You must form or join a group of 4 to 5 students to work on the following course project: You must select a product/brand that is being currently sold in the marketplace. You will closely examine the manner in which that product/brand was marketed and write a report on its target market, competition and marketing mix strategies.

Specific instruction

1. You must submit a list to your instructor by Tuesday, 15 Oct containing the names of all project group members and your group's chosen product/brand/company for your term paper. You cannot change your group members or product/brand/company after submission. You are strongly encouraged to meet as a group and agree on your product/brand/company as soon as possible after your instructor has provided his instructions in class.

2. After the group is formed, each group should discuss among themselves and decide on a product/brand or company for their research and study. No two groups are to work on the same product/brand in the same category. You should seek your instructor's approval before proceeding on your term paper. Some examples of product/brand include: Beer/Heineken, Cola Beverage/Pepsi Cola, Athletic Shoes/Adidas, Airlines/United Airlines, Financial Institution/AIG, Retail Clothes/Hollister, etc.

3. You must divide the responsibility among group members for the research and extensive analysis of each element of the marketing mix (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) for the chosen brand. Focus should also be on the planning and strategies deployed in each marketing mix. Use the topic headings in the relevant chapters as a guide for your analysis of the elements of the marketing mix.

4. Your paper must cover an identification and analysis of the "target market" for the product/brand. Your paper must also cover an analysis of the direct and indirect competitors of the brand that was chosen. You must also perform a SWOT analysis of your chosen organization as part of your assignment as a measurement of problem solving skills in this research project.

5. You are to use as many of the concepts taught in class and those in your textbook that are related to your "marketing mix" elements as a basis of application to the product/brand in your project. Sources of information for your project should be from several sources such as the internet, business periodicals (Business Week, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, etc), information published by the marketers of the brand, and consumer or marketing research studies, etc.

6. Late submission, if accepted, will be subjected to substantial penalty. First, the evaluation for late work is reduced by 25%. Second, the term paper presented late cannot receive a grade higher than the lowest grade received by those who submitted on time.

7. If necessary, each student will be required to make a confidential peer evaluation of the participation of all team members in the group. These evaluations will be considered in determining the final project grades of the team members. Your instructor will provide the appropriate evaluation forms to you.