Marketing Management and Strategy

Module Title:	Marketing Management and Strategy
Word Limit:	Report: 3000 words

Scenario:

You should assume the same role in the report as that which you adopted in the presentations, in the scenario of an invitation to you personally from the Brand Manager of the new product/service to demonstrate that you can critically evaluate the current proposition and identify areas for improvement to enhance the potential for the product and brand. You have been asked to write a report to review and discuss how the key elements of marketing strategy and its application to practice would be instrumental in considering the future launch and success of your product/service if/when it goes to market, and the means by which evaluation and control on those strategic decisions could be made.

The Brand Manager is a practitioner not an academic and has expressed an interest in how the theory you learned as a student has led you to your conclusions and can inform, and be applied to, the practical process of new product development. Therefore, whilst the assignment requires academic underpinning you are required to use a combination of theory and practical examples in your report (3000 words maximum; Appendices may be included providing they are used to good effect; inappropriate use of information in tables e.g. to seemingly extend the word limit, will be discounted and penalised).

The issues you have been asked to address in your report include:

Task 1: 20 marks

As an introduction to the report you should provide a brief re-cap/summary of the new product/brand which the npd team you were working in delivered during the presentations.

You have now been asked to critically review that proposition to identify, and justify, any amendments which you would/could make to the original proposals for the product. As these amendments will have implications for different strategies across the 4Ps of the marketing mix, you should identify which strategies, and metrics, would be appropriate within each component, with justification for such, to reinforce the point of difference which needs to be apparent in the development and introduction of new products/services, and in particular to the enhanced proposal your amendments present.

Task 2: 30 marks

However, as the traditional goods oriented perspective, represented by the 4Ps, is no longer solely appropriate for many companies that operate in dynamic business environments, there has been a paradigm shift in marketing literature and practices as more emphasis is now being given to intangible resources as an integral part of the product/service offering. In light of this you should critically analyse and recommend the best strategic options for your amended product/service across the components of the Extended Marketing Mix, i.e. the additional 3Ps that make up the 7Ps model, and suggest the appropriate marketing metrics that could be applied to each component, justifying your choices and indicating the relevance and benefits that this perspective might bring to add value to your proposition whilst enabling management to exercise evaluation and control. You should discuss this development, drawing on relevant literature/research findings and examples pertaining to services marketing, relationship marketing, internal marketing and social and ethical marketing issues.

Task 3: 20 marks

As your company is keen to optimise customer engagement with your product/brand, you have been asked you to identify different touch points which could be used in the launch of your product. You should identify some of the key issues and strategies from the previous tasks to justify/dismiss your choices and indicate how they relate to target marketing strategy for enhancing the potential for customer engagement and added value. Again, you need to identify the marketing metrics that would be most appropriate across this process, analysing how and why they would contribute to the evaluation and control when analysing the success of your product when it goes to market.

Overall :

The module specific assessment criteria used to establish the actual mark awarded for this assignment are provided (pp13-14), however, additional marks have been allocated to these criteria for those students who demonstrate due diligence in the preparation and composition of the following in the individual components:

Presentation: correct format (report); planning/structure; writing style; word limit; professional in style; appropriate and creative use of Appendices if used; proofread. (10 marks)

Referencing: scope, range and use of reputable sources including academic journals and reliable industry specific sources; market intelligence; use of citations/sources in body and Appendices; APA style; References page correctly listed. (10 marks)

The level of critical evaluation/appraisal of the literature and relevant marketing theories relating to the issues under review; demonstration of marketing awareness and the application of marketing theory to practice in and between tasks; appropriate incorporation of the theory; academic rigour; creativity (10 marks)

For Individual Assessment/Feedback sheet, see Appendix 6

Individual Task: Self-Reflection statement

Every student has to submit a reflective statement, maximum one side of A4, reflecting on their experience of working in groups and the learning outcomes which have occurred as a result of the experience. The focus should be on the process rather than the tasks you undertook, and linked to the learning outcomes, skills and objectives of the assignment.

This task is confidential. It should be submitted as an Appendix in your report. It carries no marks weightings but is a compulsory component in the assignment.

Notes:

Students are recommended to refer to the guidelines provided by the University on the issues relating to group work, peer and self-evaluation in addition to the issues below relating to the individual submission:

1. The work should be written in role and presented in report format.

1. It should comply with the word limit, be in font 11 with line and a half spacing.

1. All tasks must be addressed and demonstrate use of theoretical concepts and relevant examples.

1. All research should be obtained via secondary sources only. Companies should not be contacted directly.

1. Whilst it is acknowledged it would be unusual to incorporate academic citations in a business report, for the purpose of this work academic sources and references should be used to illustrate your additional reading and awareness of the topics and will be considered in the overall assessment as indicative of productive independent learning for the module.

1. Referencing should conform to Business School specifications - APA.

1. This is an individual assignment and no longer a group effort – beware of collusion.

The Turnitin plagiarism detection facility will be made available on the module Blackboard site for students to use to check their work. Students are required to submit a Turnitin report. Failure to do so will result in a mark of 0. The Turnitin report should be included as an Appendix in the individual report. Further details will be made available on Blackboard.

Guidance

Most good marketing management textbooks (including the main textbook) will have useful material, but students are also expected to use a range of journal articles.

Students who do not use journal articles are unlikely to pass this assignment and will be penalised for providing an inadequate ‘depth of research’.

Students are required to submit their work in a basic report format – including a cover sheet, contents page and references list, appendix if required; headings and subheadings as appropriate. Students writing in essay format will be penalised.