Assignment:
Select one of the companies below for which you would like to be Marketing Manager.
Edible Arrangements® - Edible fruit baskets - Creates fresh fruit arrangements and gourmet chocolate dipped fruit to order.
Cartridge World® - Cartridge Company - carries a complete line of both inkjet and toner printer cartridges. Offers both remanufactured and Original Brand (OEM) ink and toner cartridges for nearly all brands of printers, copiers, fax and postage machines.
Liberty Tax Service® - Taxes - provides tax service to both consumers and businesses.
Part 1: Write a brief paragraph that answers the following questions. (This should not be in Question/Answer Format).
1. Which company did you choose as your focus in this Marketing Management Assignment? Where are the company's headquarters located?
2. What is the mission statement of the company you chose to study?
3. The previous marketing manager developed an advertising campaign before the marketing strategy. How could this advertising campaign potentially create problems for the product?
Part 2: You are making your first presentation to the CEO of the organization. Your goal is to complete the following tasks for your consumer and business-to-business marketing strategy planning document:
? Using the SMART acronym, list several objectives you wish to accomplish.
? Discuss the customer targets (target market). Provide for the CEO a more specific description of which customers you (the marketing manager) want to persuade to buy the product or service.
? For each customer target the competitor targets must be identified. Which are the brands or companies that offer the most likely competition for that customer?
? What do you see as the value proposition? Summarize into a single paragraph.
o The customer.
o The competitive targets.
o The customer's reason for buying your brand.
? The value proposition forms the basis for the marketing mix. Describe your marketing mix for your consumer market and business-to-business market.
? Discuss your competitive advantage - the strategic development of some basis on which customers will choose a firm's product or service over its competitors'.
Examples:
o Cost-based or price-based advantage
o Quality-based or differentiation advantage
o Perceived quality or brand-based advantage
? The Product Life Cycle (PLC) is defined for a product category (not a particular brand) and illustrates the sales history of the category over time. The strategic options available to the marketing manager vary over the life cycle, as does the importance of various marketing-mix elements. Although the PLC should not be followed religiously because category characteristics can vary widely, it is a useful conceptual tool. Where do you see your product on the PLC? What would be your strategy based on your response?
? Thinking of your consumer market, how can you get current customers of the product or service to buy