Group Project Guideline - MKT 201 (2015)

PROJECT OBJECTIVES

To gain insights into a specific products marketing strategy and further develop
your understanding of marketing based on a real-life companys product or service
that you intend to improve/change based on an innovative idea.

To apply course learning objectives to a real-life situation.

To provide well supported recommendations and to enhance your problem solving

and creative skills.
PROCEDURE

First, you select a brand (product/service) that is well or less known and provide your insights
and overview of the company i.e. corporate mission, core competencies, the marketing
environment, and the current brand portfolio strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.
Second, you must identify a problem/opportunity with their current strategy and proposed a
marketing solution which can be a new division, a new brand, a line/brand extension. The
selection of your brand must be approved by your Professor by the beginning of the following
week.

Suggested project steps (and deliverables)

Project Step
-

Date

Project explained in class

Team formation (provide list to your professor)
Pick Product/Service/Brand with your intended strategy/innovation
(must be approved by your professor)
Submission deadline

See syllabus
See syllabus
See syllabus
See syllabus

Organization of the Project

The organization of the project is based on format and content (e.g. table of content, page
numbers, structure, integration, critical analysis, quality of content, grammar, and spelling,
appendices). See rubric in the Appendix.
Referencing
Publications such as Businessweek, Fast Company, Fortune, Marketing News, The Wall Street
Journal (Marketplace Section), New York Times should give you most of the information you
need. The business sections of national publications including The National, Khaleej Times, and
Gulf News would be good sources for local information. The ABI and Wall Street Journal online
databases at AUS are particularly useful for this purpose.
The websites of the company and its competitors are key resources, especially for aspects
such as mission, product portfolio, etc. Annual reports are good sources of information regarding
product lines, future direction of the company, financial performance etc.
(Almost) anybody can put up a web site or content on a site the web is notorious for
inaccurate, fictitious, or otherwise tainted information. So, only use data and information that
you can cite and is directly from a source.
Our focus is on the current strategy of the company so you want to get articles within the last
8-12 months. Anything older may be dated.

Note: Material that come from sources such as Scribd, Slide Share, and so on are generally
other peoples work. You will find pre-done SWOTs for example on such sites. Using them is
inappropriate and constitutes a violation of the AUS plagiarism policy.

Project Outcomes
The words limit of the project will be established by your professor. You will be fundamentally
assessed on the content and critical analysis. Line space should be 1.5. Additional pages
(appendix) can be used for figures, charts, other appendices and references. Further details on
suggested writing style will be provided.
Code of honor
The intention of this marketing project is that the report will be created by you and your group.
Research material will only be used in creating this report. No material from other reports
written by consultants, other students, other teachers is to be referenced or included in this
report.

Table of Contents
Weight
5%

Page
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (DONE AT THE END)

1.1 Introduction: company overview

1.2 Corporate mission
30%
1.3 Core competencies
(See
grading 1.4 Marketing micro-environment
scheme
1.5 Marketing macro-environment
for more
details) 1.6 Current brand portfolio. Gap analysis (expected,
augmented &
ideal)
2.1 New product/brand opportunity: summary
2.2 Value proposition
2.3 Segmentation strategy / target consumers
50%
(See
2.4 Intended positioning
grading
2.5 Marketing mix (proposed)
scheme
Product
for more
details)
Price
Place (marketing channels)
Promotion (integrated communications)
2.6 Conclusion

The balance of 15% will be allocated to Organization (includes organization,

integration, grammar, appendices, Grammar, Spelling, and Formatting and Use of
Appendices
(See grading scheme for more details)

Appendix
Grading scheme for the Course Project (MKT 201)
Level of achievement
Criteria

Excellent
(90+)

Very
Good/Good (8089.5)

Needs
Improvement
(60-79.5)

Unacceptable
(below 60)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (5 %)
Executive
Summary,
(5%)
Two pages
maximum

The executive
summary is succinctly
written and
summarizes the key
findings from the
situational analysis
and key marketing
strategy
recommendations.

An executive
summary is
provided but needs
further work in
terms of
justification of the
marketing strategy
recommendations.

The executive summary

is provided but lacks
cohesion. There are
several things wrong
with the situational
analysis summary and
the link between this
summary and marketing
strategy
recommendations is not
clear.

No executive
summary is
provided.

Points 1.1 through 1.6 (30%)

Company
Overview
Corporate
mission,
core
competenci
es based on
points 1.1,
1.2 & 1.3
(10%)

Marketing
environmen
t (micro and
macro)
based on
points 1.4 &
1.5
(10%)

Current
brand
portfolio
and gap
analysis
based on
point 1.6
(10%)

The company
overview is
succinctly written
and provides a brief
description of the
company, its mission
and sources of
competitive
advantage. The
scope of the course
project is clear (i.e.,
product/service/mark
et) and the nature of
the market
opportunity or
problem is explained.
Succinct coverage is
given to industry
analysis,
competition, product
analysis and
customer analysis.
The analysis clearly
highlights internal
problem areas and
external
environmental
trends.
Excellent and
complete description
of the current
portfolio with tables
comparing the
competition. The gap
analysis clearly
shows what is
currently lacking on
the portfolio.

