Department of Marketing - University of Auckland

Project Handbook
MKTG 301 Marketing Strategy
Semester Two 2012

S2 2012

Contents
1. 2. Background Information on the MKTG 301 Project .............................................. 2 Project Brief for Semester Two, 2012 .................................................................... 3 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 3. 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 4. 4.1 4.2 4.3 5. 5.1 5.2 6. 7. Introduction..................................................................................................... 3 What Microsoft Can Offer ............................................................................... 3 Project Focus ................................................................................................... 3 Client Brief and Meetings with Industry Contact ............................................ 4 Outline for Writing a Marketing Plan .............................................................. 5 Some Helpful Hints in Writing Marketing Plans .............................................. 6 Guidelines ........................................................................................................ 6 Report Due Date and Marking Guide .............................................................. 7 Working in Teams............................................................................................ 9 Mentors and Project Support........................................................................ 10 Responsibility ................................................................................................ 10 Industry Dragons ........................................................................................... 11 Presentation Dates ........................................................................................ 11

Developing Your Written Marketing Plan .............................................................. 5

Project Responsibilities and Support ..................................................................... 9

Project Presentations ........................................................................................... 10

Key Project Dates ................................................................................................. 12 Further Information and Updates........................................................................ 12

1.

Background Information on the MKTG 301 Project

At the beginning of the course we will announce our industry partner for the semester this firm will be the focus of your project. Working in teams of 4-5, you are required to develop an appropriate marketing strategy and programme that reaches the desired goal of the client. This will be written as a formal report (i.e. a marketing plan) and formally presented to a panel of industry experts in an oral classroom presentation. Your idea will therefore need to be: 1. Something that incrementally changes an existing product or service; 2. Something entirely new to the market; or 3. Something that the company has challenged you to address. The standard Marketing Plan outline we have provided will help you understand what basic content is required (see Section 3.1). What follows are details that should be considered in the process of carrying out the project. Feel free to add or subtract details according to the particular demands of your project. In addition, the following table of milestones is provided to help guide you through this project:

Week 1 2 3 4 5 6 BREAK BREAK 7 8 9 10 11 12

Date 17-July 24-July 31-July 7-Aug 14-Aug 21-Aug

Project Task Get to know the project and deliverables - read the course outline! Client Briefing. Teams formed in tutorials. Meet with your team - set expectations (grade, attendance etc.) & organise a regular meeting time slot for the duration of the semester Identify & break-down problem & conduct primary/secondary research. Hand in team contract. Market analysis - internal and external (frameworks = pest, porters, swot, competitor, stakeholder etc.) Market analysis - compile list of questions for survey Run survey monkey & collect data (if required TBC). Draft plan (intro, current situation sections) Analyse quantitative (survey) data & identify key issues (what are the issues driving Microsofts "problem") Draft plan (key issues section)

11-Sept Brainstorm strategy - consider objectives & controls Conduct financial analysis of proposed strategy - adjust & complete strategy based on financials, class discussion and quantitative findings Draft plan (objectives/KPIs, strategy/implementation & 25-Sept financial/profitability sections) Complete draft plan (conclusion & executive summary sections) and 2-Oct proof read 18-Sept 9-Oct 16-Oct PRESENTATION & submit strategic marketing plan Ready for exam!
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2.
2.1

Project Brief for Semester Two, 2012

Introduction

The major course project is a strategic marketing plan for our industry partner Microsoft New Zealand. The strategic marketing plan will present a marketing strategy that addresses key strategic issues and finds opportunities for creating customer value. To produce such a plan requires you and your team to apply your growing knowledge about strategic analysis, strategy development and implementation to our partners business. The lectures and tutorials are designed to help you to do this. Microsoft New Zealand is a leading producer of computer software. Recently they have developed a smartphone, the Windows Phone, which has the potential to become a strong competitor in the NZ smartphone market. Although the Windows Phone was a late arrival to the market the value proposition is unique and commendable.

2.2

What Microsoft Can Offer

Microsoft are providing a real-life opportunity to help them develop a profitable growth strategy. They will engage with us as much as possible (e.g. by coming to class, providing relevant information etc.), but dont look to them for the answers - thats your job. We will set up a process for you to meet with them regularly, toss around ideas etc. (see Section 2.4 below), but we need to recognize they have a business to run and we need to manage this carefully. One thing you can be sure of they will listen to you and this is a real business strategy you are being asked to develop. Both Microsoft New Zealand and you stand to derive value from the project.

