Simulation Game
Welcome to Markstrat and congratulations for your new position!
You and the other members of your team have just been recruited by a large corporation to manage the marketing department of one of its divisions using your management skills. Coming from a different industry, your team has no experience in the Markstrat world .The Markstrat world is a fictitious industrialized country of 80 million inhabitants whose monetary unit is the Markstrat dollar ($). This world does not intend to represent any particular country, market or industrial sector. However, it roughly behaves like most markets, and the general management and marketing knowledge that you have acquired through business experience or formal education applies to this new world. In the Markstrat world, both inflation and GNP growth are fairly stable, and no major political, social or economic event is anticipated in the near future. There are a handful of competing companies that manufacture and market consumer durable goods. These goods are comparable to electronic products such as digital cameras, GPS systems, mobile phones or computers, as well as office equipment, cars, books, or any other consumer durable goods. You will compete with several other firms to market two types of durable goods to consumers.
During the simulation period, you will be responsible for formulating and implementing the long-term marketing strategy of your division. In particular, you and your team members will have to:
- Work in a highly competitive market;
- Target selected consumer segments and position your products;
- Interface with the R&D department to design and develop new products;
- Prepare the launch of new products, improve, maintain or withdraw existing ones;
- Interface with the production department to specify production planning;
- Make marketing mix decisions (pricing, advertising, …) for each of your brands;
- Decide on the size and priorities of your commercial team;
- Order market research studies to get up-to-date information for decision making.
In other words, you and your team will have to decide the overall direction of the company regarding:
- The product portfolio strategy – which brands the company will develop and market;
- The segmentation and positioning strategy – which market segments will be targeted and how products will be positioned;
- The marketing mix strategy – the day-to-day operational marketing decisions such as pricing, production, communication and distribution.
Your objective is over the next years is to maximize the Share Price Index (SPI) of your division. The SPI takes into account several indicators including net contribution generated, product market share, your ability to grow the organization’s revenues and quality of projects successfully completed.
Good Luck!