Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Team Organization
Your TA will assign you to your teams early in the second week of the semester after the add/drop period
ends. Students are required to be professional in their dealings with teammates, and are expected to put
forth their fair share for each part of the team project. To document how your team expects to work with
each other, your team will need to complete a Team Charter Form and submit it on ICON within a week of
your first section. The Team Charter Form is available on ICON.
Project Team Member Peer Evaluation
~20% of the grade of each part of the project is assigned by peer evaluation. Your grade for team
assignments one through three depends on the average score you receive from your team members
regarding your contributions. Your TA will email a link to the peer evaluation that is a Qualtrics survey.
The deadline for team member peer evaluation submission is 11:59PM one week after your team receives
your assignment grade. All evaluations are confidential, and only read by the instructors. Failure to
submit the peer evaluation form by the deadline will result in the loss of all of your team assignment
points. You have to fill one peer evaluation for EACH team assignment. That means you have to submit
three peer evaluations in all.
Unsatisfactory Participation and Performance
If you receive less than 50% on your peer evaluation, we consider your participation and performance to be
unsatisfactory. Your TA will notify Professor Collins or Professor Abram of an unsatisfactory evaluation,
after which you are required to meet with your professor within one week to discuss the circumstances and
alternatives. If not, you may be removed from your team and your grade will be adversely affected.
Additionally, a team can fire a team member if multiple members of their team agree that firing is
appropriate. The firing process policy is that groups can fire a team member if team members (and/or their
section TA) warn the group member in advance that firing will result if current behavior continues. If the
behavior continues following the warning, and multiple team members (2 or more) agree that firing is still
justified after a reasonable time has elapsed (at least a week), then that individual will be removed from the
team. Dismissal from a team will result in a grade penalty for the dismissed student, and s/he must
complete all subsequent group assignments individually, which will result in a substantially increased
workload.
Team Project Part One due Sunday, September 27th at 11:59 PM via dropbox on ICON
(40 Points Graded, Additional Points By Peer Evaluation)
Your team will conduct market research on an industry, and one of its product categories, by analyzing the
following questions. Your TA will assign a product category and company within the industry for the
section. For this assignment, your team needs to create a PowerPoint deck that documents your market
research findings.
Any numerical data should be provided as both a table and a chart or graph. All charts and graphs you
provide must include an interpretation.
1. Describe the industry and product category using what research you can find. Then answer the
following questions, and thoroughly explain why.
a. What conclusions can you draw from the information you found?
b. Where is the industry and product category likely headed next?
2. What does the marketing environment look like?
a. What external forces are in play that are affecting the industry, category, and your company?
3. Who are the consumers in the product category?
a. What are they like? What are the demographic and/or psychographic consumer segments targeted
by the industry in the category?
b. What are their needs? Do these needs differ by segment?
c. Is there some benefit the category currently does not provide that could fulfill a need for a consumer
segment?
4. What are the sustainability and ethical challenges for the industry and product category?
a. Do consumers perceive the industry as harmful? In what way?
b. What are consumers' sustainability and ethical expectations of the industry and product category in
the future?
c. What initiatives have been taken within the industry, either by an industry association or by
individual companies, to improve their sustainability and ethical practices? How are these initiatives
measured? Have those initiatives been successful?
A substantial amount of research must be completed and documented in your slide deck before you will be
able to adequately answer these questions. Some of this can include, but is not limited to:
How big is the product category?
Is the category growing or shrinking by sales?
How does the industry segment the category, if at all? E.g. the product category could be
subcompact cars, but the automobile industry treats that as one segment of the industry
What are the demographic segments of the product category? Note that different product segments
in the category may be aimed at different consumer segments, and you should explain this.
What are the psychographic segments of the category's consumer? This includes the motives and
lifestyles of different product segments.
Team Project Part Two due Sunday, October 25th at 11:59 PM via dropbox on ICON
(55 Points Graded, Additional Points By Peer Evaluation)
Your team will conduct market research on your company and its consumers in the product category. The
information you research and develop here will help inform the marketing plan for a new product in Part
Three. For this assignment, your team will submit a PowerPoint deck.
Again, any numerical data should be provided as both a table and a chart or graph. All charts and graphs
you provide must include an interpretation.
1. Describe the company using what research you can find. Then answer the following questions, and
thoroughly explain why.
a. What is the company's place in the industry?
b. Where is the company likely to be in the category in the near future?
c. Who does the company compete against and/or collaborate with in the industry?
2. What are the sustainability and ethical challenges for the company?
a. Is the company targeting consumer segments that expect a higher standard of sustainable and/or
ethical behavior?
b. What corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives are the company currently pursuing? Is CSR
new to the company, or does the company have a long CSR history?
c. How do the company's stated CSR and ethical goals affect how it participates in the product
category?
d. What are consumers' sustainability and ethical expectations of the company within product category
in the future?
