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Review and Assignments for Chapter 2
Review Quesons
1. Your cousin wants to start his own business, and he is in a hurry. He has decided not to
write a marketing plan because he thinks that preparing such a document would take
too long. He says he doesn’t need a formal proposal because he has already received
funding from your uncle. Explain why it is important for him to write a plan anyway.
Strategic marketing planning is the basis for all marketing strategies and decisions. A
marketing plan is a written document that acts as a guidebook of marketing activities for
2. After graduation, you decide to take a position as the marketing manager for a small
manufacturer of snack foods. The company, Shur Snak, is growing, and this is the
first time that the company has ever employed a marketing manager. As such, there is
no marketing plan in place for you to follow. Outline a basic marketing plan for your
boss to give her an idea of the direction you want to take the company.
Students’ answers will vary, but the marketing plan should contain the following sections:
a. Business mission statement
b. Objectives
3. You are given the task of deciding the marketing strategy for a transportation company.
How do the marketing mix elements change when the target market is (a) low-income
workers without personal transportation, (b) corporate international business
travelers, or (c) companies with urgent documents or perishable materials to deliver
to customers?
Target Market: Low-income workers without personal transportation
Product: Bus or light rail service
Target Market: Corporate international business travelers
Product: High-speed jet service with laptop and telephone hookups, conference
Target Market: Companies with urgent documents or perishable materials to deliver to
customers
Product: High-speed motor carrier coupled with plane service, courier service,
pickup, and delivery
4. What techniques can make your school enrollment marketing plan more effective?
The effectiveness of the plan depends on the following factors: (1) the extent to which the
plan is realistic (objectives, scope, and timing of the events), (2) the resources available to
Applicaon Quesons
1. How are Coke and Pepsi using their websites, http://www.coke.com and
http://www.pepsi.com, to promote their newest product offerings? Do you see hints of
any future strategies the companies might implement? Where?
2. How can a new company best define its business mission statement? Can you find
examples of good and bad mission statements on the Internet? How might you
improve the bad ones?
A mission statement is based on a careful analysis of benefits sought by present and
potential customers and an analysis of existing and anticipated environmental conditions.
3. Thinking back to review question 2, write a business mission statement for Shur Snak.
What elements should you include? Evaluate the mission you wrote against some of
the mission statements you found online in question 2.
The mission statement should focus on the market(s) that the organization is trying to serve
4. Building on our Shur Snak example, imagine that your boss has stated that the
marketing objective of the company is to do the best job of satisfying the needs and
wants of the customer. Explain that although this objective is admirable, it does not
meet the criteria for good objectives. What are these criteria? What is a specific
example of a better objective for Shur Snak?
Students’ answers will vary, but the objectives that students write should meet the
5. Competition in the private courier sector is fierce. Companies like United Parcel Service
(UPS) and FedEx dominate, but others, like Airborne, Emery, and even the United
States Postal Service (USPS), still have a decent chunk of the express package
delivery market. Perform a mini situation analysis on one of the companies listed by
stating one strength, one weakness, one opportunity, and one threat. You may want to
consult the following websites as you build your grid:
Students’ answers will vary, but the situation analysis (SWOT analysis) should include the
following:
Internal analysis: strengths and weaknesses
External analysis: opportunities and threats
6. Based on your SWOT analysis, decide what the strategic growth options are for the
company you chose in question 5.
7. Divide the class into small groups, and have them discuss examples (at least two per
person) of the last few products they have purchased. What specific strategies were
used to achieve competitive advantage? Is that competitive advantage sustainable
against the competitors?
To have a successful marketing plan, one must seek a differential advantage over the
competition when examining internal strengths and external marketplace opportunities. A
8. Choose three or four other students, and form a team. Create a marketing plan to
increase enrollment in your school. Describe the four marketing mix elements that
make up the plan.
Students’ answers will vary, but they should provide details for the following elements of
the marketing plan:
Business mission statement
9. Have your school enrollment marketing plan team (from question 8 above) develop a
plan to implement, evaluate, and control the marketing strategy.
