Instruction for Group report

PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING

The objectives of this assessment are the following:

1. Identify the theories learnt in class in a real company operating in Vietnam and illustrate
how the company is using these theories and concepts
2. Apply marketing theories and know more about the Vietnamese market, a good way to link
theories to the practical business world
3. Learn to work in teams
4. Demonstrate critical thinking
5. Demonstrate good communication skills
6. Ability to conduct secondary research
7. Develop soft skills (refer to the article ‘’What skills are employers looking for in Vietnam’s
workforce?’’, Christian Bodewig 2012): http://blogs.worldbank.org/eastasiapacific/what-
skills-are-employers-looking-for-in-vietnam-s-workforce

Common issues faced by students

1. Not finding the right data because students only rely on Company website
2. Not searching on the right places (only relying on Google)
3. Not having enough time to do research
4. Relying on team leaders to put everything together
5. Not informing lecturers early on where there are issues with contributions from team
members

DO’S
 Agree on group timeline, enough
time to revise in group and challenge
your teammates’ sections
 Experience your product (store visits
are recommended for specialty and
shopping products)
 Use tutorials’ worksheets to help you
 See your lecturer ASAP after seeing
your group or team leader if you still
have problems or challenges about
understanding marketing theories
DON’TS
 Wait to the last minute to gather
data and write your section
 Not following the report structure
(information not well organized)
 No consistency and link between
different sections
 Leader doing everything by himself at
the end (no teamwork)
  Inform your lecturer early on if there
are any issues in the team. If
lecturers only know of this in week 5,
they will not accept any complaints
or peer evaluations

Team leader’s role?

Not responsible for the whole situation analysis report. He/she should not be the only one to
edit and review the report.
The leaders’ role is to support, facilitate and coordinate resources, as well as being the point of
contact between the lecturer and the team.

Deadline
By Sunday midnight of the Week of Session 7, submit your situation analysis report on E-
learning (by team leader).
The statement of authorship (with each member's signature) should be submitted during
Session 7
Page limit
The situation analysis report will have a page limit of:

 Maximum 10 pages excluding the Cover page, Table of Contents, References and
Appendices
 The format of the report should be font Arial, font size 12 with single line spacing
 Reports exceeding page limit will have 5 marks (5% of 100) deducted from the total mark
given for the group
 It should look like a professional report
 Late submission: Reports submitted late will incur a penalty of 5 marks (5% of 100) for each
day submitted late for a maximum of 3 days. After 3 days the report will not be marked and
will receive a zero mark.

Part 1. Each group member is required to do the followings:

 Brand: Choose one Brand within product category of the group
 Market: Vietnam
 Time span: for period at from 2015 up to now unless product items were launched or brand
entered Vietnam just recently
 Do the search and collect information on:
 o All product items, their sizes, forms, labels
o Changes of prices during above time span
o How products are distributed, how company organize distribution network
o Promotion campaigns, Ads (in all forms) during the above period. Deep/in sight
information on the background of the campaign is the bonus
o Exchange information with the group mates (“your company’s” competitors) to see
whether the changes in product, forms, prices, promotions were company initiatives
or were reactions to competitor’s movements
Note: in fact the main report is group report (part 2). In order to do the group report you need
information about competitors. For example, you choose KFC for your group report, and you
need information about McDonald, JolliBee, and Lotteria…. We want to make sure that each of
group members has the full pictures about one brand (let’s say McDonald), its products,
channels, prices, advertising and promotion campaigns/activities (PR and sales forces if you can
find) etc. ==> we divide this project into 2 parts (individual and group reports)  the part 1 is
fact finding only and you can submit in either ppt or word (bullet points) format. Marking will be
based on the richness of the content you found. Submission will be through email

Part 2. Group report

 Among brands that group members have chosen, pick one for your group report as your
‘company’ brand, the other brands now will become your ‘company’’ s competitors
 The purpose of this task is to show how you can interpret what you found using theory
you’ve learnt.
 Depict 2-3 segments of the market for this product category using combination of all
criteria mentioned in theory
 Then, with the brand of your group:
o Link what you’ve found with theory. In other words, try to explain why company
does that (why they have different sizes, flavors, colors, menus; why they set
that prices, why they run those campaigns)
o Search on the target segments, positioning
o Back up the above point with evidences
o Do the SWOT analysis against other brands of your group
 Appraisal will be based on how accurately you explain company marketing mix activities
using theory you learned from this subject.

Part 3. Group presentation

 10mins in class presentation of your finding and report.
 Required PowerPoint or prezi presentation
 Required at least 2 group members to present
Marking
1. Introduction and Situation Analysis (10%)
Company description
Product description
2. STP (30%)
Describe 2-3 market segments of the product category
Describe company target segment(s)
Positioning statement
3. SWOT analysis (10%)
4. Describe how 4Ps are in consistent with company strategy and theories used (40%)
5. Report structure (10%)
Consistent of Planning Logic
Presentation
Creativity
Referencing
Evidence of Research