What are the aims and objectives of this report? (This is an absolute key point to identify in your report. What are you trying to achieve?). The aims and objectives provide the key thread from which you will base your entire business plan report.
Write a business plan based on the results of a web business game，The full details are in my file
Requirements:
BEMM384
Business Plan Template
Taking the simulation game into a business plan
You may want to approach the writing of your business plan in a way that is not sequential. You will need to think through important issues right at the start and then build around those ideas. For example, you may want to start writing your plan with your target market in mind. Target markets represent the customers that will buy your product. This can be found in section 3.1. Your target market is one of the key considerations that will impact your ability to develop the plan. You want to think how to position your product to your target market early on, simply because they may impact what you want to do. Positioning relates to those macroenvironmental factors in the external environment that will impact your target market’s needs, tastes, wants, and purchasing behaviour. You will want to give special consideration to how you communicate to your target market. Put these ideas at the forefront. Business plan writing is not a linear process. Focus in on those elements to the plan that are essential and then start building your ideas outwardly from there.
General recommendations
Your report should be presented in a professional manner
Use 12-point font for the main body of your text
If a table/graph you wish to include does not fit on a single page, you may reduce the size of your font within the table/graph so that it does so, but do not go below 8 point in size. Do not split tables across pages unless absolutely necessary.
Show an accurate word count at the beginning/end of the report.
A list of references should be provided at the end of the report, presented in accordance with the APA Referencing System. The references in the final Reference List do not contribute towards the final word count.
Appendices are permitted as long as they are referred to in the main body of the report. Each appendix should be on a separate page, numbered and titled. Appendices do not contribute towards the final word count
Report format
The report must contain all of the following elements
Cover page
Table of contents
Executive summary
Company background
1.1 Vision statement
Marketing environment
2.1 Micro environment
2.2 Macro environment
2.3 SWOT analysis
Segmentation, targeting and Positioning
3.1 Target market
3.1.1 Demographic characteristics
3.1.2 Psychographic characteristics
3.1.3 Benefits sought
3.1.4 Usage rate
3.1.5 Geographic location
3.2 Product characteristics
3.2.1 Brand Name and Product Name
3.2.2 Features and Benefits
3.2.3 Points of Differentiation
3.2.4 Positioning and Perceptual Map
3.2.5 Communication
Financial considerations
4.1 Price strategy and competitive positioning
4.1.1 General Pricing Strategy
4.1.2 Comparative Pricing Strategy
Summary
Reference list
Appendix
Report detailed guidelines
Cover page
Title of your project
Table of Contents
A listing of the contents of your document (if needed, you can find information about how to create a table of contents here and here).
Executive Summary
The executive summary is similar to an extended abstract. The purpose of the executive summary is to provide the reader with an overview of all of the key findings of your report. Imagine that you were pitching your idea to a divisional manager, or a head of division, or perhaps a venture capitalist you are trying to recruit to invest in your business idea. The executive summary is used to grab their attention and provide an overview to your work, your idea and the justification of your strategic plan.
Typically, an Executive summary is something that we write last in our business plan. The rationale here is that it is a summary of everything that we have done in the business plan. The key points that you might want to highlight within the executive summary include, but is not limited to:
What are the aims and objectives of this report? (This is an absolute key point to identify in your report. What are you trying to achieve?). The aims and objectives provide the key thread from which you will base your entire business plan report.
What is the product (what product lined did you choose)?
What opportunity does it offer to the company?
Who is the target market? (This is another key variable that you must think through early on in your business plan analysis. Sometimes companies think in terms of what they can best offer the market, which is a very inward and antiquated way of looking at things. Good strategic business executives think of things in terms of their target market. They put needs and wants of their target market at the forefront of everything they do and then they figure out ways to create value for that target market in ways that creates customer satisfaction. It is reasonable to assume that total sales in your simulation equates to customer satisfaction).
What opportunity does it offer to your target market? Alternatively, what problem does it solve for your target market?
What retail markets did you service with your product?
How well did your company do financially? What was the overall profitability of your company? What was your market share? How well did you do relative to your competitors? How well did your market do relative to other markets?
The executive summary is an overview of what you are going to write in your business plan. Think of it as an introduction that contains all of the key points of your business plan (in summary form). Use this section as a guide to orientate your reader. The details are found within the written report. For the writer, we use the executive summary to help you ensure you are clear on the path and direction of your product. For the reader, the executive summary provides an overview of key points. It is not uncommon for an executive reading your business plan to form an immediate opinion on your product/ service idea after having read your executive summary. Use it an opportunity to raise awareness and interest
1. Company Background
Vision Statement
Questions to answer: What is the vision statement of the company? What is your interpretation of this vision? What was the motivation behind your vision? What goals did you set for your company? Did the final results of your plan achieve the goals of your vision statement?
2. The Marketing Environment – Environmental Scanning
The marketing environment consists of factors that are both internal and external to an organization that impact will impact the product/ service that you are looking at. Internal factors are known as the micro environment, which consists of actors that are within your firm’s immediate operating environment; it includes the company suppliers, marketing intermediaries and its competitors. The macro environment consists of external marketplace factors that impact both an organization and its customers. More specifically, the macro environment consists of the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, ecological, and legal forces that shape our external environment. Both the micro environment and the macro environment are in a constant state of change.
Environmental scanning is the process through which you will collect and analyze environmental variables and action this data into marketing strategy. The importance of environmental scanning is anticipating those variables (in both the micro and macro environment) that might impact your company/ product/ service. Environmental scanning takes both a micro and macro perspective on the environment by trying to understand how changes in the environment might impact your product/ service. The process of environmental scanning is seen as a key process in an organization’s ability to adapt to change in its external environment.
For example, suppose a legal firm was interested in commissioning a study on the future of legal services. An environmental scan would be a key element in that analysis. It would highlight a fundamental shift in the ways in which consumers consume legal services. These changes are driven by both internal and external factors associated with an environmental analysis. External factors in the technological environment would highlight the rise of chatbots or robo-advisors that can give automated, standardized legal advice at low costs. This emphasis on technology will lead to increasingly scripted interactions with customers for basic legal needs and the development of more ‘customised’ interactions with the use of artificial intelligence that require little to no human interaction. An environmental scan would also highlight social changes where customers want access to legal information outside of traditional business hours and a preference for web-based service interactions. Internal factors in the environment would highlight the proliferation of global web-based legal companies offering legal advice in markets across the globe, which creates new competitive pressures for legal firms. All of this information would be collected through the environmental scanning process and incorporated in marketing strategy.
There are two key perspectives you want to take in this section:
One perspective is that of the company/ product/ service that you are looking at. How do the micro and macro factors affect your business plan analysis? This would be particularly relevant in the micro environment.
The second perspective is that of your target market. This will be particularly relevant in your macro-environment analysis. How does the macro environment affect your company and your target market?
2.1 Microenvironment
2.1.1 Suppliers and Manufacturing
From a company perspective what suppliers are part of your network in delivering your product to your target market? Suppliers provide companies with the resources and raw materials needed to produce goods and services. Suppliers often drive efficiency in the supply chain through the specialization and division of labour. They help to bring costs down. In this simulation you are a vertically integrated company, which means that you procure all outside materials, transform those raw materials into finished goods, and distribute them. You will make decisions on the type of jet pack you want to manufacture, how many units you will hold in warehouses and how you will distribute those goods, which takes into consideration different times of year and changing marketing conditions.
Uncertainty in the market can cause prices to rise (or in the case of petroleum/ oil currently fall due to lack of demand). During difficult times, such as recovery from recession, major companies often have to work to repair or maintain their internal supply chain.
Questions to answer: How did the cost of goods impact your overall profitability during the simulation? What decisions did you make to control the cost of goods? How did your warehousing costs impact your overall profitability over the course of the simulation? How did external shocks in the market impact your cost of goods?
2.1.2 Marketing Intermediaries
Intermediaries help companies to promote, sell and distribute its products to your target market. Intermediaries might include resellers, physical distribution firms- retailers, marketing service agencies, and financial service agencies.
Questions to answer: What intermediaries did you use? How effective were these intermediaries in helping you reach your target market? How did you your use of intermediaries change over the simulation?
2.1.3 Competitors
In order for your product/ service to be successful in the marketplace, a company must provide greater value and customer satisfaction than competitors in the marketplace.