Students’ answers will vary. This section can use a number of formats, but a suggested
For the evaluation and control section, a simple grid containing the following elements
Applicaon Exercise
As you now know from reading the chapter, an important part of the strategy-making process
Activities
1. Find a current article of substance in the business press (The Wall Street Journal, the
Financial Times, Fortune, Bloomberg Businessweek, Inc., etc.) that discusses topics you
2. Write a one-paragraph summary of the key points in your article; then write a list of the terms
or concepts critical to understanding the article. Provide definitions of those terms. If you
Purpose: The purpose of this application is to demonstrate the importance and the energy it
takes for good environmental scanning. This exercise will introduce students to the business
press and so help make the connection from the classroom to the real world.
Setting it up: The exercise is best used as an assignment. It could also work as an in-class group
activity by asking students to each bring a business article of interest to class, dividing the class
into groups, and having each group select one of its member’s articles as the basis for the
activity. Groups would do the scan together and report their findings to the class.
This exercise was inspired by the following Great Ideas for Teaching Marketing:
Robert D. O’Keefe, DePaul University
Philip R. Kemp, DePaul University
J. Steven Kelly, DePaul University
Principles of Marketing: Using Environmental Scan Reports as a Means of Assessing
Student Learning
Two of the several objectives we’ve set for our Principles of Marketing (Mkt 301) course are
We’ve found that we can assess a student’s knowledge of terminology and even very basic
applications of these terms via objective tests. Assessing our expectation that students, even at
In addition to the objectives of individual courses, we are bound to meet college-wide program
objectives. As with many other schools of business, DePaul’s College of Commerce has made
“the development of both oral and written communication skills” a primary educational outcome
As it can be seen in the instructions that follow, the environmental scan reports serve to reinforce
see that text concepts are dynamic and contemporary in their application.
Our experience with using the environmental scan reports over the past several years has been
positive in a number of ways. We’ve found that the reports allow us to determine whether or not
What follows are the instructions for preparing environmental scan reports. These instructions
Handout
Environmental Scan Assignment
Each student will do this assignment three times per term. It will be worth 90 points (3 × 30).
The assignment involves finding a current article of substance in the business press (The Wall
The objectives of these reports are useful in the ways detailed below:
1. They guide you in discovering that marketing is not simply a collection of static terms and
You will be assigned, along with other students, a group number. Check the list that will be
Format
Reports are to be typed, double-spaced, on 2 (maximum) sheets of 8 ½ × 11 paper, ʺ ʺ stapled
together, with no plastic bindings. I expect that these reports will represent your best presentation
quality.
Include the following headings:
I. Introduction
This is three paragraphs long.
1. In your own words, provide a one-paragraph summary of key points of the article.
II. Environment
Explain which of the “environments” are relevant to the situation discussed in the article.
III. Marketing Mix Variables
Explain the relevance of the strategy elements (target market and marketing mix) and
especially changes in the strategy elements dictated by the situation discussed in the article.
Presentation
I expect to ask students who submit particularly relevant reports to summarize these reports in
class.
Ethics Exercise
Abercrombie & Fitch, a retail clothing chain based in New Albany, Ohio, launched a line of
thong underwear for preteen girls. Words like “eye candy” and “wink” were printed on the front
of the skimpy underwear that some argued would fit girls aged 5 to 10. Abercrombie is known
for its provocative ads and sexually oriented catalogs. Supporters of the strategy claim that
producing thong-style underwear for 10- to 16-year-olds is a good move; critics think that the
line is tasteless and that marketing it to young girls is contemptuous.
Questions
1. Is marketing adult-styled undergarments to a younger audience unethical?
Abercrombie, a company known for using sex as a primary advertising tool, has attracted
2. Would Abercrombie have been in the spotlight had the sexy words been omitted from
the product?
The parental backlash may not have been so strong if the sexy words had been omitted.
