Part1.

This short assignment task gives you an opportunity to apply it and to receive some early feedback from your tutor. (3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5)
You must identify two competing products or services that objective at dissimilar market segments. Ideally one of these should be a domestic product and another should be based in a different country. For illustration you may compare a local beer or type of food stuff with an international brand, or a domestic airline with an international airline. These are exs only and you will be capable to think of others. You must then discuss how the two businesses use the marketing mix. The easiest way to do this is in a table, such as that shown below - 

Part2.

Scenario
 
‘Tots & Teens Fashion’ is a small business situated in Birmingham, UK. It is owned by Amara and her husband Tariq who started the business 2 years before.  The business supplies a range of designer clothes for babies and children up to 15 years of age and is run from a small stall in the city’s thriving Bull Ring Shopping Centre.  The couples spend a lot of time buying clothes from up and coming, less well known fashion designers and extremely often travel to London to fashion colleges and fashion exhibitions to source stock for their stall. But, the recent ‘credit crunch’ has meant that families have less money to spend on ‘luxuries’ such as designer clothes for their children  and so the 2011/2012 income for business was low and the couple have noticed which there is a lot of unused stock that really needs to be sold.

Amara has decided that the business can’t continue on this basis wants to formulate a plan to make sure the prosperity of the business for her and her husband. Instead of selling specifically to the ‘local market’ Amara and Tariq will supply designer clothes, shoes and accessories to a much wider market by setting up an online  retail business which could supply the clothes and so forth. Through their own local delivery service (in a 50 mile radius of the centre of Birmingham) or via a courier service for further distance.

 All of the clothes etc. are to be sourced from up and coming fashion designers and as such are likely to be ‘one off’ items or ‘exclusive designs’ and this would mean that the prices would be higher than those retailers providing ‘mass produced’ clothing and accessories, and Amara believes that customers would be willing to give more for the exclusive clothing and associated accessories. Amara and Tariq believe the customers most likely to be interested in their clothing range would be affluent families who like their children to wear exclusive clothing to stand out from their peers.  (NB Amara and Tariq are already aware of other companies selling designer children clothing and accessories for illustration see http://www.littlefashiongallery.com
 
Amara and Tariq are also aware that not all customers will be willing to give a premium price and to cater for these customers Amara is considering designing / making some of her own designs / clothes ranges and offer these at a lower price.
In an attempt to encourage the business Amara and Tariq organized an open day in a local college but it was poorly attended and only around 20 people (mostly family and friends) visited the open day.  Amaras’ response to any criticism on the day was that the students at the college were not the market / customers that they were aiming at anyway. 

Amara and Tariq now realize that they need aid if they are to make the business a success and as they have no real understanding of marketing Amara has asked if you will meet with her and Tariq to discuss / clarify what marketing is and what the key marketing issues that they need to consider for their business are.

Assignment Task 

By using the information that you already know about the business and its products, and through consideration of the PEST and SWOT factors, you are required to prepare a short marketing plan document which you are going to employ in your discussion with Amara and Tariq.
 
By using the following headings to produce the marketing plan for Tots & Teens Fashion:
 
Section 1 – Marketing Context 

An elucidation of the marketing process 
Evaluation of the costs and benefits associated in adopting the marketing approach
An elucidation of factors to consider in a PEST analysis
An elucidation of factors to consider in a SWOT analysis
 
Section 2 – Marketing Mix

Mission Statement and Objectives  

This will set who the business is, what the business is trying to attain, and why people must select the business instead of a competitors
 
Marketing Mix 

You must construct a marketing mix for each of the following potential markets: 

(The table format as attached at the end of this assignment brief may help with this task)
 
- Affluent families who frequently shop in Birmingham
- Teenagers who have a limited budget
-  Independent retailers throughout Europe who wish to sell British designer clothes / accessories
- One other consumer market segment that you should identify yourself
 
Section 3 - Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

You are required to select ONE of the above target markets to help describe to Amara and Tariq how segmentation criteria and positioning* should be used for the products being offered to the market, and to summarize how buyer behavior affects marketing activities. (2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5) 
 
* Please adapt fig 2.2.9 (Unit - Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning/Lesson - Market Segmentation, page 7 of 8, in the i-learn learning materials) to show the positioning of the new product / service in the overall market.

WORD LIMITS 

The word limit for PART A is 800 words maximum
The word limit for PART B is 3000 words maximum 
 
These suggested word limits have been set in order for your research and summarizing skills to be developed, and to allow your time management skills to be developed.  However, you are required to ensure that the assignment answers all of the assignment problems and you are advised that there is no penalty for being over the suggested word count.