Questions to answer: Who are the key competitors in your marketplace (maybe all 4 competitors in your market were competitive or maybe there were only 1 or 2)? How big are they relative to your market position? How well did you perform relative to your competitors? How successful was your performance relative to your competitors over the three-year period?
You will want to consider your competitors marketshare, resources, number of units sold, profitability, brand awareness, price points, similarities in target markets. How competitive was the market (i.e., degree of competitive rivalry; i.e. did one competitor dominate over the three year period or was there changes over the duration of the simulation)?
2.2 Macroenvironment
Studying the macroenvironment is also known as a PESTEL analysis. We are looking at how the external environment influences the company/ product/ service you are developing. As you go through the macroenvironment, some sections will be more important than others. It is ok if you feel that some of the sections to the macroenvironment more strongly effect your company than others. Simply state that in your analysis.
2.2.1 Political Factors
The political environment refers to governmental policy and its impact on an organization or an industry. It includes tax and fiscal policy, legislative structures, employment legislation, governmental orientation and type. The political environment also extends to broader forces in the external environment which exert influence on governmental policy and decision making. Political lobbyist and special interest groups might try and exert pressure on governments in the hopes of influencing policy before it becomes law.
Questions to answer: What political factors were most important to the performance of your company? How did they impact your market strategy? What impact does the political environment have on your target market (theoretically and practically)? How did you take into account the political environment?
2.2.2 Economic Factors
The economic environment refers to those factors within an economy/ marketplace that affect consumer purchasing power and consumer spending patterns. Marketers track the amount of consumer debt households take on as it will affect future purchase patterns. Economic factors include information that is particular to your industry. Clearly one of the biggest economic factors that is affecting the current global economy is inflation. While this has been detrimental to most industries (restaurants/ bars, movie theatres, streaming services; amusement parks), it has been a big boost to others. Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), such as Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Nestle, etc. have been recording record profits. Oil, Gas and Energy Companies have seen record profitability during this inflationary period.
Questions to answer: What economic factors impacted your market strategy? What impact does the economic environment have on your target market (theoretically and practically)? How has your target market been impacted by economic factors? How did you take into account the economic environment?
2.2.3 Socio-Cultural Factors
Socio-cultural factors in the external environment deal directly with the characteristics of your target market. This part of your analysis will take into consideration two core areas- lifestyle factors and demographics. The data you will collect here is aggregate data- overall population trends. We will get into more specific data in section 4 to your business plan.
Lifestyles of consumers and our target markets are constantly changing. Think about how COVID-19 changed the way that we interact. This change happened overnight. Other changes happen more slowly and take time to develop. For example, the demand for product and services 24/7 (i.e., 24 hours a day 7 days a week) was really born out of changes in technology and irregular working patterns that go outside Monday through Friday work schedules. Because technology enabled us to shop, bank, work, interact together outside of traditional business hours, we see lifestyle shifts in what consumers want from companies and how they interact with them.
Demographic factors are quantifiable characteristics associated with the markets that we want to compete within. Here we are looking at aggregate data where size can be measure in terms of age, income, location, gender, occupation, and education levels.
Questions to answer: What lifestyle factors influence your target market? What are the characteristics associated with your demographic target market (age, income, location, gender, occupation, and education levels)? What impact does the socio-cultural environment have on your target market (theoretically and practically)? How did you take into account the socio-cultural environment?
2.2.4 Technological Factors
The technological environment consists of the innovative technologies that foster service, product, and process innovations, as well as a firm’s ability to respond to these changes. The technological environment represents one of the most transformative forces in the external environment. It has the ability to dramatically shift the ways that marketers manage their product and service offerings as well as influence the ways in which consumers interact and consume product and services. We can see the impact that product technology has had in the automotive sector with the rise of the electric automobile. In travel, we have seen how digital technologies have led to service innovation with Expedia and Travelocity replacing the need for human travel agents. Uber has led process innovations that have fundamentally shifted car ownership and travel. The ability to forecast, integrate and action information from the technological environment represents a key variable in strategy formulation.
Questions to answer: What technological factors impacted your market strategy? What impact does technology have on your target market (theoretically and practically)? How did you account for the technological environment?
2.2.5 Ecological Factors
The ecological environment refers to the natural resources required to develop and sustain marketing activities, those natural resources that are affected by marketing activities, and the stewardship associated with protecting those resources. Here I want you to think through issues regarding sustainability. Sustainability might come in the form of renewable energies, recyclable material or environmental pollution. Consumers across the work are becoming more and more environmentally aware. The ability to deliver products and services that are seen as sustainable have become a key form of competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Questions to answer: What role did sustainability play in your market strategy? What impact does sustainability have on your target market (theoretically and practically)? How did you account for sustainability in your market strategy?
2.2.6 Legal Factors
The legal environment are the laws and regulations that govern marketing practice. It is used to promote economic commerce, protect the development of new technologies, promote fair competition, and also provide consumer protections for the society as a whole. Legal factors effectively regulate economies, ways of doing business, and the way in which people behave within societies. Given the fact that multi-national companies compete in many different countries, a challenge for marketers is that companies must adhere to the legal environment in countries with widening different rules and regulations. While there are no universal laws that business can use to navigate the complexity of different legal systems, most countries and trading zones create degrees of standardization when it comes to human rights laws, product safety, transparency in packaging, labelling, and pricing.
Questions to answer: What were the legal factors you had to consider when developing your jet pack? What impact does the legal environment have on your target market (theoretically and practically)?
2.3 SWOT Analysis
A key element to any environmental analysis contains what is known as a situational analysis or SWOT analysis. Here you will highlight what are the overall Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats facing the launch you’re your new product/ service. This section can be brief (i.e., 500 words or less) and can be presented as a series of numerical bullet points. If you are pressed for word count, you can put this in a table that does not count against your word count.
2.3.1 Strengths
Strengths are internal to your company. They are the internal capabilities that may help your company achieve the aims and objectives that you have set forth in this business plan.
2.3.2 Weaknesses
Weaknesses are internal to your company. Internal limitations that may interfere with your company’s ability to achieve the aims and objectives you have set forth in this business plan.
2.3.3 Opportunities
External factors that your company to exploited to its advantage during the simulation. This is really a brief justification to your strategy and the evolving market opportunities during the simulation.
2.3.4 Threats
Current and emerging external factors that may challenge your company’s performance. You can draw from your micro and macro environmental analysis here as well as from your competitive analysis.
3. Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Target Markets, Market Size, Segmentation Strategy, and Market Opportunities, Product/ Service Characteristics, Positioning Strategy.
3.1 Target Market Business to Consumer Markets
In this section we are looking for you to identify the specific target market(s) that you identified in the simulation. Who are they? What were their market needs and preferences? What is the size of your target market?
3.1.1 Demographic characteristics
Age, income, gender, educational levels, ethnicity.
Questions to answer: What were the demographic characteristics of your target market? Why did you target this demographic segment? Why not other segments (i.e., how does this link to the vision statement)? Did your demographic segmentation strategy change during the course of the simulation? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of demographic segmentation (theoretically and practically)?
3.1.2 Psychographic characteristics
Personality, motives, lifestyle.
Questions to answer: What were the psychographic characteristics of your target market? Why did you target this psychographic segment? Why not other segments (i.e., how does this link to the vision statement)? Did your psychographic segmentation strategy change during the course of the simulation? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of psychographic segmentation (theoretically and practically)?
3.1.3 Benefits sought
According to the benefits that customers seek.
Questions to answer: What were the benefits sought of your target market? Why did you target this benefit sought segment? Why not other segments (i.e. how does this link to the vision statement)? Did your benefits sought segmentation strategy change during the course of the simulation? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of benefits sought segmentation (theoretically and practically)?
3.1.4 Usage rate
Some companies segment the market based on usage- high volume, frequency of use buyers.
Questions to answer: What were the usage rate characteristics of your target market? Why did you target this usage rate segment? Why not other segments (i.e. how does this link to the vision statement)? Did your usage rate segmentation strategy change during the course of the simulation? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of usage rate segmentation (theoretically and practically)?
3.1.5 Geographic location
Country, city size, climate, proximity.
