ASSESSMENT GUIDE

BHO6505 - Marketing Management

Semester 1, 2017

ASSESSMENT 1: CASE ANALYSIS REPORT (15 marks)

The goal of case analysis is to allow you to consolidate what you have learned in the class and from the book
chapters and to apply the knowledge in a written analysis of a real world case. This is an individual assessment. For
this assessment you should focus on the core issues underlying the case and illustrate the analysis with appropriate
and relevant arguments, logic and theoretical frameworks to demonstrate your mastery and knowledge of the case
subject matter and alignment with the chapter topics. Background research, analysing the case based on unit
relevant topics, models and frameworks as well as strong arguments backed up by credible and relevant data and
facts will be crucial in achieving a good mark. In constructing the case analysis, a report format is preferably advised
over an essay format.

Case- You Get Me : Personality and Self Concept in Consumer Behavior: The Case of Lush
Review the case and based on your chapter learning and topics covered so far, answer the following questions.

Q1. Why do you think Lush has been able to be successful in catering to consumers' personalities? Explain with
reference to the case and what has been covered in the unit. (approximately 300 words )

Q2. Is the Lush brand personality illustrated in the statement "We believe our products are good value, that we
should make a profit and that the customer is always right" sustainable for Lush as they attempt to move forward in
the slow growing cosmetics and toiletries manufacturing industry? As a marketing professional what would you
recommend for them to do and why? (approximately 500 words)

[Source: Sharp (2013); Marketing: Theory, Evidence, Practice; Oxford University Press. Available on VUCollaborate]

Submission Details
- Word limit: 800 words (10%) (Excluding reference list, if any).
- You need to state the word count of the assessment on the cover page.
- Submission deadline March 24 (Week 4) by 8 pm
- Softcopy to be uploaded on VUC Assessment Dropbox AND hardcopy to be submitted to Lecturer

Note: The case report along with your class attendance upto session 4 will be considered for At Risk Assessment review

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Guidelines for Case Analysis

A case is a scenario that gives you the opportunity to identify problems and recommend a course of action in
a business situation. The case may be real or fictional, but will usually represent a complex situation with no
ready solutions. Case analysis enables you to improve your critical thinking and analytical abilities, evaluate
sources of information and enhance your written communication skills. Written analysis of cases is widely
used in major business schools around the world. In constructing this case analysis, a report format is
preferably advised over an essay format.

The case analysis has a relatively short word limit which will be strictly enforced. The intention is to focus
your write-up on strategic analysis and analytical recommendations. The one thing to avoid is simple
restatement of case data and facts. We are looking for strategic insight supported by logical analysis based
on your learning from the lectures and tutorials. Your analysis should be compact, specific, context specific,
relevant and directly pertinent to key case questions. Application of ideas and use of relevant marketing
concepts, theories, models and frameworks (i.e., covered in class) will strengthen the quality of analysis.

The details of the case are more than sufficient for you to respond to the given questions and you can do
your further background research if you require. The case analysis can include references from peer-
reviewed academic journals, textbooks, business magazines, industry whitepapers, newspapers, credible
and reliable websites and marketing textbooks to confirm the strength and quality of your work and analysis.
It is expected that students will utilize at-least 3 references for their analysis.

Please refrain from requesting feedback on your draft papers as well as requests for resubmission after
marking. Such requests defeat the purpose of evaluating student understanding and performance. Case
analysis can be done from various perspectives, objectives and arguments in mind. Adequate assessment
guidance and discussions will be done for the assessment.

Any concern and suspicion regarding the authenticity (assistance of ghost-writers) and collusion of the work
submitted in your report will be thoroughly investigated and academic misconduct implications will apply.

