Marketing 401 Course Project
Marketing 401
Course Project
Name____________________________________
Name of Product_________________Microsoft Pro _________________
For the course project, you will select an organization and submit the name to the professor for approval by the topic due date. You will then rely on this document to draft a report on the approved product or service. The questions provided below are to facilitate the structure of your document. You do not need to directly answer each one of them, but it is recommended that you consider them in your write-up as they apply to your topic.
Be sure to have a title for each of the ten project aspects you elect to address.
This document must be typed in paragraph form. At least ten of the fourteen subtopics listed below must be addressed. Each topic addressed should have its own title and section. It should be very clear to the reader which topic you are addressing.
Coverage of each topic should be a minimum of half a page and a maximum of one full page. Do not include information that is not required, such as company history or detailed product descriptions..
Subtopics (Please include your selections from this list in the order presented here.)
Environmental analysis—discuss at least three sections, such as economic, demographic, competitive, political/legal, social/cultural, or technological
Industry information—discuss overall industry conditions and trends, mentioning buyer behavior, competitive intensity, and overall growth or decline of the industry.
Competitor analysis--discuss the strengths, weaknesses, and strategy of at least two major competitors.
Corporate mission—discuss what your organization stands for, and its reason for existence
Corporate analysis and appraisal—analyze your organization’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, and review recent performance and future goals
General marketing strategy—discuss your overall strategy regarding products and markets, including your competitive strategy
Marketing research techniques employed—discuss the internal and external methods you use to gather information on consumers, competitors, and general market conditions
Market strategy—discuss your use of a single versus multiple market strategy, and market entry or exit strategy
Market segmentation strategy—discuss the categories of customers do you serve, and what are they based on demographic, geographic, or behavioral (psychographic) dimensions, including commercial versus consumer segments
Positioning strategy--discuss how you project a unique image to consumers and differentiate yourself from your closest competitors
Product analysis and strategy—discuss the various products in your product mix, including market leaders, and those in the growth or decline stage of the product life cycle
Pricing strategy—discuss your use of profit maximization, target return, penetration, competitive, or skimming pricing strategy
Promotion strategy—discuss the elements of your promotional (integrated marketing communications) mix and recent adjustments to them based on changing market conditions
Distribution strategy—discuss your methods of physically distributing your product to various customers and markets, or of reaching various customers with your service (intangible) offering
The following questions, arranged by topic, may assist you in addressing that topic. If you use them, do not include the question in your project document, just your response written in conversational paragraph format.
Environmental Analysis
Discuss the environment in which your organization operates?
What major environmental forces affect or will affect you?
Which aspects of the social-cultural environment most affect your organization?
How will you conduct environmental scanning?
Industry Information
Discuss the nature of your industry.
What is the current climate in your industry?
How would you describe the future of your industry?
What entry or exit barriers exist in your industry?
Competitor Analysis
Briefly analyze an important competitor in terms of strategies, objectives, strengths and weaknesses.
Discuss the various classes of your competitors, mentioning names.
Discuss the intensity, or degree, of the competition you face.
Corporate Mission
How would you define your organization’s mission?
Discuss your value orientation—what you intend to deliver to consumers.
Corporate Analysis and Appraisal
Explain how you would go about conducting a corporate appraisal.
What would you list in an analysis of your organization’s strengths and weaknesses?
How do you measure past performance?
How will you measure strategic performance?
Discuss the organization of your organization’s marketing function.
Discuss your marketing function’s relations with other areas of the organization.
Discuss your strategy for building a company-wide marketing orientation.
How will you evaluate and control your total marketing effort?
Select several key items of importance that you would want to examine in a marketing audit.
General Marketing Strategy
Discuss several important strategic planning initiatives facing your organization.
Discuss your growth strategy.
What goals are important to you at the present time?
What strategic alliances make sense for you now or in the future?
How will you seek to acquire a competitive advantage?
Analyze/discuss your corporate strategic direction.
How have you organized for strategic effectiveness?
Discuss your product/market objectives.
Discuss your system for implementing marketing strategy.
Marketing Research Techniques Employed
How do you monitor industry trends?
How do you monitor consumer needs and behavior?
How will you determine industry sales and market shares?
Discuss your competitive intelligence system.
Market Strategy
Discuss your use of a market-scope strategy—do you serve the full market or just part of it?
Discuss your use of a market-geography strategy—are you local, regional, national or international?
Discuss your use of a market-entry strategy—explain your decision to enter a new market.
Discuss your use of a market-commitment strategy—how do you decide which markets you will commit to and how you will do it.
Market Segmentation Strategy
Using one product or your entire organization, discusses your level of market segmentation.
Positioning Strategy
Discuss your product positioning strategy.
Discuss your product re-positioning strategy, if relevant.
Product Analysis and Strategy
How will you define your market boundaries? Will you define the markets you will serve by function? By technology? By customer type?
Discuss your use of a product overlap strategy—can two of your products serve the same customer in the same way?
Discuss your use of a product elimination strategy.
Explain the marketing strategy you do or would employ, based on the life cycle stage of a product/service.
Discuss your new product strategy.
Explain your diversification strategy.
Discuss your product portfolio (use the product portfolio matrix approach).
How does or might your organization use line or brand extensions?
Pricing Strategy
What will be your immediate pricing strategy?
What factors determine your organization’s degree of price sensitivity?
Discuss your various products’ elasticity of demand. How sensitive sales of your products to a change in price?
Which pricing strategy will you select?
What methods might you employ in adapting your price?
Discuss your use of a price-flexibility strategy. Do you charge different customers different prices for the same products?
Discuss your use of a product line-pricing strategy. How does the price of one item in your product line affect the prices of other items in the line?
Discuss your use of a bundling-pricing strategy. Are any of your products available as a bundle for one price?
How would you respond to a competitor’s price change?
Promotion Strategy
Discuss your promotion mix strategy, including media advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and public relations/publicity.
Explain the factors that do or will influence your promotional strategy.
Discuss your advertising copy strategy.
How will you measure the results of your advertising effort?
How will you set media timing, and decide on the geographical allocation of your advertising?
What purposes are hopefully served by your sales promotion efforts?
Which consumer promotion and/or trade promotion tools do you use?
Discuss your personal selling strategy.
Discuss your sales force structure.
Discuss your sales force size and method of compensation.
What factors are considered when recruiting and selecting sales representatives?
Discuss your efforts at training and supervising sales representatives.
How do you motivate your sales representatives?
How do you evaluate your sales representatives?
Distribution Strategy
Discuss your channel-structure strategy, including channel length and types of intermediaries.
Discuss your distribution scope strategy. Local? Regional? National? International?
Discuss your use of a multiple-channel distribution strategy.
How will you determine the number of intermediaries to use, and the responsibilities of channel members?
How might product life cycle stage influence your decision to modify channel arrangements?
Do or could you use multiple channels of distribution?
Discuss possible examples of channel conflict, their causes, and how you will manage them.
What legal or ethical issues might arise regarding your channel relations?