Market Plan Business Report: Critical evaluation and proposal of strategies

You are required to undertake a 2,000-word Market Plan Business Report, using the same organisation and proposed market/s which you used for the Infographic Poster.

Please submit your business report electronically to the relevantly labelled submission folder on the module Blackboard site. Deadlines will be communicated via Blackboard announcement.

Section 1 (40% of the Market Plan Business Report marks): Critical evaluation of an organisation in one or more established markets

Section 1 accounts for 40% of the Market Plan Business Report marks, and therefore the recommended word count is around 800 words, but at your discretion as long as the total word count for the report is observed.

• Identify an organisation which is strong and established in one or more markets.
• Analyse why it is currently strong in its home market / country of origin, referring to its brand, products and/or services, marketing communications mix, use of media, Relationship Marketing strategies, and any other elements of its identity or operations which you feel relevant to its success.
• In particular, refer to its meaning towards, and relationships with, its customers.
• When analysing the organisation, use theories and academic sources critically.
• Provide commercial context underpinned by industrial sources (i.e. – information which is already in the public domain).
• Do not undertake any primary research (i.e. – do not contact the organisation or its stakeholders).

Section 2 (60% of the Business Report marks): Proposal of strategies to enter a new market

Section 2 accounts for 60% of the Market Plan Business Report marks, and therefore the recommended word count is around 1,200 words, but at your discretion as long as the total word count for the report is observed.

• Propose strategies for your chosen organisation to use when entering one specific country for the first time. (NB: for the purposes of this task, you are permitted to pretend that the organisation is not already present in a specific country, even if this is not the case in real life.)
• Consider the needs and characteristics of this target market – in particular its consumers.
• Explain how these might differ from the needs and characteristics of the consumers it is currently selling to in its home market / country of origin.
• Use theory and academic sources critically to underpin your recommendations.
• Wherever possible, compare alternative strategies which you chose to discard with those which you chose to adopt, explaining their relative merits in the context of your organisation.
• When explaining your rationale, say what effects the recommended strategies might have upon the organisation, its brand, its performance, and its commercial sustainability – but also the effects upon the targeted consumers in the new market.

Important note on staff guidance for both assessed elements:

Any academic judgments not stipulated in the brief, the ARTA regulations, or the mark scheme are at your discretion, therefore you should not need to seek clarification of any such points.

If we have not expressly stated in the brief that you must, or must not, do something, we have deliberately chosen not to guide you in that choice - we would like to see what you do independently, rather than us providing a suggestion, to ensure the integrity and fairness of the assessment.

All necessary advice is provided in this document, and discussed at length in specific lectures and seminars.

To ensure fairness and consistency of advice across the cohort, please bring any queries to the above sessions so that all students can benefit equally from any advice given, rather than sending emails.

If you feel unable to raise your query in class, please attend one of the Module Leader drop-in guidance sessions, the schedule for which will be announced on Blackboard.