3. What consumer segment(s) is/are the company focused on in the product category?
a. How does the company target those segments? Does the company use a differentiated or
undifferentiated targeting strategy?
b. Do the actions the company uses to target these consumer segments follow the company's stated
CSR and ethical/business conduct goals?
c. Is there some benefit the category currently does not provide that could fulfill a need for a consumer
segment, that the company is well situated to provide?
d. What kind of product could fulfill that need ethically and sustainably?
4. SWOT Analysis Do both a bullet-pointed chart, and a paragraph format explanation. The external
elements can draw from Part One of the Team Project.
a. Strengths are internal capabilities that can help the company reach its objectives.
b. Weaknesses are internal elements that may interfere with the companys ability to reach its
objectives.
c. Opportunities are external elements that the company may be able to exploit to its advantage.
d. Threats are current or emerging external elements that may challenge the companys performance.
5. Objectives These must be defined in specific terms so the company can measure progress and, if
needed, take corrective action. Define what is to be accomplished through marketing activities. Must
be realistic, measurable, and time-bound.
a. Financial
b. Market
c. Social
A substantial amount of research must be completed and documented in your slide deck before you will be
able to adequately answer these questions. Some of this can include, but is not limited to:
How big is company?
Is the company growing or shrinking in terms of overall sales?
Are the company's products in the product category growing or shrinking in market share?
What other product categories and industries does the company participate in?
What are the demographic segments of the product category that the company targets?
What are the psychographic segments of the category's consumers that the company targets?
What is the stage of the product category in the product life cycle?
Team Project Part Three due Friday, November 20th at 11:59 PM via dropbox on ICON
(70 Points Graded, Additional Points By Peer Evaluation)
Your team will propose a new product in the product category that can fulfill the company's objectives,
market opportunity, and consumer need(s) identified in Part Two of the Team Project with a sustainable
focus. You will need to recommend the marketing strategy, including a marketing mix for the new product,
as well as propose how you will evaluate the success of the product as well as what you would do if
objectives were not met or exceeded. For this assignment, your team will submit a paper.
Your TA will select the two best plans. Those two teams will present their marketing plan in section the
week of 12/7, and can expect a higher grade for Part Three as a result.
1. Marketing Strategy select and describe target markets, and develop the marketing mix to meet
consumer needs.
a. Objectives Define the rationale for the product. Then create a set of three or more objectives,
at least one of which includes CSR, that are realistic, measurable, and time-bound, and that will
allow you to measure whether the product, once it has launched, has met its underlying purpose.
i. How do these objectives tie in to the company objectives in you identified in Part Two?
b. Target market strategy Define the consumer segment(s) on which you will focus. Summarize
details on these consumers you found from Parts One and Two to reinforce your case that your
product will meet the needs of these consumers. Are you going after the same or a different
consumer segment that the company already targets in the product category, and why?
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c. Marketing Mix
i. Positioning How do you want the target market to think of your product?
1. Identify your company's competitive advantage.
2. Does targeting this market this follow the company's stated CSR and
ethical/business conduct goals?
3. What are the meaningful differences, supported by appropriate strategy and
implementation, which can help build a competitive advantage with your new
product?
4. How does the positioning meet the opportunities identified in your SWOT
analysis in Part Two?
5. State and defend what the company will achieve by targeting this new market.
6. How will the product be positioned against the companies existing product(s) in
the category?
ii. Product What are your current offerings and how do they meet the needs of the target
market? How does your new product fit within these offerings?
1. What products are currently being offered by the company within the category?
2. What is the new product you are recommending? Write a description of the
product, and define its features and benefits.
3. How does the product meet the needs or wants of the target market? What
strengths apply to the product strategy? What weaknesses and threats pose risks,
and how can they be minimized? How do the products features and benefits
provide value for consumers? How does the product compare to competitors?
4. How does your product meet the proposed positioning in a sustainable and ethical
way?
5. How is the product itself more sustainable, e.g. in terms of its components,
packaging, etc.?
iii. Price How do you plan to manage your prices?
1. Does your product operate in a category with strong price competition? How
elastic is demand in the product category? What factors influence elasticity? How
elastic is demand likely to be for your proposed product?
2. What is the pricing strategy for your proposed product that you will pursue, and
why? Use examples from the category to help explain why.
3. What does the organization want its pricing strategy to achieve? Will your
strategy be to use pricing as a competitive weapon to gain market share, or will
you be using prestige pricing to target specific consumer segments, etc.
4. How does the organizations prices serve the needs and wants of the target
market?
5. How will consumers perceive the balance between product price and benefits?
iv. Place (Distribution) Products are available where and when consumers want them.
1. How do consumers expect or prefer to get access to the product?
2. How does your distribution plan meet those needs or wants?
3. What sustainable practices will you use to reach your target consumer segments,
e.g. storage, warehousing, transportation, etc.?
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