SimVenture Learning Zone

Introductions - SimVenture Apprenticeship

Apprentice-3 Scenario Briefing

Starting Situation
At the start of a new financial year your business is looking to break into the Professional Services
market. The Price and Selling Points for the product have already been selected so now you need to look
carefully at the Product Design. A well planned marketing campaign will guarantee enquiries, if you get
the Product Design right then the sales will follow. Make sure that you consider the Market Research
Report to identify your potential customers’ preferences. You might also find the Competition Research
Report useful to see how Parry Systems (the market leader for this segment) are approaching the
market.

Decision making areas of the simulation you will use;

Product Design Customer Research

Note: Changing other elements may seriously affect your ability to succeed!

1. Simply change the Product Design and run the month to see how well your product
has been received in the market place.
Tasks
2. You can change the design as you move through the months and can commission
Customer Research to view their perceptions of your product.

Generating sales will be easy if you offer a high spec product, but you may find yourself
making a loss on every sale! So check the Gross Margin figure on the whiteboard in the
Home Screen. If this falls below 20% you’ll struggle to keep the business afloat.
Targets
By the 1st of January you can return on the investment in marketing and take your bank
balance beyond the £40k the business began with.

 You will find profit hard to come by for the first few months as the cost of a large
marketing campaign works its way through your cashflow figures. You have been
given an overdraft facility of £40K though, so there is plenty of available cash.
Tips  Commissioning Customer Research will help you to refine your product design.

Each time you change the design of your product you should commission more Customer
Research to assess the response to the changes you have made.

apprentice-3 briefing