Assignment Brief - Learning Outcomes

The completion of this assignment requires you to demonstrate the ability to:

- Identify and critically evaluate environmental factors that can affect organisational success.

Categorise and analyse the environmental factors at play and consider their impact on the Organisation under consideration.

- Undertake a marketing audit of an organisation. Identify and critically assess in a comprehensive fashion the current strengths and weaknesses of the organisation relative to its external environment.

- Apply consistently in-depth knowledge and reference relevant marketing management theories/concepts. Generate a variety of ways of tackling a selected problem and identify options that have a chance of success in the organisation under consideration.

- Identify quantitative and qualitative "information gaps", and the relevant sources needed to fill such lacunae. Prepare and use IT to aid efficient searching, evaluation and selection of information, exploring alternative lines of enquiry where appropriate. Present information effectively, including evidence to support your conclusions.

- Identify and critically assess in a comprehensive fashion the current marketing strategies employed by the organisation in its market. Evaluate and synthesise information from different sources, theories and principles, and communicate relevant information effectively, and with accuracy. Put forward relevant and robust strategic recommendations for the organisation.

- Critically analyse the effectiveness of your strategy, including factors that had an impact on the outcomes, and identify ways to take the firm/organisation forward, and ways of further developing problem solving skills

The word limit is2,000 words excluding cover page, references in the bibliography and the appendices. Your cover page must have your full name and ID number.

All work should be word processed using either Times New Roman or Ariel font, with line spacing of 1½ and justified.

Assessment: Individual Marketing Plan Report

Marketing Plan Task for Mercedes- Benz Oman

According to Clive Hammond, CEO of Zawawi Trading Company Automotive, Mercedes-Benz Oman has a "continuing commitment to delivering the Best Customer Experience" (12th June, 2016).

Based on the aforementioned, you have been approached by Clive Hammond, in your capacity as a Marketing Consultant, to develop a marketing plan for Mercedes-Benz Oman, with the objective of enhancing customer experience and satisfaction for the next two years.

Your Marketing Plan must include the following:

- Executive Summary
- Current market and company situational analysis, including the competition, consumer behaviour, SWOT and/or PEST analyses.
- Market Segmentation- this should emanate from your market situational analysis. You must identify current and possibly new market segments for Mercedes-Benz Oman. I would suggest that you focus only on the motor car segments.
- Marketing Plan Objectives - must be specific and realistic.
- Marketing mix strategy recommendations- these should stem from the market and company situational analysis. Your recommendations must be relevant to the segments identified in your market situational analysis.
- Evaluation and Control - how would the plan be monitored? What tools would you employ?
- Budget- provide a costing for each of your marketing mix strategy. I do not expect you to come up with specific figures, but your costing should be based on research.

Specific Guidance on the Marketing Plan Report

1. Objectives - objectives need to be SMART but it is unnecessary to explain in detailed how smart they are.

2. The balance between market analysis and the actual planning/actions- ensure that your submissions are balanced with regards to analysis and planning. For example, do not use a lot of space summarising the analysis, at the expense of setting objectives and planning objective-specific marketing strategies and tactics.

3. Vagueness - planning needs to be very specific; stating that you will use ‘social media' for promotion because it is the ‘most efficient tool' is not enough. You need to explain the social media tool (s) - what they are, why you are using them and how you would use them.

4. Academic content - you are expected to apply models, and not just describe or define them. For example, your SWOT or PEST analyses should not read like textbooks in which you explain what SWOT or PEST are - this is essentially incorrect. You need to apply them and not describe them.

5. Executive summary - an executive summary should be written in a way that allows the executive who reads it to know what the problem is and how it is to be solved. Essentially, it is a summary of your problem statement, objectives and how to achieve them (i.e. how to solve the problem).

6. Secondary data use - Analysis should be supported with secondary data (from the literature). You should demonstrate wider reading and acknowledge the sources of your information, both in the main body and in your bibliography. Avoid making very bold but not substantiated statements, such as ‘the only Car Company in Oman' or ‘massive campaign' or ‘massive customer segment'. Give numbers if you think the segment is large and compare it to other segments to give an idea of the size of it. Worth noting that your product offerings must relate to your chosen segments.

7. Presentation and structure - to achieve an excellent grade, your presentation needs to be immaculate - this includes numbering tables, referencing correctly etc. Do not present a lot of data and information in tables as appendices. Data or statistics that refer directly to your discussion in the main body, should be presented in the main body. Tables and figures - tables and figures need to be numbered and each should have a title that is self-explanatory. Your analytical content must be high, demonstrating critical thinking and the ability to apply relevant marketing concepts (refer to the marking criteria).

8. Word limit - 2,000 words. This will exclude your references in the bibliography , the appendices, and the cover page. Please, note that your cover page must have your Full Name and ID Number.

New Assessment Regulations

In response to student feedback the University has revised the regulations that govern how your work is assessed, by introducing the use of a percentage scale to replace the previous letter grades.

More information for students is available on BREO, in the "Assessments Information for students" community.

Attachment:- Case Study - Zawawi Trading Company LLC.rar