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Marketing Analytics Final Paper For this marketshare project we analyzed and improved our product throughout the six periods in order to increase our stock price. At first we started our product off as a cold syrup but then over time we decided to change it to a cough suppressant. This document should inform you on the steps that our group took in order to achieve the stock price that we did. Specifically, this document will include our products market plan, performance objectives, actual performance, key success factors, and important takeaways. Our product was a cold syrup for our first 4 periods, then we switched to cough suppressant due to comments made in the market update requesting more cough-related properties. In the beginning, benefits such as “clears nasal congestion” and “dries up runny nose” were used, but then we switched to benefits like “suppresses coughing” to appeal to the target consumer. Our second product was targeted toward young and middle-aged families, mainly because the introduction of our second product was made for children’s use. Our main competitor was Besthelp, and although the products did differ in their elements, they were our main rival. The promotion of our product was divided into four categories: Primary, Comparison, Benefits and Reminder. Primary had a budget allocation of 30%, Comparison had an allocation of 25% (comparing to Besthelp), Benefits was given 25% and Reminder was given 20%. These decisions were based on Market Update. We greatly increased our comparison allocation over the course of the project because comments were stating that they preferred BestHelp over All Star products.

Price – How have you changed the price or promotional allowances of the product? What was your justification? Describe any effects on sales, market share, etc. that these changes had. Place - What decisions have you made that affected the channels of distribution (such as adding or changing the number of salespeople per channel)? Defend why you made those decisions. Discuss any future changes that you think may be necessary. Overall how would you evaluate your decisions on the financial outcomes – sales, market share, etc? What lessons have you learned that will help you make decisions in future periods? For period 1, we first reallocated our Salesforce to different areas. We increased the number of Drugstores (33), Grocery Stores (33), and Mass Merch (33), but lowered the number of the Indirect Salesforce (25). This left us with the same number of Total Salesforce (126). Additionally, we promoted the benefits of relieving aches, nasal congestion, chest congestion, runny nose, and helping you rest, with a comparison to our leading competitor, Besthelp. Our budget centered around 46.2% going to advertising, 15.8% going to promotion, and 38.0% going to Salesforce. Since this was our first real period, there were no special decision that had to be made. We were successful in this period as our stock price increase to $13.70 from $12.61 in period 0, and the price of our product was $4.79. In period 2, the stock price went down $0.83 from $13.70 to $12.87. There were two incidents that took place during this period as well. The first incident was Allround’s advertising began targeting our selected demographic groups. The second incident that took place was there was an issue with employee oversharing. This issue was corrected through the implementation of a blogging policy which saw success. The excitement over Jason’s postings had simmered and employees expressed their appreciation for the guidelines outlined by the new blogging policy. In addition, our net income rose from $43.5 to $45.6, possibly because we increased our grocery store and mass merchandising salesforces.

In period 3, the stock price went down to $12.12 from $12.87, and we also had the choice to introduce a new brand, which we decided to go with. Besthelp, our competitor, also introduced a new product called Besthelp+ so this affected our sales. The employee oversharing incident also calmed down a bit from the last period, so our company’s buzz returned to normal and we could focus on the product more. In addition, our sales slightly declined again, due to the new product introduced by our competitors after a steady incline of sales. Although our stock had lessened and our sales declined slightly, our income did raise from previous periods to about $45.5 million. For period 4, the first thing we addressed was the special case scenario. This was product tampering, where someone had placed bleach in or product. We issued a statement of condolences, removed damaged product from our shelves, offered compensation to victims and modified the packaging to prevent tampering. We also increased our drugstore and grocery store sales forces while decreasing the indirect sales force. We decreased our prices by 20 cents as well because many of our consumers were saying that it was too pricey. Our advertising budget focused on the primary message and the comparison too, just to compete with Best Help. For period 5, we again addressed the special case. This case was based on 2 of our sales people who were unhappy with their current geographic locations because the workloads were unbalanced. We redefined their territories based on their workload. We increased our product price to compete with Best Help, but kept it 5 cents cheaper than our competitors. Our advertising budget than focused on cough relief over cold relief because the highest percentage of sales in all locations were for coughs. We continued comparisons with BestHelp too. Period 6 is the final period so we do not input anything to this time frame. In order to be successful and increase stock price in Marketshare, groups should have

clear communication about the different aspects that they might change and if there is a consensus with the change. Additionally, each group should be sure that they have thoroughly read the “market update” after each period and predict trends for adjustments for the next period. The use of research reports that are available for purchase on the simulation are also very useful for comparing your company's dynamics to other competitors who might be doing better in the industry. Lastly, a group should never overlook the “special decision” portion which provides a new problem for each period. Some important take aways from this simulation experiment would be how volatile an industry really is. Something that works flawlessly in one “period” might not directly translate to success in the next period because of uncontrollable factors that might affect an industry. Keeping up with competitors in terms of pricing, advertising, and shelf space might be a good tactic to ensure that you still hold a large portion of the market share. Additionally, purchasing research reports about your industry also helps in making important adjustments to your company. This paper precisely outlined the products market plan, performance objectives, actual performance, key success factors, and important takeaways. After working to improve the product with all the challenges the company faced, we ended with a stock price of $11.11. This document should assist you in understanding the steps that our group took to obtain this stock price after the six periods. If you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to contact our team leader at [email protected]...