The company
overview and
course project
focus requires
further work.
There are some
minor
shortcomings
pertaining to the
company overview
and the nature of
the identified
market
opportunity/proble
m.

There are major

shortcomings pertaining
to the company
overview and the nature
of the identified market
opportunity/problem.
The focus of the course
project (nature of the
market
opportunity/problem) is
not clear.

No company
overview,
mission and
project focus
(statement of
market
opportunity/probl
em) are
provided.

There are some

minor
shortcomings
pertaining to
industry analysis,
competition, and
product and
customer analysis.

There are some major

shortcomings pertaining
to industry analysis,
competition, product
and customer analysis.

No industry
analysis,
competition,
product and
customer
analysis is
provided.

Good description
of the portfolio and
competing brands.
Good identification
of the gap.

Poor description of the

portfolio with no tables
and comparison with
competing brands

No description of
the portfolio.

Total:
30%

Points 2.1 through 2.5 (50%)

Summary of
the
intended
strategy for
the
proposed
new product
/ brand.
Value
proposition
based on
points 2.1 &
2.2
(10%)

Very clear description

deriving from the gap
analysis in Part 1 and
put into in competitive
context. Shows
creativity and focus.
Excellent value
proposition with lots of
focus

Good description
of the intended
strategy deriving
from the gap
analysis in Part 1.
Good description
of the value
proposition

The description of the

intended strategy
shows some weakness
with some lack of focus
and creativity. Value
proposition is
expedited.

The intended
strategy is
expedited and
not clearly
spelled out.
Value
proposition is
difficult to
understand and
not very
focused

Segmentati
on,
Targeting
and
Positioning
based on
points 2.3 &
2.4
(10%)

Market segments are

identified and
explained, target
markets are identified
and their choice is
justified, and there is a
clear description of
how the company
should be positioned
within the/those target
segment(s).

Market segmentations
are identified but not
explained. The choice
of target markets is not
fully justified and the
reasons for how the
company should be
positioned are not
highlighted.

No
consideration is
given to market
segmentation,
target
marketing
identification
and positioning.

Marketing
Mix
Strategies
based on
the four Ps
based on
point 2.5
(20%)

Clearly draws out all of

the marketing mix
strategies available to
the marketing
decision-maker. The
marketing mix is
justified. Any
necessary assumptions
are stated and
justified.

There are some

minor
shortcomings
pertaining to
market segment
identification,
justification of
target markets
and the
companys
positioning within
this/these target
market(s).
Most, but not all,
of the relevant
marketing mix
strategy
recommendations
are drawn out and
justified. Some
marketing
strategies are
stated but not
justified.

Marketing mix strategy

recommendations and
their justification is
incomplete or unclear
in some aspects, and/or
include marketing mix
strategy
recommendations that
are not reasonably
linked to the situational
analysis findings. Many
statements are not
supported.

No
consideration is
given to
marketing mix
strategies and
their
justification.
Shows complete
lack of
understanding.

Total:
50%

Organization of the Project (15%)

Organizatio
n
(includes
organizatio
n,
integration,
grammar,
appendices)
(5%)

Grammar,
Spelling,
and
Formatting
(5 %)
Use of
Appendices
(5%)

Written work is well

organized and easy
to understand. Table
of Contents, Sections
of the course project
are marked with
appropriate
headings. page
numbers.

The organization is
generally good. But
some sections seem
out of place or
mislabeled,
diminishing the
ease with which the
course project reads
and is understood.

The organization is
unclear; headings are
missing. Page
numbers may be
missing.

The work has been

thoroughly spellchecked and
proofread. There are
none to almost none
grammatical or
spelling errors. There
are no formatting
errors.
Information is
appropriately placed
in either the main
text or an appendix.
Appendices are

There are a few

spelling and
grammatical errors.
There are one to
three formatting
errors.

There is more than

one spelling or
grammatical error per
page. There is at least
one formatting error
per page.

Information is
appropriately
placed in the main
text or an appendix.
Documentation and

There is some
misplacement of
information in the text
vs. the appendix.
Appendices are poorly

The course
project is
disorganized to
the extent that it
prevents
understanding of
content. There
are no headings.
There are no
page numbers.
There are
frequent
misspelled
words, serious
grammatical
errors, and
formatting errors.
Considerable
amount of
material is
misplaced.
Appendices are

documented and
referenced in the
text.

referencing in text
are incomplete.

documented and
referenced in the text.

not documented
or referenced in
text.

Total:
15%