Marketing Mix
Instructions
• Bachelor Students are to write an individual essay of minimum 1500 and maximum 2000 words.
• This individual exam builds upon the concepts, frameworks and theories as outlined in the Module Guide and as presented in the required literature and (online) classes.
• This exam consists of seven questions. For the first six questions the maximum score is ten points per questions. For question seven the maximum score is 40 points.
Question 1 (10 points)
Imagine yourself as the CEO of an “Amusement Theme Park” which is newly opened near by the busiest and international city of a country. Despite the fact that the city is very famous and highly populated, it did not have a major theme or amusement park before. Therefore the new “Park” was able to obtain a monopoly in the area; the park is now the largest in the world!
Because the city was lacking a major park, the “Amusement Theme Park” attracted major publicity and was supported with significant media advertising. The primary communication focus was on the large size of the park and the selling of seasonal pass tickets.
The pricing strategy of the “Amusement Theme Park” was to sell seasonal passes rather than individual tickets. For example, a season pass cost 50 Euros as compared to a one-day visit ticket of 30 Euros. These passes became extremely popular and consumers were visiting multiple times per season. On several occasions, in the middle of summer, the “Amusement Theme Park” was at full capacity. That means that season pass holders, were unable to enter the park because it was full and the queues were quite long. It was an uncomfortable situation for the consumers to wait 1 to 1.5 hours under the summer heat.
As a new facility, the park was eager to get back their investment as fast as possible.
Explain which kind of pricing strategy the “Amusement Theme Park” has executed and argue to what extent you agree with their pricing strategy and explain if there could be a more appropriate approach to pricing.
Question 2 (10 points)
Imagine you work in the marketing department of a large pharmaceutical company which makes a broad range of products. Some of these products are prescription medication and must be sold via pharmacies, whereas other products such as paracetamol can be sold ‘over-the- counter’ in supermarkets.
As the as the overall market has become more health conscious, the company decided to launch a range of Vitamins tablets. As the marketing manager of this new Vitamin line, you decided to use multiple channels for this new product.
A) What type of marketing (distribution) channels should your company use to reach the maximum number of end consumers?
B) Describe the pricing and packaging strategy of each channel?
C) What are the possible channels that could be in conflict? How would you approach/resolve each of the conflicts?
Question 3 (10 points)
As a marketing consultant, you need to help a company of your choice from any industry you decide; from airline industry to hospitality, fashion, cars, hospitals or education. You need to help that company of your choice to decide the most appropriate Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) tools mix for a major launch of a new and innovative product. There are many possible promotional tools to choose from. The goal is to integrate the campaign across the various elements.
A) Outline the choice of IMC tools that you would use to structure this new product launch and argue what role each of them plays in the overall campaign.
B) How hard would it be to effectively integrate and coordinate your overall campaign?
Question 4 (10 points)
Pick two product categories – one should be a physical good and the other should be a service.
A) For both the physical good and the service, outline and discuss how the three product levels could be structured.
B) For both the physical good and the service, relate these three product levels to the consumer needs.
C) In your opinion, how useful is it for a marketer to divide the product into its several product levels?
Question 5 (10 points)
The product life cycle helps a company understand the stages a product or service may go through once it is launched in the marketplace. Choose 2 products or services:
• Product/service 1-that survived throughout the product life cycle into the decline phase
• Product/service 2-that failed in the product life cycle and ended with death before the decline phase
A) Discuss critically the product life cycle extension strategies that product/service 1 went through and indicate what went well and what could have been done better.
B) Discuss critically the reasons for product/service 2’s early demise and what could have been done better in order for it to survive.
Question 6 (10 points)
This question consists of questions A, B and C.
A) Although product and services require different marketing strategies, consumers are the center of every marketing program. Using relevant examples, evaluate how product and service companies build offerings that bring value to their target market?
B) Identify some of the differences on the below mentioned business types with regard to how these offerings could be marketed differently – you can also refer here to the 7 Ps and the B2B business types.
• financial services
• raw materials offerings
• original equipment manufacturer (OEM) offerings
• maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) offerings
• consulting service
C) The co-founder and CEO of VOX Activewear asks you to become the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) of the company. Argue what, as new CMO, would be your priorities with regards to implementing (changes to) the company’s Marketing Mix.
Question 7 (40 points)
For this question you may choose any company from any industry you like: from consumer electronics (Sony and Fairphone) to airlines (KLM and United) to fast-food (Burger King and Subway) and education (Wittenborg and Harvard).
Assume that you have taken on the position of that company’s Chief Marketing Officer: the highest ranking Marketing executive in the company and seated, together with the CEO, in the Board of Directors.
If your company of choice offers multiple product lines you may choose to focus on one of these in this exam. In that case, explain clearly here what product(s) you will focus on.
Your CEO asks you to critically reflect on the current marketing strategy and to make any changes required to help the company compete successfully in the coming decade.
In your answer, make sure to reflect on the following:
A) what are the company’s existing marketing strategies (use at least three marketing strategies).
B) what might be important future developments that can impact the company’s commercial survival in the coming 5-10 years?
C) based on these developments, what changes would you make to the company’s marketing strategy/strategies described under question A)?
What changes in the Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Place & Promotion) are required as a result of the change(s) in marketing strategy?
