Project 1: Situation Analysis

1. Project 1: Situation Analysis Secondary research in action

2. Timeline for the project • 9-3: proposal due (email) • 9-12: pre-submit feedback (email) • 9-17: project due • 9-19, 9-22: present findings

3. The Proposal 1. Research objectives (1 or 2 paragraphs) • Describes what you expect to know or understand from your research. Your objectives for each project will actually be quite clearly specified by me before each research project.

4. Purposes of this project • To summarize useful information about your brand, the brand category, its market, its competitors, and consumers • To offer your opinion about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the brand • To propose questions that must be answered in subsequent research projects

5. Research Proposal 2. Research method (1 or 2 paragraphs) • Each project has a method. The secondary project involves systematic searching of secondary sources for useful information.

6. Research Proposal 3. Data analysis (1 paragraph) • How you will analyze and interpret your data • For project 1: how you will combine the elements 4. Research reporting (1 paragraph) • How you will present the data. (Hint: you will write a report and prepare a short presentation for each project).

7. Research Proposal 5. Time and costs (1 page minimum) • A crucial section. A blueprint for your time and energy. Forces you to plan, commit to goals, and budget human resources. • Time costs (human time resources for all aspects of the project, including but not limited to meetings, travel, data collection, analyzing, writing, copying, presenting, etc.). • Make sure everyone understands “Who will do what?”

8. Research Proposal 6. Calendar (one page) • A set of specific deadlines for key tasks during the project (see part 5 above for some of these). Requires that you decide: a) what are the key tasks, and b) when should they be completed. Proposal approval • You cannot start work on the project unless I approve your proposal. I will do this in class Friday

9. Project 1: Secondary Research • Objectives: • To summarize useful information about your brand, the brand category, its market, its competitors, and consumers • To offer your opinion about the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the brand • To propose questions that must be answered in subsequent research projects

10. Title page TEAM NAME Team # Project Date Team Members

11. Executive Summary • Written last! • Usually no more than a single page • A condensed version of what is important, what the busy decision maker needs to know • For project 1, heavier emphasis on SWOT than given in the report.

12. Company Section • History of the company, founding, mission, product lines, current leadership • Company’s profitability, growth, problems, presented as trends

13. Product (brand) & market • Brand • History, market share, sales trends, stage in product lifecycle, brand extensions • Product attributes (special design, differentiating features, qualities (hidden and obvious), packaging, sizes • Intangibles: Brand essence, value of brand, likeability of brand, strength of brand • Marketing activities (4p’s)

14. Product (brand) & market • Market • Market history, growth, trends (new products, innovations) • Environmental, regulatory, social issues • Primary, secondary competition

15. Distribution and Competitive Analysis • Distribution: how is the product delivered to consumers? • Competitive analysis: • Select two or three most important competitors (justify choice) • Present greater amount of info on these brands, including their marketing activities, expenditures, pricing, sales growth, profitability, strength, essence, likeability

16. Advertising of the brand • Advertising expenditures—trends, breakdown by media • Advertising efforts of competitors, brand’s share of voice

17. SWOT • Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats • These are inferences, not facts. Should be clear from your earlier analyses. Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Inside company: Its competencies Environment

18. SWOT example • Strength: • Brand x has more retail dealers than any other computer company • Brand x computers receive 5 star reliability ratings • Weakness: • Brand x is more expensive than its closest competitor • Consumers unaware of reliability differences

19. Opps, Threats • Opportunities: • New operating system software will increase likelihood companies will buy computers in next 12 months • Threats: • Recession may postpone sales • Direct channel sales are growing faster than retail

20. Questions for future research • What do you need to find out? • Pose as broad questions rather than specific, i.e. • “What do consumers look for in a computer” rather than “do consumer’s like Dell’s Web site?

21. SWOT • Approach here is: • Examine critical issues • Uncover problems • Identify opportunities • Test assumptions and goals with research

22. Guidelines • Double space everything except parenthetical quotes. • Number all pages except the cover. • Proofread everything--style and polish matter! • Tables and figures in the back, all tables and figures numbered, titled, and referenced. • One inch margins. • Indicate through footnotes and references where all statistics or facts come from.

23. Guidelines • Everything you write is one of three things: • A fact you learned somewhere • A fact you know through your own experience • An inference or idea • All facts you learned must be cited • All inferences or ideas should be expressed as such

24. Citation style • Use APA or similar style: • APA manual is available at HUB • Or use links at course Website