GM704: Develop an Individual Case Study Dealing with Aspects of Marketing Management: International Marketing Management Assignment, SMU, Singapore

Scenario:

This assignment requires you to develop an individual case study dealing with aspects of marketing management. You need to apply key concepts of marketing management to your experience by choosing an organization from the list of 25 ‘disruptive brands’ available here:-

You MUST follow the Project Report format, which should contain the following sections:

1. Executive Summary: You should summarise your entire case study briefly

2. Introduction: You should give the name of the featured organization and the reasons for choosing it. You should also provide some background information on the chosen case study organization and the aspects of marketing management that are relevant.

3. Literature Review: You should conduct a review of relevant academic literature and provide a critique of the current issues/concepts that are relevant to your case study. You must include marketing management concepts, marketing mix, marketing plan, and appropriate application of models, tools, and techniques to support marketing analysis. Your literature review should include at least 6-8 articles taken from reputed research journals/ article publications, as well as in addition consider any other secondary literature reports, company data/ any other relevant data, to critically analyze the available literature with your chosen organization objectives you want to address.

4. Application of theory to practice: You need to compare actual practice at your organization with the key academic thinking established in the review of the literature. It may point out similarities and differences, agreements and contradictions, arguments and counter-arguments, and suggest explanations for these relationships. The focus of this section needs to be on:

(1) Marketing management concept, processes, and strategies. [10 Marks]

(2) A critical evaluation of the marketing mix of your organization. [10 Marks]

(3) Role of marketing models, tools, and techniques in developing new products and effective marketing plans. The models discussed should include at least one model among (Porter’s Model, SWOT Analysis, and PESTLE) and at least one Model among (BCG Matrix, Ansoff Matrix, and Product Life Cycle Model).

Task 2 (Case study)

Case study on ‘Will it blends?’

Blendtec is a division of K-Tec, Inc. and sells commercial and residential blenders. The company was founded in 1975 and it’s popularly known for its ‘Will it blends’ marketing campaign. Blendtec’s signature series and stealth line of blenders were awarded the 2013 Gold innovation award.

The ‘Will it blends’ series (Blentec, 2013) is often viewed as a great example of a brand turning their marketing materials into something the consumers want to share. It features the simple premise of using one of the company’s blenders, to see if something seems difficult or impossible to blend, will blend. Items previously blended include everything from the latest iPhone to magnets, there is a particular focus on items in the zeitgeist or that is the topic of discussion at that moment in time. One such example is the blending of the much-maligned vuvuzela which was so talked about during the 2010 World Cup (VOA, 2010). The Blendtec blender has successfully blended everything to date with videos still ongoing.

The end result is a viral that is current and interesting; it makes consumers want to share it with each other. At the same time, they have put their product at the center of the campaign and made it look best in class, demonstrating the lack of risk associated with the product. Blendtec’s campaign exploits the fact that not many consumers know much about blenders; not many consumers have a favorite blender brand. By appealing to the mainstream in such a simple, yet interesting way consumers are exposed to a brand of blender that holds a high level of social standing and carries no performance risk in that it will seemingly never fail to blend something. In this way, Blendtec has grasped the consumer’s attention and provided a compelling argument to be the consumer’s favorite blender brand.

According to Peter and Olson (2010), there are three elements for Consumer analysis:- Consumer affect and cognition, Consumer Behaviour, and Consumer environment. Each element is critical for developing a complete understanding of consumers and selecting strategies to influence them.

In the context of Blentec, learners should clearly establish the relationship between three elements of consumer analysis and should be able to establish how these three elements help Blentec develop effective marketing strategies by answering the following questions:-

1. Critically evaluate the three elements of consumer analysis for Blentec. I.e. consumer affect and cognition, Consumer Behaviour, and Consumer environment.

2. Analyze the processes involved in brand management of Blentec and evaluate how they influence consumer Behaviour