choose any two out of 5 tasks Custom Essay

Answer two of the five tasks, each question carries half of the marks.

Please feel free to make any realistic assumptions that may help you to respond to these tasks. Make clear the assumptions you are making.

The word limit for each task is 1,250 words (2,500 total word count).Choose any two tasks out of 5.

Good marks will only be gained if concepts are applied to the situation described.

Scenario

You are a new employee of a medium sized company, Toga Toys plc that makes a range of toys for children two to nine years old. The company was founded and is privately owned by Mike Mitchell, an

entrepreneur. Mike has built his business over the last twenty years by acquiring other smaller companies and also developing his own new products. The company has a reputation for being innovative and

manufacturing toys that help educate children as well as being fun to play with. The company trades under a number of brand names that reflect its historical origins, however where possible, the various

manufacturing bases (factories) negotiate collectively with suppliers to keep costs down. The factories are based in the southern part of the country and most of the group’s sales are made in that area. The

products may be bought in toyshops and department and chain stores. Mike Mitchell is thinking about developing an internet site. There is a sales force that works on behalf of the whole company selling to the

retailers.

Mike is aware of the fact that his business could be more profitable if his marketing activities were more sophisticated, currently most sales are made as a result of his salespeople’s good relationships with the

buyers in the various retail outlets. The company spends some money on advertising, which is mainly in the trade press i.e. aimed at retail distributors. There is no specific marketing plan for the group. Mike

Mitchell has plans to retire in fifteen years time and to ensure that he is able to live in the ‘lap of luxury’ he intends to make some effort to increase the value of the business. He believes the answer to be better

marketing.

As a result you have been recruited as a graduate marketing trainee and placed on a management development programme. One objective of the programme is to allow you to develop your skills and enable

you to show how your understanding of marketing may help improve the future prospects of the company. On arrival at Toga Toys you have been asked to address two of the following tasks.
Tasks:

1. Assuming that one of your first tasks is to advise Mike Mitchell on the type of marketing information that he requires to run his business .Critically assess the types of information that you believe would be

useful for marketing purposes and discuss how you would collect this information, drawing a distinction between secondary and primary data. Explain how this information would assist in marketing decision

making at Toga Toys.

2. Write a report advising Mike Mitchell how an understanding of market
segmentation might help him improve his business prospects. Your report
should be designed to help senior management understand the concept of
segmentation and describe appropriate segmentation bases with examples of
how they might be used in the Toy market.

3. Mr Mitchell has told you that many of his management team, some maybe in the Marketing Department, are ignorant of issues concerning consumer behaviour. He believes that if the managers were more

customer oriented, sales would increase significantly. He would like you to present a seminar for his managers entitled “Understanding customer behaviour – how it can increase our sales.” Provide details of

the issues you would discuss and the practical examples you would use to illustrate your talk.

4. Given your knowledge and understanding of the product life cycle write a report discussing the implications that this concept may have for the marketing of Toga Toy products. Using the supplementary data

provided, include an assessment of the SpellWhiz brand’s sales history to date and present your recommendations for future marketing action.

5. Mr Mitchell would like to develop a range of toys that will compete in the
emerging ‘high quality’ market for children toys. This trend has partly
been set by toys such a ‘Buzz Lightyear’ being developed from films (Toy
Story). Outline factors that should be considered before setting price for this
new range? How will different objectives affect the pricing of the range? Lastly,
recommend and justify a pricing strategy for the new range of toys.

Supplementary information

Sales by volume of SpellWhiz brand

Year ‘000s
1998 49
1999 53
2000 57
2001 67
2002 72
2003 74
2004 75
2005 75
2006 74
2007 75
2008 75
2009 74
2010 73
2011 73
2012 72
2013 71
2014 71

Other information

Toga toys plc were the first manufacturer to develop a fun game for children which helped them to learn to spell, SpellWhiz, in 1998. The new product was targeted at children and their parents. Competitors

GlobalToy plc and FunKids plc, alert to toga Toys success developed ‘me too’ versions in 2009.

Research indicates that consumers assess toys on the basis of the fun they provide, educational value, sturdiness and value for money.
CHoose any two of the following tasks