RKT 310 Principles of Marketing
Week 2 Writing Assignment
Part 1 - What is Strategic Marketing?
Learning Outcomes
1. Creating Value for Customers: Student can demonstrate an understanding of the
concept of value creation.
2. The Role of the Customer in the Company's Strategic Planning. Student can assess the
company's commit to serving customer needs as evidenced in a company's mission
statement.
3. SWOT analysis: Student can conduct a simple SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses,
Opportunities, and Threats) of a product or service offering and draw inferences from an
analysis of the results.
4. Competitive Analysis: Student can conduct a simple competitive analysis based on
criteria important to the customers of the product or service.
Directions Select your product or service offering from the list in the Writing Assignment
Discussion Forum. This list is also in the Syllabus. The same product/service will be
used in all of the writing assignments. Research your product or service offering through the Internet and UMUC’s virtual
library (your references will need to be mostly academic sources. See library services if
you do not know what an academic source means). Do not limit yourself to searching
solely on the product or service name. Look up the industry it is in (Hoovers.com is a
good source for this via the UMUC library) and search on that industry as well. Look up
the direct competitors. Check industry journals and the trade press. Ask your family,
friends, coworkers and others what they think about the product and each of the
competitors. You may want to visit a retailer to compare the products on the shelves or
visit all of the websites. Keep all your research as you will need it for future writing
assignments. Prepare your assignment beginning with a title page with your name and and the name of
your product or service. Then answer each of the following four questions in order and
number the beginning of your response to each question. You do not need to repeat the
question. 1. Creating Value for Customers. Consider the customers you believe currently use your product or service and the definition of marketing offered in the course content. As we
begin our study of marketing, what are your preliminary thoughts as to how you think the
company creates value for its customers based on the concepts in this week's readings.
2. Role of the Customer in the Company's Strategic Plan. The readings indicate that the
best marketing begins with the customer and that commitment to the customer begins
with including the customer in the company's mission statement. Find your company's
mission statement. Repeat it (or attach as an exhibit if it is too long) and comment on its
effectiveness in demonstrating the company's commitment to having a customer focus.
Could the mission statement have more focus on the customer? How would you
recommend it be modified? Is it supported with value statements or other evidence of a
customer focus?
3. SWOT analysis. Identify at least one element of each of the SWOT categories (a
strength, a weakness, an opportunity, and a threat). Explain your choice using a citation
if needed. Then identify possible implications for each of the four elements. For
example, if a strength is a a strong national brand name, the implication is that the
company may be able to launch other related products under the positive umbrella of the
same brand name. Conversely, if a major weakness is the company is carrying a lot of
debt, the implication is that the company not not be able to achieve significant growth,
but may have to consider retrenchment strategies.
4. Competitive Analysis. Identify at least two major competitors or those two products that
are trying to sell essentially identical products to the same type of consumer. Then,
identify at least three criteria that are important to those consumers when they are making
their decision as to which of the three competing offers to buy (e.g. price, specific
benefit, service, warranty, convenience, specific feature, etc.). Make a little chart with
the three criteria along the left-hand side and the competitor products (including your
own product) across the top. Rank each of the products on a scale from 1= low to 5=
high on each performs on each of the three criteria. Add down each column. Which
product ranked highest overall based on the sum of the columns. Then, look at the
highest score in each of the criteria boxes. Which products ranked the highest on each of
the three criteria? Was it the same product, was it three different products? What do
these results tell you about the competitive environment of your product category.
Which product is the leader? Which product is the follower, challenger and nicher if
those categories apply? Attach your chart as an exhibit.
Part 2 - Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty, Management and Empowerment
Learning Outcomes
1. Customer empowerment. Student can identify how their chosen product or service
offering uses social networks to communicate and empower customers to be part of the
marketing process. 2. Customer satisfaction. Student can identify how customers communicate their
satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the chosen product or service offering.
3. Customer Relationship Management. Student can explain customer lifetime value and
how a customer relationship management program can have a role in attracting and
retaining most valuable customers.
4. Customer privacy. Student can identify the product or service offerings privacy policy
and analyze its effectiveness in protecting their customer’s information.
Directions You may want to find a Most Valuable Customer (MVC) of the product or service if you
are not one yourself, or alternatively think like an MVC. What is the evidence of an
MVC of your product or service? It isn't just that the customer regularly buys the
product or service. It means that the customer is treated differently -- better -- than other
customers. It means that the MVC represents about 20% of the company's revenues.
These are the customers with whom the company regularly communicates, offers special
deals, and other ways as outlined in the text and as you can find with just a little bit of
googling on the internet. You may want to calculate the lifetime value of a most valuable customer. See the
discussion of the lifetime value calculation in the week's reading, and calculate the LTV
using this simple equation: LTV = (Price - cost to produce the product) * number of
annual purchases * number of years expected to purchase - initial acquisition costs. For
simplicity sake, you can assume your customer will have a relationship with you for ten
years and you can make an educated guess as to how much the initial acquisition costs
were to get him as a customer in terms of advertising or other types of promotion
efforts. If you are not an MVC yourself, make and share your assumptions about your
calculation. If you are not an MVC, you might want to find someone who is and ask
them why they are loyal to the product or service and what they feel the company does
for them that is special that they don't do for other customers. You may need call or visit a store to take a look at your product or service if the website
does not provide you everything you need to evaluate the company's product or service
privacy policy. Usually the privacy policy is available on the website. Answer the following four questions in order and number the beginning of your response
to each question.
1. Customer Empowerment. How does your product or service offering empower
its customers as discussed in the course readings this week? In other word, how
are customers part of the marketing for the company? Identify the feedback
vehicles they may use, especially social media. Do the social media efforts seem
to be creating buzz marketing? If not, what could they do to generate more ‘buzz’?