While analysing any business case one should consider the following
Identify the problem(s) in the situation presented in the scenario
Analyse the key issues within the context of the theory and concepts presented in your chapters
Evaluate similar examples and strategy used by various company's/organizations
Develop and compare alternative solutions and outcomes to the problems
Select the best solution, justify your reasons and make recommendations for action
Conduct background research, historical analysis, updates and performance of the selected company
Appropriate analysis, evaluation, synthesis of key facts and contexts
Proper grammar, professional writing, format and style

Useful resources for how to write business case studies

http://library.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/1232825/Case_Studies2.pdf
http://library.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/1232824/Case_Studies_1.pdf
https://student.unsw.edu.au/writing-case-study
http://www.monash.edu.au/lls/llonline/quickrefs/27-case-study.pdf

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Marking Criteria for Assessment 1

Substantial work
Good Standard
Weighting *

Satisfactory
Excellent

required
Passing
Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation of Question 1
Relevance of discussion to the case question 5
Quality and depth of analysis and recommendation 10

Evaluation of Question 2
Relevance of discussion to the case question 5
Quality, accuracy and depth of analysis and interpretation 15

Overall evaluation
Style: Arguments, clarity, structure, grammar, word-count 5
Referencing: appropriate references and citations, style 5
Total (out of 45)
*Note: The total evaluation marks for the above rubric will be scaled to 15% for Assessment 1.

Marking Grades Grade Range Marking Grades Grade Range

Excellent 80 100% (HD) Passing 50 59% (P)
Good standard 70 79% (D) Substantial work required 0 49% (N)
Satisfactory 60 69% (C)

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ASSESSMENT 2: PRESENTATIONS (15 marks)

This assessment component involves a seminar presentation on a set marketing topic by a group. The group will
also need to submit a short topic brief on the marketing topic along with their presentation.

The Marketing Topic

The marketing topics for the presentation are key and influential buzzwords that is widely used in the corporate
world. Based on the relevancy with the unit contents and learning objectives, the marketing buzzwords have
been sourced from various industry reports and whitepapers, textbooks, academic journals, marketing reports
and debates, expert opinions etc.

Attempt has been taken to broadly align the marketing buzzwords with the lecture topic for each week/session.
There is very low probability that one may find all of the selected marketing buzzwords topics in a typical
marketing textbook as they are very contemporary and holistic in nature. This assessment opens up the
opportunity to bring these contemporary concepts into our seminar discussion.

This is a group presentation (3 members per group). The lecturer will randomly allocate students into groups of 3
members and the topics will also be assigned randomly to each group by week 2 or 3. The presentations will be
made between weeks 5 and 10.

The Pecha-Kucha Seminar Presentation

Students will be required to make a Pecha-Kucha style of presentation on a marketing buzzword topic during
the weekly seminar. A Pecha-Kucha style of presentation (www.pecha-kucha.org) effectively involves presenting
20 slides for 20 seconds each; hence only a 6 minute 40 second presentation is delivered. The topic is presented
in images rather than words or text slides. No presentation headline or slide text is used. For BHO6505 the
presentation rules are described below.

o In order to align the Pecha-Kucha style of presentation with the assessment and the unit learning
objectives, groups will be presenting 20 slides for 30 seconds each; hence a maximum of 10 minute
presentation is allowed by a group. One introductory slide in the beginning (for topic and team
information) and one additional reference slide (with all references used) at the end is required. So a
total of 22 slides max will be allowed. More or less than the required number of slides and presentation
time will result in lower marks.

o Groups are allowed to use (if really needed) presentation headlines or titles for each slide. It is strongly
advised that the headlines for each slide should be designed to make a point or assertion or statement
instead of the usual label or title. You need to think about what you want the people to get from the slide
in terms of the argument, the point, the reason, the claim, the take away lesson etc. No video clips are
allowed in the presentation. The following links are useful.
http://www.simswyeth.com/20110303-make-your-powerpoint-headlines-sentences/
http://dev.fassforward.com/headlines-vs-labels/

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 Team members are expected to make equitable contribution to the presentation and topic brief. All team
members have to equally present the Pecha-Kucha presentation. Individual performances will be evaluated.

