? Is it well defined? Is the market large enough to be profitably served? Does the market have long-run potential?

    

  









1. 2. 3.

4.

What competitive advantage do the marketing programs offer? If none, what can be done to gain a competitive advantage in the market place? What products are being sold? What is the width, depth, and consistency of the firm’s product lines? Does the firm need new products to fill out its product line? What promotion mix is being used? Is promotion consistent with the products and product images? What could be done to improve the promotion mix? What channels of distribution are being used? Do they deliver the product at the right time and right place to meet consumer needs? Could channels be made more efficient? What pricing strategies are being used? How do prices compare with similar products of other firms? How are prices determined? How to Propose Solutions and Managerial Recommendations? The solutions and recommendations should: Be feasible and effective in dealing with the core problems Take into considerations the financial and human resource constraints of the company Not just focus on marketing strategies and tactics as solutions -- the solutions must be comprehensive & holistic; their scope may encompass changes of business processes, human resources, corporate strategies & organisational structures, and inter-firm partnerships, etc. Students should consider offering alternative solutions for the identified core problems if there are more than one feasible solution. In some situations, it is also necessary to propose both short-term and long-term solutions. In addition, students should spell out the key criteria & metrics used to gauge whether these actions are progressing toward the desirable results. Some Noteworthy Tips for the Recommendations: Your set of recommendations and action plans should address the core problems you identified and analysed. State how your recommendations will solve the problems. If the recommendations come as a surprise or do not follow logically from the analysis, the effect is to weaken greatly your suggestions of what to do. Obviously, your recommendations for actions should offer a reasonable chance of success. Be sure the company is financially able to carry out what you recommend; also check to see if your recommendations are workable in terms of acceptance by the persons involved, the organization’s competence to implement them, and prevailing market and environmental constraints. By all means state your recommendations in sufficient detail to be meaningful - get down to some definite nitty-gritty specifics. Avoid such unhelpful statements as “the organization should do more planning” or “the company should be more aggressive in marketing its product.” Offer a definite agenda for action, stipulating a timetable and sequence for initiating actions, indicating priorities, and suggesting who should be responsible for doing what. In proposing an action plan, remember there is a great deal of difference between, on the one hand, being responsible for a decision that may be costly if it proves in error and, on the other hand, casually suggesting courses of action that might be taken when you do not have to bear the responsibility for any of the consequences. Report to be Submitted Each student is required to include the following sections in the submitted report. An analysis of the external environment of the company (Don't simply use a SWOT) (around 2 pages) Depending on the situations of the company depicted in the case, provide an analysis of EITHER the market opportunities OR threats faced by the company (around 1 page) Identify the core problems/challenges in dealing with the market opportunities or threats; explain clearly how your analysis leads you to come up with these problems/challenges (around 1 page or less) Propose solutions for addressing the identified problems/challenges; consider alternative solutions or short-term vs. long-term solutions; include criteria & metrics to assess the performance the solutions (around 2 pages)

The report should be 5 to 6 pages long. Provide a heading as above for each section in the report. The report is also graded on the basis of organisation, writing style, and clarity of ideas. The report must be formatted with 1.5 line spacing, one inch page margins, and Times New Roman 11pt font.

Assessment Criteria Thorough analysis and the extent to which the analysis is based on thorough assessments of info and facts depicted in the case 2. Use of concepts, theories, & principles learned in lectures, tutorials, and textbook 3. Exercise good business sense and judgement in developing managerial recommendations – the extent to which the proposed solutions can effectively deal with the identified problems, reflecting a thorough considering of the external and internal environments of the company 4. Tangible criteria and metrics are proposed to gauge the success/performance of the proposed solutions 1.

Deadline: Before 5PM 10 Oct 2020...