PLEASE FOLLOW THESE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY. Your written submission is due no later than 8 am on Tuesday, Oct 13. Late submissions will not be accepted. Note the separate Bb posting under “Weekly Class Modules / Week 7” for the discussion questions which should guide your analysis of this case.
Prepare your analysis as a Word document and submit it as an email attachment. Please name your file as “yourname-sectionX.doc” where the 8 am class is section 1 and the 9:30 am class is section 2. At the top of the first page, please include your name and course section number. Your submission should be no longer than seven single-spaced pages in a Times New Roman font size of 11 (as used in these instructions) and using one inch margins; please note that I stop reading at the bottom of page seven. One of the seven pages should be used for exhibits only; do not use that last page for anything other than exhibits including the break-even analysis as instructed below. Please use the first six bulleted titles in italics below as headings and structure your report accordingly. For S,W,O & T, please use point form, but complete thoughts; DO NOT organize your SWOT into a two by two grid. Writing mechanics will be graded. The grade allocation is as follows.
Problem statement & performance objectives /5%
Strengths /10%
Weaknesses /10%
Opportunities /10%
Threats /10%
Recommended marketing strategy /30%
Your marketing strategy should include, at a minimum, the following.
· a full description of your target market for Caesan [target segment profile]
· marketing mix including:
o product [brand strategy, positioning statement and positioning strategy); (two bonus points for designing packaging that includes a brand logo – include as an exhibit)]
o promotion [include the promotion mix and budget allocation by mix element, advertising media and budget allocation by medium (information on page 6 and exhibit 6 will be very useful); and for the advertising element of your promotion mix include an explanation of your appeal, message, and a slogan]
o price [pricing strategy(ies) and actual MSRP and wholesale prices]; and
o distribution [types of retail outlets].
Use headings for target market, product, promotion, pricing, and distribution; and sub-headings as appropriate. Include a rationale (justification; explain why) for each recommendation in your marketing strategy. You must convince me that your strategy is viable. Recall the definition of critical thinking from the syllabus.
Application of marketing concepts [italicize concepts as done in the Nintendo example and check the explanation of application of concepts from the strategy review class slides] /15%
Financial analysis /10%
Use the last page of your report to do and present a breakeven analysis calculating the number of units of the new cheese they must sell to break even on the two year budget of fixed costs outlined in exhibit 6. Show all your calculations so that I can give part marks if incomplete.
Again, make sure that you use the discussion questions posted on Bb to guide your analysis.
Discussion questions:
A good deal of your work here has been done by Deirdra Kelly who has proposed a partial marketing strategy for the Jameson Irish Whiskey Artisan Cheddar launch including a brand strategy, packaging, some positioning elements (but no positioning statement or strategy), MSRP and wholesale pricing, a promotion mix including budgets for advertising and various forms of sales promotion, and a channel strategy. In your completely recommended marketing strategy, you may adopt as many of Kelly's suggestions as you think appropriate but you must explain and justify each decision. Recommend any changes you feel appropriate but back up or justify all your recommendations. Make sure that your marketing strategy includes a full target market profile, positioning statement and positioning strategy, packaging and branding strategy, pricing strategy as well as MSRP and wholesale prices, promotion mix including budget allocation across the different elements of your promotion mix and advertising media, and message strategy (appeal, slogan, and brief description of ad content). For digital and social media, briefly describe which platforms you would use and why.
Prepare a break even analysis of the Jameson Irish Whiskey artisan cheddar in units assuming two years of sales and fixed costs as outlined in case exhibit 6. Note that "factory equipment" would usually be treated as a capital investment rather than a fixed cost, but go ahead and assume all those costs in exhibit 6 are fixed costs. For variable costs, use the COGS for the "proposed artisan" in exhibit 3 and the CSP and TP variable costs as well as PR-U royalty mentioned on page 6. For pricing, note the wholesale price to retailers and wholesale-distributor margin on page 6 as well. That wholesale margin (20%) is what is used to calculate the COGS - distribution in exhibit 3. Do you think Caesan can reach the break even sales for the new cheese? Why or why not?