o Teams are strongly advised to contact the lecturer/tutor at the earliest for any major issues or concerns
with the team members. Team conflicts should be mitigated between the group members as it is a part
of the learning process. Postgraduate students are expected to be professional in team development,
team commitment and team communication among themselves. Valid complaints and/or criticism
against "free-riders" will be dealt on a case by case basis and will have a negative impact on
assessment grade. Valid complaints and/or criticism against a particular team members effort,
commitment and work needs to be provided in writing.

o Lack of team commitment, efforts and communication after repeated attempts will result in the non-
performing team member leaving the team. That person will then need to work individually to complete
Assessment 2. We want to avoid any non-performing and non-committing student to negatively impact
other team members in any manner

Creativity, inventiveness and thinking out of the box will significantly impact on the quality of the presentation.
Students are advised to review the nature and various examples of Pecha-Kucha style of presentation from the
web. While a significant amount of research and thinking occurs prior to the presentation, the presentation is
quick to the point and engages the audience. The following links are useful.
http://www.pechakucha.org/cities/bemidji/blogs/presenter-information-and-tips
http://www.speakingaboutpresenting.com/presentation-skills/pecha-kucha-presentation/

The Pecha-Kucha style of presentation is constructed of images. The images chosen should reinforce the ideas.
Avoid cliparts, be imaginative. Try to find images which are illustrations or metaphors of your key points and/or
use words-as-image. This makes delivery of your presentation much easier, as youre not trying to race through
a list of points. You can take or use your own pictures to illustrate your point. The following link is useful.
http://www.powerpointninja.com/graphics/what-makes-an-image-good-for-presentations-part-i/

Groups will need to provide the references used to construct the ideas and discussions in the presentation. The
references should be provided in the last slide as a reference list. The discussions and references would be
similar to the topic brief (discussed below).

While doing your research for your topic please keep in mind that you are to source credible, reliable, relevant,
factual and recent information from online business news and information sources, company reports and
websites, industry whitepapers, business magazines, expert opinions, marketing textbooks, academic journals
and suggested additional readings as an evidence to substantiate your illustrations, thoughts and arguments.
Please avoid unknown and un-reliable online websites as well as commentary and opinion from unknown and
non-expert commentators and personal blogs. Although Wikipedia is a great source, students are advised not to
refer or cite it because it is a reader-produced encyclopedia with a probable lack of accuracy or completeness of
entries on a lot of cases. When evaluating sources always consider why and how is it relevant to your analysis;
why and how does it matter to your analysis; and how it can add value to your analysis.

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The Topic Brief

The topic brief for this assessment refers to a short 2 page document which gives the reader a quick over-view of
the marketing topic presented. The topic brief may include definitions, why it matters, how it is used, best
practice examples, debates surrounding the topic, positive/negative criticisms, etc. For clarity and illustration
purposes groups can complement the topic brief with relevant models, frameworks and images as they see fit. It
is expected that the topic brief discussions will be presented in the Pecha-kucha presentation. There is no set or
ideal format for developing the topic brief, but the advice is to structure it in a manner which will allow the reader
to have a quick and reasonable understanding of the topic and that the brief it could be used as a reference
document for the topic.

Groups are advised to be creative in structuring their information as it is short document. It is expected that topic
briefs will be different between groups. Each group has the freedom to construct the brief in a manner that is
useful and informative. For example, tables can be used to concise information. Merely filling up the two pages
with oversized pictures, tables or frameworks to cover up the space will lower the overall quality of the topic brief.

For the topic brief it is important that groups follow proper referencing and in-text citation rules. References can
be part of the two pages or groups can organize the references in page 3. Please refrain from filling up page
space with a detailed reference list. Discussions and examples for the concept topics may be sourced from
textbooks, industry reports, whitepapers, reliable websites, journal articles etc. Absence of references will have a
negative impact on the overall quality of the topic brief.