2. Customer satisfaction. How does your product or service offering communicate
ways for customers to express their dissatisfaction? If possible, outline what
remedies the product or service may be taking to ensure satisfaction.
3. Customer Relationship Management. Does it appear that your product has a
customer relationship management strategy? In other words, do they treat the top
tier of customers differently than other customers? If so, what is your evidence?
If not, should they have a CRM strategy? Or, are there compelling reasons why
your product or service should treat all customers the same? Refer to course
content concepts in your response.
4. Customer privacy. Review your product or service offering's privacy policy
(usually published on its website). Analyze whether you think they do enough to
protect the customer’s privacy or what steps you might suggest they take to
protect customer's privacy. Refer to the privacy policies or the information on
warranties and guarantees. The company's customer support page might also be
useful. Do they publish a remedy should the customer's privacy be breached?
Should they?
General Submission Requirements Prepare as a word processed document (such as Microsoft Word). Use a simple 12-point
font such as Times New Roman. Use black ink for majority of your work and only use
colors if it enhances your ability to communicate your thoughts. • Your assignment should be the equivalent of approximately five pages of double-spaced text,
approximately 1/2 page for each of the eight questions (four in Part 1 and four in Part 2). You
may attach exhibits that will not be counted towards the page count of double-spaced text. The
cover page and Bibliography page are not part of the five pages of written analysis.
• Be sure your name, writing assignment number, and the name of your product or service are on
the cover page of your writing assignment.
• Include a bibliography, which includes at least four references. You may use MLA or APA style, or any other college-level style guide. More information
about using a style guide can be found in the UMUC's virtual library accessible from
your LEO classroom or at umuc.edu/library. • Upload your word processed document in your LEO assignments folder by the due date in the
LEO calendar.
Refer to the grading rubric associated with the assignments. Be sure to note that 20% of your grade on this assignment will be based on your grammar, composition, adherence to the
submission requirements, and use of an appropriate college-level style guide for writing and
referencing.
Any questions? Please post in the general discussion forum for Week 2.
Hide Rubrics Rubric Name: Weekly Writing Assignments Rubric
Level 3
3 points Level 2
2 points Level 1
1 point Student exhibits a
high level of
understanding of the
first marketing
Marketing Concept
concept in this
#1
writing assignment
and can precisely
apply the concept to
a real product. Student exhibits a
good level of
understanding of the
first marketing
concept in this
writing assignment
and can generally
apply the concept to
a real product. Student exhibits an
average level of
understanding of the
first marketing
concept in this
writing assignment,
but may not have
been able to apply
the concept to a real
product effectively. Student exhibits a
poor understanding
of the concept and
cannot demonstrate
the concept's
applicability to a real
product. Student exhibits a
high level of
understanding of the
second marketing
Marketing Concept
concept in this
#2
writing assignment
and can precisely
apply the concept to
a real product. Student exhibits a
good level of
understanding of the
second marketing
concept in this
writing assignment
and can generally
apply the concept to
a real product. Student exhibits an
average level of
understanding of the
second marketing
concept in this
writing assignment,
but may not have
been able to apply
the concept to a real
product effectively. Student exhibits a
poor understanding
of the concept and
cannot demonstrate
the concept's
applicability to a real
product. Marketing Concept
#3
Student exhibits a
high level of
understanding of the
third marketing
concept in this
writing assignment
and can precisely Student exhibits a
good level of
understanding of the
third marketing
concept in this
writing assignment
and can generally Student exhibits an
average level of
understanding of the
third marketing
concept in this
writing assignment,
but may not have Criteria Level 4
4 points Student exhibits a
poor understanding
of the concept and
cannot demonstrate
the concept's
applicability to a real been able to apply
apply the concept to apply the concept to
the concept to a real product.
a real product.
a real product.
product effectively. Student exhibits a
high level of
understanding of the
fourth marketing
Marketing concept
concept in the
#4
writing assignment
and can precisely
apply the concept to
a real product. Grammar,
composition,
adherence to
submission
requirements,
effective use of
references Overall Score Student exhibits a
good level of
understanding of the
fourth marketing
concept in this
writing assignment
and can generally
apply the concept to
a real product. Student exhibits an
average level of
understanding of the
fourth marketing
concept in this
writing assignment,
but may not have
been able to apply
the concept to a real
product effectively. Student exhibits a
poor understanding
of the concept and
cannot demonstrate
the concept's
applicability to a real
product. Student submitted an
Student submitted a
acceptable
poor document,
Student submitted a document, may have
typos and
good document,
an unacceptable
grammatical errors
may have a few
number of
Student submitted a
very distracting to
typos or grammatical distracting typos or
professional
the reader.
errors. Assignment grammatical errors.
document with no
Assignment does
adheres to all
Assignment does
typos or grammatical
not comply with
submission
not adhere to all
errors. Assignment
most submission
requirements
submission
adheres all all
requirements as
outlined in the
requirements
submission
outlined in the
syllabus. Student
outlined in the
requirements
syllabus. Students
demonstrated
syllabus. Student
outlined in the
does not demonstrate
adequate research
demonstrated poor
syllabus. Student
any research and
and referencing
research and
demonstrated
referencing skills.
skills, but may have referencing skills
superior research and
Writing style needs
some issues with
leaving most
referencing skills
significant help.
attribution of
statements of facts
and uses a collegeSuggest student seek
statements of facts or and others' opinions
level style guide.
the services of
others' opinions, uses unattributed, and
UMUC's Effective
a college-level style attributions may not
Writing Program
guide.
be in the form of a
before submitting
college-level style
further assignments.
guide.
Level 5
14 or more Level 4
11 or more Level 3
8 or more Level 2
5 or more

 

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