Write an essay based on ONE of the following topics (worth 50% of your grade for this module):

1. Perform a market environment analysis for an existing brand of your choice and outline the marketing strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats resulting from the analysis.

OR

1. Decode the Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning (STP) model for an existing brand of your choice. Outline relevant consumer personas in light of the STP analysis.

The word limit for the essay is 1,500 words max (You may exceed the word limit by 10% without penalty). The word limit excludes references and appendix sections.
Following are detailed guidelines for each of the above essays:

1. Marketing Environment Analysis

Perform a marketing environment analysis for an existing brand of your choice and outline the marketing strengths, opportunities, weaknesses and threats resulting from the analysis.
Recommended reading for the above essay:

• Chapter 2: Analyzing The Global Marketing Environment, Fahy & Jobber (2019) Foundations of Marketing, 6th Edition, McGraw-Hill
• Pages 94-106, Kotler and Keller (2016) Marketing Management, 15th Edition, Pearson

In addition to the above, you are encouraged to independently search for relevant literature on JSTOR/Google Scholar and cite those in your essay, wherever applicable. Include a references sheet at the end of your essay.
It is recommended to follow the below approach for this essay:

• Select an existing brand of your choice
• Analyze the macro-environment and micro-environment factors that have the potential to impact the brand and outline their implications for marketing decisions (decisions involving product, price, place, promotion)

How?
Engage with each of the factors in both macro-environment (e.g. demographic, economic, et al) as well as micro-environment (e.g. suppliers, marketing intermediaries, et al). Explain what each of these factors mean for the brand and further report insights around these factors that are relevant to the brand from a marketing decision perspective.
For instance, let’s say you have selected Aldi as the brand and you’re looking at its demographic environment within macro-environment factors. First, you must explain who/what consists of its demographic environment e.g. Age groups of people who are often seen to be shopping at Aldi, their ethnicity, et al.
Next, you must report insights about this demographic and reflect on how it impacts marketing decisions e.g. Having identified the demographic environment, one of the insights from your research could be that many Asian and Indian students visit Aldi and that these students would prefer food products that belong to their home countries’ cuisines. Explain its relevance for making marketing decisions e.g. Aldi must widen its range of Asian products, else its customers would shop instead from Asian stores.
You must engage similarly with all factors of the macro-environment and micro- environment thoroughly.
Note: Support your findings and insights with data, graphs, pictures, et al. as much as possible and insert these alongside your arguments within the report, instead of separately in the Appendix. Mention the sources for the data or any other supporting device.
e.g. While analyzing the economic environment, you are reporting that spending patterns of consumers have shifted to buying only essential goods in the pandemic. Can you support this claim with a news article/study/data that says so?

• Based on your environment analysis, organize the above findings into SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) for the brand.

e.g. The lack of Asian breakfast items at Aldi is a weakness for the brand and the resulting threat would be losing its customers to Asian stores.
Present these findings in a SWOT chart, followed by a brief explanation of key themes from the chart.

• Summarize (in brief) your recommendations for the brand, in light of the SWOT.

e.g. Aldi must provide a greater variety of Asian foods in order to satisfy the needs of its
Asian audience
You must follow the below structure for your essay. I have provided sectional word-counts that may help you divide your essay, however it is optional to follow sectional word-counts. (Be mindful to not exceed the overall word limit!)

• Brief introduction of the brand (150 words)
• Analysis of macro-environment factors (300 words)
• Analysis of micro-environment factors (300 words)
• SWOT Analysis (500 words)
• Recommendations (250 words)
• References

This is an academic essay and should be written in a formal style. Do not write in bullet points. It is essential that correct referencing is provided in the Harvard referencing style. You may also want to include a cover page as well as a contents page (excluded from word count).

1. Segmentation-Targeting-Analysis (STP)

Decode the Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning (STP) model for an existing brand of your choice. Outline relevant consumer personas in light of the STP analysis.
Recommended reading for the above essay:

• Pages 267-317, Kotler and Keller (2016) Marketing Management, 15th Edition, Pearson

In addition to the above, you are encouraged to independently search for relevant literature on JSTOR/Google Scholar and cite those in your essay, wherever applicable. Include a references sheet at the end of your essay.
It is recommended to follow the below approach for this essay:

• Select an existing brand of your choice
• Analyze segmentation for the brand i.e. Describe the potential segments for the brand. You must engage with various bases of segmentation in detail: psychographic, profile, geographical, demographic, behavioral, etc. What are the different criteria used by the brand to segment its market?
• For e.g. Let’s say you have selected KFC as the brand. While analyzing its behavioral segmentation, you would find that KFC has considered purchase behavior for segmenting its offerings/markets. It caters to the price-sensitive segment with value combo meals and caters to the segment that has higher purchasing power with its Tower Burgers which are relatively more costly.
• We understand that once a brand has identified its market segment opportunities, it must decide how many and which ones to target. For your selected brand, which of these segments are central to its targeting strategy? Critically evaluate its targeting with respect to the various approaches discussed in class (Full market coverage, multiple segment specialization, single segmentation concentration, etc.)
• Decode the positioning strategy for the brand. How does the brand position its offerings to its target market? Support your arguments with the brand’s advertising communications/product strategy/pricing strategy et al. You may want to include pictures of relevant ads if applicable.
• For e.g. While targeting the convenience-minded Pizza lovers in India, Dominos positions its pizzas as a “delicious hot pizza, delivered promptly to your door”. This is evident from its ’30- minute delivery or free’ TV advertisements.

Note: Support your findings and insights with data, graphs, pictures, et al. as much as possible and insert these alongside your arguments within the report, instead of separately in the Appendix. Mention the sources for the data or any other supporting device.

• Illustrate the brand’s target audience using consumer personas. You must write a minimum of two consumer personas for the brand, in light of the STP analysis model. Refer to our discussion in class on consumer personas.

You must follow the below structure for your essay. I have provided sectional word-counts that may help you divide your essay, however it is optional to follow sectional word-counts. (Be mindful to not exceed the overall word limit!)

• Brief introduction of the brand (200 words)
• Analysis of segmentation (350 words)
• Analysis of targeting strategy (350 words)
• Analysis of positioning strategy (350 words)
• Consumer Personas (250 words)
• References

This is an academic essay and should be written in a formal style. Do not write in bullet points. It is essential that correct referencing is provided in the Harvard referencing style. You may also want to include a cover page as well as a contents page (excluded from word count).