From discussions and material presented during lectures, write an essay to demonstrate your theoretical understanding and practical application of Marketing. Each student is to select one of the essay topics below and write an essay of 1500 words, to be submitted in Week 5. The essay must be referenced (Harvard Referencing style ) with relevant up-to-date sources.

Choose one of the topics below:

1. Discuss the concept of perceived value and its importance to consumer behaviour and marketing. Discuss the theory and then give practical examples of how customers perceive various brands and how this impacts on their behaviour.

2. To evaluate an organization's Strategic Business Units (SBU), the Boston Consulting Group developed a portfolio performance framework.

3. Segmentation, targeting and positioning are interrelated activities which are important to achieving a successful Marketing Mix. Discuss these concepts in theory and give practical examples of how they can be applied to one industry of your choice. Examples of an industry you might choose: fashion for men, or personal care products (shampoo, shavers etc.), or pet products, or toys, or vehicles, or furniture, or fashion for women, or financial services, or beverages, or baby products, or snack foods or another industry.

4. Marketing decision makers in a firm must constantly monitor competitors' activities - their products, prices, distribution, and promotional effort.  

5. Good market research and environmental scanning forms the basis of success for other related marketing activities. Discuss the theory and then give practical examples of what types of market research and environmental scanning a company like Domino’s Pizza should do and explain why.

6. Why is it important to do market research and adjust the marketing mix when entering into a foreign market? Explain the theory and then give practical examples of how some companies have already adjusted their marketing mix in foreign markets. Also, explain what advice you would give the marketing team of “Vegemite” - if they wanted to launch this product in a foreign market such as South Africa (or a market of your choice), where people do not know the product/brand.

Marking Criteria for Individual Essay                                                          points

Assessment Criteria Maximum Scored Discussion of relevant issues, theories and concepts for the chosen topic for essay  Demonstrated understanding, logic and reasoning evidenced in essay   Application of theories/concepts to industry/real products/services. And other relevant examples and ideas provided by the student to demonstrate an understanding of the theory   Style, structure, spelling, grammar, punctuation,  referencing Total 20