BOLTON BUSINESS SCHOOL
Assessment Brief
Course / Programme: Executive MBA

Module: MBA7023 Sales Management and Marketing

Module Leader: Carol Brown

Assignment Number: One of two (50% of final mark)

Assignment Title: Group marketing and sales plan (report format)

Assignment Length: 3000 indicative word count

Issue Date: 21.9.15

Submission Deadline: 8.1.15
This assessment contributes towards satisfying the learning outcomes as specified in your module guide.

Specific Assessment Criteria

Old regulations 70%+; new regulations 70%+: Your plan will be of excellent quality where you demonstrate excellent knowledge and understanding of academic models and concepts relating to key account identification and the services mix. You will offer high quality academic justification for your analysis and proposals. The plan structure, its presentation, your written English and your referencing will all be of a very high standard.

Old regulations 60% – 69%; new regulations 60-69%: Your plan will be of good quality where you demonstrate a good knowledge and understanding of academic models and concepts relating key account identification and the services mix. You will offer good quality academic justification for your analysis and proposals. The plan structure, its presentation, your written English and your referencing will all be of a good standard. The academic content, the quality of discussion, referencing, and other elements will be likely to require some or limited development.

Old regulations 50 – 59%; new regulations 50-59%: Your plan will be of fairly good quality where you demonstrate an adequate knowledge and understanding of academic models and concepts relating to key account identification and the services mix. You will offer some adequate academic justification for your analysis and proposals. The plan structure, its presentation, your written English and your referencing will all be of an adequate standard. The academic content, the quality of discussion, referencing, and other elements will be likely to require some development.

Old regulations 40% – 49%; new regulations 45-49%: Your plan will demonstrate a basic awareness of academic models and concepts relating to key account identification and the services mix. You will offer limited academic justification for your analysis and proposals, and there will be some omissions of expected content. There will probably be significant problems with any combination of the plan structure, its presentation, your written English and your referencing. The academic content, the quality of discussion, referencing, and other elements will be likely to require extensive development.

Old regulations Fail <40%; new regulations fail <50%: Your plan will demonstrate a lack of satisfactory awareness of academic models and concepts relating to key account identification and the services mix. You are likely to offer no academic justification or analysis and there will probably be significant omissions of expected content. In addition, there will probably be very significant problems with any combination of the plan structure, its presentation, your written English and your referencing. The academic content, the quality of discussion, referencing, and other elements will be likely to require very extensive development.

Assignment Task (report format)

This is a group assignment.

The generic scenario:
Your group represents the sales and marketing department of a company marketing a service offering. Marketing research has identified attractive opportunities in a particular market segment but the company has not been active in the segment before. Some competition in the segment is generally weak, characterised by a range of inferior offerings from companies whose sales in total comprise approximately 45% of the segment share. However, one competitor CompetiCo., the segment leader, has the majority of segment share and its offering has an expertly crafted marketing mix which commands strong loyalty from customers.

Your task:
Before commencing the writing of this assignment your group will have established as a result of group work both in and out of class (and agreed with the lecturer):

• a specific B2B service offering;
• a target market segment;
• and, a value proposition.

The next step is to devise an effective plan (in report format) prior to entering the segment which comprises two elements:

1. a proposed extended marketing mix for the offering;
2. a proposal on how to identify key accounts in the segment;

You must justify each stage of your plan with reference to relevant academic concepts. On this occasion the plan should follow this structure:

• Title and contents page,
• Brief introduction including a short statement setting out the offering, target and value proposition,
• Considerations of the extended marketing mix,
• Key account identification,
• Brief summary.
Important and helpful information

Please refer to the Module Guide for information regarding indicative reading, guidelines for the preparation and submission of assignments, and the module learning outcomes.
Submission

(Details regarding submission can also be found in the Module Guide but are reproduced here).

Unless otherwise notified by your module tutor, hard copies of assignments should be placed with a white general cover sheet, in the Assignment Post-box in the Chancellor’s Mall.

Please note that all assignments are date stamped by the Academic Office once they have been taken out of the post-box. It is this date stamp which is taken into account (rather than the date stamp which students make themselves on the general cover sheet).

Electronic copies of assignments should be submitted via “Turn-it-in”. Please ensure you follow the instructions provided by your module tutor and on the assessment brief.

Submission of assessments may be done on or before the published submission date. Assignments not available at this time will be considered late unless an extension has been previously agreed.

Students who fail to submit assessments by the specified date (without an extension being granted or without accepted Mitigating Circumstances) will be subject to the following penalties:

Up to 5 calendar days late = 10 marks subtracted but if the assignment would normally gain a pass mark, then the final mark to be no lower than 40%.

Up to 10 calendar days late = 20 marks subtracted but if the assignment would normally gain a pass mark, then the final mark to be no lower than 40%.

More than 10 calendar days late = 1 mark awarded.

Please note that it is your responsibility to ensure that the assignment is submitted in the format/s specified in the Module Guide or on the Assessment Brief.

YOU SHOULD ALWAYS ENSURE YOU KEEP A COPY OF ANY ASSIGNMENT SUBMITTED.

In the case of exceptional and unforeseen circumstances, an extension of up to 7 days after the assessment submission deadline may be granted by your Programme Leader. You should complete an Extension Request Form available from the School Office and attach documentary evidence of your circumstances, prior to the published submission deadline.

Requests for extensions for periods longer than 7 days must be made using the Mitigating Circumstances procedures.

Please see your Programme Handbook for further details.