All-encompassing Strategic Marketing Final Report

Overview

You will develop a 6 page (+1 additional page for appendix) strategic marketing report based on a key marketing problem a real organisation faces. Keeping reports concise and aesthetic is imperative for industry practice. This means you have up to 6 pages, but you can make it shorter if you feel the information you have has been sufficiently covered.

This assessment aims to demonstrate your ability to produce original, critically analysed strategic insight and provide comprehensive coverage of relevant marketing issues. You must also indicate that you can select and apply appropriate tools and strategies to communicate effectively and translate complex ideas into clear, concise and powerful tactics to achieve organisational goals. Whatever happens, think things through strategically and decide on the most effective way to present information to your client.

Scenario and Task instructions

The Australian Toy Association (ATA)'sLinks to an external site. mission is "to represent and service members who specialise in products for children and family leisure, learning and entertainment". As we know, Australia's birth rate is declining and, hence, has a flow-on impact on toy sales in the long term. Within the toy industry, toys can be classified into five categories namely:

1) Action figures and accessories

2) Plush

3) Dolls

4) Infant/Toddler/Preschool Toys

5) Building sets

The definition of each category of toys is provided here.

Definition of Toy Categories.docx

The recent data shows that the share/spending has decreased across the five toy categories, except for building sets.

Interestingly, when consumers were surveyed the question:

"If your children created a wish list for Christmas 2024 of their most wanted gifts, what were their topic two requests from the categories below?" The Toys and Games categories remain the top choice for both boys and girls (aged 0-14) - see here Download here. ATA has turned to you for help. ATA wants you to help them grow the market share of one of the five toy categories identified above.

The final report should be a deep elaboration of an over-arching strategy (this means you need to focus on the how and the why in detail) and should cover the following elements:

• Opportunity analysis:
  • An extensive SWOT/TOWS (remembering all roads of the situational analysis lead here). Most of your efforts will be external but use whatever tools you can to gather information about the toy category you select.
  • Any other evidence that this endeavour is worth pursuing (e.g., Google Trends Analysis)
• Target audience segmentation and recommendation (describe the target audience)
• Customer behaviour and management: What behaviour do you need to change to make this endeavour successful? (Hint: Here you need to dig deep into consumer attitudes and behaviour to identify a core problem and potential solution. You can call on consumer behaviour models [AIDA, hierarchy-of effects, consumer decision-making] or a journey map to help shape your response). Also, how will you optimise customer retention and lifetime value?
• Brand positioning strategy: Utilise tools to determine a current brand position and develop a meaningful positioning strategy (and possible repositioning strategy), keeping in mind potential larger competitors are adopting alternate sustainable solutions.
• Product/service definition: Develop a product range that must fit with the target audience and what they are looking for in the market.
• Promotional strategy: How would you communicate with customers?
• Distribution channels: Where (or how) will your product or service be sold/reach the market?
• Pricing/Value recommendation: What is the strategy and absolute cost? How will you price your products?
• Strategic foresight (i.e., control): What do you anticipate as issues that may occur through this implementation process, and what steps will you take to mitigate these risks?

Other considerations:

• Budget: $250K AUD
• Timeline: Strategy activated by Dec 2025

Extra resources

InstagramLinks to an external site.

LinkedInLinks to an external site.

YouTubeLinks to an external site.

FacebookLinks to an external site.

Submission instructions

• Submit work in PDF to maintain formatting
• Submit through Canvas, which will include Turnitin
• You have one submission only
• Ensure that the document you upload does not exceed six pages of core content (you only need 1 page for the appendix, but ask yourself if what is in the appendix should be in the report). Also, your ToC (1 page) and list of references don’t count.

Key tips

Key tips/points for this assessment to remember are:

• Make sure you have a solid understanding of the required task
• You are allowed ONE page of appendices. Use this wisely and note that what should appear here should be visual (a few words, if needed, will be acceptable). Make sure you refer to it in the report.
• Do NOT, under any circumstances, write an essay! Your responses should be brief, to the point and strategically focused.
• Use sub-headings
• Present an aesthetic report - Pictures can be used to convey your points
• Don't be scared of dot points (but don't only use dot points)
• This is a strategic brief that should clearly highlight the key requirements and then (most importantly) provide a clear strategic direction for the marketing activities

Questions?

If you have any questions, check the discussion board or course materials to see if they have been answered. If not post your question or ask your teacher in your workshops.

Learning outcomes

This assessment is linked to the following Course Learning Outcomes:

• CLO1: Identify problems and questions in relation to contemporary strategic marketing and be aware of strategies to investigate them.
• CLO2: Critically evaluate advanced strategic tools, concepts and theories and understand the complexities associated with the application of these in marketing practice.
• CLO3: Apply marketing theory in business settings and broader social contexts with intellectual curiosity.
• CLO4: Adapt your knowledge in relation to marketing theory and/or practice to be a more effective strategic problem solver.
• CLO5: Work on complex multidisciplinary projects with minimal supervisory oversight and articulate outcomes.

Marking criteria

Referencing Guidelines

Use RMIT HarvardLinks to an external site. referencing style for this assessment.

You must acknowledge all the courses of information you have used in your assessments.

Refer to the RMIT Easy CiteLinks to an external site. referencing tool to see examples and tips on how to reference in the appropriated style. You can also refer to the library referencing page for more tools such as EndNote, referencing tutorials and referencing guides for printing.

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism

Academic integrityLinks to an external site. is about honest presentation of your academic work. It means acknowledging the work of others while developing your own insights, knowledge and ideas.

You should take extreme care that you have:

• Acknowledged words, data, diagrams, models, frameworks and/or ideas of others you have quoted (i.e. directly copied), summarised, paraphrased, discussed or mentioned in your assessment through the appropriate referencing methods
• Provided a reference list of the publication details so your reader can locate the source if necessary. This includes material taken from Internet sites

If you do not acknowledge the sources of your material, you may be accused of plagiarism because you have passed off the work and ideas of another person without appropriate referencing, as if they were your own.

RMIT University treats plagiarism as a very serious offence constituting misconduct.

Plagiarism covers a variety of inappropriate behaviours, including:

• Failure to properly document a source
• Copyright material from the internet or databases
• Collusion between students

For further information on our policies and procedures, please refer to the University websiteLinks to an external site..

Assessment Declaration

When you submit work electronically, you agree to the Assessment declarationLinks to an external site.

© Copyright Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology 2023. You must not post RMIT content on third party channels, sites or apps (eg Course Hero, Chegg.com, Assignment Tutor, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter).