BSB51107: Diploma of Management- Holmes Institute- Marketing Report Solution

Implement and Monitor Marketing Activities

MODULE DESCRIPTION

The module provides an introduction to the Fundamentals of marketing through implementing and monitoring marketing activities, touching also on the need to develop product knowledge. It builds on the basic elements of marketing by first defining 'what is marketing' and how it relates to all marketing activities, primarily the marketing mix This module also covers the evolution of the importance of product knowledge and how the customer has demanded to know more about products and services as their choice between brands has increased over years.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Upon successful completion of this unit, students should be able to understand the key elements in the fundamentals of marketing and how to apply them in evaluating marketing opportunities, implementing and monitoring marketing activities together with understanding the importance of product knowledge in monitoring marketing activities.

TEACHING PROGRAM

Forty (40) hours duration. Eight (8) hours per week for one teaching block of five (5) weeks. Each week will consist of six (6) hours of lectures and two (2) hours of tutorials

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

To be assessed as competent for this unit of competency you must be able to do the following:

1. Demonstrate understanding of all learning outcomes
2. Successfully complete and submit all tasks as requested

Performance objective

The candidate must demonstrate ability, knowledge and skills to identify, prioritise and implement marketing strategies and tactics. Brief assessor on the plan. Set communication and team building strategies. Implement strategies to monitor marketing activities and analyse marketing performance.

Assessment description

The candidate is to write a two to three page report that reviews the actual, or possible implementation strategies and tactics for an organisation for which they can access or determine a marketing plan.

The report should cover the following aspects of implementing marketing strategies and tactics: Brief stakeholders and non-marketing personnel on their roles and responsibilities and performance measures; outline the marketing plan; prioritise marketing strategies; implement communication and team building strategies to ensure the personnel responsible for implementation work together; and implement strategies for monitoring marketing activities and analysing marketing performance.

Procedure

1. Select a marketing plan. The candidate, with direction from their Assessor may either:

• utilise the marketing plan available at the appendix to the Student Workbook.
• take advantage of an organisation with which they are familiar with, for example, a well-known company.

Note: you should choose an organisation for which marketing information is easily discernable from current marketing activities or through their website, such as McDonalds.

2. Review the marketing plan to determine the strategies and tactics.
3. Prepare a two to three page report reviewing the actual, or possible, implementation of the strategy and tactics by addressing the following.

• Summarise stakeholder briefings regarding their implementation roles.
• How were marketing and non-marketing personnel briefed?

• The objectives of the plan?
• Their performance measures?

• Create a prioritised list of at least three of the marketing strategies and the resources required for each strategy.
• What communication and team building strategies were used to ensure the personnel responsible for each element of the marketing mix work together to achieve the marketing objective?
• What strategies were implemented for monitoring marketing activities and analysing performance?
• What you would do differently if you had to undertake a similar project in the future and why?

4. Ensure that:

• the report identified the organisation and marketing strategies that you reviewed
• the report’s content, format and level of detail meets organisational standards
• the report is delivered to set deadline (as established by the facilitator)

5. Complete this section at the end of your project.

• Describe the processes you used to regularly assess marketing performance against objectives.
• What team work skills do you think are required to manage a marketing team?
• What changes in business practices are required to meet changing customer requirements?
• Prepare a short communication for the stakeholders communicating changes to the marketing objectives and targets based on your improvement plan.

Specifications

You must provide a two to three page written report that:

1. meets standard business reporting in terms of:

• content
• format
• level of detail.

2. Discusses the following aspects of implementing marketing strategies and tactics.

• Brief stakeholders who participated in the marketing planning process on their roles and responsibilities.
• Identify and brief marketing and non-marketing personnel critical to the success of the marketing plan on the objectives of the plan, performance measures and roles and responsibilities.
• Prioritise marketing strategies and identify resources required for their implementation, in accordance with organisational requirements.
• Implement communication and team building strategies to ensure that personnel responsible for each element of the marketing mix work together to meet the organisation’s marketing objectives.
• Implement strategies for monitoring marketing activities and analysing marketing performance in accordance with the marketing plan.