Obviously, the geographic segmentation strategy is fixed within the simulation. You do however need to make geographic choices around retail distribution. Drawing from section 2.1.2 answer the following questions:
Questions to answer: What retail distribution outlets were most desired by your target market? Why did you choose those outlets? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach would be more effective?
3.2 Product Characteristics
In this section we want you to spend some time discussing the product characteristics of your jet pack. How did the feature of your product meet the market needs and preferences of your target market(s)? How did your product change over the 3-year period of the simulation? Did you introduce new products to new markets (i.e., diversification) during the course of the simulation?
This section really gets at the heart of the aims and objectives of the business plan project, which are articulated within the executive summary section at the start. This an opportunity to fully articulate the aims and objectives of your work. Your aim here is to articulate how you meet the needs of your target market and how you will build competitive advantage in the marketplace.
As part of this section, you will want to consider the following information:
3.2.1 Brand Name and Product Name
Questions to answer: What is the name of your product? What were the defining features of your jet pack offering? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of branding?
3.2.2 Features and Benefits
When you think about your product innovation, what are the characteristics of the product? Think of these characteristics in terms of the benefits that they offer customers. Alternatively, what problems do they solve for customers? We want to start by taking a customer centric view here. This means focusing your arguments upon what customers want from the market. You should follow by integrating a company-based perspective here – what do we think, as a company, that the market wants. This is a subtle but important difference. Customers will often tell you want based upon what the market already offers. As a company, our job is to anticipate market trends and what customers will want in the future. Here we can draw from data from our environmental scan, or other areas of your data collection, and highlight what we think that they will want- especially in cases where we have a new product.
Questions to answer: What are the characteristics of the product? What problems did you solve for customers? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of features and benefits in international business strategy?
3.2.3 Points of Differentiation
Questions to answer: What is the unique selling proposition of your product? How is it different from competitor products in your market? Why would customers choose your product/ service over a competitor? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? Why is differentiation an important strategy in international business?
3.2.4 Positioning and Perceptual Map
Positioning is the place that a product/ service/ brand occupies in a consumer’s mind, relative to competitors. An assumption that is made in positioning is that consumers will compare competing offerings based on these positions and choose the offering that best meets their needs. Marketers in turn, try and emphasise those variables that most relevant to consumer’s choice criteria.
Perceptual mapping is the process of displaying two attributes associated with the product/ service from the perspective of the consumer. In order to accurately develop a perceptual map for your business plan you will need to have a clear understanding of the needs of your target market identified in sections 3.1 or 3.2.
When developing your perceptual map, you might want to consider the following variables listed below. You are only required to develop one perceptual map, but some students may find it is beneficial to develop more than one.
Attribute: A product/ service feature that is built into your offering. This might be perceived level of brand differentiation or brand identity attributes.
Price and Quality: This variable may emphasise a higher price as a designator of quality or lower price as an indicator of value.
Use or Application: What need does your product/ service fulfil within the marketplace based on consumer perception? This is most likely to be the benefit that the customer receives when consuming your product/ service.
End User: Positioning a product based on the psychographic characteristics of the end user. This might be based on degrees of luxury, quality or affordability.
Product Class: Positioning a product/ service as being associated with a particular category of offering. A clothing retailer might use positioning variables around loungewear, casual wear or professional.
I took this random perceptual map from the internet: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/668714244648590778/ “Pocket friendly means affordable”
This perceptual map highlights price on the Y axis and use/ application on the X axis. I don’t expect a high level of sophistication in your perceptual map when incorporating it into your business plan.
The rationale for incorporating it is another cross check in the business plan to ensure that we know where our product offering is relative to our competitors. It helps us to visually articulate how saturated/ competitive certain quadrants on the map are.
Questions to answer: Create a perceptual map(s). What attributes does your map feature? How is your company positioned relative to the 4 competitors in your marketplace? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of perceptual mapping?
3.2.5 Communication
Building upon points 3.1.1, 3.1.2 and 3.1.3, what message will you communicate to your target audience? How will you communicate this message (will use television, radio, social media, personal sales force, print advertising)? In consumer markets we tend to use social media, print, radio, and TV. In consumer markets you also need to think about point of purchase – if your product is sold in a mass market shop or an exclusive retailer, are there special considerations you need to give in order to ensure that your product stands out?
Questions to answer: What communication mediums did you use? What impact did these mediums have upon your sales during the three years of the simulation? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective?
4. Financial Considerations
In the financial considerations section, you should consider what your financial position looked like of the course of the 3 year simulation and what you final financial position looked like. The objective here is for you to consider the market point of entry, which would be year zero and then how you grew your market and financial position over time. For each of the subsections below indicate what your financial position in year one, two and three.
Questions to answer: Highlight your financial performance across these 9 variables in year one, two and three. You should have a fourth column which provides a net summary of your overall performance (i.e., the cumulative of all three years combine).
Total Equity: total accumulated equity of shareholders by year and overall summary.
Net Income: total net income by year and overall summary.
Market Share: your percentage of the market by year and overall summary.
Sales: sales revenue by year, by product and overall summary.
Revenue: total revenue earned across all products by year and overall summary.
Gross Profit Margin: the margin of gross profit to sales by year and overall summary.
Net Profit Margin: the margin of net income to sales by year and overall summary.
Research and Development (R&D) value: present value of accumulated R&D spend by year and overall summary.
Units produced: how many units did you produce by product, by year and overall summary.
Further Questions to answer:
Within each of the 9 variables, provide a brief discussion of your overall business performance. As part of this discussion, you should also include how you did relative to your competitors.
4.1 Price Strategy and Competitive Position
4.1.1 General Pricing Strategy
Price is often an indicator of quality. In some cases, we use pricing as a strategy to indicate luxury and exclusivity. Here we would charge a high price. In other situations, we use price as an indicator of value. Here we would use a lower price to communicate value to the market.
Questions to answer: Discuss what your general price strategy in the simulation. How did your general price strategy fit with the market needs of your target market? What was your price relative to your competitors? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective?
4.1.2 Profit Maximization Strategy
Here we are using a pricing objective where we charge a price that is as high as the market can bear. This does not mean we are charging an unreasonable price; it just means that we are offering something to the market that is unique and we can set a higher price to justify the extra service, technology, or quality that we are offering in our product/ service.
Questions to answer: Describe the relationship between your pricing objectives and your overall profitability. How did your profit maximization strategy change over the course of the 3 years of the simulation? How was your profitability relative to your competitors? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective?
4.1.3 Market Share Pricing
The objective with market share pricing is to set prices lower than that of the competition in order to gain market share. Market share represents your sales % of the market relative to your competition. We use market share pricing when we want to capture market share, which will build sales volume into our product/ service lines. This in turn helps us to lower our costs, due to economies of scale, and increase sales revenue. As costs go down and sales go up, profits increase.
Questions to answer: Describe the relationship between your pricing objectives and your overall marketshare. How did your strategy change over the course of the 3 years of the simulation? How was your marketshare relative to your competitors. What impact did your marketshare have on your cost structure? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective?
4.1.4 Comparative Pricing Strategy
Go back to section 2.1.3 on Competitors. In crowded markets with lots of competition you will see competitors competing on relatively the same price. When one competitor lowers the price, we often follow that strategy, which is known as a status quo pricing objective. The objective for this section is to provide a justification for your pricing objectives relative to your competition.
Questions to answer: How does your pricing strategy fit relative to your competitors? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective?
5. Summary
Provide an overall summary of your business plan. Recap the aims and objectives of your business plan and how you are able to meet those aims and objectives. How well do you think you met the market needs of your target market? How well did you do relative to your competition in your marketplace? How well did your market perform relative to other markets? Provide a reflection on how your strategy changed over the simulation. Please briefly discuss the benefits of conducting a business plan market simulation.
Reference list
Use APA style of referencing for all in-text and final reference list citations.
Appendices
Some important considerations:
Appendices are always supplementary to the main body of work!!!
As such, your report must be able to stand alone without the appendices, and must contain all information including tables, diagrams, and results necessary to understand the problem. The key point to remember when including an appendix is that the information is non-essential; if it were removed, the reader would still be able to comprehend its significance, validity, and implications.