2.3

Project Focus

Your role is to develop the marketing strategies that will achieve greater market share. In order to capture market share, Microsoft New Zealand has to target consumer segments with the right offer meaning an offer that communicates and delivers compelling (and competitively superior) customer value. To help you get to grips with the focus for this assignment, we have broken the problem down into four key questions (see Figure 1.0). You will need to figure out where the data is to answer them. Once you have data, deciding which market segments to target, and what value propositions will capture their business (and revenue for Microsoft NZ) will be easier to determine. The strategic marketing process involves information collection (strategic analysis), development of strategic options (where to compete, how to compete) and a detailed implementation plan (describing initiatives and actions (to enable, deliver and communicate value). Why do this? In order to determine how to grow the businesss market share.

Fig 1.0 Central Question: What marketing strategies and actions will establish and grow Microsoft NZs market share with the Windows phone?

2.4

Client Brief and Meetings with Industry Contact

In addition to the information above, a marketing team from Microsoft NZ will deliver a brief for this project during the lecture in week 2 (24 July). Two representatives from Microsoft NZ - Kelsi Benge and Renee Van Veen - will also be available to meet with students throughout the semester. Kelsi and Renee will answer student queries regarding the information Microsoft is looking for from the project. Please note, Kelsi and Renee are there to answer questions about Microsoft, their requirements and any information which might be useful for this project. Any queries about the project marking or format should be directed to the MKTG 301 teaching team, not the industry contact ultimately, it is the teaching team who will be grading this assignment NOT Microsoft. Kelsi and/or Renee will be available to answer student questions on the dates/times listed in Table 1 (overleaf).

Table 1: Client Liaison Meeting Times Week Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Day
Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday Wednesday

Date
1 August 8 August 15 August 22 August 12 September 19 September 26 September 3 October

Time 1pm 1pm 1pm 1pm 1pm 1pm 1pm 1pm

Location OGGB, Room 401 OGGB, Room 401 OGGB, Room 401 OGGB, Room 401 OGGB, Room 401 OGGB, Room 401 OGGB, Room 401 OGGB, Room 401

3.
3.1

Developing Your Written Marketing Plan

Outline for Writing a Marketing Plan

Below is a suggested outline for writing your marketing plan:

3.2

Some Helpful Hints in Writing Marketing Plans

Justify your conclusions/recommendations. Indicate what information about the market, the product, the customer, the competition, etc. leads you to reach a particular conclusion or make a recommendation. The more specifics you can provide, the better, as this demonstrates that you have thought through your strategy thoroughly. For example, can you specify amounts, time frames, details of promotional programs, etc.? The more specifics you provide, the easier it is to evaluate whether your plans are feasible. It also makes the task of those charged with implementing the plan easier since they know exactly what is expected. Often this important detail can be included in the Appendix. Make sure your plan is internally consistent. Often, we see actions proposed in one part of the marketing plan working against those proposed in another (e.g. a product positioned in the budget part of the market, but offered at a relatively high price compared to competitors). The actions you propose should be synergistic, not conflicting. Furthermore, they should be suited to the environment and the product/brand/firms position within it. Think carefully about whether what youve proposed is feasible and adequate. Often, strategies and tactics proposed in marketing plans are either not at all adequate for achieving the stated objectives, or are not actionable due to resource constraints, corporate politics, legal and regulatory barriers, etc. The plan needs to be completed. Marketing managers rarely have all of the information that they would like to complete a marketing plan (or for that matter perform most other tasks). Nonetheless, some action must be taken. This means you need to devise your plan utilising whatever information you have available. Your plan can (and often should) indicate what additional information needs to be gathered in the coming year. This needs to be justified however by indicating what this information will be used for. You should indicate in your plan how your objectives, strategies and tactics would be evaluated. Data that is central to your plan (the sales forecast, for example) should go in tables and figures in the body of the plan. Data that supports the plan, but is not central to it (market research findings, for example) should go in appendices. Any assumptions made in the plan should be clearly stated. Information used in the plan should be referenced using footnotes. Great strategy and tactics are worthless if theyre not communicated effectively. Is your plan easy to read? Is it well written? Does it follow a logical order? Is it concise?

