Individual Assignment Question MKT60104 Principles of Marketing SEPTEMBER 2023

INSTRUCTIONS:

Students are required to complete this assignment individually. Students are required to choose a company of their choice based on the list given below and utilise all the relevant marketing theories and concepts learned in class and synchronised with the issues of the company. Subsequently, provide reasonable and  practical   marketing initiatives to improvise the existing marketing strategies. You shall make use of the feedback provided by lecturers and tutors in drafting this proposal.

QUESTION:

Crafting acomprehensive marketing and promotional plan requires meticulous organisation and in-depth thought toward the company’s vision, mission, and goals to be aligned with its planned activities. You are appointed as a marketing consultant of the company (that you have chosen below) to provide an in-depth review of its current marketing plan by incorporating marketing theories and perform the SWOT analysis to uncover the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of the PRODUCT LINE that you have chosen. The strengths and weaknesses are not limited to the product itself but also cover the product’s marketing initiatives, brandings, partnerships etc. to create a customer's lifetime value. The opportunities and threats shall be analysed  from  the  external  forces  (that  cannot  be  controlled  by  the  company)  but  brings positivism and negativism towards the products.

Based on the SWOT analysis findings, you need to propose comprehensive marketing activities by incorporating the marketing mix (4Ps) and digitalisation. Nonetheless, merely proposing strategies is insufficient, students shall plan further by explaining the proposed strategies with detailed action plans in deriving promising implications towards the strategies in generating profits by attaining customers’ lifetime value and loyalty.

Choose ANY ONE (1) company from the industries listed below. The chosen company must be operating in Malaysia (a foreign company with operations/presence in Malaysia can be accepted):

• Restaurants. E.g., Mc Donald, Tealive, Starbucks, Gordon Ramsay Restaurant, TGI Fridays, etc.

• Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) companies. E.g., Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Kraft Henz, Kimberly-Clark, L’Oréal, etc.

• Health supplement and nutrition company. E.g., Appeton, Champs, Blackmores, Scott’s, Bio-Life, Terra Origin, Solaray, Cebion, etc.

YOUR REPORT MUST HAVE THE FOLLOWING STRUCTURE:

1.0 Executive Summary - (Approx. 100-150 words)

•    Brief background of the company

•    Summarise the main strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.

•    Summarise your suggestions.

2.0 Introduction - (Approx. 50-100 words)

•   Background of the company (brief history)

•   Describe their business (all available products/services).

•   Provide recent achievements and updates- expansions.

•   Explain their mission, vision, and future direction.

3.0 Chosen Product Line (Approx. 30-50 words)

•   Introduce the chosen/specific product line briefly.

•   You can include pictures to illustrate the product line better.

4.0 SWOT Analysis (Approx. 1600 words)

•   Justify each point with sensible, relevant discussions and evidence (with statistical data, news, photos etc. - if applicable)

4.1 Strengths (e.g., high-quality product, strategic location, product variety)

4.1.2    Strength 2

4.1.3    Strength 3

4.2 Weaknesses (e.g., limited emphasis on social media marketing, highly priced)

4.2.1    Weakness 1

4.2.2    Weakness 2

4.2.3    Weakness 3

4.3 Opportunities (e.g., new technology introduced by Open AI, new target market)

4.3.1    Opportunity 1

4.3.2    Opportunity 2

4.3.3    Opportunity 3

4.4 Threats (e.g., new competitor, new regulations)

4.4.1    Threat 1

4.4.2    Threat 2

4.4.3    Threat 3

5.0 Recommendations (Approx. 900 words)

•   Elucidate 3 suggestions for the product (it should be linked to either strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats that had been discussed in section 4.0). Your suggestions should enhance the strengths, provide solutions to the weaknesses, utilize the opportunities, and/or serve   as   a   resolution    to   the   threats.    Creative,   timely,   reasonable,    and   detailed recommendations will be given merit. The suggestion that has a high level of novelty (new), will be given extra merit (outstanding).

6.0 Digitalisation (Approx. 150 words)

6.1 Digital Marketing (Based on the recommendations that have been provided, suggest at  least one digital marketing strategy. E.g., social media marketing, mobile marketing, social media influencer, etc.).

7.0 Conclusion (Approx. 50-100 words)

7.1 Conclude your findings and recommendations.

Assignment Format:

This assignment must be typed with the following criteria:

• Times News Roman font sized 12 and 1.5 line spacing. Justified text format.

