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MARKETING TEAM ASSIGNMENT 2 - The Marketing Mix

Due: Monday – November 19, 2018 – 9:00PM

One copy to Turnitin and another copy to [email protected] . Send as a Word document. Follow the instructions and requirements. In email subject enter the following: Company Name - GB214 Section XXX/Team XXX

This should be on the title/cover page:

Company Name

Logo (Optional)

GB 214 Section XXX – Team No. XX

The list the team members in alphabetical order

Brown, Jeff

Doe, John

Johnson, Everett

Williams, Melanie

In this paper, your team will examine the company’s segmentation, targeting, positioning strategies and the marketing mix strategies used to create, communicate and deliver customer value.

1. Analysis of the market

Define your market. Describe all people you are trying to market, for example, people who buy shoes, or people who buy environmentally friendly cars, or businesses that need accounting service, etc. For any business, there are different ways to define their market (e.g., people who go to amusement parks vs. people who seek a vacation experience). Depending how you define your market, the size of your market as well as your competitors will vary. Also, specify the geographic area you are considering (e.g., customers in U.S., in Northeast etc.). Provide a brief statement regarding the trend of the market: is it growing? Shrinking? What’s the potential?

2. Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning

Segmentation Identify major segmentation variables. What is the best way to understand the whole market? One way is to start with consumer needs and wants. Determine all the market segments’ needs and wants within the category that your product competes in. You can also use other variables such as “frequency of purchase” to start. Find the most logical one(s) and state your rationale. It varies by industry and type of company.

Next, try to gain better understanding of these segments in terms of their geographic, demographics, psychographics, and behavioral variables.

Targeting Identify the main market segments that you company focuses their efforts on. Develop at least two segmentation profiles representing the target markets of your company (Persona Profiles - fictional representative of the target market, such as the example provided). State your rationale (why these segments are attractive? Use the criteria discussed in class.) Explain how the two target markets are different. Which targeting strategy your company/product employs. Support your conclusion with valid arguments.

NOTE: Target markets should be UNIQUE, which means you have to justify why they are two separate segments. If they are similar, you would NOT treat them as two because there are costs involved in STP.

Next, try to validate your target markets by using data/information available:

1. Use Mediamark (if available) to determine the main users of your product. Identify demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral (e.g. media preference, activities, etc.) characteristics, placing this data in an appendix. Compare it with the profiles you developed. Do they match? Why or why not?

2. Review Mosaic’s segmentation schema (posted on Bb) and identify the closest matches in Mosaic’s profiles (within Demographics Now) with the profiles you developed. Summarize these Mosaic profiles in a table/chart and attach to the appendix.

NOTE: Please use “two” profiles as a rule of thumb. If your company covers a broad spectrum of customers, then maybe three or four is more appropriate. The number of segments targeted should cover a significant amount of the overall market.

Example: Sarah Thompson (you can use description instead of table)

Variables:
Geographic:	Lives in suburban Natick, near metropolitan Boston
Demographics:	Married, with 2 kids, 34 year old, condo owner, accountant; graduate degree, HH income: $100K
Psychographics:	Photography hobbyist Enjoys cooking and entertaining
Behaviors (link to category or brand use):	Responds to “industry experts” opinions with purchase decisions Not brand loyal Shops at Costco on weekends for groceries and wine

Positioning Evaluate both your product/brand and key competitor’s positioning from the eyes of the target consumer.

· Outline the product’s positioning, linking it to their value proposition.

· Map your product and the key competitor’s positions using the Perceptual Map (include store brands if a key competitor) based on attributes/features in the buyer behavior evaluation of alternative stage (i.e., what are the major attributes that the target market would consider they making purchases).

If you identify two (or more) target markets you can use the same criteria to make decisions. If not, you may want to construct individual perceptual maps for each target market.

3. Marketing Mix Strategies (4 P’s) Organization use marketing strategies to create, communicate and deliver customer value. In this section, you will survey your company’s 4P strategies, link them to the target markets, and analyze them.

NOTE : When a company covers multiple target markets, it should have multiple sets of marketing mix to serve each market. For example, different product variations sold at different places at different price points; communicating with different target markets through different media etc. While you analyzing the 4Ps below, keep in mind of the target markets you identified in #1 of this assignment and try to make the connections, e.g., For whom these products are developed? To whom these prices are catered to? To whom these messages are trying to communicate?

Product

Identify the process used to create customer value from a product/service. Assess how marketers develop products and services to satisfy a target consumer’s needs or want.

