Assignment Brief:

The task is divided into two parts (Part 1 & Part 2) and candidates are expected to address both.

Your task is to identify an organisation, producer and/or brand owner, that is involved in the marketing of sporting footwear e.g. Reebok, Nike etc and then analyse, evaluate and prepare an individual report of 3,500 words (+/- 10%) addressing the following issues.

Part 1:

Using appropriate sources undertake a full marketing audit (external and internal environments) of your chosen organisation. Include details about the organisation's position relative to other industry members including details on their marketing strategy.

Provide a critical evaluation of the organisation's competitive edge (USP) over other brands in the marketplace. Demonstrate the organisation's effectiveness by providing an evaluation of competitive performance. This should include relevant market performance data to underpin your evaluation, for example market growth, sales trends, profitability etc.

Part 2:

Based on your Part 1 analysis you should now choose a sporting footwear sub- brand (football, running etc) from the organisations portfolio and:
- Select customer segment/s for the sub-brand, explaining your choice.
- Set clear marketing objectives to increase sub-brand awareness, market share, and growth in sales volume and/or profitability.
- Recommend marketing strategies, based on the application of the marketing mix to your chosen sub-brand.

Benchmarking against other successful organisations or companies preferably from different industry sectors could also be used to further develop your analysis.

Your arguments, findings and recommendations should be supported by theories, facts and figures published within academic books, journal articles, recognised business magazines and market intelligence reports.

Please note the maximum word count excludes Appendix and References.

Assignment Structure:

This is an individual assignment as a single report in two parts. Candidates are encouraged to be creative with their analysis and recommendations by using theories covered in the lectures and workshops.

The below is the structure that candidates must follow for this report:

Part 1.
- Title page
- Executive Summary
- Table of contents
- Introduction
- Situational analysis - (PESTLE) (SWOT)
- Competitive advantage (USP)
- Evaluation of current marketing strategy

Part 2.
- Segmentation Targeting & Positioning (STP)
- Recommended objectives and goals (SMART)
- Recommend marketing strategies, based on the application of the marketing mix to your chosen brand.
- Conclusion
- Bibliography (with references)