MRKT 310 Principles of Marketing

Week 2 Writing Assignment

Strategic Marketing & Value for the Customer

Learning Outcomes

1. Creating Value for Customers:  Student can demonstrate an understanding of the concept of value creation.
2. The Role of the Customer in Company Mission.  Student can assess the company’s commit to serving customer needs as evidenced in a company’s mission statement.
3. SWOT analysis:  Student can conduct a simple SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) of a product or service offering and draw inferences from an analysis of the results.
4. Competitive Analysis:  Student can conduct a simple competitive analysis based on criteria important to the customers of the product or service.

Directions

• Step One: Select your product or service offering from the list in Writing Assignment Instructions. The same product/service will be used in all four of your writing assignments.
• Step Two: Research your product or service offering through the Internet and UMGC’s virtual library.  Your references will need to be mostly academic sources; see library services if you do not know what an academic source means and your own outside research.  Do not limit yourself to searching solely on the product or service name.  Look up the industry it is in.  Hoovers.com database is a good place to search for this information in the UMGC library; search on that industry as well.  Look up the direct competitors.  Check industry journals and the trade press. Ask your family, friends, coworkers and others what they think about the product and each of the competitors.  If relevant and possible, you may want to visit a retailer to compare the products on the shelves or visit all of the websites.  Keep all your research as you will need it for future writing assignments.
  • [Optional] You may want to calculate the lifetime value of a customer.  See the discussion of the lifetime value calculation in the week’s reading, and calculate the LTV using this simple equation:  LTV = (Price) * number of annual purchases * number of years expected to purchase – initial acquisition costs.  For simplicity sake, you can assume your customer will have a relationship with you for ten years and you can make an educated guess as to how much the initial acquisition costs were to get that person as a customer in terms of advertising or other types of promotion efforts.   If you are not a customer yourself, make and share your assumptions about your calculation. If you are not a customer, you might want to find someone who is.  Ask them why they are loyal to the product or service.
• Step Three:  Prepare your assignment to answer each of the following questions (two in part 1 and two in part 2).  Although you do not need to repeat the question, each section should have a heading.  The paper should contain approximately 4-5 total pages of analysis for the responses to the questions.  See Writing Assignment Instructions for full details of the requirements.

Part 1 – Customer Value & Role in Mission

1. Creating Value for Customers. Consider the customers you believe currently use your product or service and the definition of marketing offered in the course content.  Discuss how you think the company creates value for its customers based on the concepts in this week’s readings.
2. Role of the Customer in the Company’s Mission.  The readings indicate that the best marketing begins with the customer and that commitment to the customer begins with including the customer in the company’s mission statement.  Find your company’s mission statement.  Copy, paste and cite the company mission statement (or attach as an exhibit if it is too long). Comment on its effectiveness in demonstrating the company’s commitment to having a customer focus.  Could the mission statement have more focus on the customer?  How would you recommend it be modified?  Is it supported with value statements or other evidence of a customer focus?

Part 2 – Company Analysis

1. SWOT analysis.  Perform a SWOT analysis for your company and create a table in which you display and explain your results. Identify at least one element of each of the SWOT categories (a strength, a weakness, an opportunity, and a threat).  Explain your choice using a citation to support your explanation.  Then identify possible implications for each of the four elements. Create and include a Table in which these elements are posted.  For example, if a strength is a strong national brand name, the implication is that the company may be able to launch other related products under the positive umbrella of the same brand name.  Conversely, if a major weakness is the company is carrying a lot of debt, the implication is that the company not be able to achieve significant growth, but may have to consider retrenchment strategies.  Your response will be enhanced by including elements related to your product.  Do not simply reproduce a SWOT analysis you find somewhere; you are being asked to perform your own analysis and create your own SWOT.
2. Competitive Analysis. Identify at least two major competitors that are trying to sell essentially identical products to the same type of consumer.  Then, identify at least three criteria that are important to those consumers when they are making their decision as to which of the three competing offers to buy (e.g. price, specific benefit, service, warranty, convenience, specific feature, etc.).  Make a chart with the three criteria along the left-hand side and the competitor products (including your own product) across the top.  Rank each of the products on a scale from 1= low to 5= high on each performs on each of the three criteria.  Add down each column.  Which product ranked highest overall based on the sum of the columns?  Then, look at the highest score in each of the criteria boxes. Explain the following…Which products ranked the highest on each of the three criteria? Was it the same product, was it three different products?  What do these results tell you about the competitive environment of your product category.  Which product is the leader?  Which product is the follower, challenger and nicher, if those categories apply? Include your chart in your text.

