Class discussion and individual case submission.

Objective: To analyze a Marketing Management case. The case will come from Harvard Business Publishing. You are to act as a Marketing consultant and give advice to the company and/or person that has to make an important decision.  Use marketing terminology and what we have learnt to date in the course. This will enhance your grade.

Instructions: You need to create a Harvard Business Publishing student account in order to access the case. A print function will be available. The cases need to be purchased from Harvard. A link will appear in Moodle as to where you can download the case and register at the same time if you haven’t already for other courses.

Please use the following Headings

Identify the Marketing Decision                        5 marks

Issues contributing/complicating Marketing Decision (secondary data)        15 marks

Alternatives (3) plus pros and cons of each (secondary data)            15 marks

Recommendations (secondary data)                        15 marks

Professionalism and References (up to 15 marks deducted)             -15 marks

Case analysis requires effort to have synergies, good concise writing skills and sourcing. This will prepare you for writing a good marketing plan. Remember you are acting as a Marketing consultant and are trying to give advice to the company and/or decision maker not repeating information they already know.

Submission: Your submission should be no longer than 4 pages of analysis and no smaller than 11 font, double spaced. If you go over this page amount, you will be deducted.  You can include up to 3 appendices of your analysis.  You are to use APA referencing style. You should include:
1.    Title Page
2.    Content
3.    Appendices (Crunching of Quantitative or Qualitative Information)
4.    References
5.    Page Numbers (always)

CASE ANALYSIS HINTS: Class discussion and individual case submission.

Do more Analysis and don’t just repeat case information. Yes, at times you do repeat some information, but focus on the Marketing issues and the difficult decision being made. Act like a Marketing consultant

Marketing Problem/Decision: (5 marks). This should be “gimme marks”. Very brief but covers what the case is about especially from a “Market” and “Decision Perspective”. Identify who is making the decision.  Usually 3-4 sentences at most.
Issues: (15) Identify the decision maker’s main Marketing issue and any other Marketing issues you see. Use Marketing Terminology from the textbook.  Sometimes there is one or two major issues however there are some supplementary issues like the 4 P’s or the market you are trying to satisfy. This is usually 2 paragraphs. You should do some secondary research here-not into what the company actually did.
Alternatives: (15) Here you list the Decision Makers choices. It should flow from your Issues statement. You should list three alternative decisions. If the case already has alternatives you can list that as one alternative.  You should list the pros and cons of going with each alternative.  This is usually 3 paragraphs and nicely organized for the reader to see the three different alternatives you came up with.  Again, you may need to incorporate some secondary research here to compare this company to others in the industry.
Recommendations (15 Marks) This is where you need to make a choice and substantiate it with evidence. I am not so concerned about the right choice but a choice that flows from your prior analysis. This is the best section to use outside sources of decisions made by other companies and the outcome. Implementation should have some timelines attached to it. This wraps everything up and it justifies the Marketing Problem that you identified earlier.  This is usually 4-6 paragraphs.
Grammar, Research (15%). I am mostly concerned about the flow of your analysis. Is it logical and synergistic or is every section unrelated?

Don’t do research outside of the case and into the current industry because Case Analysis has to do with the decision at the time. Do not look at what the company actually did and let it influence your alternatives and solutions.  What you can do is in your recommendations section use decisions that were made in Marketing (successful or not) that will help with the decision at hand.  Marketing theory that you may find through academic journals may be good sources too.

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