Identify and Evaluate Marketing Opportunities Assessment Task - Evaluate Marketing Opportunities

Performance objective - The student is required to demonstrate skills and knowledge required to investigate marketing opportunities and evaluate required changes to current operations.

Assessment description - In response to the given case study on BBQ fun business, you are now required to evaluate three marketing opportunities that have been identified for you, rank them in terms of viability and likely contribution to the business, and assess the impact of the top-ranked opportunity on operations. You will then prepare a report for the board of directors (Assume your assessor as board of directors) documenting identified marketing opportunities and required changes.

Procedure - There are two parts to this assessment task. Both parts relate to three new opportunities that need to be evaluated. Part A requires you to read all materials and to evaluate and complete the information in the BBQ fun sales data worksheet. Part B requires you to prepare a report for a board of directors (Assume your assessor as board of directors) to outline, evaluate and rank the opportunities.

Part A - You are required to read BBQ fun business case study, information in the below scenario, and information supplied in the BBQ fun sales data worksheet in Appendix 1.

Scenario -

You are the marketing manager at BBQ fun. You and your team have identified three marketing opportunities to evaluate. They are:

• Manufacture and sell own brand
• Sell products through e-commerce
• Sell products at bargain prices

The first opportunity is to manufacture and retail own-branded barbecues and products. Manufacture would take place at a leased plant in India as BBQ fun has no manufacturing capability. Also, manufacture in Australia would be too expensive.

The second opportunity is to offer all products in an online store. Stock could be stored at no extra cost at existing stores. Customers would cover delivery costs.

The third option is to aim to increase market share by cutting the cost of products and aiming at mass appeal.

Further information is provided in the BBQ fun sales data worksheet.

Each opportunity will be promoted through a $500,000 television, internet and email advertising campaign (cost accounted for in approved budget).

You will need to review the BBQ fun information to determine organisational fit, profitability and operational implications for each of the three opportunities.

1. Based on the profitability index (opportunity cost estimated to be 8%) and a full appreciation of other, non-financial factors, you will need to rank these opportunities and choose one top-rated opportunity for further evaluation.

2. After ranking the three opportunities, you will complete your evaluation in terms of impact on operations. Information is provided in the BBQ fun sales data worksheet.

You will then need to provide a report to the board of directors (Assume your assessor as board of directors) documenting your evaluation of identified marketing opportunities and required changes to operations.

Using all the information you have been provided with, fill in the blank spaces (shaded boxes) in the BBQ fun sales data worksheet in the following order:

• Forecast the total market potential for 2016/17.
• Use the market share for each opportunity and the total market potential to forecast the number of buyers in each category for the e-commerce market opportunity.
• Use the number of buyers from market potential tables to calculate the unit sales volumes for the e-commerce and bargain market opportunities.
• Calculate estimated total revenue and gross profit.
• Use the additional fixed costs and the BBQ fun budget to determine the net profit for each opportunity.
• Use gross profit and total fixed costs from each opportunity to calculate the profitability index for each opportunity.
• Calculate total cost of operational changes.

Part B - Referring to the BBQ fun business documentation, analyse the three opportunities outlined in the scenario in terms of likely fit with organisational goals and capabilities. Consider:

• Organisational marketing plan, structure, products and services.
• Principles of marketing and the marketing mix.
• Additional marketing information such as survey results in the BBQ fun sales data worksheet.

Using information in the BBQ fun sales data worksheet, evaluate each opportunity in terms of impact to current business and customer base. Evaluation should include investigation of:

• Sales volume for each opportunity in FY 2016/17
• Gross and net profit for each opportunity FY 2016/17
• Use numerical analysis or statistical methods to forecast, for example, the size of potential markets in FY2016/17.
• Impact on growth plans
• Market share
• Knockout factors to rule out opportunities.

Assess external factors which may be relevant to each opportunity. Referring to BBQ fun policies and procedures, identify:

• Codes of practice and models
• Regulations
• Relevant legislation.

Summarise major costs, benefits and risks associated with each opportunity, including risks associated with potential competitors. Identify at least two strategies or approaches to mitigate risk.

 Using information in the BBQ fun sales data worksheet, assess the return on investment for each opportunity. Calculate the profitability index for each opportunity.

Rank each of the three marketing opportunities. Justify your ranking in terms of both financial and non-financial factors.

Using information from the BBQ fun sales data worksheet, for the top-ranked marketing opportunity, identify changes to current operations to take advantage of the opportunity. Ensure changes identified are adequate to:

• Service an increased or different customer base
• Ensure continued quality of service.

Ensure you can justify changes based on maintaining quality.

Using information from the BBQ fun sales data worksheet, estimate and justify resource requirements and costs for changed operations. Consider:

• Additional staff
• Distribution costs
• Equipment
• Promotional costs
• Staff training.

Prepare the report for the board of directors (assume your assessor as board of director) to document your evaluation of the three marketing opportunities and operational changes for the top-ranked opportunity.

Assessment Specifications -

You must submit:

• Evaluation report for the board of directors that covers all the listed requirements.

Your assessor will be looking for:

• Literacy skills to identify and interpret market information, to write in a formal style appropriate to a professional audience and to document outcomes and requirements
• Numeracy skills to calculate and evaluate financial information on new marketing options
• Knowledge of key provisions of relevant legislation from all forms of government, codes of practice and national standards that may affect aspects of business operations such as:
• Antidiscrimination legislation and the principles of equal opportunity, equity and diversity
• Ethical principles
• Marketing codes of practice and conduct such as the Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) Direct Marketing Code of Practice, The Free TV Australia Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, and the Australian Ecommerce Best Practice Model
• Privacy laws
• Competition and consumer act
• Knowledge of organisational marketing plan, structure, products and services
• Knowledge of principles of marketing and the marketing mix
• Knowledge of statistical methods and techniques to evaluate marketing opportunities, including forecasting techniques.

Attachment:- Assignment File.rar