You will be provided with a blank 2 page template for the Topic Brief. Topic Briefs will need to be uploaded on
VUCollaborate in order to be shared with the class. Plagiarism rules will apply.

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Seminar Presentation Schedule and Submission Details

The presentations will be held between weeks 5 and 10. Two (2) topics can be presented in each seminar.
Hence two (2) groups may be presenting in each seminar. The presentations may be held before or after the
lectures for each week. Your lecturer will coordinate with the groups regarding the timing of the presentations.

Submission requirements of each group (at the start of the seminar)

- Upload softcopy of the Pecha-Kucha presentation AND Topic Brief document on VUC Assessment Dropbox
- Provide hardcopy of the Pecha-Kucha presentation (6 slides in one page, double sided print) AND Topic
Brief (double sided) to the lecturer BEFORE the start of the presentation.
- Non submission of the presentation file and the topic brief document on due date of the presentation will be
treated as late submission and usual late submission penalties will apply.

The following table lists the tentative topic schedule for the Pecha-Kucha presentation for each week. Each
group will be presenting only one topic. The same topic cannot be presented by both groups. Topics will be
allocated by lecturer.

Weekly Seminars First Topic Second Topic

Week 5 Seminar Extreme Consumers Holistic Marketing

Week 6 Seminar Marketing Myopia Guerrilla Marketing

Week 7 Seminar Brand Storytelling Brand personality

Week 8 Seminar Double Jeopardy Green Marketing

Week 9 Seminar Conversion marketing Social Marketing

Week 10 Seminar Online value proposition Community Marketing

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Marking Criteria for Assessment 2 Presentation (15 marks)

Topic: Seminar / Date:

Team:

Substantial work
Good Standard

Satisfactory
Weighting*

Excellent

required
Passing
Evaluation Criteria

PECHA-KUCHA PRESENTATION (10 MARKS)

Presentation requirements (slides and timing) 5
Concept understanding 10
Slide organization, visual appeal and creativity 10
Individual presentation skills (clarity, confidence) 10
1.
2.
3.
TOTAL (35)
The total evaluation marks for the Pecha-Kucha presentation rubric will be scaled to 10

TOPIC BRIEF (5 MARKS)

Concept understanding 10
Concept application / example(s) 5
Alignment with presentation slides 5
Layout and structure 5
TOTAL (25)
The total evaluation marks for the Concept Topic rubric will be scaled to 5

Note:

Marking Grades Grade Range Marking Grades Grade Range

Excellent 80 100% (HD) Passing 50 59% (P)
Good standard 70 79% (D) Substantial work required 0 49% (N)
Satisfactory 60 69% (C)

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ASSESSMENT 3: MARKETING PLAN (35 marks)

A Marketing Plan provides a vision and strategy proposal to position a business or product or service in the
marketplace. The right marketing plan identifies who the target customers are, how to reach them, what strategies to
use, and how to retain your customers over time. This assessment involves the preparation of a marketing plan
based on the marketing activities of a selected company.

1. This is a group project (3 to 4 members per group) and the marketing plan effectively needs to be developed
throughout the semester. For the project, your group can choose any one of the local businesses (or a product or
service of that business) from the following and identify a marketing challenge and/or opportunity of interest for
the company / product / service.

Victoria University A SME of your choice Actual Project

a. For example: If you are choosing Victoria University, you are expected to choose a particular product/service
of VU. For example as you could develop a focused marketing plan for a specific
I. VU course/degree programs (e.g, Master of Marketing, Bachelor of Forensic Science);
II. VU services (https://www.vu.edu.au/campuses-services/our-services)
III. VU research centres (https://www.vu.edu.au/research/research-focus-areas-expertise/institutes-
research-centres)

b. If you are choosing a SME (small to medium enterprise), you are expected to develop a marketing plan for a
small to medium company/enterprise. Examples of such type of companies could be small businesses,
restaurants, trade service providers, support services for other companies, home based businesses, coffee
shops, travel agencies, retail shops, small boutique companies selling various types of products and services
etc. You would be required to contact and source the company and initiate discussion about your willingness
to do a marketing plan for a product/service or the company itself. They need to approve your efforts as you
will need to source market, customer, product, financial etc. information from that company.

