Scenario

You are employed in the Marketing Department of a manufacturing business which is currently experiencing high growth. The Marketing Director needs to launch several new brands and re-launch others and he is concerned about the level of expertise in the Department and the budget he has been given. He is organising a series of lunchtime seminars for all staff in the Department. Knowing that you studied marketing as part of your qualification, he has asked you to prepare a reference file for all participants as well as those who are not able to attend. The file will be retained in the organization’s Dropbox so that additional information can be added. 

This file should be easy to use, formal and appropriately structured.  Where appropriate, you should use academic theories, supported by relevant examples of one or more brands and/or organisations that you know well.  This will aid understanding. They could include examples from your current or previous place of work, where you work in a voluntary capacity or case study material. You may also be able to gather information about specific brands/organizations from press releases and company websites.

The following tasks indicate different sections of the file.

Task 1 The Importance of Marketing

So that all members of the Department are clear about the importance of marketing to the success of an organisation you need to ensure they understand the concept of marketing and its strategic role.

Using specific organisations, analyse the relationship between their marketing strategy and their vision, mission and business strategy (AC 1.1)

Task 2 Building a Marketing Strategy

Stage 1 – Analysis

Before building a strategy, the marketing environment must be analysed.

1. Evaluate the tools and techniques available for analysing key areas of the marketing environment (AC 1.2) and explain those which could be used to analyse the market environment in specific, identified business situations (AC 1.3)
2. You will need to know about consumer and competitor behaviours. Some of this will be provided by research.  Analyse the role of market research in  business decision making (AC 1.4)

Stage 2 – Planning

Using one or more organisations and different business situations to illustrate your answers (AC2.6)

1. critically analyse the relationship between marketing strategy, strategic market analysis, marketing goals and marketing actions (AC 2.1)
2. explain how an overview of the their strategic position and an understanding of their competitors impact on marketing strategy (AC 2.2)
3. critically analyse the links between growth strategies and the main types of strategic marketing objectives (AC 2.3)
4. explain how marketing strategies l contribute to sustainable competitive advantage (AC 2.4)
5. examine the factors that will influence consumer choice and behaviour (AC 2.5)

Stage 3 – Segmentation

1. Differentiate between market segmentation and product differentiation (AC3.1)
2. Compare and contrast different targeting approaches (AC 3.2)
3. Critically analyse the process and function of positioning (AC3.3) , applying your