It is appropriate to include appendices for the following reasons:
including this material in the body of the paper that would render it poorly structured or interrupt the narrative flow
the information is too lengthy and detailed to be easily summarized in the body of the paper
the inclusion of helpful, supporting, or useful material would otherwise distract the reader from the main content of the paper
it can be used when there are constraints placed on the length of your paper
provides a place to further demonstrate your understanding of the research problem by giving additional details about a new or innovative method, technical details, or design protocols
Additional points you might want to consider:
never include an appendix that is not referred to in the main body of text. All appendices should be summarized in your paper where they are relevant to the content. Appendices should also be arranged sequentially by the order they were first referenced in the text.
any tables and figures included in the appendix should be numbered in a separate sequence from the main paper
if you have more than three appendices, consider listing them on a separate page in the Table of Contents
an appendix can be a good place to present photographs, diagrams, and other images, if you feel that it will help the reader to understand the content of your paper, while keeping in mind the content should be understood without them.
appendices should not be a dumping ground for information. Do not include vague or irrelevant information!
appendices follow your list of references.
each appendix begins on a new page.
Module Guide
BEMM384
International Business Plan
DUE DATE: 1ST OF SEPEMBER 2023
International Business Plan
Module Credit: 30
ECTS Value: 15
Module description
The International Business Plan Experience is designed as a cap-stone course that will help you to integrate the knowledge that you have gained over the course of terms one and two and apply that knowledge towards a Business Plan model. Building from the foundational and applied knowledge that you have developed over terms one and two from the disciplines of Marketing, Accounting, Management, Leadership/ HRM, Strategic Innovation and International Business, you will be offered the opportunity to write an individual business plan. This project will use an applied, data-driven approach to understanding an international business issue. This practice-based approach will help to equip you with the skills research consultants, and brand managers use in developing international business strategy.
Module aims
This module will take a simulated case study approach to understanding the challenges organisations face when competing in global environments.
You will be required to participate in a market simulation game that will simulate market conditions for the production and distribution of a ‘jet pack’. Specifically:
You will make business decisions regarding product, price, place, and promotion decisions
You will be asked to analyse a market environment, select target markets, focus or specific target markets, react to changing market conditions, and differentiate your product relative to your competitors over a 3-year business period.
Strategic decisions will be made quarterly. Each decision you make in one quarter will impact the strategic direction of your company in later periods.
There will not be an opportunity to retroactively change your decisions, so your participation within each designated time period is critical for business success.
At the end of the simulation period, you will then be required to write up your market strategy into a business plan template, which is provided to you by your course instructors. Your final business plan output must adhere to the template provided. The template will ask you to analyse the overall results of your company and to reflect upon how and why you made the decisions that you did.
The core aim of the module is to simulate the challenges many organisations face when competing in international environments. The aim is not just to understand the problems organisations face, but to action these challenges into clear strategy recommendations that form the substance of a consultancy business plan. You will be challenged to analyse data to gain a better understanding of how to develop an International Business Strategy.
Business Plan versus a Dissertation
We often get asked, “What is the difference between a business plan and a dissertation?” There are a couple of key differences between a business plan and a dissertation.
Sources of Information:
The dissertation is theory driven. A dissertation requires you to use journal articles from academic scholars. In a dissertation we use academic scholarship to help us substantiate our arguments. Every dissertation will have a dedicated literature review section that summarizes scholarship in your field of study.
A business plan is data driven. There is no dedicated literature review section in a business plan. While you will need to integrate theory into your business plan, the emphasis of a business plan is to use and analyse market data. This is generated within the business simulation and contains key insights on industry data, trends and strategy. In a business plan we use data as the basis to help us substantiate our arguments. We will use theory to help us justify the decisions we made.
This does not mean that a business plan is absent of theory. Business plans draw from existing theory that often takes the form of models. For example, the strategist Michael Porter developed a theory known as the 5 forces model. This model looks at the threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products, bargaining power of suppliers, and rivalry amongst existing competitors. Business plan writers often directly incorporate these models directly into business plan strategy as a form of analysis. The difference here is that we are plugging data into the model as opposed to critiquing the value of the model itself.
Data Collection:
A dissertation requires primary data collection. This means you must collect data first-hand through surveys, questionnaires, interviews, field observations, or experiments.
A business plan primarily uses secondary data collection. This means your skills as a researcher are focused on compiling information that has already been collected previously. Now, you can collect primary data in a business plan, but it is not a requirement of this module. All of the data you need will be provided by the business simulation model.
Teaching and Learning Approach
This is an independent piece of in-depth practice-based research. We will however provide you with foundational training on how to write business plans and what is expected. We will follow these formal training sessions with student led open dialogue sessions. These sessions are opportunities for students to discuss the challenges they are facing, what works for them, or any questions that they have on their business plan.
Each individual student will determine the strategic direction of their company within the simulation. You will work individually in segmenting, targeting and positioning the strategic direction of your own business. You will compete in a market environment where the performance of your company will be in competition with four other companies. This will help you determine your sales, market share and profitability.
Some of the core elements that you will be tasked with conducting include:
A situational analysis
An environmental scan
A competitive analysis
A market size, segment and trend analysis
Financial analysis
Strategic recommendations
You will use the Business Planning Template (see the ELE section Business Plan Template Guidance) to structure and complete your plan. The Business Plan Template Guide provides a full description of what should be included within each section.
The module is designed around a 1-week learning programme supported by the Module Convenors (Dr Alex Thompson and Dr Mihaela Bishop). There will be 5 weeks of student-led seminar sessions that will be centred around question-and-answer format.
A discussion forum will be running on the ELE site throughout the duration of the module where you can post questions and receive a response from the module tutors. In Augusts there will be an opportunity to book a one-to-one review meeting with the Module Convenors to discuss your draft plan.
You can work on your plan individually or form remote study groups with other students to share and discuss ideas. However, your final submission must be an original individual piece of work.
This course will provide you with a tangible employability skill set, in the form of business plan analysis and writing, which you can take into the workplace. The business plan acts as a tool in your portfolio where you can show future employers your ability to solve complex business problems. The final report can help you build your employability portfolio by providing future employers of evidence-based work developed within your degree programme.
Module-specific skills
1. critically analyse, discuss and apply theories relevant to international business and present managerial recommendations.
2. develop your own ideas and strategy recommendations and incorporate them into an individualised business plan.
3. critically evaluate and enhance specific business competence in core and optional areas of study.
4. understand the relationship between globalisation, international business and cross-cultural contexts.
Discipline-specific skills
5. critique a business problem, evaluate data and provide strategic recommendations.
6. relate theories to specific case studies, research data and literature bases, and incorporate them into a structured business plan.
7. critically analyse a business problem using both practitioner and academic material.
Personal and key skills
8. assess business practice and research as it relates to the internationalisation strategies of firms.
9. demonstrate time-management skills, self-reflection, initiative, and self-discipline in the context of analysing and writing a significant piece of business research.
10. write about business practice and prepare critiques of those practices and approaches in a manner that is clear, concise and logical.
Assessment – Written Coursework 100%
One Individual Business Plan: 10,000 words
Note: Use the Business Plan Template provided on ELE to complete your plan. You may add additional elements to your plan, but students must incorporate the core elements of the template in order to receive full marks.
A 10% over is in effect for this plan. Bibliography, title page, table of contents, abstract, appendices, tables, and graphs are not included within the word count.
Core Reading
A range of reading is provided on the ELE site (see the Reading List section).
The following is suggested as core reading to support the development of your plan:
Wilkin, C. (2015). FT Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan: How to Win Backing to Start Up or Grow Your Business, Vaughan Evans. Teaching Business & Economics, 17(1), 26.
Indicative Reading (non-exhaustive):
Casadesus-Masanell, R., & Ricart, J. E. (2011). How to design a winning business model. Harvard business review, 89(1/2), 100-107.
Hormozi, A. M., Sutton, G. S., McMinn, R. D., & Lucio, W. (2002). Business plans for new or small businesses: paving the path to success. Management Decision, 40(8), 755-763.
Lasher, W. (2010). The Perfect Business Plan Made Simple: The best guide to writing a plan that will secure financial backing for your business. Broadway Books.
Mullins, J. (2012). The new business road test: What entrepreneurs and executives should do before writing a business plan. Pearson UK.