· Describe the complete product package (identifying the core, actual and augmented parts of the product), include any ancillary services, warranties, benefits, packages, etc., that are part of the product. Explain why some of the actual and augmented components are important to meet the target market(s) wants and needs.

· Are there different product lines? Variations of the products? What target market(s) are they serving? Are they “acceptable” to the target markets?

· Describe the brand’s personality. What are the brand attributes and which are most relevant and valuable to the consumer? Reflect on the brand’s strength and equity.

· Consider where the product is on the Product Life Cycle (PLC) and its implications for marketing strategies.

Place

Identify the process marketing channel members use to partner to add value with efficient and effective delivery of the product/service to the target customer when and where desired.

· Where is the product purchased or consumed? Does it vary across different target markets?

· List the types of marketing channel members that are partners in delivering the product to the end user along with their associated value they bring to the value chain.

· Describe the channel of distribution used for the product (direct/indirect, # of levels) and provide a diagram of their value delivery network (if applicable).

· Determine what distribution strategy the firm employs (coverage: exclusive, intensive, and selective).

· Evaluate the value delivery network’s effectiveness and efficiency in reaching their target and note any key issues/opportunities. Are they “accessible” to the target markets?

Price Identify the process used by your company to capture value via their pricing strategy. Assess the assignment of value and amount the target consumer must exchange to receive product/service.

· Search and find your product’s list prices and key competitors pricing as well. Identify any price variations (e.g., do prices vary by product lines, retail outlets, different customer status? Are different prices matched with different target markets?).

· Identify the pricing objectives (competitive effect, profit, customer satisfaction, image enhancement).

· Describe the pricing strategies that the company appears to be using (cost, competition, value based) while linking to their strategy to placement on PLC (skim/penetration) and product positioning (prestige/value pricing).

· Examine the pricing environment of your product: economy, raw material, competition, consumer trends, target market’s wants/needs, etc. Analyze the effects of these factors on customer price sensitivity (elastic/inelastic, cross-elastic).

· Describe the pricing tactics: (single/multiple, bundling, captive, trade) and if the company is using promotions (e.g. trade promotions or sales price) as a large part of their marketing mix.

· Are the prices “affordable” to each target market?

Promotion Identify the process your company employees to engage and communicate with their target markets.

· Determine what communication tools are mainly used and for what purpose.

· Provide specific tactical examples with a description of the central message (attach examples in an appendix if available). Use the AIDA Model to identify the objective of each. Relate to PLC while you analyze the objectives.

· Assess if the promotional strategy is effective in reaching the intended target consumer and successful at nurturing customer relationships. Are there variations in terms of strategies reaching different target markets? Are target markets “aware” of the value created and delivered?

4. Marketing Mix Analysis and Recommendations

a. Relating to the two (or more) target markets you identified earlier

i. Describe if and how the various elements of the marketing mix work together in a coherent strategy that is attractive to each of the target market.

ii. Identify variations in marketing mix that support different target markets.

b. Does the marketing mix support the organization’s mission, vision, and positioning?

c. Based on the opportunities and challenges facing the company identified in your first paper, what marketing mix strategy changes do you recommend to company consider? Why?

Length Guideline: 7 to 8 pages maximum (plus graphs, exhibits, examples, etc. as needed)

Due Date: Refer to master schedule.

Points Available: 60% of Team Assignments grade

GRADING RUBRIC

Your grade will be based on the clarity of your segment profiles developed, rationale for the segments, and the effort/depth in utilizing secondary data and clarity of your presentation. In your analysis you should utilize relevant knowledge and concepts learned from the class (i.e., use the terms from the book where appropriate).

Marketing Mix (4Ps)	Weight
Analyzing the market	6
Segmentation, targeting, positioning	18
Product	6
Place	6
Price	6
Promotion	6
Marketing mix analysis and recommendation	6
Overall formatting, citation, and presentation	6
Total	60

Helpful Hints

· Write one paper, not several individual papers copied and pasted together.

· Be sure the paper is integrated—all sections of the paper are aligned (no contradictions).

· Number your pages

· Format the paper uniformly.

· Provide facts—no hype, no fluff, no flowery language

· Do not copy textbook definitions but do relate to concepts learned.

· If “no source” is provided, it’s either plagiarism or made up—more source citations are better.

· Use bullets, lists, tables, charts, etc. when appropriate. These may be attached to the paper; therefore, not included in the page-count. But do reference them in the text.

· Provide only the most important information to stay within the page limits for each paper.