Markstrat

Consumer Panel

- Based on a sample group of over 500 consumers whose buying behavior is believed to be representative of the entire market. - Provides market share by consumer segment and industry sales in the product category. - Represent the proportion of individuals who have purchased a given brand during the simulated period. - Report gives the information for each brand currently on the market in total and by consumer segment

Distribution Panel

- Provides continuous tracking of product sales to consumers based on information gathered at the retail point-of-sale. -Information is primarily gathered from scanning cash-registers with supplementary store audits. - Represents sales in about 17,000 retail outlets in the Markstrat world. - The table and charts of this study provide the market shares, based on unit sold, by channel for each brand currently on the market. They also give the unit product category sales by channel and in total.

Industry Benchmarking

Compiles general information (sales, production costs, marketing expenditures and other expenses, including R&D) from annual reports about each of the Markstrat competitors in a common format for all companies to allow comparison of competitive performance. Summary graphs are provided.

Semantic Scales

Data derived: brand perceptions, ideal value along each scale, ideal value evolution, brand maps and relationship between brand attributes and brand perceptions.

Brand maps

Provide a graphical representation of ideal values and brand perceptions on two dimensions at a time. Five maps are provided in the study.

Market Forecast

- Provides estimates of the expected market size for the whole market and by consumer segment. - Estimates are based on the current market situation and assume that no substantial changes such as brand introductions, or significant price increases or decreases will take place in the future.

You may purchase up to ______ Market Research Studies each period

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How might production levels be adjusted (without cost) up to 20% of your choices?

Actual production level for each product is automatically adjusted in response to actual demand for that product in the period, within 20% of your initial production plan. So, - if you did not order enough units to cover the demand, the production will be automatically increased by up to 20%. - On the contrary, if you ordered too many units and cannot sell them in the period, the production will be automatically reduced by up to 20%. - In case your production plan was inaccurate by more than 20%, you will either lose sales or build inventory.

Repositioning strategies

Advertising R & D.

Perceptual Maps

Gives the minimum number of dimensions that are sufficient to provide a good fit to the data. Then, the study provides a graphical representation of the perceptual positioning of the marketed brands.

Matching product attributes with position

If brand exists at desired positioning: - copy levels of the desired attributes. If no brand exists at desired positioning: 1. Use semantic scales 2. Use multidimensional scaling 3. Case of a new market

How is the level of advertising-research budget affected by your team's advertising goal (awareness vs. repositioning) ?

If your objective is to increase or maintain awareness, you should spend the bulk of your budget in media space purchase and only a small percentage in advertising research to make your advertising more effective If your objective is to reposition a brand then you should spend a significant percentage of your total budget in advertising research.

Multidimensional scaling of brand similarities and preferences

It relies on similarity and preference data on the complete set of brands available in the market. These data were obtained through interviews with 200 individuals. Charts/Maps Given: - Perceptual Maps - Ideal value evolution. - Influence of Product Characteristics on Perceptual Dimensions

What is your objective within Markstrat?

Maximize the Share Price Index (SPI) of your division. - net contribution generated - product market share - ability to grow the organization's revenues - quality of projects successfully completed.

Ideal value evolution

Monitors the evolution of consumer needs over time.

Competitive Intelligence report

Provides estimates of the advertising and commercial budgets spent by the companies in each market during the simulated period. Estimates provided for: - Competitive Advertising - Estimated Communication Dimensions and Message Quality - Competitive Commercial Team

"Experiment" report

Provides the results of advertising and commercial team experiments that are conducted in a selected regional test market during the simulated period. - Advertising experiment - Commercial Team experiment

Ideal values

Respondents are asked to indicate their preferred (Ideal) value on each scale.

Brand perceptions

Respondents are asked to rate each brand on a scale from 1 to 7 according to the way they perceive the brand.

Importance of characteristics

Respondents are asked to rate the importance of each characteristic in their purchasing decision. Although consumer segments differ on the exact importance attributed to each characteristic, they tend to agree on the ranking of the scales - their "relative" importance. This is why only average values are reported on the chart.

What is your role within Markstrat?

Responsible for formulating and implementing the long-term marketing strategy of your division. • 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.

How are distribution margins calculated from retail prices? (be able to determine prices/margins with more stages or levels in the distribution channel)

Retail Price - Selling Price = Distribution Margin Retail Price - Distrib Margin = Selling Price Selling Price - Transfer Cost = Unit Contribution

How is a brand's advertising share of voice computed?

Share of Voice = Your advertising budget ÷ Industry total advertising budget A share of voice greater than the ones of your direct competitors is required for a successful new brand launch or for brand repositioning

Conjoint Analysis

Statistical technique used to calculate the value(utility) attached by consumers to varying levels of physical characteristics and/or price. - Relative importance of price and physical characteristics - Utility charts

Consumer Survey

Survey questionnaire administered to 3,000 individuals during the simulated period. It gives brand awareness, purchase intentions and shopping habit data for each consumer segment in the market.

brand awareness

proportion of individuals who have unaided recall of a brand name.

shopping habit

proportion of individuals who would choose that channel when shopping

purchase intentions

proportion of individuals who would select a brand as their first choice, if they were buying within a year. *brand awareness is factored in purchase intentions