Faculty of Business and Enterprise

Swinburne University of Technology

MKT 20010 Marketing Decision Analysis (Semester 2, 2015)

This is an assignment for groups of three (3). It is worth 25% of the total marks for the subject.

Students must present a report ofminimum 12 pages and a maximum of 20 pages, excluding Table of Contents, Reference list and Appendices.

Aim

This assignment is topropose andevaluate marketing metrics to understand their application and use in B to C marketing to a particular segment.

Background

The organisation

The organisation you are required to consider is (a fictitious organisation) named VirkilegaFlott (VF)VirkilegaFlott is a thriving bouquet fashion chain which targets young professional women for their business wear, their smart casual wear and their semiformal wear. VirkilegaFlott’s focus is clothing that is “elegant and long-lasting, with an eye on, but not slave to, fashion”. They also sell accessories for their clothing.

VirkilegaFlott has stores in Melbourne, Sydney, and Brisbane.Each of these is situated where the target market segment is concentrated. The Melbourne store is located in Chapel Street, South Yarranear Toorak Road. The Sydney and Brisbane stores are located in the equivalent area in those cities.VirkilegaFlott also has a WWW site which accounts for approximately 1/3 of their sales. Frequently merchandise that is ordered through the WWW site is picked up in one of the stores.

Your perspective

You are the new marketing manager of VirkilegaFlott and your job is on the line so all your decisions will be critically appraised from the perspective of profit in the short and medium term i.e. all recommendations must be carefully and logically thought out.

Your responsibilities are to the VirkilegaFlott fashion chain, not just the South Yarra store here in Melbourne.

What you are required to do:

• Concentrate on what you can do as the marketing manager, so keep in mind Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI) (Section10.5)
• Consider the Marketing Metrics discussed in the lectures and any others that you believe appropriate.
• Make recommendations on what Marketing Metrics should be tracked, and any data that should now be collected for the purpose.
• Build a MS Excel spreadsheet model to show CLV/LTV for each of the states.
• Fabricate a Marketing Metrics Dashboard for use by you, the marketing manager, and other senior executives of VirkilegaFlott. This should be Appendix 1.
• Included on the dashboard the metrics associated with your marketing recommendations for VirkilegaFlott.
• Make your recommendations store specific (the micro view), all the way through to recommendations based on the national economic outlook (the macro view).

Notes:

The segment associated with VirkilegaFlott stores is professional women from an age of 24 or 25 years old, when they start having money to spend on clothing, to an age of 31 or 32 years old, when their tastes and lifestyle change.

Although there is some regional differences between the states the previous three (3) years has shown that the ‘average’ annual purchase amount for loyal customers is nearly $5,000, consisting of four (4) business outfits, four (4) casual outfits, and two (2) semi-formal ensembles.

Some more detail:

• Mark-ups are 300%,
• VirkilegaFlott has six (6) season releases each year, with two major releases for summer and winter.
• VirkilegaFlott has pre-release cocktail parties for the two major season fashion releases to which the customers in their loyalty scheme are invited. These customers may order clothing from the new ranges at these cocktail parties.

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Apart from what is directly covered in the textbook you should consider the ways to communicate with and influence this group of professional women who are VirkilegaFlott’s customers.The WWW, mobile, and social media marketing would seem like logical areas to contemplate.

The recommendations may be based on data that is readily available, but there may be benefit in the gathering of data either directly from polling the customer base or from other sources. It may be primary or secondary researchi.e searching the websites of opposition stores, signing up to loyalty schemes, or visiting the stores, etc.

Competitor and industry research may be worthwhile. If you identify VirkilegaFlott’s competitors you may get some idea on what works for them e.g. their website, particular promotions, smart ‘phone apps etc.This is likely to include library database research e.g. IBIS reports, and Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). It might alter also include information from the relevant councils e.g. Stonnington Council for Melbourne.

Inputs for the MS Excel model will need to be adjustable and should include:

• Years
• Type and number of garments bought per year
• Sales prices
• Margins
• Allowance for buying also from competitors (Francis Buttle’s ‘portfolio purchasing’)
• Direct product costs
• Percentage of market

There are many examples of Marketing Metrics Dashboards available on the Internet.

There is no requirement for a working Dashboard, however the Dashboard you propose must have a mockup and be included as Appendix 1. You may decide there needs to be a dashboard for each state, three in total, however remember it is for you the Marketing Manager, and the senior executives.

There is no requirement for an Executive Summary.

This assignment should :

   be word processed

   have a cover sheet including Unit Name, Semester, Year, Student and contact details – refer to the Faculty of Business and Enterprise web site.

• https://www.swinburne.edu.au/business-enterprise/current-students/student-admin.html#forms
• also available on Blackboard under ‘Assessment’

   have the subject (MKT 20010) and the semester (Semester 2, 2015) in the header (except on the cover sheet)

   have your names and student IDs and page number in the footer

• have 1.5 spacing between lines, and 2 cm left and right margins
• be ‘left aligned’
• text, apart form heading and subheadings, should be in 12 point Arial (it is easier to mark).

Details:

   Included should be a ‘Table of Contents’ at the start and a ‘Reference List’ at the end. Neither of these isincluded in the page count.

There should be no “padding”. The emphasis is on content rather than quantity.

   Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Use inverted commas (“quote”) to acknowledge the work of others. Put them in a reference list at the end of your assignment. Refer to the library reference guide for the Harvard referencing system.

Your assignment is to have a format of headings and sub-headings i.e. if you choose to write about the present and the future as headings then each of the sub-headings under those headings is likely to be the same.

   Marks will be deducted for being over or under the page count and also for not following the required format.

   This assignment is due by midday on Friday 9^thOctober 2015, but may be submitted earlier. An electronic copy with the file name “FAMILY NAME, FAMILY NAME, FAMILY NAMEMKT 20010Sem2, 2015” (e.g. “Leckie, Civilai, SMITH, WESSONMKT 20010Sem2, 2015”) is to be submitted to the ‘Assignment’ (Turnitin) section on the MKT20010 Blackboard site.

   Late submissions. 2 marks will be ducted for each day, or part day, late.

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