•   Length: 3,000 words (+/-10%). This word count excludes references, citations, tables, charts, illustrations, and appendices. Marks will be deducted for insufficient/excessive length. To state the word count at the end of your assignment.

• All pages should be numbered.

• All sections should be numbered as per stated in the requirement.

•   For this assignment, you are required to cite a minimum of 10 different sources of reference material with a minimum 2 books and 2 journal articles. The assignment should contain references  from relevant books, journals, magazines, official websites, newspapers, discussion with industrialists, opinion leaders, etc. Sources from wikipedia and unofficial  blogs/social  networking  sites  are  not  acceptable.  The  Harvard  Referencing guidelines are to be followed (refer to page 5 for details).

•   Please take note that plagiarised work will be penalised. Ensure that the similarity index is not more than 20% for your assignment.

•   Be reminded that you CANNOT use ChatGPT or any AI-generated writing and present it as your writing. Using AI-generated work will be penalised.

•   In writing assignment, you must use passive voice and the third person. Avoid using the first person such as “I”, “we”, “our”, etc.

•   You may provide relevant evidence and supporting information related to the selected company in the Appendices section.

Electronic Submission of Individual Assignment

Submission Due Date: 10th November 2023 (Friday), 5 PM (Week 7)

You are required to submit your assignment electronically to myTIMeS at your respective tutor’s folder for Turnitin check latest by 10th November 2023 (Friday),  5 PM (Week 7). For the electronic submission to myTIMeS, you must include the full body text of the assignment with a reference list in the form of Microsoft Word document. The system will auto-exclude the references and citations during Turnitin check. If you did not provide the full body text of the assignment with a reference list, marks will be deducted. Kindly state your name on the assignment cover page (refer to Appendix A) and submit it together with the assignment. Not required to submit the marking rubrics pages as marking will be done online at myTIMeS.

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES

Referencing and Plagiarism

You need to ensure that you comply with Harvard referencing conventions in preparing this assignment and that plagiarism is not an issue. You must fully acknowledge the sources of information (books, articles, reports, etc.) that you use in the completion of the assignment. To do this you must use the Harvard Referencing System which tells you (a) how to acknowledge your sources in the body of your text, and (b) how to list your sources in your reference section. You can refer to the link below for information and learn about the Harvard Referencing System:

https://www1.uwe.ac.uk/students/studysupport/studyskills/referencing/uwebristolharvard.aspx

A reference list must be attached with your assignment. You are expected to adhere to high standards of academic integrity and all assignments submitted in this course may be checked for plagiarism, using Turnitin. Plagiarism is regarded as a serious issue within the university system with severe consequences for students who have been found to have plagiarised. It is your responsibility to ensure you understand plagiarism so that you do not commit the offence of plagiarism. Student’s assignment with a similarity index of 21% and above will subject to penalty.  Students  who  failed  to  upload  their  assignments  for  Turnitin  purposes  will  be penalised.

Submission of Assignment

Students are expected to present a paper of professional quality. Prior to submission of the assignment, check to ensure that at the very least all aspects of the requirements have been addressed, and that there are no spelling and grammatical errors. You are required to submit your completed assignment to Turnitin at myTIMeS.

Late submission of assignment

Assignments submitted within 24 hours after the published deadline will be penalised as below:

a)  A mark of more than 50% for the assignment will be reduced to 50%. This reduced mark will be used in the calculation of the overall module mark;

b)  Amark of 50% or less will stand and be used in the calculation of the overall module mark.

Assignments will not be accepted after the 24-hour window and will be recorded as a non- submission. A mark of ZERO will be awarded. Please see the section on Non-Submission of Assignment below for more details.

Extension of Deadline

No  extension  will  be  granted  for  the  assignment,  except  in  the  case  of  extenuating circumstances. Please refer to the section on Extenuating Circumstances in the document, should you like to request for consideration of extenuating circumstances.

Students, whose application for extenuating circumstances is accepted, will not receive their marks, when the other students who submitted on time receive theirs.

Non-Submission of Assignment

Students who do not submit their assignment will be deemed to have forfeited their right to a second attempt (resit) of the module. These students will be required to repeat the module with attendance and undertake all assessments again (as their third attempt (repeat)).

