Due: Due by 11.00pm AEST, Monday 5th August 2019
Weighting: 30%
Individual/Group: Individual Assignment
Word limit: No more than 1500 words (plus or minus 10%). Assignments that exceed
2000 words will be referred back to the author for revision and penalties for
late submission will be applied until the assignment has been resubmitted
within the specified word limit.
Aim: The primary aim of this assignment is to explore your capacity to analyse the marketing strategies
and marketing processes of real organisations and determine their effectiveness. It also aims to
determine your ability to analyse such practical matters using early concepts (such as marketing
intelligence, market segmentation and target marketing to name a few examples) covered in the
formative weeks of the unit.
Core Task:
Basing your arguments on the academic literature that you have studied in the first four topics of this
unit, write a report on the ways two different organisations have been able to compete in their markets.
Your report should discuss the following points about each of the two organisations:
1. Evidence that the organisation has a gain a competitive advantage from their marketing
processes.
2. Theoretical analysis of the reasons for the achievement of this advantage.
Your discussion is to be based on two suitable published case studies. This means case studies
published in the academic literature – for example, the series of case studies in a textbook, or
published in journals etc. Case studies and short articles in newspapers, magazines, website opinion
pages and the like are definitely not acceptable, although such materials may be used to supplement
the published case study and your analysis. All sources must be properly referenced. If in any doubt
about the suitability of a case study, seek an early ruling from your local lecturer/tutor.
This is a substantial piece of scholarly work and will require extensive engagement with both unit theory
and at least two detailed case studies.
Process:
1. Choose your two cases. They all need to be published cases in academic sources (e.g.
textbooks, journal articles). It is obviously important that each case represents an instance of a
company achieving a clear success in terms of their marketing function.
2. Analyse and locate evidence. Begin to analyse each case in terms of the two questions –
particularly question one listed previous. It is vital that you respond to both questions, but the
evidence successful marketing practice is more likely to be in the case material itself. It is in
this part of the process that you might bring in supplemental material from company
documents/websites, media analysis and so on. Be sure to reference all sources properly. You
need to try and show clear and where possible objective evidence of sustained competitive
advantage.
3. Analyse and explain. You need to move from the presentation of evidence to explaining how
the company/organisation was able to achieve its success through its strategies. This part of
the assignment requires you to consider any aspect of the marketing strategy process and/or
any aspect of the organisations’ marketing-based strategising that you think has enabled them
to sustain their competitive advantage. You will need to show that you understand relevant
theories and concepts from the course and that you can apply them to an analysis and
assessment of different companies’ marketing actions and performance. Consider using
relevant models and theoretical perspectives to make your analysis. For example, you might
find that one successful organisation has executed its marketing strategy by applying Ansoff’s
Matrix in a disciplined manner, whereas another successful organisation has executed a
successful marketing strategy by consistently exploiting some interesting form of customer
segmentation. You may find an opportunity to critique various concepts and theoretical
positions through seeing how they apply or don’t apply to your case organisations. Evidence
that you understand and can use tools discussed in the early topics of the unit will add value.
4. Write up. On completing your analysis, you obviously need to write it up. You should respond to
this task in report format, with headings and subheadings used to help readers understand the
structure of your paper. A possible structure might be:
a. An introduction which both sets up the task and the rest of the paper, and introduces
the core concepts that the task is designed to deal with. You might also take this
chance to scope the work – for example the time frame that will be used to assess the
marketing success for the case organisations.
b. Description of the two cases. Describe each case, each organisation and the sources
of your information.
c. Evidence of Marketing-related success (leading through to a competitive advantage for
the firm). Marshal all the evidence that you can that you think reveals that each
organisation has well and truly found success in the marketing realm.
d. Analysis and Explanation. Provide a detailed analysis of how each organisation
achieved its success in marketing terms.
e. Conclusion. Summarise the key points and what can be learnt from the overall
analysis.
Solution
Marketing Strategies
Introduction
The marketing function is important to any business entity because it facilitates the transfer, exchange, and movement of products and services from manufacturers to consumers. Effective marketing creates cohesion between sellers and buyers and promotes the products and services in question. Companies use various marketing strategies such as targeting a certain population in a bid to acquire a sustainable market share in the industry and economy at large. Marketing mix and passing key promotional messages to potential buyers are vital approaches to the establishment of a formidable presence in the industry. Managers in the corporate context try to create a sustainable competitive advantage against other players in the industry by capitalizing on their entities’ marketing abilities. In this report, there is a critical analysis and comparison of marketing strategies employed by Samsung and Apple Inc. Both of the companies are in the telecommunications industry and are direct competitors.
Section one
Apple Inc. is a premium brand that is associated with premium income levels. It is a brand which all the people may wish to use, but some cannot afford to meet its purchasing cost. In this way; the optimal customers for the company’s products are the younger generations who are wealthy. Targeting the higher class social status people in the market implies that the firm’s customers are willing to pay premium prices for high-quality products (Piao & Kleiner, 2015). Apple capitalizes on its competitive edge of having the ability to develop…………………To access the rest of the solution for $10, please click on the purchase button.