SOCW 6311 WK 5 responses 

Respond to at least two colleagues each one has to be answered separately name first then response

Bottom of Form

Respond to at least two colleagues by doing all of the following:

· Respond to at least 2 of your colleagues and elaborate on their recommendations for cultural adaptation with the group they identified. For example, you might discuss a merit or limitation of the cultural adaptation that your colleague proposed. Or you might suggest an alternative application of one of Marsigilia and Booth’s cultural adaptation.

Instructor wants lay out like this:

Respond to at least two colleagues ( 2 peers posts are provided) by doing all of the following:

Identify strengths of your colleagues’ analyses and areas in which the analyses could be improved.

Your response

Address his or her evaluation of the efficacy and applicability of the evidence-based practice,

Your response

[Evaluate] his or her identification of factors that could support or hinder the implementation of the evidence-based practice,

Your response

And [evaluate] his or her solution for mitigating those factors.

Your response

Offer additional insight to your colleagues by either identifying additional factors that may support or limit implementation of the evidence-based practice or an alternative solution for mitigating one of the limitations that your colleagues identified.

Your response

References

Your response

PEER 1

Katie Otte

Using one of the direct quotes and/or photos from Knight et al.’s study, analyze it by drawing up a tentative meaning.

The quote I selected to analyze for this discussion post is:

“[The homeless shelter administrator] told me I would find a place [through a subsidized program] if I work with them. And they did find me a lot of places, but I didn’t want to go, because [those] SROs they have now are really nasty. Really tore up, tore down. Syringes in the bathroom. Blood on the toilet. Because you use the same toilet that everybody else uses. So it wasn’t sanitized. So I didn’t want to go. And I found the Martin Hotel and I went in and it was a really clean, nice place. So I went back to [the shelter] and I asked them ‘Can you please get me a place inside that hotel?’ They said that would be cool, they would work on it. And within two, three weeks I had a place at the Martin.” (Knight, Lopez, Comfort, Shumway, Cohen, & Riley, 2014).

This quote reflects a woman who expressed her need and desire to have an SRO that met her mental health needs. Rather than accepting the first available room, she chose to work with the shelter administrator to find a more suitable place. This quote depicts the impact that an SRO can have on a woman’s mental health and how the environment can exacerbate their physical and emotional health.

Discuss how this would specifically inform one intervention recommendation you would make for social work practice with the homeless. This recommendation can be on the micro, meso [mezzo], or macro level.

As a social worker working with the homeless population, it would be critical to know the impact that the living environment can have on an occupant, specifically a woman who has experienced trauma. The trauma cannot be stabilized if they are living in unstable and chaotic conditions (Knight, Lopez, Comfort, Shumway, Cohen, & Riley, 2014). Knowing that interventions on the macro level would look at creating housing that was sensitive to that fact. A macro-level intervention would work with policymakers to secure funding and organize housing that met the needs of the homeless population. Specifically, based on the findings of the research presented in the case study, the intervention should consider how the design of SRO’s impacts women who are homeless and have a history of trauma.

Next, explain how you would adapt the above practice recommendation that you identified so that it is culturally sensitive and relevant for African Americans, Hispanics, or Asian immigrants. (Select only 1 group).

Because the population being served might be culturally diverse, cultural factors should be considered when formulating this intervention. In looking at the above identified intervention and adapting it to meet the needs of the African American community, social workers need to incorporate culturally based values and diverse ways of knowing within that culture (Marsigla and Booth, 2015). One way to ensure this is by the social worker recognizing that the responsibility for cultural adaptation lies with everyone in the relationship, not just the client (Marsigla & Booth, 2015). Meaning, the social worker should be aware that their responsibility in making the adaptation happen is equal to the clients.

