MMK368 BUSINESS MARKETING

REGISTER YOUR COUNTRY Selecting and registering your country by November 20 is part of the assignment task. The decision has been made to expand APMC’s business overseas. The six regional markets have already been categorised by APMC’s marketing department. The PASSPORT / Global Marketing Information Database (GMID) lists the following six regions which include 77 countries: 1. Western Europe 2. Eastern Europe 3. Asia Pacific 4. Latin America 5. Middle East and Africa 6. North America 4 It has already been decided by APMC that only the “Soft drinks” segment of these countries markets will be entered. Depending on which country APMC decides to enter, the GMID provides data and other information on the following product sub-segments of the soft drink market: • Non-cola carbonates • Still bottled water • Carbonated bottled water • Cola carbonates • Juices To register: 1. Review the data available for countries and soft drink products in Passport and then choose one country (not region) for APMC to enter. 2. Go to the “Country Register” forum in the CloudDeakin Discussion forums. You can sort messages in this forum by subject to see the countries that have already been selected by other students. Check that the country you want has NOT already been selected by more than one other student (i.e., only two students may do the same country). If your country has not been selected post a message with the name of the country as the first word in the "Subject" (not thread) of your message. For example, AUSTRALIA. You may not choose Australia as your country. 3. Students who do not register a country by 20 November (or who choose a country that has already been selected by two other students) will NOT be allowed to submit an assignment. Continued …. 5 ASSIGNMENT 1 – MARKET ANALYSIS You are required to submit your Market Analysis report to the Assignment Drop Box before Friday 4 December at 5.00 pm AEST. This is the end of Week 4. You are to prepare a Market Analysis report for the soft drink market for the country you selected. This assignment is not an international market selection analysis. The decision has already been made to enter one country. You do not have to justify which country you select – you have selected one country and now you need to provide a soft drink product market analysis for that country. Your market analysis should focus on the identification, interpretation, and presentation of information and data from PASSPORT / GMID and other sources. The analysis should demonstrate a clear understanding of market analysis though the application of relevant business marketing concepts and processes. Your Market Analysis will contribute to the subsequent development of a coherent business marketing plan (Assignment 2). For your market analysis you will need to apply the concepts drawn primarily from Chapters 1 to 4 inclusive of the text book. The following are main points only and you will need to be selective in the level of detail that you provide in your report. You will need to apply concepts and processes from the textbook – but do not repeat the textbook. Assume the reader is familiar with the concepts you are applying. In many places you will need to make reasonable assumptions about APMC and the market you are entering. You must state when you are making assumptions. Executive Summary (5 points section total) Assignment 1 - Section 1 (60 points section total) Segmenting the Business Market and Segment Demand 1. Clear identification and presentation about the segments / targets in the market. (40 points) 2. Clear identification and presentation about the forecasted demand in each segment / target. (20 points) Assignment 1 - Section 2 (20 points section total) Business Markets and Customer Relationship Management 1. The nature of buyer-seller relationships in the target market’s product supply chain. (4 points) 2. The types of customers in the B2B target market. (4 points) 6 3. The basic characteristics of the product and service. (4 points) 4. The nature of buyer-seller relationships for the product. (4 points) 5. The factors that influence customer profitability. (4 points) Assignment 1 - Section 3 (15 points section total) The Organizational Buyer and Organizational Buying Behavior 1. The nature and central characteristics of the target market. (3 points) 2. How the purchasing function is organized in the target market. (3 points) 3. The role that online purchasing assumes in the target market. (3 points) 4. The decision process organizational buyers apply in differing buying situations. (3 points) 5. The variables that influence organizational buying decisions. (3 points) ASSIGNMENT 2 – MARKETING PLAN You are required to submit your Market Plan by Friday 22 January 5.00 pm AEST. You must prepare an integrated business-to-business marketing plan based on your preceding product market analysis. You are required to write a marketing plan explaining and justifying how APMC will establish and maintain a long-term business presence in the soft drink product market you selected. You are required to submit a plan that secures the greatest number of sales within the country with the greatest long-term profitability. APMC has committed substantial funds to this venture. The following main points need to be addressed and you will need to use sound judgment about the level of detail that you provide in your report. Please note that some areas listed below may require only one or two sentences explaining and justifying a decision while other areas may require a much more substantial explanation and justification. Assignment 2 - Section 1 (30 points section total) Strategies for Market Entry • Strategic perspective. (5 points) Product Strategy • Building a strong business-to-business (B2B) brand. (5 points) • Providing competitively superior value to customers. (5 points) • The type of product lines and product positioning. (5 points) 7 Managing Services for Business Markets • The role of services, service quality, customer satisfaction and loyalty and monitoring the customer experience. (5 points) • The significant factors of the service marketing strategy. (5 points) Assignment 2 - Section 2 (30 points section total) Marketing Channels • Choice of paths to customers and the role of distributors and manufacturers’ representatives in marketing channels. (10 points) Pricing Strategy for Business Markets • The approach used for pricing and price setting. (10 points) Business Marketing Communications • The role of communication, advertising, and promotion in APMC’s marketing strategy. (10 points) Assignment 2 - Section 3 (35 points section total) Business Marketing Communications Personal Selling • The structure of the sales force and personal selling in business marketing strategy. (10 points) • The skills and characteristics of sales people. (10 points) • Managing the sales force (10 points) Marketing Performance Measurement • Performance measures. (5 points) Recommendations (5 points) ASSIGNMENT FORMAT A Microsoft Word template is posted in the Assignment Folder in CloudDeakin. Your report will have the following sections: 8 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (One-page maximum, commencing on page 1) This is a summary of your main findings. Be concise and highlight only the most important findings from your analysis. 