Note that students are granted only four attempts at a module. If you do not pass the module in the fourth attempt, you will be excluded from the Dual Award programme.

Requirement for Passing Module

This is a 100% coursework module. Students should submit all the three pieces of work. To pass this module, a student must achieve an overall module mark of not less than 50%. A student who obtains a mark less than 50% (i.e 49% and below) for the module maybe allowed tore-sit, to be determined by the Board of Examiners. The passing grade awarded for there-sit will be a grade C.

Resit Continuous Assessment

The resit assessment for the continuous assessment component shall be in the form of an assignment, with a weighting of 50% of the overall module re-sit assessments.

To qualify for aresit opportunity, a student must:

•          not have exhausted four assessment attempts in this module, AND

•          have submitted his/her assessments on time, AND

•          have attended the assessments.

However, note that your right to resit could be forfeited if you have committed any assessment offences, did not submit a piece of assessed work on time or failed to attend an assessment.

The mark for aresit component is capped at 50%.

Assessment Offences

You are to use the Harvard referencing styles consistently for all written assessments. Taylor’s University treats any acts of dishonesty relating to assessment of University modules very seriously.  It  is  vital  that  students  acquaint  themselves  with  the  University’s  policy  on assessment offences. Assessment Offences is defined here as passing off the work of others as one’s own including copying (reproducing or imitating), cheating, collusion (agreement to deceive,  using words or ideas of colleagues or  other  students  and passing  them off  as you own), plagiarism and other breaches of assessment or other examination regulations. Cheating, collusion and plagiarism are the use of unfair means of presenting work for assessment; aiding another student in the use of unfair means of presenting work for assessment; or preventing or

attempting to prevent another student from being able to be assessed properly.

The University is to check any work submitted by students using text comparison software, for instance Turnitin. The similarity index produced by the software is an important tool to assess a student’s performance. However, the index is not the only tool to conclusively determine the existence of breach of academic integrity. It is important to note that although the rate of similarity maybe significantly high or otherwise, the lecturer/tutor/instructor is responsible to exercise his or her independent professional judgement to determine the actual existence of a

breach of academic integrity.

Allegations of and investigations into assessment offences will be dealt within accordance with the regulations and procedures in force at Taylor's University for the module. Where a student is found to have committed an assessment offence a decision must be taken either to take no further action or to impose an appropriate penalty which may include failing the studentand determining whether or not the student will be permitted another assessment attempt.

Where it is decided that penalty is to be imposed, the penalty could include one of the followings:

a)         the mark for the relevant piece of assessment be reduced; or

b)        the mark awarded for the relevant piece of assessment be reduced to zero; or

c)         the  student be deemed to have failed the module, and is not permitted for another

assessment attempt for the module.

Please refer to Taylor’s Dual Award Programme Guide for details on Assessment Offences.

Extenuating Circumstances

Extenuating circumstances are circumstances which are unforeseen, unexpected, significantly disruptive and beyond a student’s control. The circumstances must relate to a specific piece of assessment or examination rather than being problems of a kind that affect a year as a whole or

parts of it.

A student who is of the opinion that:

•    his or her performance in an examination or in other assessed work has been adversely affected by an extenuating circumstance(s), or

•    his or her ability to attend an examination has been adversely affected by an extenuating circumstance(s).

Student could submit an Extenuating Circumstances Form to the Examinations Centre at Taylor’s University. The form must be accompanied by supporting documentary evidence.

Acceptance of extenuating circumstances shall be evaluated on a case-to -case basis by an Extenuating Circumstances Panel. The decision of the Panel shall be deemed as final.

Circumstances that  are unlikely to be  accepted  as  extenuating  circumstances include the following:

•    personal illness or disability for which special arrangements are already in place.

•    colds or know conditions such as hay fever.

•   normal examination stress or anxiety experienced during revision or the assessment period (unless corroborated by medical evidence as a chronic condition and undergoing treatment).

•  non serious domestic or personal disruptions (e.g. moving house, change of job,

holidays, weddings, normal job pressure, failed travel arrangements, financial difficulties, oversleeping).

• study related circumstances (equipment failure including computing/printer difficulties

(unless they occur in the examination itself), failure to have taken backup copies for work stolen or corrupted, bunching of deadlines/examinations, missing books, poor time management, misreading the examination timetable, taking the wrong examination).

(Note: The above list is not exhaustive).