Apply one of the cultural adaptations that Marsigilia and Booth reviewed (i.e., content adaption to include surface and/or deep culture, cognitive adaptations, affective-motivational adaptations, etc.)(pp. 424-426). Be as specific as you can, using citations to support your ideas.

A cultural adaptation that could be applied in this scenario is a process model of adaptation (Marsigla & Booth, 2015). This adaptation first builds on creating a partnership with members of the identified community (Marsigla & Booth, 2015). This is important as an indicator of an effective therapeutic alliance starts with a strong foundational relationship. This adaptation allows for flexibility in that it provides adjustments to the initial framework to align better with the identified culture when mismatches are identified (Marsigla & Booth, 2015). This is done through interviews, focus groups, and surveys which collect data about social and cultural context that could affect the outcome of the intervention (Marsigla & Booth, 2015). Applying this adaptation to the case of SRO’s and African-American women, a social worker might start first at a homeless shelter developing relationships and gathering data about the needs of that community. From there, an intervention might be selected and/or modified based on the findings from this first step. This approach should be continuously tested to ensure that the original effects from the intervention are preserved (Marsigla & Booth, 2015).

References

Knight, K.R., Lopez, A.M., Comfort, M., Shumway, M., Cohen, J., & Riley, E.D. (2014) Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels as mental health risk environments among impoverished women: The intersection of policy, drug use, trauma, and urban space. International Journal of Drug Policy, 25(3), 556-561.

Marsiglia, F.F., & Booth, J.M. (2015). Cultural adaptations of interventions in real practice settings. Research on Social Work Practice, 25(4), 423-432.

Peer 2

Bottom of Form

Bottom of Form

Michael White 

RE: Discussion – Week 5

Top of Form

Using one of the direct quotes and/or photos from Knight et al.’s study, analyze it by drawing up a tentative meaning. Discuss how this would specifically inform one intervention recommendation you would make for social work practice with the homeless. This recommendation can be on the micro, meso, or macro level.

When looking at picture 2 the view is beautiful, warm, welcoming, safe, and clean. The first picture of a place that is new, no one has lived in it before the woman and her family. The new place is not worn out, beat up and seems to be in a good neighborhood that children can play in and the mother is safe but still watching them. The picture on the right seems like an urban city, low-income people surrounding them in a similar situation with no promise of getting out of the at area to live a peaceful life. The picture shows a run-down building in the background which would make this like living in a low-income area because this is all they know.

The one intervention that the writer would suggest would be to build new places for them to live in nicer neighborhoods so they can have something to push them to being great in a better neighborhood. If the clients continue to see rundown and abandoned neighborhoods, they will possibly turn to drugs or alcohol, and fell like no one cares for them. Then to make sure the people in charge of building these homes look at the quality of new homes they have and replace the old ones with a new one. The goal would also to be to move the people out of the old homes and put them in a new one. Once this is done then make sure they are getting the proper help they need mentally or some type of job training for jobs they can work and take care of their family.

Next, explain how you would adapt the above practice recommendation that you identified so that it is culturally sensitive and relevant for African Americans, Hispanics, or Asian immigrants. (Select only 1 group). Apply one of the cultural adaptations that Marsigilia and Booth reviewed (i.e., content adaption to include surface and/or deep culture, cognitive adaptations, affective-motivational adaptations, etc.) (pp. 424-426). Be as specific as you can, using citations to support your ideas.

“Cultural adaptation may not only preserve the ESI’s efficacy but also enhance the results attained in clinical trials.” The writer would work with the African American culture to implement the CBT, job training, and moving them to another area that is a good productive place for them to flourish and raise their children without fear of getting put into gangs. The intervention would be a good switch to get them to another neighborhood to help with the influence of getting to work harder and get some job training plus provide them with a steady job. When African Americans get out of the hood which means a place where there are drugs, shootings, stealing, and even things that make families unsafe. So, putting them in a better living situation, changing the climate, giving them job opportunities that make them feel better will change the culture of the African American culture. “In a recent meta-analysis, culturally adapted treatments had a greater impact than standard treatments, produced better outcomes, and were most successful when they were culturally tailored to a single ethnic minority group (Smith, Domenech, Bernal, 2010).”