Your assessor will be looking for evidence of:

1. reporting on marketing activities against defined objectives
2. culturally appropriate communication skills to relate to people from diverse backgrounds and people with diverse abilities
3. literacy skills to prepare reports on marketing activity
4. knowledge of:

• organisational strategic and marketing objectives, plan and performance measures
• principles of marketing mix
• key provisions of relevant legislation from all forms of government, codes of practice and national standards that may affect aspects of business operations, such as:

1. anti-discrimination legislation and principles of equal opportunity, equity , and diversity
2. ethical principles
3. marketing codes of practice and conduct such as the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) Direct Marketing Code of Practice
4. privacy laws
5. Trade Practices Act.

Assessment Task 2:

Monitor marketing strategies and tactics

Performance objective

The candidate must demonstrate ability, knowledge and skills to monitor marketing strategies and tactics. Implement and monitor promotional activities, product, pricing and distribution decisions, marketing results and marketing revenue and costs. Analyse costs against budget and record variations. Prepare and present reports that

indicate marketing progress against marketing objectives.

Assessment description

The candidate is to prepare a one to two page report and a presentation on the progress of marketing plan activities for an organisation for which they can access sufficient marketing data. The organisation may be one with which they are familiar, for example, their own workplace, or another as negotiated with the facilitator.

The report and presentation should address the progress of marketing activities against objectives, plan and targets, including an analysis of revenue and costs against budget.

Procedure

1. A collection of data that relates to the Marketing Plan in the Appendix of this assessment. Your Assessor will advise you on the options to be taken in this assessment:

• Use the data supplied in the Appendix to this assessment and the Marketing Plan in the Student Workbook.

2. Prepare a one to two page project update report that outlines the current progress of the marketing activities against the marketing plan and overall objectives. Your report should comment on the strategies and tactics being

   used to:

• monitor and implement the promotional activities
• monitor product, pricing and distribution decisions
• monitor marketing results against targets in the Marketing Plan
• monitor marketing revenue and costs against budget
• record variations in revenue and costs against budget.

3. Prepare a ten minute presentation based on your report.
4. Ensure that:

• the report’s content, format and level of details meet organisational standards for an internal project update
• the presentation’s content, format and level of detail meets organisational standards
• the presentation is delivered to set deadline (as established by the facilitator).

Appendix 1: Case study

Case study – Organisational review

You are the marketing manager for a ten store chain of outdoor-lifestyle stores in Brisbane called BBQfun. The stores specialise in BBQs, outdoor furniture and BBQ consumables. The organisation is close to reaching its previously set goals and is looking to activate the next phase in the organisation’s development. The CEO has asked you to undertake an organisational review. To help you get started, the CEO provided you with the Marketing Plan for BBQfun (July 2008), the latest IBIS report for the industry and a copy of the annual report by the chair in December 2009, and a subsequent interview.

You review the annual report and note the following statement by the chair of the board.

“Within the next ten years BBQfun will become a national retail brand, catering to the needs of home makers with a range of unique, high quality outdoor-lifestyle products made accessible to all through our easy to manage

payment plan.”

At the time of the annual report the chair of the board was interviewed by a reporter who has made the recording available through their website. You watch and listen to the interview and hear the following statements by the chair of the board.

“BBQfun’s values have been the same for as long as the organisation has existed. For our stakeholders it has always been about stewardship and to adhere to professional and moral standards of conduct in all that we do. For

our people we are committed to encouraging self-directed teams, we cultivate leadership and we maintain high levels of safety. Externally we are committed to wise environmental practices and to offering meaningful value to our

customers.”

You asked the CEO about the new phase in the strategic plan who explained that it was a big step.

“We now need to change our focus from local suppliers of services to national ones and to think about opportunities to save money by getting a wider geographic benefit and choosing media with a more national reach.”

When asked about the current marketing plan against actual results for the year the CEO said:

“Well, we achieved our store growth and sales growth but our gross profit margins are currently sitting on 48%. I think we are still below the threshold for container buys which would give us the extra margins. So, expansion in sales is a key issue here.

Studying the latest IBIS report for the industry you note the following differences between BBQfun’s marketing plan 2008 and the current situation. You noted that interest rates were in fact rising and that unemployment was not at 5.3%. The social trend towards house proud purchases is growing stronger than anticipated while the broadband rollout has been delayed putting on hold some of the organisation’s internet marketing plans.

