Reference no: EM133223845

Assignment - Business Questions

For your assignment this week, you will be researching three organizations in the same industry. Choose carefully--based on your analysis, one of these organizations will be the company for which you create a final marketing plan. Throughout this course, you will be working on assignments that will build up to the final marketing plan. Get a preview of what needs to be included in the final marketing plan by looking at the Week 7 Module and assignments.

Industry examples include: Leisure & Hospitality (Marriott, Hilton, Motel 6); Cell phone providers (AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile), Car companies (Ford, BMW, Volkswagen), etc. It is strongly recommended that you select publicly traded companies, as you will be more likely to find adequate information available for your research.

If you have an interest in a industry, I encourage you to consider doing your analysis on that industry. You will enjoy the project more, and as a result, I think you will learn more from the project.

Finally, I encourage you not to use Tesla, Amazon, an airline, or delivery services such as UPS or FEDEX. My experience is that students have a very difficult time identifying viable new products or services for those companies.

This is a TWO-PART ASSIGNMENT.

Part One - Once you've selected your industry, you'll step into the role of Marketing Manager and conduct a competitor analysis based on this week's readings. For this section, you're writing for the Executive Team at your organization, so professional, concise, business-style writing is required for your competitor comparison.

You'll need to create an easy-to-read comparison in a grid format that provides a clear overview of as many of the following categories as possible for EACH company: Types of products/services offered; Current market share--and whether it is increasing or decreasing; Unique Selling Proposition; geographical areas covered; Pricing structure; Customer ratings for products or services; Employee ratings; customer review reviews; total sales volume.

You can use either a Word or an Excel table for your grid. Arial or Times New Roman, 12 pt. type, likely will be easiest to read in a graph or table format. You need to use references but you can include them in the essay you do for Part Two.

Part Two - Review the research you've done, and in a short, 1-2-page essay, analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the organizations you've selected. Which organization is the strongest? For which would you most like to become Chief Marketing Officer and why? It does not need to be the strongest company; many students have selected a weaker company with the intention of making them stronger. This section should be written in APA format, supported by references. You should use Times New Roman, 12 pt. type. You do not need to include a cover page or an abstract.