Reference no: EM132649861 , Length: word count:2000

Assessment Task : Marketing Report

In a nutshell

• There is a lot of detail provided below about the nature of this Report, but to avoid the essential aspects of this assessment getting lost amongst all that detail, I'm going to summarise those key points here.
• The whole point of this Report is to assess your understanding of, and ability to apply, Consumer Behaviour theory. As such, this is NOT a Report about a backpack. The backpack serves no other purpose than to provide you with a real-life context to apply Consumer Behaviour theory.
• Hence the focus of your discussion must be on Consumer Behaviour theory. The information below sets out the format for the Report. That format will help guide you in explaining WHAT your strategy will be (e.g. in terms of product strategy, promotion strategy). Consumer Behaviour theory will help you explain WHY you chose that particular strategy. So in short, every idea in your Report should be justified by some Consumer Behaviour concept.
• To help you identify relevant Consumer Behaviour theory, the PowerPoint slides contain "Assignment Pointers". As their name suggests, they will direct you towards theory you should consider including in your Report. Following these pointers will be essential to passing this assessment.

Background to the task
Consumer Behaviour is an incredibly important Course for students to learn, and yet unfortunately, students often struggle to link the Consumer Behaviour ‘theory' they learn with the more practical aspects of Marketing such as an actual marketing strategy. This assignment is specifically designed to address this by asking you to formulate a marketing strategy that is based entirely on Consumer Behaviour theory. This means that students will need to draw extensively on the content from their prescribed textbook (or another equivalent Consumer Behaviour academic textbook). Any Report that fails to make extensive use of either the prescribed textbook (or an equivalent academic textbook) risks automatic failure. In order to help students understand how to translate Consumer Behaviour ‘theory' into a practical marketing strategy, beginning in Week 2, each set of Weekly Lecture slides will include "assignment pointers" that directly signal relevant theory to be included, and that give hints on how to do it. In order to perform well in the Report, students are strongly advised to make extensive use of these "assignment pointers", and to complete them on a week-by-week basis.

Details of the task
Your task is to develop a marketing strategy for a hypothetical high-tech backpack. In addition to doing all the "usual" things that a backpack does, this particular backpack also possesses:
• A solar-powered battery pack.
• Bluetooth speakers with 96 hours playing time.
• A built-in phone charger.
• 5 USB ports.
• A tracking device in case it ever gets lost or stolen
• A price tag of $250.

Your Marketing Strategy should comprise the following sections:

1. Executive Summary (400 words)

2. Identification and discussion of target market/s (600 words).

3. Positioning strategy (400 words).

4. Marketing Mix/4Ps (2600 words). Please note: this word guideline relates to the Marketing Mix in general and not product, place and promotion specifically (note: there is no need to include price as it has already been set at $250). This is because the intention is for your Strategy to be as realistic as possible. So if, for example, your analysis of the course content reveals that Consumer Behaviour theory will have a far greater influence on just one or two of the 4Ps, feel free to allocate the lion's share of words to those specific marketing tools. In other words, you can allocate the 2600 words across the Marketing Mix any way you like.

5. Reference list (not included in word count). As the primary focus of this task is on Consumer Behaviour theory, and your prescribed textbook serves as a primary source of such theory, there are no set expectations in regards to the number of different research references you should use. As a simple rule of thumb, your prescribed Consumer Behaviour textbook will serve as the most important research resource for this task. However, whilst the number of different resources listed in your reference list is not a major factor, it is absolutely essential that the vast majority of actual references utilised within the body of your Report relate to Consumer Behaviour theory. As a general rule of thumb, aim for a minimum of 30 in-body references to such theory.

Please note: the word count included alongside each of these five sections serves as a guideline only. Provided your discussion is relevant and covers the key discussion points, you will not be penalised for going outside these suggested guidelines. The only word limit you are actually required to comply with is the total word limit for the Report (e.g. 4000 words).

Potential mistakes to avoid

1. This is a Consumer Behaviour assessment task. Its entire purpose is to assess your ability to apply Consumer Behaviour theory. Please always bear this in mind. Whilst the task guidelines make reference to a backpack, it is nothing more than a context that allows you to apply Consumer Behaviour theory to a real world situation. In short, this task is all about Consumer Behaviour theory; not a backpack.

2. Similar to the previous point, while this task requires that you provide a Marketing Strategy, in the same way that backpack is nothing more than a context for this task, the Strategy is nothing more than a structure for your Report. The focus of your discussion should always be on illustrating your understanding of Consumer Behaviour theory. A great way to ensure you meet this criterion is by simply make sure that every aspect of your strategy is always directly and specifically justified by some concept from Consumer Behaviour theory. For example, you might justify a specific target market based on motivation, a specific promotion strategy based on learning, a specific positioning strategy based on perception etc.

3. In addition to the prescribed textbook, the "assignment pointers" in the Weekly Lecture slides will prove invaluable in helping you prepare for this task. Please do NOT submit this task without first working through all the "assignment pointers" for Weeks 2 through Week 9.

Attachment:- Marketing Report.rar