2. TABLE OF CONTENTS (page 2) BODY OF THE REPORT (Commencing on page 3) The body of the report will include two main sections (MARKET ANALYSIS and MARKETING PLAN), each with sub-sections. Overall, you are likely to include analysis, discussion, and recommendations about business markets, buying and selling, organisational buyer behaviour, organizing the sales effort, and planning the promotion strategy. The choice of further sub-headings in this section will depend on the analysis and recommendations you make. Overall, your report will identify, describe, explain, and justify the problems, decisions, and your recommendations in detail. You will need to apply your understanding of the concepts and processes from business marketing and integrate this knowledge into your response. Do not repeat concepts from the textbook, apply them to the problem. Your response should be written as a formal report. To keep within the word limits you will need to: • Report only the most important aspects of your analysis. • Provide your own analysis (rather than repeat the textbook). • Develop a succinct marketing plan. • Use appendices appropriately. 3. MARKET ANALYSIS (THIS PART IS YOUR ASSSIGNMENT 1) Segmenting the Business Market and Segment Demand Business Markets and CRM Organizational Buying Behavior 4. MARKETING PLAN (THIS PART WILL BE INCLUDED LATER AS ASSSIGNMENT 2) Strategy for Market Entry Product Strategy Managing Services for Business Markets Marketing Channels Pricing Strategy for Business Markets. Business Marketing Communications 9 Business Marketing Personal Selling Marketing Performance Measurement 5. RECOMMENDATIONS (maximum of 2 pages) (THIS SECTION WILL BE INCLUDED LATER AS PART OF ASSSIGNMENT 2) Here you will provide a summary of your main recommendations and decisions. Major findings, conclusions, and recommendations need to be realistic and based on an understanding of business marketing. 6. LIST OF REFERENCES Here you will provide a list of references following the Harvard referencing style. 7. APPENDICES Here, you will provide the appendices required for your paper. ASSIGNMENT CHECK-LIST Assignments not meeting the following check-list will be returned ungraded. 1. This is a level-3 unit and assignments that are not written to an acceptably high level of grammar, expression, spelling, punctuation, formatting, citation, referencing, etc., will be returned ungraded. Please see the “Sample Report” in CloudDeakin and the notes below for more details. 2. Use only 12- and 14-point Times New Roman or Arial font (no other style or size of font is needed). 3. Use 1.5 line spacing. 4. Align your text to the left side of the page. 5. Number and bold all your main headings and subheadings. 6. Use capitals (upper-case) for the main headings. 7. Use lower-case for sub-headings. 8. Leave two line-spaces only and immediately before a main heading and leave one line-space only and immediately before a sub-heading. (This document is an example). 9. Use Harvard citation style and include a list of references at the end of your document. Refer to the “Guide to Assignment Writing and Referencing” produced by Deakin University. 10. Label your tables and figures numerically and with meaningful headings at the top of the exhibit. 11. Cite the source of information at the bottom of all tables and figures. 10 12. Check your final submission for errors – if necessary, ask other students in the D2L discussion area to check your submission. 13. Number the pages at the right-hand, bottom corner. 14. Do not include headers or footers (except for page numbering). 15. Do not use social networking sites such as Wikipedia, answers.com, etc., or the report will not be marked. ASSIGNMENT PRESENTATION Your assignment will be returned ungraded or marks deducted for poor presentation. Deakin University Student Life offers assignment preparations services – you should use them if you are unsure. You should check your assignment for the following. Marks will not be deducted in Assignment 1 but may be deducted if necessary in Assignment 2. Quality of expression 1. High clarity and conciseness of written expression 2. Avoided unnecessary repetition of material 3. Highly fluent expression 4. Correct use of grammar in sentences 5. Complete sentences used 6. Correct spelling 7. Correct use of terms 8. Correct paragraphing 9. Incorrect use of capitalization Referencing 1. Sources acknowledged 2. In-text citations provided 3. Correct details and punctuation included in citations 4. Consistent format for in-text citations 5. Reference list 6. Format for reference list 7. Errors and inconsistencies in reference list Layout 1. High layout quality 2. Appropriate use of headings and sub-headings 3. Appropriate font styles and sizes selected 4. Page numbering 11 ASSIGNMENT MARKING TEMPLATE Low Average Above Average High Excellent EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (worth 5 per cent of Assignment 1 marks) The extent to which the summary provides a clear description of the findings. MARKET ANALYSIS (worth 95 per cent of Assignment 1 Segmenting the Business Market and Segment Demand Demonstrates understanding of the concepts Quality and presentation of analysis Business Markets and Customer Relationship Management Demonstrates understanding of the concepts Organizational Buyer and Organizational Buying Behavior Demonstrates understanding of the concepts MARKETING PLAN (worth 95 per cent of Assignment 2) Business strategies The extent to which relevant concepts are applied to form a realistic marketing plan Product Strategy The extent to which relevant concepts are applied to form a realistic marketing plan Managing Services for Business Markets The extent to which relevant concepts are applied to form a realistic marketing plan Marketing Channels The extent to which relevant concepts are applied to form a realistic marketing plan Pricing Strategy for Business Markets The extent to which relevant concepts are applied to form a realistic marketing plan Business Marketing Communications The extent to which relevant concepts are applied to form a realistic marketing plan Business Marketing Communications Personal Selling The extent to which relevant concepts are applied to form a realistic marketing plan Marketing Performance Measurement The extent to which relevant concepts are applied to form a realistic marketing plan RECOMMENDATIONS SECTION (worth 5% per cent of Assignment 2) The extent to which this section summarises main aspects of the report (End of document) 13