Plan to Be A Marketing Expert in Your Chosen Field
Background: According to American Marketing Association (2004), marketing is defined as an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing profitable customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders. Similarly, Kotler and Keller (2009) define marketing as the entire process for identifying, creating, communicating, delivering, and monitoring of customer value. Given these definitions, students should be able 1) to recognize whether they are a marketer in their chosen field and 2) to consider how to create any given-and-take exchange activities which are intended to help target customers create their desired value using any form of market offering or broadly speaking, product—designed to satisfy the unmet needs of target customers—during the entire value creation process. This is what this Application Project (AP) is interested in.
Directions: This class argues that students are a marketer—regardless of what kind of job they have—since they are involved in any give-and-take exchange process in order to build profitable or non-profitable relationships with their clients. For instance, it can be said that parents are the marketers in a sense that they prepare and deliver the foods for their kids’ breakfast via the giveand-take exchange process. Politicians are also the marketers in a sense that they can prepare effective legislatures for ordinary people to improve social welfare of the entire society.
In this regard, this Application Project is designed to allow students to propose a specific plan to be a marketer expert in their chosen field—such as in sales, finance, fashion, entertainment, sports field, etc.—using five key building blocks of marketing in the context of value creation process. For instance, students need to design their blue print by discussing how to be a good accountant, fashion marketer, sports agent, lawyer, businessman, mom or parents, among others—as the marketer—using five key building blocks of marketing. It is believed that this opportunity will provide you with a valuable opportunity to be an effective marketing expert in your chosen field in the future.
What To Do: For this task, students need to follow the following steps: 1) Choose one specific field in which you might be interested in for the future—e.g., sports marketing, financial marketing, entertainment marketing, or others; 2) Specify your specific role(s) in your chosen field; 3) Identify a specific group of customers which might be your target market; 4) Then, make your specific plans with respect to each key building block of marketing in order to be an effective marketing expert in the chosen field. â–ª For identifying unmet needs, use needs classification models or market environment analysis.
2
â–ª For developing a well-defined target market, use the STP approach to identify one group of consumers. â–ª For designing one market offering from the perspective of total solution which includes functional, supporting, knowledge, and experiential benefits. â–ª For creating customer value which is defined as the difference between total benefits and total costs. â–ª For constructing communication and distribution channels for creating any give-andtake exchange activities with target customers.
Students may consider how to satisfy target customers with what kinds of values to be created for them in order to meet their unmet needs during the consumption period. Note that this project is similar to what you have done using case study in various case studies.
For the composition of the final report, all the contents should be written in a WORD format (using 11 or 12 points font size and 1.15 or 1.5 line spacing) with maximum 10 pages. For research & analysis, students are able to utilize any relevant information from various sources such as textbooks and internet. If students just copy existing contents from any sources, they will receive zero score. When students borrow existing contents, try to rephrase them with citations.
Report Format & Grading Criteria: Students may consider the following sections for the written report. However, the final format depends on your freedom. • Cover Page (required): Include the title, date, and information about student and class. (5 points) • Executive Summary (required): Include one-page summary of all ideas in the report. (10 points) • Table of Contents (required): Include one-page table of contents. (5 points) • Introduction: Provide background information about why this project is important to students as the marketers and what the goals of the project is. Also, specify the chosen industry or marketing field and discuss specific roles in this field. (30 points) • Key Building Blocks of Marketing: Provide the details of each key building block of marketing in order to be an effective marketing expert in the chosen field. (100 points) 1) Identifying unmet needs: For this task, students are able to use needs classification models or market environment analysis. 2) Developing a well-defined target market: For this task, students are able to use the STP approach (Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning). 3) Designing one market offering from the perspective of total solution: Note that total solution includes functional, supporting, knowledge, and experiential benefits. 4) Creating customer value during the consumption period: Note that (Customer) Value is the difference between total benefits and total costs. Also, observe consumption behaviors of target customers during the consumption period and identify the sources of customer value.
3
5) Creating any give-and-take exchange activities with communication and distribution channels: Specify specific communication and distribution channels in order to create any give-and-take exchange activities with target customers. • Conclusions and Implications: Provide a summary of all the contents and clarify what should be improved in your approach in the future. (10 points) • Appendix (with other supporting materials)
