This assignment contains of three questions. Answer all questions.

1. List and define the major components of an effective mission statement.

a) Customers-  Who are the enterprise's customers? 
b) Products or services- What are the firm's major products or services? 
c) Markets- Where does the firm compete? 
d) Technology- What is the firm's basic technology?
e) Concern for survival, growth and profitability- What is the firm's commitment
towards economic objectives?
f) Philosophy- What are the basic beliefs, core values, aspirations and philosophical
priorities of the firm?
g) Self-concept- What are the firm's major strengths and competitive advantages? 
h) Concern for public image- What is the firm's public image?
i) Concern for employees- What is the firm's attitude/orientation towards employees?

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 2. There are seven basic functions of marketing. List and discuss five functions.

(i) Product and service management.

 When a company develops a product, it is done so in accordance with what its
customers want.
 For new companies, this could be more challenging, since their products have not
garnered preferences, as yet. Irrespective of this fact, every business has to design and change
their product as per the customer requirements.
 Thus, product/service management deals with the designing, changing, updating, and
modelling your product as per the customer's satisfaction.
 This may involve changing the colour, size, functionality, quality, etc.
 The company could even decide to branch out into different sectors and create new
versions of the product, to suit the consumer's needs.
Example:
 Consider that a company manufactures liquid soap.
 Over a period of time, if they understand (through reviews) that their customers prefer
a particular fragrance, the next batch of production may possibly have liquid soaps with
intoxicating fragrances, like strawberry, cocoa, lemon, etc.
 It may also be possible that the company is already aware of its target audience, and
so they distribute the liquid soaps with two pre-decided fragrances.
 Now, again with the help of research, if they find out that only one of the brands is
more popular, they may accordingly work on the one that has more public awareness, rather
than the one which is not very popular. Accordingly, the production rates change as well, and
so do the sales.

(ii) Distribution
 In simple words, it is how you plan to distribute your products.
 You must have an idea about channel management so that you can distribute your
products carefully.
 You can distribute goods directly to the shop, go through wholesalers and retailers, go
online, or even out of the country.

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 It is very difficult to plan product distribution, because you need to study and
understand your target customers well enough.
 You need to plan how and where to distribute your goods. In today's scenario, it is
increasingly difficult to attract customers to one shop, since they are spoiled for choice.
Therefore, if you plan to sell goods in a regular store, study the area and the competition
thoroughly.
 If you plan to distribute products abroad, you need to find distributors accordingly.
 Online businesses work in a different way, and you need to be aware of the rising and
falling tendencies on the internet.
Example:
 Consider a new company that manufactures hand-stitched chiffon tunics.
 To build up a reputation, the company would obviously choose a good clothing store
to begin with, since no one may trust an online source.
 Once the clothes have been distributed at a popular boutique, the brand gains
popularity, and then, the company can choose to distribute the same online.
 This way, the company no longer has to depend on the boutique brand name to sell
their clothes, they can have their customers buy clothes directly from them.

(iii) Promotion
 This is one of the most important functions of marketing, almost synonymous with the
term itself.
 Promotional tactics develop and increase brand awareness.
 You may have seen billboards and hoardings all over the city―the idea is to expose
your consumers to your product name and brand as much as possible.
 Promotions involve highly innovative advertising strategies. And these strategies
could range from print media to telemarketing, and from public campaigns to online
marketing.
 Ultimately, your product should have brand recall.
Example:
 You may have often noticed that when a new supermarket or store is launched, they
often have substantial discounts and other attractive offers. This is a promotional tactic.
 If there is a new company that sells ready-to-eat meals, they may offer one packet free
on the purchase of 2 similar packets.

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 Or, a supermarket may offer a 15% flat discount on goods for the first three days.
These are effective promotional strategies that attract customers.
(iv) Price
 This is one of the challenging aspects of marketing.
 Fixing a price for your product requires extensive market research.
 This can be extremely difficult―if you set a low price, you are bound to get losses; if
you set a higher price, you may not get customers at all.
 Again, prices keep varying as per the market situation.
 If your competitor has set a particular price, you may set the same as well, but after
undertaking sufficient research about the other aspects of production and management.
 You may have to undergo a few trials runs until you are confident about setting the
correct price range.
 You may also consider offering benefits, but be sure that your company generates
profits.
Example:
 Consider a business that sells seasonal fruits.
 In such a case, the owner may or may not have competition. If he does, he may have
to adjust the prices accordingly.
 If not, he may be the only seller in a widespread geographical area, and he can afford
to increase the prices.
 In fact, if there are any weather changes, his product may become very expensive or
cheap.
 Also, if the government imposes any import-export restrictions, the price may vary
accordingly.
(v) Selling
 You can sell your product only after understanding your customers.
 Decades back, selling was a simple affair that involved the buyer and seller.
 Over time, we have had retailers, wholesalers, shop owners, producers, distributors,
etc.
 You may sell your products via retailers, or may sell it online as well.
 Selling depends on how much your product is preferred by the target customer base.
 Marketing is an efficient tool that helps company owners sell their
products―whatever the method of selling.

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 Example:
 You may choose to sell your products directly or indirectly.
 If you own a store where you sell your own manufactured goods, you can personally
see to it that you have assisting staff for the customers.
 If you sell products online, you must have proper explanatory brochures.
 If you go through retailers, make sure to explain all about the product.
3. List five steps that comprise an effective framework for conducting an EFE Matrix.
Explain the details involved in performing any one of the steps.
(i) list key external factors as identified in the external-audit process with a total of from
15 to 20 factors, including both opportunities and threats that affect the firm and its
industry,
(ii) assign to each factor a weight that ranges from 0.0 (not important) to 1.0 (very
important) - the sum of all weights assigned to the factors must equal 1.0,
(iii) assign a 1 to 4 rating to each key external factor to indicate how effectively the
firm's current strategies respond to the factor, where 4 = the response is superior, 3 =
the response is above average, 2 = the response is average, and 1 = the response is
poor,
(iv) multiply each factor's weight by its rating to determine a weighted score,
(v) sum the weighted scores for each variable to determine the total weighted score for
the organization.