Business Economics 230
Prof. John W. Sell

Marketing Project

Public corporations are required to publish an annual report describing the firm's activities during the previous year. Such reports usually contain statistics on the operations and an analysis of the firm's performance relative to its competitors. You are to manage your firm for the semester, keep track of its operation and evaluate its performance. How your firm actually performs is irrelevant to your grade, but how you evaluate it counts fifteen percent. An individually composed annual report for your firm is due to be submitted no later than 3:50pm on April 27, 2006. It should be typewritten (word processed) and double spaced. Reports submitted late will receive a grade of zero.

Instructions

1. Maintain a weekly journal containing important firm and market information. This should be submitted as an appendix to your report (this need not be typewritten, but should be legible and organized). It may be convenient to make a graph or table of your data. At minimum, it might contain the following information*:

       | Rel.  | Market  | Rel. Ad. | Relative   | Industry
Period | Price | Share % | Expense  | Res. & Dev.| Qty. Sold

2. When your data are complete, answer the following questions:

A. How would you describe the market for this product? Is it relatively competitive or not? How do you know? Cite specific information that leads you to your conclusion.

B. What was your strategy at the beginning of the game with respect to price, advertising, product quality, and productive capacity?

C. How did you implement the strategy you described in B? Cite specific examples of things you did during the semester to attain your goals.

D. Did you change your strategy at any point during the game? If so, what led you to change and how did you choose a new strategy? If not, do you think you could have done better by doing so? Why or why not?

E. How would you manage your firm differently if you could begin again now? Explain.

_________________
* Relative figures are calculated by dividing your data by the appropriate industry average numbers. Relative price, for example is your price divided by the industry average price. Market share is provided in your financial statements as "percent share of potential sales." Industry quantity is equal to your quantity demanded (sales volume) divided by your market share.

Last update 15 January 2006 by Jws.