You also note the sales break-ups between the existing Brisbane stores and see BBQs at 40%, outdoor furniture at 35%, and BBQ consumables at 25%. The CEO explained that initially, the BBQ consumables category gains early traction with the market followed by the uptake by customers in the other categories. For this reason the CEO suggested a target of 40% for BBQ consumables items would indicate that the new markets were on track to achieve the overall sales target.

Quite often a new customer’s first purchase from is in the BBQ consumables and this gives us the opportunity to sign them up for our loyalty program. Our initial advertising budget will feature these items and will be the front entrance prominent display in the initial period. The board has decided to apply the industry’s self regulating country of origin and ensure that the actual country of origin is clearly displayed on all these items.

The following are some more notes from your BBQfun mid plan review.

A new manufacturer overseas has been sourced due to cheaper prices. Samples and first shipment quality were good but the second shipment had a number of returns. This has presented an opportunity for a higher margin or reduced

overheads with the consequence of the quality positioning in the market under review.

The honouring the three year guarantee has been challenging with the lowering of quality in the new manufacturers lines.

Promotions in the Brizzy magazine combined with instore entertainment has been very well patronised with a high number of leads to follow up.

Joint industry-wide promotions will allow BBQfun to establish early traction in its goals for market share.

Implement Marketing Strategies and Tactics

Introduction

For the purpose of preparation, analysis and the presentation of the content for this report, Coca Cola is the corporation used. The rationale behind selecting this company is a direct link to a personnel working in its marketing department, who helped in the collection of primary information. Only direct and approved information for public use has been collected in addition to some further details of the marketing strategies collected from the company website and other relevant resources.

1. Stakeholder Briefings regarding their Implementation Roles

Coca Cola identifies the below listed primary stakeholders that hold importance from the standpoint of the marketing strategies-implementation. The company engages its stakeholders in several ways. There are meetings; formal and informal dialogues on national, regional and international level; and global initiatives. Its stakeholders for the process of strategies- implementation involve:

• Board of Directors
• HR team
• Finance team
• Team leads

The briefing to the Board of Directors is important for the company as any crucial feedback and approval comes from them. Once the plan is approved by the Board of the Directors, the next line of stakeholders is taken further by the HR team, who are briefed about their role in identifying the right set of activities for the application of the new strategies, in addition to defining the needs related to training of the staff and hiring new ones. The Finance team is briefed about the budget allocation and the procedure of segregating the budget into different

set of costs that the company would be incurring till the strategies are entirely implemented. At the end, the team leads are informed about the set of tasks they need to guide their team members, as each employee would finally be responsible to effectively taking the implementation process ahead.

2. Marketing and Non-Marketing Personnel Briefed

• Objectives

The marketing and non-marketing personnel of the company are briefed primarily about the 3 key marketing objectives of Coca Cola:

• To promote the lesser known products being manufactured under Coca Cola to gain a better position in the market
• To achieve a 100% sales increase in the next 2 years
• Reposition Coca Cola to be a brand known for healthy products

• Roles & Responsibilities in Implementation of the Plan

The roles and responsibilities for the implementation of the plan with respect to Coca Cola are different for the marketing and non-marketing personnel. As the marketing personnel are directly responsible towards the sales, revenue and expenses of the company’s business operations, they is informed about the key elements of the marketing plan-report with the roles and responsibilities highlighted. The roles involve:

• Developing content that is in line with the required execution of the defined marketing strategies
• Ensure that the designed content leads to the formation of daily tasks that are again in line with the company’s ultimate objectives

The non-marketing personnel being the externally responsibly people are briefed about:

• Collection and review of the significant details of the marketing plan
• Communicate any important considerations in the plan from the perspective of social and economic domains of the company

• Performance Measures

Coca Cola undergoes annual performance review, performance-plan for the entire year in the initial months of the new fiscal year, and mid-term review for the measurement of the performance of the people responsible for the implementation of the marketing plan. The marketing team reviews the periodic outcomes, assesses results, prepares a current development plan, and develops a competency development plan to ensure that not just the performance of the entire marketing plan and the people related to its successful implementation are rewarded but corrected wherever necessary.

3. Three Marketing Strategies and Required Resources

Below listed are 3 of the many marketing strategies of Coca Cola:

• The ‘One Brand’ marketing strategy in order to remove the confusion from the minds of the customers with respect to different tastes and packaging.
• Different tastes and packaging colors used for different set of people and preferences.
• Adoption of the franchise model. For implementation of all the three strategies, the required resources have been the marketing personnel and the advertising team for designing the campaign.