3.3

Guidelines

The following guidelines apply to the marketing plan: The front cover of the final report MUST include your team number AND names of all team members All sources of data should be referenced using footnotes. The written plan should be no more than 10 pages including all tables, but excluding the 1 page executive summary, title page, table of contents and appendices. We appreciate that it isnt easy to distil detailed information into a coherent, concise format. However this is exactly what successful managers do. The challenge is to determine what is relevant and what is not, and to communicate that clearly and convincingly. 6

 You have 7 minutes to make your presentation. This will be followed by a 7minute question and answer period by the panel. NB: Your presentation structure and format may be quite different from your formal report consider the needs of each audience carefully. One hard copy of the plan is due in WEEK 11 - 9 October. Please submit the
plan to appropriate box at the Business School assignment centre on level 0, OGGB.

Marks will be allocated as follows (out of 30%) Written Plan Individual Evaluation Presentation TOTAL 15% 10% 5% 30%

Since team based work contributes significantly toward your course grade, you will have the opportunity to make a peer evaluation of individuals contributions. Normally, minor differences between individuals will not affect the mark. That is, it is expected that all team members will receive the same mark for the project. However, in business and in 301, there is no room for passengers. Therefore, if members do not contribute, they may (upon proper evaluation of their performance) receive lower marks. If you are seeking differential marking, all members of the team (including the non-performing person or persons) must fill out a team evaluation form (on Cecil), by 5pm 16 October. The team evaluation is completed online and link will be made available via a Cecil announcement in week 10. Please note that upon completion of the evaluation you will be advised to take a screen shot as a receipt and evidence to show that you have completed the evaluation. Should the course convenor agree there is a case for differential marking, the university mediator will then be asked to work with the team to arrive at a fair and reasonable solution.

3.4

Report Due Date and Marking Guide

Please present your document as a succinct management report explaining the strategy, what you intend to do, why and how, for management review and approval. We will show you examples from previous semesters to give you a feeling for the look and standard we expect. The marking guide for both the written report and the presentations are displayed overleaf. Due Date: Hardcopy to be handed in to the student centre hand-in boxes, Level 0 OGGB, no later than 4pm, Tuesday 9th October.

Marking Guide Below you will find the marking guides for the presentations as well as the final report.

4.
4.1

Project Responsibilities and Support

Working in Teams

The ability to function effectively as part of a team is critical to the practice of marketing, and to business and life success in general. The marketing plan assignment is intended to help you build your teaming skills, and to develop insight into your own business behaviours and preferences. The best way to ensure that your team functions effectively is to set ground rules at the outset. You must develop a team contract covering issues such as when and where you will meet, how work will be assigned, what process will be followed if people fail to turn up to meetings, and what will happen if a member of the group fails to perform as expected. This team contract is to be emailed to Vanisha (on v.narsey@auckland.ac.nz) by 5pm on Tuesday 31 July. Having said all this, we find people are motivated to do well and contribute to the best of their ability. Please do your best to work out any problems as they arise, which are often caused by communication difficulties in your busy lives. The descriptions of aggressive, passive and assertive behaviour provided will help you 9

diagnose what the problems might be. This is an excellent test of your leadership potential leaders are people who proactively help teams to develop solutions to problems. If the situation seems intractable, please see the tutor immediately. There are a number of solutions that can be applied please dont let a dysfunctional team affect your enjoyment and learning. Do not wait until the course is over, and then complain about problems with your team! Once you have submitted your peer reviews, these will be final. Please note, the marking process is designed to be objective and, while we encourage you to attempt to resolve issues of group dynamics yourselves, if you feel that this may reflect unfairly on your final project grade, please inform one of us (during the project process not afterwards) so that we can ultimately be the objective judges of this.