Sahlman, W. A. (1997). How to write a great business plan. Harvard business review, 75(4), 98-109
Module Guide
BEMM384
International Business Plan
DUE DATE: 1ST OF SEPEMBER 2023
International Business Plan
Module Credit: 30
ECTS Value: 15
Module description
The International Business Plan Experience is designed as a cap-stone course that will help you to integrate the knowledge that you have gained over the course of terms one and two and apply that knowledge towards a Business Plan model. Building from the foundational and applied knowledge that you have developed over terms one and two from the disciplines of Marketing, Accounting, Management, Leadership/ HRM, Strategic Innovation and International Business, you will be offered the opportunity to write an individual business plan. This project will use an applied, data-driven approach to understanding an international business issue. This practice-based approach will help to equip you with the skills research consultants, and brand managers use in developing international business strategy.
Module aims
This module will take a simulated case study approach to understanding the challenges organisations face when competing in global environments.
You will be required to participate in a market simulation game that will simulate market conditions for the production and distribution of a ‘jet pack’. Specifically:
You will make business decisions regarding product, price, place, and promotion decisions
You will be asked to analyse a market environment, select target markets, focus or specific target markets, react to changing market conditions, and differentiate your product relative to your competitors over a 3-year business period.
Strategic decisions will be made quarterly. Each decision you make in one quarter will impact the strategic direction of your company in later periods.
There will not be an opportunity to retroactively change your decisions, so your participation within each designated time period is critical for business success.
At the end of the simulation period, you will then be required to write up your market strategy into a business plan template, which is provided to you by your course instructors. Your final business plan output must adhere to the template provided. The template will ask you to analyse the overall results of your company and to reflect upon how and why you made the decisions that you did.
The core aim of the module is to simulate the challenges many organisations face when competing in international environments. The aim is not just to understand the problems organisations face, but to action these challenges into clear strategy recommendations that form the substance of a consultancy business plan. You will be challenged to analyse data to gain a better understanding of how to develop an International Business Strategy.
Business Plan versus a Dissertation
We often get asked, “What is the difference between a business plan and a dissertation?” There are a couple of key differences between a business plan and a dissertation.
Sources of Information:
The dissertation is theory driven. A dissertation requires you to use journal articles from academic scholars. In a dissertation we use academic scholarship to help us substantiate our arguments. Every dissertation will have a dedicated literature review section that summarizes scholarship in your field of study.
A business plan is data driven. There is no dedicated literature review section in a business plan. While you will need to integrate theory into your business plan, the emphasis of a business plan is to use and analyse market data. This is generated within the business simulation and contains key insights on industry data, trends and strategy. In a business plan we use data as the basis to help us substantiate our arguments. We will use theory to help us justify the decisions we made.
This does not mean that a business plan is absent of theory. Business plans draw from existing theory that often takes the form of models. For example, the strategist Michael Porter developed a theory known as the 5 forces model. This model looks at the threat of new entrants, bargaining power of buyers, threat of substitute products, bargaining power of suppliers, and rivalry amongst existing competitors. Business plan writers often directly incorporate these models directly into business plan strategy as a form of analysis. The difference here is that we are plugging data into the model as opposed to critiquing the value of the model itself.
Data Collection:
A dissertation requires primary data collection. This means you must collect data first-hand through surveys, questionnaires, interviews, field observations, or experiments.
A business plan primarily uses secondary data collection. This means your skills as a researcher are focused on compiling information that has already been collected previously. Now, you can collect primary data in a business plan, but it is not a requirement of this module. All of the data you need will be provided by the business simulation model.
Teaching and Learning Approach
This is an independent piece of in-depth practice-based research. We will however provide you with foundational training on how to write business plans and what is expected. We will follow these formal training sessions with student led open dialogue sessions. These sessions are opportunities for students to discuss the challenges they are facing, what works for them, or any questions that they have on their business plan.
Each individual student will determine the strategic direction of their company within the simulation. You will work individually in segmenting, targeting and positioning the strategic direction of your own business. You will compete in a market environment where the performance of your company will be in competition with four other companies. This will help you determine your sales, market share and profitability.
Some of the core elements that you will be tasked with conducting include:
A situational analysis
An environmental scan
A competitive analysis
A market size, segment and trend analysis
Financial analysis
Strategic recommendations
You will use the Business Planning Template (see the ELE section Business Plan Template Guidance) to structure and complete your plan. The Business Plan Template Guide provides a full description of what should be included within each section.
The module is designed around a 1-week learning programme supported by the Module Convenors (Dr Alex Thompson and Dr Mihaela Bishop). There will be 5 weeks of student-led seminar sessions that will be centred around question-and-answer format.
A discussion forum will be running on the ELE site throughout the duration of the module where you can post questions and receive a response from the module tutors. In Augusts there will be an opportunity to book a one-to-one review meeting with the Module Convenors to discuss your draft plan.
You can work on your plan individually or form remote study groups with other students to share and discuss ideas. However, your final submission must be an original individual piece of work.
This course will provide you with a tangible employability skill set, in the form of business plan analysis and writing, which you can take into the workplace. The business plan acts as a tool in your portfolio where you can show future employers your ability to solve complex business problems. The final report can help you build your employability portfolio by providing future employers of evidence-based work developed within your degree programme.
Module-specific skills
1. critically analyse, discuss and apply theories relevant to international business and present managerial recommendations.
2. develop your own ideas and strategy recommendations and incorporate them into an individualised business plan.
3. critically evaluate and enhance specific business competence in core and optional areas of study.
4. understand the relationship between globalisation, international business and cross-cultural contexts.
Discipline-specific skills
5. critique a business problem, evaluate data and provide strategic recommendations.
6. relate theories to specific case studies, research data and literature bases, and incorporate them into a structured business plan.
7. critically analyse a business problem using both practitioner and academic material.
Personal and key skills
8. assess business practice and research as it relates to the internationalisation strategies of firms.
9. demonstrate time-management skills, self-reflection, initiative, and self-discipline in the context of analysing and writing a significant piece of business research.
10. write about business practice and prepare critiques of those practices and approaches in a manner that is clear, concise and logical.
Assessment – Written Coursework 100%
One Individual Business Plan: 10,000 words
Note: Use the Business Plan Template provided on ELE to complete your plan. You may add additional elements to your plan, but students must incorporate the core elements of the template in order to receive full marks.
A 10% over is in effect for this plan. Bibliography, title page, table of contents, abstract, appendices, tables, and graphs are not included within the word count.
Core Reading
A range of reading is provided on the ELE site (see the Reading List section).
The following is suggested as core reading to support the development of your plan:
Wilkin, C. (2015). FT Essential Guide to Writing a Business Plan: How to Win Backing to Start Up or Grow Your Business, Vaughan Evans. Teaching Business & Economics, 17(1), 26.
Indicative Reading (non-exhaustive):
Casadesus-Masanell, R., & Ricart, J. E. (2011). How to design a winning business model. Harvard business review, 89(1/2), 100-107.
Hormozi, A. M., Sutton, G. S., McMinn, R. D., & Lucio, W. (2002). Business plans for new or small businesses: paving the path to success. Management Decision, 40(8), 755-763.
Lasher, W. (2010). The Perfect Business Plan Made Simple: The best guide to writing a plan that will secure financial backing for your business. Broadway Books.
Mullins, J. (2012). The new business road test: What entrepreneurs and executives should do before writing a business plan. Pearson UK.
Sahlman, W. A. (1997). How to write a great business plan. Harvard business review, 75(4), 98-109
BEMM384
Business Plan Template
Taking the simulation game into a business plan
You may want to approach the writing of your business plan in a way that is not sequential. You will need to think through important issues right at the start and then build around those ideas. For example, you may want to start writing your plan with your target market in mind. Target markets represent the customers that will buy your product. This can be found in section 3.1. Your target market is one of the key considerations that will impact your ability to develop the plan. You want to think how to position your product to your target market early on, simply because they may impact what you want to do. Positioning relates to those macroenvironmental factors in the external environment that will impact your target market’s needs, tastes, wants, and purchasing behaviour. You will want to give special consideration to how you communicate to your target market. Put these ideas at the forefront. Business plan writing is not a linear process. Focus in on those elements to the plan that are essential and then start building your ideas outwardly from there.