Reference:

Marsiglia, F. F. & Booth, J. M. (2015). Cultural adaptations of interventions in real practice setting. Research on Social Work practice, 25 (4), 423-432.

Smith, T., Domenech Rodríguez, M. M., & Bernal, G. (2010). Culture. Journal of Clinical

Psychology, 67, 166–175.

For this Assignment, you will pretend that you are a contributing writer to a health blog. You are tasked with explaining important information about an assigned mental health disorder in language appropriate for child/adolescent patients and/or their caregivers.

To Prepare

• Research signs and symptoms for your diagnosis, pharmacological treatments, nonpharmacological treatments, and appropriate community resources and referrals.

The Assignment

In a 300- to 500-word blog post written for a patient and/or caregiver audience, explain signs and symptoms for your diagnosis, pharmacological treatments, nonpharmacological treatments, and appropriate community resources and referrals.

ToolsCorp Corporation is a fictitious company that does not exist anywhere. For the purpose of this course, it is located in Tennessee. As members of the senior management team of ToolsCorp Corporation, your group has been asked to prepare a neat and organized report for the Strategic Officers Steering Committee (SOS-C) of ToolsCorp Corporation. The purpose of this paper is to obtain permission from them to go forward with the next step (developing a full-blown business plan) for ToolsCorp’s strategic initiative to break into the global marketplace.

Your group’s paper should discuss the following (at a minimum):

• A complete strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis (including at least 5 factors from each category and full explanations of why each factor is important and why it was placed in the category) of the environment that exists within ToolsCorp and the environment that ToolsCorp is proposing
• An outline of the business plan to be developed for ToolsCorp’s strategic initiative
• A full mission statement containing the nine components and presented in a well written paragraph
• Key operating principles as you will apply them
• A preliminary market analysis of the market(s) into which ToolsCorp expands
• The one-year, five-year, and ten-year strategic objectives of the strategic initiatives presented as one strategic proposal for each time frame (3 strategic proposals in all), complete with implementation plans, potential ramifications, and feedback mechanisms
• The additional material that your group considers necessary to support the case for going forward with ToolsCorp’s global strategic initiative (This is not optional, you must input additional material.)

Background Information

ToolsCorp Corporation is a fictitious company that does not exist anywhere. For the purpose of this course, it is located it in Tennessee. It builds power tools, lawn mowers, lawn furniture, microwaves, and ranges. All products are manufactured locally and sold through large retailers that place sales papers inserted in every Wednesday and Sunday paper. Although they have a thriving business in the United States and Canada, ToolsCorp is trying to break into the global marketplace.

Deliverable Length

The deliverable length is at least 15 pages (cover page and reference page not included). As graduate business students, you are required to provide a well-researched and analyzed comprehensive response to every assignment question. Brief, vague, generic, or nondefinitive responses will not earn good grades.

This group project requires a minimum of 15 scholarly sources, a minimum of 1 per page. You are welcome and encouraged to use the David textbook and the course materials for this course, but other viable research sources are required.

For references, use the APA guide that is available as shown in the Virtual Campus under “Interactive Learning.”

Remember that any paper longer than 10 pages requires the submission of an Executive Summary.

Submit your group’s Word document to your instructor via the Small Group Submitted Assignment area in APA format.

Objective

The Objective of the Unit 5 Group Project Assignment will involve the following the course outcomes and grading criteria with their respective percentages for the grading rubric:

• Identify examples of good and bad business practices in the use of strategy design components (30%).
• Research and discuss some of the changes occurring in the way that organizations structure themselves and their work (30%).
• Develop plans to improve business operations (20%).
• Use effective communication techniques (20%).