4. Communication and Team Building Strategies

The communication and team building strategies of Coca Cola that it uses to communicate persuasively with the team members with respect to implementation of a marketing plan are:

• Meetings held by the respective team members
• Sessions held by the leaders in order to announce important strategic steps
• Initiatives announced on the global level

5. Strategies to Monitor Marketing Activities

Coca Cola monitors its marketing activities on a constant ground with the below strategies followed:

• Exploring the information given on the websites of the competitors to check whether the marketing activities of the company are competitive as per market presence or not.
• Following the nerve of the perceptions on the social media networks is used to identify the presence of any new strategies being introduced by the competitors
• Periodic meetings with the marketing leads to review any change in the market-shares

6. Things to do Differently in Future

Coca Cola has been one of the market leaders in the food and beverages industry, and the company had been highly innovative and creative in terms of introducing new products and ideas to its customers. The market-share it grabs prove the up-to-date strategic approach of the marketing department. There might not be anything considerable to be changed in the marketing strategies in the future, but one area would definitely be highlighted. It is suggested to invest more in research and development to keep shuffling the image of the low-performing products. This would not just renew the chances of the products to be taken again, but also prevent the brand from entering into the position of stagnancy

Assessment Task 2: Solution

Monitoring Marketing Strategies and Tactics

1. Strategies used to Monitor and Implement Promotional Activities

Coca Cola has a unique mix of procedures to monitor and implement the promotional activities. The company implements various promotional activities that are intended towards the mass customers with the use of mass media.

• The promotional activities are developed and executed by the personnel working at the corporate offices.
• There are TV ads, banners, and various other mega events sponsored by the company in order to promote the brand. Further, the monitoring of the impact of these promotional activities are done by comparative analysis of the competitor brands done periodically by the personnel associated with the advertising and marketing team.

2. Strategies used to Monitor Product Pricing and Distribution Decisions

Coca Cola uses ‘Competition Pricing’, where it intends to place its products with the similar products of its competitors. Their ultimate goal is to maximize their stakeholder value. As witnessed, Coca Cola had been monitoring the prices of its competitors, and had been repricing its products accordingly in order to stay affordable to its mass target. The distribution decisions of Coca Cola are taken on the competitive grounds as well. A detailed analysis and overview of the investment is done versus the outcome and the benefit, and the company frames the below as its most profitable distribution channels:

• Wholesalers
• Retailers
• Supermarkets
• Petrol Stations
• Night Clubs
• Restaurants
• Coffee Shops

The company undergoes collection of information from its customers time to time to understand the most convenient and visited points, and after a comparison of the investment through cost-benefit analysis, distribution channels are monitored and replanned.

3. Strategies used to Monitor Marketing Results against Targets in the Marketing Plan

Coca Cola uses different methods of measuring the performance of the marketing targets against its results. Below are a few:

• Advertising: Different types of researches are carried out to identify the extent to which the new advertising campaigns are performing effectively.
• Distribution: Collection of information from various distribution channels with regards to the performance of new marketing activities.
• Price: Information is collected to check the effectivity of the pricing strategy by completing price-monitors time to time. In addition, researches are carried out to identify the perceptions of the customers with regards to the pricing strategies.

4. Strategies used to Monitor Marketing Revenues and Costs against Budget

Coca Cola uses a risk assessment guide along with ROI tools for the measurement of the expenditures. The entire marketing budget is segregated into small budgets to be distributed to the different domains. After the separate allocation of budgets, risk assessment tools are used to enlist any likely risks to the financial investment. In every stage of the implementation of the marketing plan, budgets are reviews, planned and revised. In order to further monitor the performance of the marketing plan with respect to the allocated budget, return on investment tools are used to quickly assess the extent of plan’s success.

5. Strategies used to Record Variations in Revenue and Costs against Budget

Key Performance Indicators are the best utilized elements taken by the company for most of the measurement techniques, with respect to the performance of the marketing strategies, advertising, and budgets. A giant company like Coca Cola uses various KPIs, however, two most used by the company to monitor its budget performance are:

• LOB Revenue Vs Target, which highlights the actual revenue against the projected revenue
• LOB Expenses Vs Budget, which highlights the actual overheads against the forecasted budget