General recommendations
Your report should be presented in a professional manner
Use 12-point font for the main body of your text
If a table/graph you wish to include does not fit on a single page, you may reduce the size of your font within the table/graph so that it does so, but do not go below 8 point in size. Do not split tables across pages unless absolutely necessary.
Show an accurate word count at the beginning/end of the report.
A list of references should be provided at the end of the report, presented in accordance with the APA Referencing System. The references in the final Reference List do not contribute towards the final word count.
Appendices are permitted as long as they are referred to in the main body of the report. Each appendix should be on a separate page, numbered and titled. Appendices do not contribute towards the final word count
Report format
The report must contain all of the following elements
Cover page
Table of contents
Executive summary
Company background
1.1 Vision statement
Marketing environment
2.1 Micro environment
2.2 Macro environment
2.3 SWOT analysis
Segmentation, targeting and Positioning
3.1 Target market
3.1.1 Demographic characteristics
3.1.2 Psychographic characteristics
3.1.3 Benefits sought
3.1.4 Usage rate
3.1.5 Geographic location
3.2 Product characteristics
3.2.1 Brand Name and Product Name
3.2.2 Features and Benefits
3.2.3 Points of Differentiation
3.2.4 Positioning and Perceptual Map
3.2.5 Communication
Financial considerations
4.1 Price strategy and competitive positioning
4.1.1 General Pricing Strategy
4.1.2 Comparative Pricing Strategy
Summary
Reference list
Appendix
Report detailed guidelines
Cover page
Title of your project
Table of Contents
A listing of the contents of your document (if needed, you can find information about how to create a table of contents here and here).
Executive Summary
The executive summary is similar to an extended abstract. The purpose of the executive summary is to provide the reader with an overview of all of the key findings of your report. Imagine that you were pitching your idea to a divisional manager, or a head of division, or perhaps a venture capitalist you are trying to recruit to invest in your business idea. The executive summary is used to grab their attention and provide an overview to your work, your idea and the justification of your strategic plan.
Typically, an Executive summary is something that we write last in our business plan. The rationale here is that it is a summary of everything that we have done in the business plan. The key points that you might want to highlight within the executive summary include, but is not limited to:
What are the aims and objectives of this report? (This is an absolute key point to identify in your report. What are you trying to achieve?). The aims and objectives provide the key thread from which you will base your entire business plan report.
What is the product (what product lined did you choose)?
What opportunity does it offer to the company?
Who is the target market? (This is another key variable that you must think through early on in your business plan analysis. Sometimes companies think in terms of what they can best offer the market, which is a very inward and antiquated way of looking at things. Good strategic business executives think of things in terms of their target market. They put needs and wants of their target market at the forefront of everything they do and then they figure out ways to create value for that target market in ways that creates customer satisfaction. It is reasonable to assume that total sales in your simulation equates to customer satisfaction).
What opportunity does it offer to your target market? Alternatively, what problem does it solve for your target market?
What retail markets did you service with your product?
How well did your company do financially? What was the overall profitability of your company? What was your market share? How well did you do relative to your competitors? How well did your market do relative to other markets?
The executive summary is an overview of what you are going to write in your business plan. Think of it as an introduction that contains all of the key points of your business plan (in summary form). Use this section as a guide to orientate your reader. The details are found within the written report. For the writer, we use the executive summary to help you ensure you are clear on the path and direction of your product. For the reader, the executive summary provides an overview of key points. It is not uncommon for an executive reading your business plan to form an immediate opinion on your product/ service idea after having read your executive summary. Use it an opportunity to raise awareness and interest
1. Company Background
Vision Statement
Questions to answer: What is the vision statement of the company? What is your interpretation of this vision? What was the motivation behind your vision? What goals did you set for your company? Did the final results of your plan achieve the goals of your vision statement?
2. The Marketing Environment – Environmental Scanning
The marketing environment consists of factors that are both internal and external to an organization that impact will impact the product/ service that you are looking at. Internal factors are known as the micro environment, which consists of actors that are within your firm’s immediate operating environment; it includes the company suppliers, marketing intermediaries and its competitors. The macro environment consists of external marketplace factors that impact both an organization and its customers. More specifically, the macro environment consists of the political, economic, socio-cultural, technological, ecological, and legal forces that shape our external environment. Both the micro environment and the macro environment are in a constant state of change.
Environmental scanning is the process through which you will collect and analyze environmental variables and action this data into marketing strategy. The importance of environmental scanning is anticipating those variables (in both the micro and macro environment) that might impact your company/ product/ service. Environmental scanning takes both a micro and macro perspective on the environment by trying to understand how changes in the environment might impact your product/ service. The process of environmental scanning is seen as a key process in an organization’s ability to adapt to change in its external environment.
For example, suppose a legal firm was interested in commissioning a study on the future of legal services. An environmental scan would be a key element in that analysis. It would highlight a fundamental shift in the ways in which consumers consume legal services. These changes are driven by both internal and external factors associated with an environmental analysis. External factors in the technological environment would highlight the rise of chatbots or robo-advisors that can give automated, standardized legal advice at low costs. This emphasis on technology will lead to increasingly scripted interactions with customers for basic legal needs and the development of more ‘customised’ interactions with the use of artificial intelligence that require little to no human interaction. An environmental scan would also highlight social changes where customers want access to legal information outside of traditional business hours and a preference for web-based service interactions. Internal factors in the environment would highlight the proliferation of global web-based legal companies offering legal advice in markets across the globe, which creates new competitive pressures for legal firms. All of this information would be collected through the environmental scanning process and incorporated in marketing strategy.
There are two key perspectives you want to take in this section:
One perspective is that of the company/ product/ service that you are looking at. How do the micro and macro factors affect your business plan analysis? This would be particularly relevant in the micro environment.
The second perspective is that of your target market. This will be particularly relevant in your macro-environment analysis. How does the macro environment affect your company and your target market?
2.1 Microenvironment
2.1.1 Suppliers and Manufacturing
From a company perspective what suppliers are part of your network in delivering your product to your target market? Suppliers provide companies with the resources and raw materials needed to produce goods and services. Suppliers often drive efficiency in the supply chain through the specialization and division of labour. They help to bring costs down. In this simulation you are a vertically integrated company, which means that you procure all outside materials, transform those raw materials into finished goods, and distribute them. You will make decisions on the type of jet pack you want to manufacture, how many units you will hold in warehouses and how you will distribute those goods, which takes into consideration different times of year and changing marketing conditions.
Uncertainty in the market can cause prices to rise (or in the case of petroleum/ oil currently fall due to lack of demand). During difficult times, such as recovery from recession, major companies often have to work to repair or maintain their internal supply chain.
Questions to answer: How did the cost of goods impact your overall profitability during the simulation? What decisions did you make to control the cost of goods? How did your warehousing costs impact your overall profitability over the course of the simulation? How did external shocks in the market impact your cost of goods?
2.1.2 Marketing Intermediaries
Intermediaries help companies to promote, sell and distribute its products to your target market. Intermediaries might include resellers, physical distribution firms- retailers, marketing service agencies, and financial service agencies.
Questions to answer: What intermediaries did you use? How effective were these intermediaries in helping you reach your target market? How did you your use of intermediaries change over the simulation?
2.1.3 Competitors
In order for your product/ service to be successful in the marketplace, a company must provide greater value and customer satisfaction than competitors in the marketplace.
Questions to answer: Who are the key competitors in your marketplace (maybe all 4 competitors in your market were competitive or maybe there were only 1 or 2)? How big are they relative to your market position? How well did you perform relative to your competitors? How successful was your performance relative to your competitors over the three-year period?
You will want to consider your competitors marketshare, resources, number of units sold, profitability, brand awareness, price points, similarities in target markets. How competitive was the market (i.e., degree of competitive rivalry; i.e. did one competitor dominate over the three year period or was there changes over the duration of the simulation)?
2.2 Macroenvironment
Studying the macroenvironment is also known as a PESTEL analysis. We are looking at how the external environment influences the company/ product/ service you are developing. As you go through the macroenvironment, some sections will be more important than others. It is ok if you feel that some of the sections to the macroenvironment more strongly effect your company than others. Simply state that in your analysis.
