NMIMS

Course: Marketing Management

Internal Assignment Applicable June 2022 Examination

1. Italiano is a popular restaurant in the Vile Parle area of Mumbai. The lockdown and
subsequent Covid restrictions force the restaurant to shut shop. The owner Mr Ranjeet
Sharma is also the main chef of the restaurant decided to start operations from home and
use the apps of Zomato and Swiggy to run the place as a cloud kitchen. The business not
only survived but became a profitable venture. The recent lifting of restrictions as put Mr
Sharma in a quandary, should he now re- rent restaurant space at a very expensive rental
value or should he continue to run it as a cloud kitchen. He has approached you, a
marketing consultant for advice on devising a plan of action. What would you advise?
Create a plan of action for the business. Create a communication plan. Create a consumer
outreach plan. (10 Marks)

Answer:

A Business Action Plan can help set you on the right track. It is an internal business
document that lists the actions you must take within a certain timeline, while running your
business, to achieve a goal.
The purpose of a Business Action Plan is to set out what resources are required to reach the
goal, create a timeline of what specific tasks need to be completed and determine what
resources are required to reach that businesses goal.

BUSINESS ACTION PLAN:

Involve your team early on

Your team’s participation will make or break the action plan. They should be involved from
the beginning as you develop the action plan and other elements of the strategic plan.
Managers involved in strategic planning should brainstorm with their teams about projects
and specific steps to include in the action plan and how to implement them.
List concrete details for each action
The action plan is typically presented as a one-page spreadsheet that lists initiatives by
function. Actions can be simple one-off projects (e.g., hiring a new person), repeatable
actions (e.g., initiating monthly reviews of actual versus estimated costs) or a larger project
(e.g., converting the website to an e-commerce site).

Include a timeline
Action plans generally cover 12 months. For each initiative, the spreadsheet includes a
column for each month to list what needs to be done throughout the year. Additional
columns are included for each quarter of the remaining years of the strategic plan (strategic
plans generally cover two to three years in total).

Designate resources
Many action plans aren’t successful because they don’t allocate appropriate human and
financial resources to completing initiatives. Make sure to dedicate enough time, support,
training and budgets.

Establish a follow-up and measurement process

The action plan should specify measures to track implementation. These can be milestones
(such as completion of a task) or quantifiable measures (such as revenue, margin or market
share).
Also, decide how you will follow up on the action plan to ensure steps are carried out. This
can include internal reporting and regular meetings to discuss progress. Meetings help you
recognize and reward employees for successes, identify where you’ve fallen behind and
study why so you can take corrective action.

COMMUNICATION PLAN:

A communication plan is a policy-driven approach to providing stakeholders with

information. The plan formally defines who should be given specific information, when that
information should be delivered and what communication channels will be used to deliver
the information.
The plan should also address who has the authority to communicate confidential or
sensitive information and how information should be disseminated (email, websites, printed
reports, and/or presentations). Finally, the plan should define what communication
channels stakeholders will use to solicit feedback and how communication will be
documented and archived.

Perform a Situation Analysis

Situation analysis helps assess the capabilities of and health of things in an organization. It’s
the ideal way to understand the current status of your organization’s communication.
To gather relevant information from situation analysis, you can consult departmental heads,
process owners and other internal staff members.   
In a situation analysis, you need to examine both the internal and external environments.

Identify and Define Objectives / Goals

Once you know where you stand, you can find your direction. The next step is to define your
goals.
Think of what outcomes/results you want to achieve from your communication plan.

Understand and Profile Your Key Audience

Understanding your audience and their requirements, characteristics etc. is key to creating
an effective message and delivering it successfully.
Your key audience could be within your organization or your customers. Either way, you
should gather information on them and create simple audience personas.
These personas could include a variety of data that ranges from their age and gender to the
challenges they face.

Decide the Media Channels and Create a Strategy

As you conduct research on your target audience you would get to know that their
requirements and preferences are diverse.
It’s clear that you won’t be able to reach all of them through one media channel or retain
their attention with one type of content.

Monitor and Evaluate the Results

Constantly monitor and track your results in order to understand whether you are any
closer to achieving your goals. If you have failed, proceed to mark it down so you can make
necessary improvements next time.

CUSTOMER OUTREACH PROGRAM:

A customer outreach program is a business strategy that reaches potential clients and gets
current clients to return. Outreach strategies can include email and mail marketing,
pamphlets and other types of campaigns. In addition to reaching new customers, an
effective outreach strategy benefits business credibility.

Target the Right Audience

The first step to an effective outreach campaign is reaching the right people.
To optimize your targeting strategy, you should create a target market profile that defines
and characterizes the type of people who desire your product or service.
Then, start keeping track of customer responses to your campaigns. For example, when
conducting an email outreach campaign, monitor the open and click-through rates of each
email. You can then segment your audience into groups based on the type of content they
respond to.

