Markstrat Report

Taylor Tartt MAR 445

Markstrat Report: Cougar Team Trouble In the Markstrat simulation, I was a part of the Cougar-Trouble team. During the 7 periods, we produced three Sonite brands being TOPS, TONE and TOOLS. The TOPS brand target market was High Earners, and by the final round generated $11,529 in revenue. TONE brand targeted initially targeted Shoppers and Savers, but by period 3, positioned itself to focus on Savers. By the final round it generated $10,782 in revenue. Our last brand TOOLS, was introduced in period 4 and its target segment was Shoppers. In the last period, it generated $20,565 in revenue. All three brands had much room for improvement, particularly in creating a

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better marketing strategy and allocating budgets more precisely. Each brand needed more advertising and a better positioned R&D in order for each feature to be specifically calculated for the target segment. This would have increased our brand awareness for each brand as well as positioned our brands better on the brand map. Our firm accumulated many strengths and

weaknesses that allowed us to properly assess our progress and be able to consider better options for the future.

Strengths and Weaknesses

There were different key strengths that our firm had. Initially, our brands were not

performing well, however our brands made a commendable turn around in the final period 7. We created a well-designed R&D and allocated money properly for advertising media and research for our brands, which allowed our revenue to increase. This strength, if applied earlier in the

rounds, really could have helped with the overall brand portfolio of TOPS, TONE and TOOLS.

However, we were able to learn how strategically planning for brands contributes to higher brand awareness and higher revenue. Another key strength that our firm had was staying in the Sonite

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industry opposed to branching out to Vodite. This was a strength our firm had because of

previous progress in the Sonite market, it would have been smart to branch off into another

industry. By period 6, our firm finally was able to properly recover from our mistakes in previous rounds and increase our market shares.

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Taylor Tartt MAR 445

Table 1

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Our firm had different weaknesses that contributed to our poor overall performance in the assimilation. Table 1 displays how our brands plummeted and did not improve until period 6.

One distinct weakness was our advertising and R&D strategies. We also failed to properly budget enough money for commercial team. We failed to create a substantial plan for next rounds and merely planned for the “now” opposed to looking at the market forecast to see where the our target segment was maneuvering to. Table 3 displays how our revenue for brands TOPS and

TONE did not have an upward slope until period 6. Our firm would have performed better and

accumulated higher revenue if we created a marketing strategy that allocated for our budget and how to properly complete R&D. Another weakness that our firm had was lack of funds. We

miscalculated our R&D for both TOPS and TONE in the first few periods, which made our firm have to play catch up for the remaining periods. When we introduced TOOLS to the Sonite market, we designed it to be specifically positioned for the Shoppers audience. This brand

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contributed greatly to our overall brand portfolio of our firm.

Table 2

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Taylor Tartt MAR 445

First Mover Advantage Our brand that had first mover advantage is TOOLS. When we introduced this brand in period 4, it was the first to completely dominate the Savers target audience. We strategically created this brand to focus on this segment because any other firm wasn’t positioning it and we recognized an opportunity. The R&D, advertising research and media and commercial team were properly budgeted in order to ensure that our brand would succeed in this target segment. By period 7, TOOLS was one of the top 5 brands in market shares. This first mover advantage

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benefitted our brand portfolio and helped our firm increase its overall revenue.

Table 3

By Table 3 above, you notice our brand TOOLS starting low in period 4, but being able to pick itself up due to better created R&D and more money towards our advertising research and

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commercial team.

Recommendation

Our firm unfortunately had to play catch up for a significant part of the Markstrat

assimilation, which did not allow us to show progression. A recommendation I would have for

the next brand manager for Cougar T is to look at the market before computing R&D so that you are able to see where particular segments are going and how to best position the brand for target audience. To have the most successful launch of brand, I would look at which target audience is currently not being dominated and utilize the Competitive Intelligence to recognize how other

https://www.coursehero.com/file/11967221/Markstrat-Report/

Taylor Tartt MAR 445

brands are moving. This would help create a more thought out and efficient marketing strategy and display to the brand manager where he/she should allocate money for best results. It is important to have certain reports in order to know how to launch a brand properly. Reports that could help the new brand would be Semantic Scale, Market Forecast, Consumer Panel and Competitive Intelligence. All of these reports would display which features a specific target audience prefers and ideal values to input for R&D that would best focus on segment. 5 Most Important Lessons Lesson 1: PLAN AHEAD! Many times, my firm did not look at the market forecast in order to

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adequately input numbers for the R&D and allocate enough money for advertising research and commercial team. When preparing for the next periods, it is important to know where your brand is going and how much to produce to assure high revenue and not under producing product.

Lesson 2: You need to understand the target segment that you are positioning your product in. There were different periods in which we thought that our brand was merely positioned to a

particular segment, but it was also unintentionally positioned for another target segment. This is due to poor R&D and not reviewing the Semantic Scale report to know the ideal values for each audience.

Lesson 3: Do not overproduce just to overproduce. It is often perceived that overproduction is

best for maximizing profits. However, it is important to consider the cost to overproduce and be able to recognize the opportunity cost. Properly calculate overproduction and do best to advertise and create a commercial team that’ll ensure most of produced units to be sold.

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Lesson 4: You have to spend money in order to make money. Many times, my firm was tight

with budgeting and did not want to purchase additional reports. However, these additional reports could have helped our brands perform better in different periods and increased our revenue.

Competitive Intelligence, in particular, is a report that is very important to purchase because it

allows the firm to see how other brands are performing and recognize how the market is moving. This is significant to improving brand and overall firm. Lesson 5: Everyone in the firm needs to work together. Because there are many parts to running a business, efficient delegation is needed to ensure that everything gets done for the enterprise.

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Taylor Tartt MAR 445

However, it is important to have weekly meetings to check in on each branch and create a market plan for brands that everyone has input in. This would help the performance of your brand and your teamwork will show in the progress of firm.

Bonus Amount $400,000 $150,000 $150,000 $300,000

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sh is ar stu ed d vi y re aC s o ou urc rs e eH w er as o. co m

Name 1. Raven Irabor 2. Tess Speakman 3. Catherine Chae 4.Taylor Tartt

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