2.2.1 Political Factors
The political environment refers to governmental policy and its impact on an organization or an industry. It includes tax and fiscal policy, legislative structures, employment legislation, governmental orientation and type. The political environment also extends to broader forces in the external environment which exert influence on governmental policy and decision making. Political lobbyist and special interest groups might try and exert pressure on governments in the hopes of influencing policy before it becomes law.
Questions to answer: What political factors were most important to the performance of your company? How did they impact your market strategy? What impact does the political environment have on your target market (theoretically and practically)? How did you take into account the political environment?
2.2.2 Economic Factors
The economic environment refers to those factors within an economy/ marketplace that affect consumer purchasing power and consumer spending patterns. Marketers track the amount of consumer debt households take on as it will affect future purchase patterns. Economic factors include information that is particular to your industry. Clearly one of the biggest economic factors that is affecting the current global economy is inflation. While this has been detrimental to most industries (restaurants/ bars, movie theatres, streaming services; amusement parks), it has been a big boost to others. Fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), such as Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Nestle, etc. have been recording record profits. Oil, Gas and Energy Companies have seen record profitability during this inflationary period.
Questions to answer: What economic factors impacted your market strategy? What impact does the economic environment have on your target market (theoretically and practically)? How has your target market been impacted by economic factors? How did you take into account the economic environment?
2.2.3 Socio-Cultural Factors
Socio-cultural factors in the external environment deal directly with the characteristics of your target market. This part of your analysis will take into consideration two core areas- lifestyle factors and demographics. The data you will collect here is aggregate data- overall population trends. We will get into more specific data in section 4 to your business plan.
Lifestyles of consumers and our target markets are constantly changing. Think about how COVID-19 changed the way that we interact. This change happened overnight. Other changes happen more slowly and take time to develop. For example, the demand for product and services 24/7 (i.e., 24 hours a day 7 days a week) was really born out of changes in technology and irregular working patterns that go outside Monday through Friday work schedules. Because technology enabled us to shop, bank, work, interact together outside of traditional business hours, we see lifestyle shifts in what consumers want from companies and how they interact with them.
Demographic factors are quantifiable characteristics associated with the markets that we want to compete within. Here we are looking at aggregate data where size can be measure in terms of age, income, location, gender, occupation, and education levels.
Questions to answer: What lifestyle factors influence your target market? What are the characteristics associated with your demographic target market (age, income, location, gender, occupation, and education levels)? What impact does the socio-cultural environment have on your target market (theoretically and practically)? How did you take into account the socio-cultural environment?
2.2.4 Technological Factors
The technological environment consists of the innovative technologies that foster service, product, and process innovations, as well as a firm’s ability to respond to these changes. The technological environment represents one of the most transformative forces in the external environment. It has the ability to dramatically shift the ways that marketers manage their product and service offerings as well as influence the ways in which consumers interact and consume product and services. We can see the impact that product technology has had in the automotive sector with the rise of the electric automobile. In travel, we have seen how digital technologies have led to service innovation with Expedia and Travelocity replacing the need for human travel agents. Uber has led process innovations that have fundamentally shifted car ownership and travel. The ability to forecast, integrate and action information from the technological environment represents a key variable in strategy formulation.
Questions to answer: What technological factors impacted your market strategy? What impact does technology have on your target market (theoretically and practically)? How did you account for the technological environment?
2.2.5 Ecological Factors
The ecological environment refers to the natural resources required to develop and sustain marketing activities, those natural resources that are affected by marketing activities, and the stewardship associated with protecting those resources. Here I want you to think through issues regarding sustainability. Sustainability might come in the form of renewable energies, recyclable material or environmental pollution. Consumers across the work are becoming more and more environmentally aware. The ability to deliver products and services that are seen as sustainable have become a key form of competitive advantage in the marketplace.
Questions to answer: What role did sustainability play in your market strategy? What impact does sustainability have on your target market (theoretically and practically)? How did you account for sustainability in your market strategy?
2.2.6 Legal Factors
The legal environment are the laws and regulations that govern marketing practice. It is used to promote economic commerce, protect the development of new technologies, promote fair competition, and also provide consumer protections for the society as a whole. Legal factors effectively regulate economies, ways of doing business, and the way in which people behave within societies. Given the fact that multi-national companies compete in many different countries, a challenge for marketers is that companies must adhere to the legal environment in countries with widening different rules and regulations. While there are no universal laws that business can use to navigate the complexity of different legal systems, most countries and trading zones create degrees of standardization when it comes to human rights laws, product safety, transparency in packaging, labelling, and pricing.
Questions to answer: What were the legal factors you had to consider when developing your jet pack? What impact does the legal environment have on your target market (theoretically and practically)?
2.3 SWOT Analysis
A key element to any environmental analysis contains what is known as a situational analysis or SWOT analysis. Here you will highlight what are the overall Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats facing the launch you’re your new product/ service. This section can be brief (i.e., 500 words or less) and can be presented as a series of numerical bullet points. If you are pressed for word count, you can put this in a table that does not count against your word count.
2.3.1 Strengths
Strengths are internal to your company. They are the internal capabilities that may help your company achieve the aims and objectives that you have set forth in this business plan.
2.3.2 Weaknesses
Weaknesses are internal to your company. Internal limitations that may interfere with your company’s ability to achieve the aims and objectives you have set forth in this business plan.
2.3.3 Opportunities
External factors that your company to exploited to its advantage during the simulation. This is really a brief justification to your strategy and the evolving market opportunities during the simulation.
2.3.4 Threats
Current and emerging external factors that may challenge your company’s performance. You can draw from your micro and macro environmental analysis here as well as from your competitive analysis.
3. Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Target Markets, Market Size, Segmentation Strategy, and Market Opportunities, Product/ Service Characteristics, Positioning Strategy.
3.1 Target Market Business to Consumer Markets
In this section we are looking for you to identify the specific target market(s) that you identified in the simulation. Who are they? What were their market needs and preferences? What is the size of your target market?
3.1.1 Demographic characteristics
Age, income, gender, educational levels, ethnicity.
Questions to answer: What were the demographic characteristics of your target market? Why did you target this demographic segment? Why not other segments (i.e., how does this link to the vision statement)? Did your demographic segmentation strategy change during the course of the simulation? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of demographic segmentation (theoretically and practically)?
3.1.2 Psychographic characteristics
Personality, motives, lifestyle.
Questions to answer: What were the psychographic characteristics of your target market? Why did you target this psychographic segment? Why not other segments (i.e., how does this link to the vision statement)? Did your psychographic segmentation strategy change during the course of the simulation? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of psychographic segmentation (theoretically and practically)?
3.1.3 Benefits sought
According to the benefits that customers seek.
Questions to answer: What were the benefits sought of your target market? Why did you target this benefit sought segment? Why not other segments (i.e. how does this link to the vision statement)? Did your benefits sought segmentation strategy change during the course of the simulation? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of benefits sought segmentation (theoretically and practically)?
3.1.4 Usage rate
Some companies segment the market based on usage- high volume, frequency of use buyers.
Questions to answer: What were the usage rate characteristics of your target market? Why did you target this usage rate segment? Why not other segments (i.e. how does this link to the vision statement)? Did your usage rate segmentation strategy change during the course of the simulation? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of usage rate segmentation (theoretically and practically)?
3.1.5 Geographic location
Country, city size, climate, proximity.
Obviously, the geographic segmentation strategy is fixed within the simulation. You do however need to make geographic choices around retail distribution. Drawing from section 2.1.2 answer the following questions:
Questions to answer: What retail distribution outlets were most desired by your target market? Why did you choose those outlets? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach would be more effective?
3.2 Product Characteristics
In this section we want you to spend some time discussing the product characteristics of your jet pack. How did the feature of your product meet the market needs and preferences of your target market(s)? How did your product change over the 3-year period of the simulation? Did you introduce new products to new markets (i.e., diversification) during the course of the simulation?
This section really gets at the heart of the aims and objectives of the business plan project, which are articulated within the executive summary section at the start. This an opportunity to fully articulate the aims and objectives of your work. Your aim here is to articulate how you meet the needs of your target market and how you will build competitive advantage in the marketplace.
As part of this section, you will want to consider the following information:
3.2.1 Brand Name and Product Name
Questions to answer: What is the name of your product? What were the defining features of your jet pack offering? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of branding?
