Special Topics in Marketing: Burt's Bees

B2B Marketing, Marketing Information Systems and Measuring Marketing Activities

Learning Outcomes                              

1. B2B marketing. Student can differentiate the differences in marketing strategy between consumer markets and business markets.
2. Segmenting B2B markets.  Student can identify the B2B market segments involved in a product or service offering
3. Marketing Information Systems.  Student can identify at least three sources of input to a marketing information system for a product or service offering.
4. Marketing Metrics.  Student understands the purpose of Return on Marketing Investment for the company, and can identify at least three metrics that should be used in a product or service offering to measure the effectiveness of marketing strategies.  

Directions

This writing assignment closes the loop on strategic marketing planning in that it identifies the types of marketing strategies the company might employ to market its offering through the value chain prior to its final customer.   Also, strategic planning is useless unless there are reliable and useful sources of inputs and a way to organize the data to be used in the planning process decision making; and metrics need to be in place to measure how successful (or not so successful) the strategies to reach marketing objectives have been.  Strategic marketing planning then becomes an ongoing process of measuring and adjusting to new information and current conditions.

Many of your responses to these questions will be your best educated and informed (as much as possible) information on your product or service offering's company.  Where concrete information is not obtainable, you should use your judgment and to describe why you made your judgment call.  

Prepare your assignment beginning with a title page to include your name, your product or service and your target market.  Then respond to each of the following four questions in order and identify the number of each response.  There is no need to repeat the number of the question.  

1.  
   1. B2B marketing.  Consider your product or service offering.  Based on the categories of B2B markets discussed in the readings, name at least two of the B2B markets Burt's Bees may be a target market for another company.  Why?
   2. Segmenting B2B markets.  Using the Harrison, Hague, and Hague behavioral-based segment model in the readings, which of those segmentation scheme might be most appropriate category for Burt's Bees?  Why?
   3. Marketing Information Systems.  Identify at least three types of information Burt's Bees should use in a comprehensive marketing information system for decision making purposes.  Why did you chose each of them?  
   4. Marketing Metrics.  Identify and discuss at least one financial metric and three performance metrics that would be important to monitor your company's strategic marketing planning for the marketing efforts you identified for your new marketing mix strategies.  

Be sure to follow all of the submission requirements outlined in the syllabus and provided below again for your easy reference:

• Prepare as a word processed document (such as Microsoft Word).
• Your assignment should be the equivalent of two pages of double-spaced text, approximately 1/2 page for each of the four questions.
• Be sure your name, writing assignment number, and the name of your product or service are on the first page of your writing assignment.
• Use a simple 12-point font such as Times New Roman. Use black ink for majority of your work and only use colors if it enhances your ability to communicate your thoughts.
• If the writing assignment requires external research, be sure to use footnotes and include a bibliography. You may use APA style. More information about using a style guide can be found in the UMUC's virtual library accessible from your LEO classroom or at umuc.edu/library.