4.2

Mentors and Project Support

We will use some of the time available in tutorials to ensure you know what to do and when to do it. We are also supporting you by providing a former student in 301 who will act as a mentor for your group. You will be required to meet with him/her twice during the life of the project. This is not a nice to have. We expect you to be proactive in selecting a time to meet with your mentor as soon as you have formed your group. The mentors role is to advise you how to plan the project, establish who will do what, develop a timeline or critical path, and importantly, advise you on how to deal with problems - e.g., if someone doesnt do what they said they would do. Your mentors this semester are as follows: Eyah Al-Atafi, email: eala004@aucklanduni.ac.nz Kenny Cheung, email: kche196@aucklanduni.ac.nz Adam Firman, email: adam.firman@hotmail.com Benafsha Hajati, email: bhaj001@aucklanduni.ac.nz Mat Jonsson, email: Mathew.jonsson@gmail.com

4.3

Responsibility

This time next year, most of you will be in real jobs with real companies. This project is designed to help you learn how to apply marketing thinking and principles. You will get a lot out of it if you recognize it as an opportunity to learn and not just as a chore that you have to do. Our advice is get organized in your group, get focused, and critically, get on with it so that the project never becomes a problem. The mentor will help you do this.

5.

Project Presentations

The ability to communicate verbally to individuals and groups is critical in management and marketing. While some students may be uncomfortable with this initially, it is better to develop this skill here rather than enter the business world without it. Given individual differences in oral and written communication skills, this form of assessment also ensures that final marks provide an accurate reflection of overall ability. Good preparation always enhances confidence. You will get practice communicating in your tutorials, where you will be graded for your class participation, which includes a presentation of information (further details provided in course outline and tutorial streams). Your project presentations will be marked and you will be given feedback on these. Your oral presentation will contribute 5 marks of your final project grade (out of 30). While the dragons (see Section 5.1) will be there to feedback and ask questions, ultimately your grade will be decided by the MKTG 301 teaching team.

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5.1

Industry Dragons

You will be presenting your project to a panel consisting of your lecturers and 2-3 industry dragons. If you have seen the television programme Dragons Den, where entrepreneurs pitch their new business ideas to a team of investors, you will know the kinds of questions dragons are likely to ask. What (exactly) does your product do? How big is the market? Have you done any research to ensure your product/ service idea will fly? What are your forecasted sales? What data do you base that on? What kind of return will this proposal generate for your business over a 5 year period? Our dragons are high-performing business people from a number of different roles and types of organisations. Theyre a lot friendlier than the TV versions, and want to see you do well. They also have high expectations, and want to see and reward excellence in your ideas and pitches. The top five 301 teams will be invited to present their ideas to our semester partner in their boardroom. Excellent for your visibility (and that can lead to job opportunities), for your CV, it will give you some concrete experience to talk about in job interviews, and it will build your confidence in presenting to live business audiences.

5.2

Presentation Dates

Presentations are booked to take place on the following dates/times listed in Table 2. Teams will be responsible for streaming into the most appropriate time for the team. This will be made available on Cecil at the beginning of Week 10. Please note that streaming is on a first come first serve basis. Table 2: Presentation Dates, Times and Locations Date Wednesday 10 October Wednesday 10 October Thursday 11 October Friday 12 October Friday 12 October Time 9am-11am 1pm-3pm 4pm-6pm 9am-11am 3pm-5pm Location CaseRoom3, Level 0 CaseRoom3, Level 0 CaseRoom2, Level 0 CaseRoom 223, Level 2 CaseRoom2, Level 0

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6.

Key Project Dates

Important dates (including due dates for all things related to the project) are listed in Table 3 below. Table 3: Key Dates for MKTG 301 Project Description Client Verbal Brief Team Contract Client Liaison Written Marketing Plan Due Project Presentations Team Evaluations Winning Teams Presentation to Microsoft Date Tuesday, 24th July Tuesday 31st July Wednesdays during teaching weeks, 1pm Tuesday 9th October Wednesday 10th October Friday 12th October Tuesday 16th October TBC Time 2pm-4pm 5pm Location In lecture OGGB4 Email to Vanisha on v.narsey@auckand.ac.nz

See schedule in Section 2.4 4pm Assignment centre hand-in boxes, Level 0 OGGB

See schedule in Section 5.2. 5pm Made available in week 10 via Cecil Microsoft NZ

7.

Further Information and Updates

We wish you the best with your MKTG 301 project and hope that you not just gain valuable business experience, but also enjoy this process. Remember to consult a member of the teaching team if you have any problems or require any assistance. Please also check Cecil regularly for any updates or amends that might not be contained in this handbook. Good luck. We are here to help you.

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