Institute of Management Nirma University

MBA FT 2015-17

MARKSTRAT

Report of Simulation Round 0 3

Submitted to: Prof Jayesh Aagja

Submitted on: 8th March 2016

Submitted by:
Team Name: RUBICON
Industry Name: BRAVO
Team Members:
Debadatta Ratha

151222

Harshit Arun

- 151229

Kritik Rohra

- 151232

Introduction
MARKSTRAT is one of the simulation program which puts the skills of marketing into test in
the markstrat world. All major decisions regarding marketing such as price, product, place &
promotion are taken into consideration while simulation which reflects in the SPI and the
revenue generated in the markstrat world.

ROUND 0
All the companies in MARKSTRAT world are given two brands in the sonites to start with.
RUBICON was given sonite brands ROCK and ROLL.
While ROCK was high on performance and design parameters, ROLL was put high in terms of
the design and feature. Thus RUBICON decided to put the ROCK higher in the product category
and market it for the professionals and the high earners. While ROLL was positioned for the
shoppers and the savers.
Given the positioning of ROCK and ROLL both were distributed through different channels.
ROCK was distributed through specialized stores and online retailers while ROLL was
distributed through Mass Merchandisers and Online retailers.
To increase the brand awareness more budget was put on advertising and promotion. However
the market had not evolved at that time.
Keeping the competition in view the prices were set and ROCK was set at a higher price than
ROLL.
After the simulation of the ROUND 0, the Stock Price Index for RUBICON stood at 1000 with a
total market share of 18%.

ROUND 1
With the ROCK and the ROLL brands set in the market and with 18% of total market share. The
ROCK was setup only for Professionals and the ROLL was set for the savers.
To further strengthen the hold on the target segment, the advertising expenses for the sonites
were increased to $5426 from $3840 while making a lesser change in the distribution plan for the
sonites.
Due to higher positioning of the ROCK, RUBICON ended the year with EBT of $11211 and a
SPI of 1169.

ROUND 2
This round opened up the opportunity for the company to start the Research and Development
for the Vodites.
At RUBICON the sonite brand ROLL had been lagging in the sales and thus was making loss.
ROLL was over produced and thus the holding cost was a big factor in the P&L statement. With
ROCK staying at the top and making up for the revenue and the market share, RUBICON
decided to enter into new product category. The Vodites were the immediate choice as there were
no other players in the vodite market and the first mover advantage would play a big role in
strengthening the market share for RUBICON.
Keeping the future in scope, RUBICON invested $6400 in the R&D for the new vodite product
REAL1. A base version vodite product aimed to be the first mover in the vodite market.
But as a result of the R&D expenditure RUBICON faced a cash crunch and had to cut down
severely in the advertising and the distribution of the sonites.
For the brand ROCK the advertising & distribution budget was cut down by 60% and for the
brand ROLL it was cut by 80%.
The sacrifice of the advertising and the distribution budget for the R&D played a catastrophic
effect on the sonite brands and that was reflected in the revenue and the SPI of RUBICON for

the Round 2. RUBICON ended ROUND 2 with EBT of $5769 a market share of 12% and SPI of
996.

ROUND 3
Hitting the low of 996 in SPI was a big blow for RUBICON, and adding to the woes were the
falling sales of the brand ROLL.
With very little or no advertising budget for the sonite brand it was very difficult to maintain the
market share and the revenue.
ROCK was in the top 5 brands in the sonite markets while ROLL had slipped to the bottom of
the table. However after 1 year of markstrat world in Round 3 the R&D for the vodite brand
REAL1 was complete at an expense of $6400. The base cost of the vodite was very less as it was
designed to be an entry level product and to get first mover advantage.
RUBICON entered the vodite market with price skimming model to get the maximum profit for
REAL1. Vodite market was at the nascent stage and thus RUBICON decided to target the
Explorers for the REAL1 brand. The sonite market was getting competitive as more players had
started to target specific consumer segments.
RUBICON maintained the pricing, advertising and distribution for the sonites and had the
production of ROLL stopped so as to clean up the inventory. More budget was allocated to the
newer vodite REAL1 which targeted the explorers with more focus given to the specialty stores.
At the end of Round 3, RUBICONs SPI rebounded to a staggering 2540, and an almost doubled
market share of 24% with EBT of $58359 which was almost 10 times the EBT of Round 2.