c. Under Actual Project, if you are working in an organization or have access to an organization insights and
resources and would prefer to undertake this piece of assessment on that organization you may do so.
However, you will be required to have written permission from a company owner, decision maker or senior
management within the organization. Please speak with the unit coordinator if you are planning to do any
actual projects. Time to time, we may also have actual projects from interested industry partners who would
allow our student groups to gain hands on experience through developing strategies and solutions on
projects of their own. The unit coordinator will notify you of any such available projects. Please speak with
your unit coordinator if you know of any companies who would want to participate in such class projects.

2. The assessment is a group project and 3 to 4 students are allowed to form a single group. Ideal would be to have
3 members per group, but based on class size and special cases, the lecturer will have the final say for group
formations. Groups and their preferred marketing plan companies will have to be finalized by week 4. By week 5,
any person who has not initiated to form a group will have to work individually.

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3. Marketing Plan Approval Document

a. By week 6, every group has to submit a single page Marketing Plan Approval document for review and
endorsement by the unit coordinator/lecturer. The Marketing Plan Approval document is available on
VUCollaboarte and it states the following:
i. The company / product / service selected
ii. The rationale behind the need for a marketing plan for that company's product/service
iii. Approval from the company (if possible) allowing your group to conduct the marketing plan for
their product/services
iv. Signature of all group members
v. This is a compulsory document submission for Assessment 3

b. Groups cannot progress with their Assessment 3 report without the Marketing Plan Approval document
authorized by the unit coordinator/lecturer. Delay in submission of the approval document will result in a
10% deduction of overall grade of Assessment 3 for every week after week 6. Non submission of the
Marketing Plan Approval will result in non-acceptance of the Assessment 3 report in Week 12. The
document needs to be uploaded through VUCollaborate Assessment Dropbox.

4. Team members are expected to make equitable contribution to the completion of the report. Teams are strongly
advised to contact the lecturer/tutor at the earliest for any major issues or concerns with the team members.
Team conflicts should be mitigated between the group members as it is a part of the learning process.

a. Postgraduate students are expected to be professional in team development, team commitment and
team communication among themselves. Valid complaints and/or criticism against "free-riders" will be
dealt on a case by case basis and will have a negative impact on assessment grade. Valid complaints
and/or criticism against a particular team members effort, commitment and work needs to be provided in
writing.

b. Lack of team commitment, efforts and communication after repeated attempts will result in the non-
performing team member leaving the team. That person will then need to work individually to complete
Assessment 3. We want to avoid any non-performing and non-committing student to negatively impact
other team members in any manner.

5. There are various templates and models of marketing plan available in various textbooks, industry whitepapers,
Internet resources, journal articles etc. Effectively they all cover the same core concepts and topics in various
orders. To have a structured and unified guide for developing a marketing plan as well aligning the core topics of
a plan with the unit contents and discussion, we will follow Chapter 17 from Dawn Iacobuccis text book which
solely focuses on developing a Marketing Plan. Students are strongly advised to follow this chapter contents and
the marketing plan guidelines and structures to complete this assessment task. The assessment evaluation and
marking criteria will be based on the marketing plan framework discussed in the unit.

6. The following sections are required for the marketing plan. The detailed content and requirements of sections A,
C, D, E and G are elaborated in Chapter 17 from Dawn Iacobuccis textbook. Groups can also utilize guidelines
and strategies from textbooks, best practices and external resources to the complement the section
requirements. The expected details for each of the sections will vary based on the nature of business,
competitive environment, product/service strategy, availability of information and analytical capability of the

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 group. Please review the mark weightings (in the evaluation criteria) assigned to each of the sections to
construct your report accordingly.