Get Your Customer Outreach Program Noticed

An effective campaign starts with grabbing the viewer’s attention. 
Some tricks that increase customer engagement include incorporating the customer’s name,
practicing AB testing, utilizing attention-grabbing subject lines for emails, remembering to
be human, and sticking to good design practices.

Create and Maintain Customer Relationships

In order for your outreach campaign to create conversions, you have to build a relationship
with your leads. The best way to do this is to continue to personalize their experience and to
be of value. 

An action plan is a document that lists what steps must be taken in order to achieve a
specific goal.
The purpose of an action plan is to clarify what resources are required to reach the goal,
formulate a timeline for when specific tasks need to be completed and determine what
resources are required.

2. You are the marketing director of Football Federation of India. Soccer as a sport
although very interesting is not a popular audience sport in India. How would you
generate consumer interest in Football? Create a marketing plan for making Football as a
consumer sport using the marketing mix principles. (10 Marks)

Answer:

Effective sport marketing does not happen by accident. Whether marketing a mega-event
like the Super Bowl or a small, local event such as a youth field hockey camp, marketers
cannot rely on guesswork to develop their marketing plan and hope everything will turn out
as they like. Instead, organizations need to invest significant time and effort into creating a
marketing plan that will help them accomplish what they want to accomplish. In today’s
business environment, it is vitally important that marketers make the right decisions as most
sport organizations do not have the time or budget to engage in trial-and-error marketing.
Mistakes can be costly, as sport marketers operate in a “real time” environment and can-
not go back in time to sell unsold tickets for an event that has already passed or sign-up
participants for last summer’s recreation program. Further, competition is especially strong
for consumers’ sport and leisure spending. If your marketing is not effective, a competitor’s
might be.

ORGANISATIONAL MISSION/VISION:
Organizations use mission and/or vision statements to communicate the organization’s
present situation and the direction of the organization. A mission statement differentiates
the organization from other organizations by declaring what business the organization per-
forms to and whom the organization serves. Mission statements are often accompanied by
a vision statement that incorporates the primary vision of how the organization activates
the mission statement. In the planning process, the development of the mission and/or
vision statement is often the link between strategic and operational planning (Hums and
MacLean, 2009). Considering this, mission statements play a critical role in influencing mar-
keting decisions.

For Example: Football Federation of India

Mission: “To promote, develop, supervise, and voluntarily assist in all lawful ways, the
interest of those who will participate in Football League. The League program assists youth
in developing the qualities of citizenship, discipline, team- work, and physical well-being. By
espousing the virtues of character, courage, and loyalty,

Product Decisions
Product decisions are related to the goods and services the organization offers. In sport, the
product is usually an intangible service (sporting event, recreational program, club
membership, sponsorship, etc.) rather than a good (sporting goods). As such, sport
marketers tend to make product decisions based on the experiential nature of the product
rather than the physical characteristics. For example, the NBA’s Golden State Warriors
marketing team has no control over how the team plays, but it can influence how
consumers may feel about the product. The organization desired to give its brand image a
boost by reminding fans of its glory years. To enhance this strategy, the franchise created a
new logo and unveiled new uniforms for the 2010-2011 season which featured a classic
design and incorporated the same royal blue and yellow color scheme used from 1964-
1997.

Price decisions are related to how much will be charged to spectators, participants, or
sponsors for the products offered. Similar to product decisions, pricing decisions can be
difficult due to the experiential nature of sport. In addition, the value of sport is often quite
subjective, further complicating pricing decisions. For example, the value of a round of golf
is only as much as what people are willing to pay or what the market will allow. When the
number of rounds played dropped dramatically in 2009, Myrtle Beach’s golf courses knew
they had to adjust their pricing strategies. Demand had dropped, so area courses dropped
their rates and provided other bargains, increasing the perceived value.

Promotion Decisions
Promotion decisions relate to communication with target consumer segments. In sport,
promotion decisions can relate to a variety of goals such as creating awareness, stimulating
demand, encouraging product trial, and retaining loyal consumers. In 2009, for example, the
San Francisco Giants, with the goal of attracting a new target market, created Filipino-
American Heritage night. The team brought in popular boxing champion. Manny Pacquiaoto
throw out the first pitch, offered cultural entertainment from local Filipino performance
groups, and gave away a special edition Filipino-themed Giants tee shirt. The team credited
the promotion with bringing in an additional 10,000 fans for the night, many of whom were
attending their first game.