3.2.2 Features and Benefits
When you think about your product innovation, what are the characteristics of the product? Think of these characteristics in terms of the benefits that they offer customers. Alternatively, what problems do they solve for customers? We want to start by taking a customer centric view here. This means focusing your arguments upon what customers want from the market. You should follow by integrating a company-based perspective here – what do we think, as a company, that the market wants. This is a subtle but important difference. Customers will often tell you want based upon what the market already offers. As a company, our job is to anticipate market trends and what customers will want in the future. Here we can draw from data from our environmental scan, or other areas of your data collection, and highlight what we think that they will want- especially in cases where we have a new product.
Questions to answer: What are the characteristics of the product? What problems did you solve for customers? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of features and benefits in international business strategy?
3.2.3 Points of Differentiation
Questions to answer: What is the unique selling proposition of your product? How is it different from competitor products in your market? Why would customers choose your product/ service over a competitor? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? Why is differentiation an important strategy in international business?
3.2.4 Positioning and Perceptual Map
Positioning is the place that a product/ service/ brand occupies in a consumer’s mind, relative to competitors. An assumption that is made in positioning is that consumers will compare competing offerings based on these positions and choose the offering that best meets their needs. Marketers in turn, try and emphasise those variables that most relevant to consumer’s choice criteria.
Perceptual mapping is the process of displaying two attributes associated with the product/ service from the perspective of the consumer. In order to accurately develop a perceptual map for your business plan you will need to have a clear understanding of the needs of your target market identified in sections 3.1 or 3.2.
When developing your perceptual map, you might want to consider the following variables listed below. You are only required to develop one perceptual map, but some students may find it is beneficial to develop more than one.
Attribute: A product/ service feature that is built into your offering. This might be perceived level of brand differentiation or brand identity attributes.
Price and Quality: This variable may emphasise a higher price as a designator of quality or lower price as an indicator of value.
Use or Application: What need does your product/ service fulfil within the marketplace based on consumer perception? This is most likely to be the benefit that the customer receives when consuming your product/ service.
End User: Positioning a product based on the psychographic characteristics of the end user. This might be based on degrees of luxury, quality or affordability.
Product Class: Positioning a product/ service as being associated with a particular category of offering. A clothing retailer might use positioning variables around loungewear, casual wear or professional.
I took this random perceptual map from the internet: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/668714244648590778/ “Pocket friendly means affordable”
This perceptual map highlights price on the Y axis and use/ application on the X axis. I don’t expect a high level of sophistication in your perceptual map when incorporating it into your business plan.
The rationale for incorporating it is another cross check in the business plan to ensure that we know where our product offering is relative to our competitors. It helps us to visually articulate how saturated/ competitive certain quadrants on the map are.
Questions to answer: Create a perceptual map(s). What attributes does your map feature? How is your company positioned relative to the 4 competitors in your marketplace? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective? What is the importance of perceptual mapping?
3.2.5 Communication
Building upon points 3.1.1, 3.1.2 and 3.1.3, what message will you communicate to your target audience? How will you communicate this message (will use television, radio, social media, personal sales force, print advertising)? In consumer markets we tend to use social media, print, radio, and TV. In consumer markets you also need to think about point of purchase – if your product is sold in a mass market shop or an exclusive retailer, are there special considerations you need to give in order to ensure that your product stands out?
Questions to answer: What communication mediums did you use? What impact did these mediums have upon your sales during the three years of the simulation? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective?
4. Financial Considerations
In the financial considerations section, you should consider what your financial position looked like of the course of the 3 year simulation and what you final financial position looked like. The objective here is for you to consider the market point of entry, which would be year zero and then how you grew your market and financial position over time. For each of the subsections below indicate what your financial position in year one, two and three.
Questions to answer: Highlight your financial performance across these 9 variables in year one, two and three. You should have a fourth column which provides a net summary of your overall performance (i.e., the cumulative of all three years combine).
Total Equity: total accumulated equity of shareholders by year and overall summary.
Net Income: total net income by year and overall summary.
Market Share: your percentage of the market by year and overall summary.
Sales: sales revenue by year, by product and overall summary.
Revenue: total revenue earned across all products by year and overall summary.
Gross Profit Margin: the margin of gross profit to sales by year and overall summary.
Net Profit Margin: the margin of net income to sales by year and overall summary.
Research and Development (R&D) value: present value of accumulated R&D spend by year and overall summary.
Units produced: how many units did you produce by product, by year and overall summary.
Further Questions to answer:
Within each of the 9 variables, provide a brief discussion of your overall business performance. As part of this discussion, you should also include how you did relative to your competitors.
4.1 Price Strategy and Competitive Position
4.1.1 General Pricing Strategy
Price is often an indicator of quality. In some cases, we use pricing as a strategy to indicate luxury and exclusivity. Here we would charge a high price. In other situations, we use price as an indicator of value. Here we would use a lower price to communicate value to the market.
Questions to answer: Discuss what your general price strategy in the simulation. How did your general price strategy fit with the market needs of your target market? What was your price relative to your competitors? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective?
4.1.2 Profit Maximization Strategy
Here we are using a pricing objective where we charge a price that is as high as the market can bear. This does not mean we are charging an unreasonable price; it just means that we are offering something to the market that is unique and we can set a higher price to justify the extra service, technology, or quality that we are offering in our product/ service.
Questions to answer: Describe the relationship between your pricing objectives and your overall profitability. How did your profit maximization strategy change over the course of the 3 years of the simulation? How was your profitability relative to your competitors? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective?
4.1.3 Market Share Pricing
The objective with market share pricing is to set prices lower than that of the competition in order to gain market share. Market share represents your sales % of the market relative to your competition. We use market share pricing when we want to capture market share, which will build sales volume into our product/ service lines. This in turn helps us to lower our costs, due to economies of scale, and increase sales revenue. As costs go down and sales go up, profits increase.
Questions to answer: Describe the relationship between your pricing objectives and your overall marketshare. How did your strategy change over the course of the 3 years of the simulation? How was your marketshare relative to your competitors. What impact did your marketshare have on your cost structure? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective?
4.1.4 Comparative Pricing Strategy
Go back to section 2.1.3 on Competitors. In crowded markets with lots of competition you will see competitors competing on relatively the same price. When one competitor lowers the price, we often follow that strategy, which is known as a status quo pricing objective. The objective for this section is to provide a justification for your pricing objectives relative to your competition.
Questions to answer: How does your pricing strategy fit relative to your competitors? How effective was your strategy? Do you think another approach might have been more effective?
5. Summary
Provide an overall summary of your business plan. Recap the aims and objectives of your business plan and how you are able to meet those aims and objectives. How well do you think you met the market needs of your target market? How well did you do relative to your competition in your marketplace? How well did your market perform relative to other markets? Provide a reflection on how your strategy changed over the simulation. Please briefly discuss the benefits of conducting a business plan market simulation.
Reference list
Use APA style of referencing for all in-text and final reference list citations.
Appendices
Some important considerations:
Appendices are always supplementary to the main body of work!!!
As such, your report must be able to stand alone without the appendices, and must contain all information including tables, diagrams, and results necessary to understand the problem. The key point to remember when including an appendix is that the information is non-essential; if it were removed, the reader would still be able to comprehend its significance, validity, and implications.
It is appropriate to include appendices for the following reasons:
including this material in the body of the paper that would render it poorly structured or interrupt the narrative flow
the information is too lengthy and detailed to be easily summarized in the body of the paper
the inclusion of helpful, supporting, or useful material would otherwise distract the reader from the main content of the paper
it can be used when there are constraints placed on the length of your paper
provides a place to further demonstrate your understanding of the research problem by giving additional details about a new or innovative method, technical details, or design protocols
Additional points you might want to consider:
never include an appendix that is not referred to in the main body of text. All appendices should be summarized in your paper where they are relevant to the content. Appendices should also be arranged sequentially by the order they were first referenced in the text.
any tables and figures included in the appendix should be numbered in a separate sequence from the main paper
if you have more than three appendices, consider listing them on a separate page in the Table of Contents
an appendix can be a good place to present photographs, diagrams, and other images, if you feel that it will help the reader to understand the content of your paper, while keeping in mind the content should be understood without them.
appendices should not be a dumping ground for information. Do not include vague or irrelevant information!
appendices follow your list of references.
each appendix begins on a new page.
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