Section Guideline
A. Executive Summary Review Chapter 17 for detailed guideline
B. Marketing Plan Objective A rationale for the marketing plan, what it is about and what it
hopes to achieve. The value proposition, purpose of study,
alignment with company mission etc. to be discussed here.
C. Situation Analysis (5Cs) Review Chapter 17 for detailed guideline
D. Market Analysis and Strategies (STP) Review Chapter 17 for detailed guideline
E. Tactical Plans (4Ps) Review Chapter 17 for detailed guideline
F. Conclusion
G. Appendices Review Chapter 17 for detailed guideline

7. The word limit for the whole report will be strictly enforced. Make effective use of tables and charts to portray
detailed information in brief. Use appendix for any additional analysis, exhibits etc. Refer to the marking criteria
for the relative weight and sub-topics for each of the major sections for the marketing plan.

8. The marketing plan should include a minimum of 3 (three) references from textbooks and peer-reviewed
academic journals and an additional minimum of 7 (seven) relevant references from business magazines,
industry whitepapers, company reports, credible and reliable websites, online business news and information
sources, and marketing textbooks to confirm the strength and quality of information and analysis. Please avoid
unknown and un-reliable online websites as well as commentary and opinion from unknown and non-expert
commentators and personal blogs. Although Wikipedia is a great source, students are advised not to refer or cite
it because it is a reader-produced encyclopedia with a probable lack of accuracy or completeness of entries on a
lot of cases. When evaluating sources always consider why and how is it relevant to your analysis; why and how
does it matter to your analysis; and how it can add value to your analysis.

9. Any concern and suspicion regarding the authenticity (assistance of ghostwriters) and collusion of the work
submitted in your report will be thoroughly investigated and academic misconduct implications will apply. All
group members will be equally liable in this regard.

10. This is a post-graduate unit. Therefore, demonstration of highly developed analytical skills in expression,
presentation and writing is expected. Poorly constructed report with lack of clarity in meaning, referencing, weak
arguments, grammar and formatting issues, etc. will lower the overall quality of the report.

11. Submission Details

- Word limit: Maximum of 3000 words (10%)
o (Excluding executive summary, reference list, tables, figures and appendices).
- Marketing Plan Approval document submission in Week 6.
- Full report submission deadline May 29 (Week 12) - 10 am
- Full report softcopy to be uploaded on VUC Assessment Dropbox AND hardcopy to be submitted to Lecturer

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Marking Criteria for Assessment 3

Company:
Team:

Substantial work
Good Standard

Satisfactory
Weighting*

Excellent

required
Passing
Evaluation Criteria (report layout)

A. Executive Summary 5
B. Marketing Plan Objective 10
Developing a rationale for the marketing plan
C. Situation Analysis 20
Relevant characterization of the Customers,
company, context, collaborators and the competitors
D. Market Analysis and Strategies 20
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
E. Tactical Plans 20
Product, Price, Place and Promotion strategies
F. Conclusion 5
Appropriate referencing and citations 5
Style: Arguments, clarity, grammar, word-count 5
Total (90)
* The total evaluation marks for the above rubric will be scaled to 35%

Note:

Marking Grades Grade Range Marking Grades Grade Range

Excellent 80 100% (HD) Passing 50 59% (P)
Good standard 70 79% (D) Substantial work required 0 49% (N)
Satisfactory 60 69% (C)

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 BHO6505 Marketing Management

Assessment 3: Marketing Plan Approval

12. The company / product / service selected

13. The rationale behind the need for a marketing plan for that company's product/service

14. Approval from the company (if possible) allowing your group to conduct the marketing plan
Contact details of the decision maker / owner

Any email or written approval (attach with this document)

Group member signature

Member 1 Name & Signature Member 2 Name & Signature

Member 3 Name & Signature Member 4 Name & Signature

Date: _______________________

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