Marketing Strategy and Management

Assignment 2: Required Assignment 1—Strategic Marketing Recommendations

In this assignment, you will compare and contrast the differences between marketing strategies in a changing competitive environment.

Scenario:

Consumer behavior and competitive market analysis are key initiatives for a marketing manager. With the changing competitive environment of the global marketplace, marketing managers are always in search of evolving markets and underserved profitable niches to provide them with a competitive advantage. Porter’s Five Forces and strategies to overcome the Five Forces are seminal works on competitive advantage.

Select a company and a product in an industry affected by changes in the business environment or in consumer preferences. As a consultant to that company, you are asked to provide strategic marketing recommendations.

Directions:

1. Describe the company you chose and the industry they are in; include an overview of one of their products/services and the markets they serve. Present their current marketing strategy.
2. Using Porter’s Five Forces framework, evaluate the profitability of the current market. Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the strategies currently used to market the product/service.
3. Research at least six peer-reviewed academic articles related to marketing strategy and competitive advantage.
4. Using best practices from the literature, propose a new marketing strategy to give your selected company a competitive advantage. Include the following in your marketing strategy:
   • Describe how the proposed marketing strategy aligns with the goals of the company.
   • Examine areas in the marketing strategy that could provide a competitive advantage based on current marketplace competition.
   • Analyze market segmentation, differentiated points of value, message(s), and product positioning.

Write a 6–8-page report in Word format. Utilize at least six scholarly sources in your research. Make sure you write in a clear, concise, and organized manner; demonstrate ethical scholarship in accurate representation and attribution of sources; display accurate spelling, grammar, and punctuation.

Apply APA standards to citation of sources. Use the following file naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M3_A2.doc. For example, if your name is John Smith, your document will be named SmithJ_M3_A2.doc.

By Sunday, November 20, 2016, deliver your assignment to the M3: Assignment 2 Dropbox.

Required Assignment Grading Criteria and Rubric: