Fund of Marketing and Sales
· Overview
Choose a company's product and submit a detailed analysis of the product.
All of us have a perspective of marketing from the role of a consumer, but have you ever thought about the media and messages behind the products and services you use every day? Many people think marketing means personal selling. Others think it means advertising. Still others believe marketing has to do with making products available in stores, arranging displays, and maintaining inventories of products for future sales. Actually, marketing includes all of these activities and more.
Effective marketing begins with great products. The central focus of a marketing program will be on a product for which the integrated marketing effort will summarize the essence of that product. All of this will include the company, competition, and customer requirements. Design, product positioning, and other elements are part of product line management's efforts to maintain a unique set of values in the customer's mind, either carving out a niche or maintaining market share leadership against the onslaught of competitive products.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
· Competency 1: Examine the basic marketing models for a business or organization.
1. Address assessment purpose in a well-organized text, incorporating appropriate evidence and tone in grammatically sound sentences.
. Competency 3: Examine the relationship of basic marketing strategies to business success.
2. Evaluate product strategies to business success.
. Competency 4: Apply effective marketing planning and implementation.
3. Describe competition for product and the marketing environment.
3. Discuss branding of the product, including intended audience and product positioning.
3. Describe the product and their target market.
Competency Map
CHECK YOUR PROGRESS Use this online tool to track your performance and progress through your course.
Questions to Consider
As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. Consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.
Whether you realize it or not, marketing affects your everyday life in some manner. Companies are constantly using marketing messages to try to grab your attention and prompt a response. For this activity, for a couple of days pay attention to the companies trying to attract your attention. Watch your mail, email, phone calls, and TV advertisements.
. Who is marketing to you?
. Do you agree you are their target market?
. What do you think is the intent and purpose of their marketing efforts?
Resources
Marketing 101: What Is It?
Read the following to begin your learning:
. Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F., & McDaniel, C. (2019). MKTG 12 (12th ed.). Cengage Learning. Available in the courseroom via the VitalSource Bookshelf link.
1. Chapters 1 and 4.
. Business Jargons. (n.d.). Marketing environment. https://businessjargons.com/marketing-environment.html
All of a company's marketing activities revolve around the target market. Consider the target market like the hub of a wheel—everything revolves around it. Read more:
. Porta, M. (n.d.). How to define your target market. https://www.inc.com/guides/2010/06/defining-your-target-market.html
The following article gives a great example of the role that positioning plays in marketing decisions. It is not the location on a shelf but how a company wants to position its product in the mind of the consumer compared to the competition:
. Hatch, C. (2018). Positioning in marketing: Carving out your business niche. https://www.disruptiveadvertising.com/marketing/positioning-in-marketing/
Get up to speed on the 4 Ps, an important concept in this course, and learn about a fifth P that helps marketers take a company's marketing to the next level:
. The 4 Ps of Marketing [PDF] .
You may find the following information helpful as you prepare for your assessment:
. Assessment 1 Context [PDF] .
Have some fun with this formative assessment as you help a new strategic marketing manager to make decisions. This activity is ungraded and will not affect your course standing:
· Assessment Instructions
Note: Assessments 1–3 in this course require you to complete a marketing analysis. Because they build on each other, it is recommended but not required that you complete them in sequence.
Overview
This assessment allows you to analyze in depth a product of your choice. You will be able to look in a detailed manner at how a company maximizes the branding of the product, the competition, and how the company positions the product in the marketplace.
Preparation
Pick a company that makes or sells products, not a service-oriented company. Use the same company for all assessments in this course. Try to go beyond the typical consumer electronic offerings, such as Apple. If you are in doubt about your chosen company but if it will work for the project, please ask your faculty member.
Instructions
As an attachment to this assessment, submit your analysis of the first P (product) for your chosen company's product. The central focus of a marketing program is the product. It is the sole basis and driving force behind all marketing activities and what excites a target market. Your product analysis should include the company, competition, and target market requirements. In your analysis, evaluate the following:
. Analyze the product and the company's primary target market. What are the niche characteristics of the product and the traits of the primary target market?
. Analyze the branding of the product, including the intended audience and the product positioning. What influence, if any, does the brand have on its product category?
. Analyze the competition for the product, and the overall marketing environment.
. Synthesize product strategies for the company to achieve business success. Why will those strategies yield success? What would you recommend the company do in terms of this product to assure its long-term success?
. Cite any resources you use.
. Be sure your analysis presents a focused purpose through strong organizational skills. Also be sure it presents evidence through strong paraphrasing/summarizing and appropriate tone and sentence structure.
Note: Faculty may use the Writing Feedback Tool when grading this assessment. The Writing Feedback Tool is designed to provide you with guidance and resources to develop your writing based on five core skills. You will find writing feedback in the Scoring Guide for the assessment, once your work has been evaluated. Learn more about the Writing Feedback Tool on the course Tools and Resources page.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
. Written communication: Communication should be clear and well organized, and support a central idea, with no technical writing errors, as expected of a business professional.
. References: References and citations are formatted in a consistent style, with a preference for using APA style and formatting .
. Number of resources: Use a minimum of three scholarly resources related to the content of the assessment.
. Length of paper: Approximately 3–4 typed, double-spaced pages, in addition to the title and references pages.
. Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.