MKF5911 – Theory and Process of Buyer Behaviour Assessment 2: Apply Buyer Behaviour Theory to MarketMKF5911 – Theory and Process of Buyer Behaviour Assessment 2: Apply Buyer Behaviour Theory to Marketing 1 1 OverviewStudents find it challenging to make the links between the structure of theory in buyer behaviour and the development, execution and management of marketing activities. This assessment seeks to create relevance of the theory through communicating your insights on buyer behaviour to a senior marketer. There is an expectation that you design your report to communicate your ideas. The secret is less is more. This is a business report to a business person. You must integrate theory and concepts from marketing / buyer behaviour (and references), but you must design the report to highlight and communicate your insights to a senior marketing manager in a way that allows them to grasp information quickly and easily. Therefore, integrate meaningful and relevant visualisations and analysis of visualisations. If you create an academic, word dense, poorly structured “essay” you will be penalised. If you cannot “market” information you are not thinking about your audience (senior marketer). See text – “Knowledge is beautiful” by David McCandless. This assessment is an input to Assessment 3. Value: 30% Length Report – 10 pages maximum for the main body (no more than 2,000 words, strictly). Type Individual assessment Due Date and Submission Format Report uploaded via Moodle Assessment Submission box. Due Data: 9 May at 23:59 (AET). Students can choose a buyer behaviour topic/theory from week 1 to week 7 You can submit assessment any time before due date. There will be penalty for late submission for the report. 10% deduction of marks per 24 hours of delay. A delay of fewer than 24 hours will be rounded up to 24 hours. Don’t just save a DRAFT on Moodle, you need to SUBMIT it. File protocol Report: Word document (PDF is not allowed) File name Family name_given name_student id_tutorial day & time_week number_topic E.g., Cheng_Yimin_23456789_Tue 1930_week 4_Knowledge Learning outcomes #1, 2, 3, & 4 Objectives of the Assignment There are a few outcomes from this exercise that will benefit you. Firstly, the skill of integration and conversion of information into meaningful insights for a senior marketer is critical to being regard of value to the organisation; see definition of insight below. All of us are bombarded by too much information. We will ignore or not respond to information we do not find immediately relevant. This is true for marketing managers who have to make a large number of decisions MKF5911 – Theory and Process of Buyer Behaviour Assessment 2: Apply Buyer Behaviour Theory to Marketing 2 2 to make and, a significant amount of information to digest in order to make decisions. Meaningful and relevant insights are highly valued. Secondly, the skill of integrating marketing theory and concepts to create insights that are based on a logical and structured thought process requires you to think critically about the theory, its relevance and application (see Weaponised Lies for points on critical thinking). This skill helps you develop justifiable, evidenced based recommendations as opposed to simply offering opinions. Task (you must complete all these 6 sub-tasks in Assessment 2)1. Research and profile a company. You can select a company in Australia or your home country. If a company’s operation is geographically dependent (e.g., Toyota), it is recommended to select one regional business (e.g., Toyota Australia or Toyota Melbourne) and profile its regional senior marketing manager. This will make profiling target segment a lot easier. Avoid Business-to-business (B2B) companies, advertising firms, and consulting firms. 2. Research and profile senior marketer. Ideally you should select someone who has been at the organisation for at least one year. Marketing manager, marketing director, vice president marketing, senior brand manager, digital marketing director or manager, marketing executive, etc., are example of role titles but the actual title may depend on the organisation and its organisational structure. 3. Profile a target segment for the company (implies there are multiple segments – pick one): a. Psychographic / Demographic / Geographic. b. State needs and wants of target segment c. Value being sought by target segment (benefit – cost) d. Insight about the target segment about their potential behaviour based on above analysis; what type of person are they, what are they looking for in your product, why. 4. Based on your profiling and investigation, develop one key insight for the company. (e.g., what marketing challenges / opportunities is the company currently / potentially facing?). This challenge or opportunity must be addressable within the power of the firm’s marketing department. (e.g., avoid wars, increased manufacturing cost, technology change, etc.) 5. Based on the above profile, explain the potential impact of one element of buyer behaviour (e.g. perception), on the consumer decisions for the product/service the organisation markets to the target segment. The element of BB you will focus on will be allocated in week 1. 6. Based on the one BB element you focused on and its impact on the target segment’s decision- making, propose to the senior marketer how the BB element might be used/applied in designing a marketing mix activity e.g. pricing, product, promotion. By “propose”, it means you need to propose your ORIGINAL recommendations. You should NOT simply describe what the company has already been doing. The focus of this assessment is the development and justification of a) the potential impact of element of buyer behaviour (e.g. perception), on the target customers’ decision and b) insights on how the BB element might be used/applied in designing a marketing mix activity. You are presenting this information to a senior marketer in the organisation. Therefore, your analysis and insights MUST BE TAILORED to this person/organisation.MKF5911 – Theory and Process of Buyer Behaviour Assessment 2: Apply Buyer Behaviour Theory to Marketing 3 3 Definition of insight For the purpose of this unit, an insight is defined as; a previously unrevealed fact that can be used to build marketing action that will lead to a sustainable competitive advantage. • Unrevealed – not previously understood, not common knowledge, not generally known. • Fact – it must be supported by evidence; numbers, graphs, trends AND academic, contemporary business or field research. • Marketing action – input to overall strategy, overall marketing mix or specific marketing mix component/s. • Sustainable competitive advantage – input to achieving objective/s in the market place. Format: Report See notes on How to Write a Business Report and How to Write an Executive Summary on Moodle. Maximum 2,000 words, 10 pages excluding the title page, executive summary and references. Title Page- report title, student names, ID, date (not included in word count or page count) 1. Executive Summary (not included in word count, separate page, one page length - max) 2. Profile the company and its marketing manager: company name, product/service offered, value proposition, size and revenue, major competitors, etc. Marketing managers name, job description, goals/objectives, etc. (1- 2 pages) 3. Profile the target segment for the organisation (1-2 pages - use tables, graphs, diagrams, images with each supported by analysis, i.e. explain to reader what they need to see / understand in the table, graph, image or diagram): 4. Consumer-related insight for the company. Key challenges or/and opportunities. (0.5-1.5 page) 5. Based on the above profile, explain the potential impact of element of buyer behaviour (e.g. perception), on the consumer decisions. (2-2.5 pages) 6. Based on the BB element impact on the target segment’s decision-making, propose how the BB element might be used/applied in designing a marketing mix activity. (2-2.5 pages) 7. References – Not counted in word count. See Report Writing notes regarding referencing Appendix (if used/relevant) – supporting evidence or data for target segment profile. Not counted in word count. See Report Writing notes The suggested page length for each section is for reference only. You don’t need to follow it in a cookie cutting way. However, you are encouraged to read the Assessment 2 Marking Rubric to see how much marks are allocated to each sub-task. For example, sub-tasks 5 and 6 together count for 45 out of 100 marks. You should dedicate a relatively big proportion of the report to these two tasks. Report / Analysis – MUST BE DRIVEN BY INSIGHT. That is, the information in the profile must align with the company insight which must align with the buyer behaviour analysis and marketing mix proposal. All of this must be tailored to the senior marketer/organisation. The Insight should be your original ideas. Mechanics of report San Serif Font— Calibri, Arial, Garamond, etc. Font size—12 Line spacing—1½ lines Paragraph spacing – Before —6 points Pages to be numbered bottom right |