Place Decisions
Place or distribution decisions relate to how you get the product to the consumer or how
you get the consumer to your product. It would not make sense to have a great product if
your consumers could not access it. These decisions typically relate to getting the product to
the consumer when they want it and where they want it. For example, the Port-land
Timbers soccer club plays at a stadium located in a downtown area with little parking. To
make it easier for its customers to attend games, the team reached a deal with the local
transportation authority to include ride fares on the city’s light rail system with ticket plans.

Strategic sport marketing is an approach to sport marketing where organizations engage in

careful planning prior to implementing marketing activities designed to meet organizational
goals. This systematic approach helps management make better marketing decisions by
providing direction and identifying activities necessary to move in that direction.
3. You are the marketing director for Super max theatre chain. You want to build a foot
print for the chain across India. Before the commercial launch of the service, you want a
better orientation of consumer expectations.

a. Plan a research program with clearly defined target groups, geographies,

demographics you shall plan your research project. (5 Marks)

Answer:

Market research is the process of determining the viability of a new service or

product through research conducted directly with potential customers. Market
research allows a company to discover the target market and get opinions and other
feedback from consumers about their interest in the product or service.

This type of research can be conducted in-house, by the company itself, or by a

third-party company that specializes in market research. It can be done through
surveys, product testing, and focus groups. Test subjects are usually compensated
with product samples or paid a small stipend for their time. Market research is a
critical component in the research and development (R&D) of a new product or
service.

TARGET MARKET

 Families – this segment focuses on adults and parents with younger children
who don’t need to see the latest movies on release and seek an inexpensive,
quality, family-oriented entertainment experience.
 Young adults – this segment is comprised of the 16-24 year old age group.
This group is interested in seeing comedy and action/adventure type movies
that are not directed at the younger and family markets.

Demographic segmentation is a market segmentation technique where an

organization’s target market is segmented based on demographic variables such as
age, gender, education, income, etc. It helps organizations understand who their
customers are so that their needs can be addressed more effectively.

 Age: 15 to 60+
 Income: 20,000 per month and above
 Religion, Race, Ethnicity: All included
 Gender: Gender Neutral

Geographic segmentation might be the simplest form of market segmentation to get

your head around, but there are still plenty of ways it can be used that companies
never think about.
The size of the area you target should change depending on your needs as a
business. Generally speaking, the larger the business the bigger the areas you’ll be
targeting. After all, with a wider potential audience, targeting each postcode
individually simply won’t be cost-effective.
In total, there are six factors that pertain to geographic segmentation and can be
used to create customer segments:

 Location: All Metro Cities in India

 Cultural preferences: All Cultures
 Language: All Languages
 Population type and density (urban, suburban, exurban or rural): Urban and
suburban localities in metro cities

Many companies use market research to test out new products or to get
information from consumers about what kinds of products or services they need and
don't currently have.
For example, a company that was considering going into business might conduct
market research to test the viability of its product or service. If the market research
confirms consumer interest, the business can proceed confidently with the business
 plan. If not, the company should use the results of the market research to make
adjustments to the product to bring it in line with customer desires.

b. Create a 10-question survey questionnaire. (5 Marks)

Answer:

A customer questionnaire is a tried-and-true method for collecting survey data that

can inform your customer service strategy. By hearing directly from the customer,
you'll capture first-hand data about how well your service team is meeting their
needs.

SAMPLE QUESTIONNAIRE

1. Gender:
 Male
 Female
 Other

2. Age group:
 < 20
 21-30
 31-40
 41-50
 51-60
 60+

3. Which of the following describes you best?

 Student
 Employed
 Self employed
  Retired
 Not Employed

4. How often do you go to the movie theater per month?

 Once a week or more
 2-3 times a month
 Once a month
 A few times a year
 Once a year or less
 Never

5. How much do you enjoy going to the movie theater?

 A great deal
 A lot
 A moderate amount
 A little
 None at all

6. How likely are you to get refreshments/snacks at the movie theater? (1 being
the least and 5 being the greatest)
 1
 2
 3
 4
 5

7. How likely are you to sneak in your own refreshments/snacks?

 Very Likely
 Most Likely
 Likely
 Not Likely
  Never

8. What type of movies do you usually go see?

 Comedy
 Horror
 Romantic
 Action
 Sci-Fi
 Drama
 Western

9. Do you believe refreshment/snacks make the movie better?

 Yes
 No
10. Who do you go to the movies with?
 Friends
 Family
 Significant other
 Alone

Name: _______________
Contact No. ______________
Address: _____________________
Suggestions: ____________________

A questionnaire is a research tool used to conduct surveys. It includes specific

questions with the goal to understand a topic from the respondents' point of view.
Questionnaires typically include closed-ended, open-ended, short-form, and long-
form questions.