Principles of marketing/PMKT102/Assignment

Level 5 / 1st year University course assessment

Summary:	Demonstrate your understanding of market research and customer insights.
	3 hours

Assessed learning outcome: Apply marketing concepts and processes to research and develop a value proposition for a product or service taking into account customer behaviour, motivation, needs and preferences for the product life cycle.

Note:

1. If you are completing this course for formal credit, you must complete and submit this assessment.
2. You will need to retain a copy of this assessment, along with the assessment from PMKT101, for reference in the assessment for PMKY103 for candidates planning to take all three micro-courses for Principles of Marketing.

Part A: Prepare a market research report for a product or service (85%)

Select a product or service. If you have already completed Core foundations of successful marketing (PMKT101) you should use the same product you used for the assessment.

Prepare a marketing research report for the company directors.

Your report should contain the following:

1. Introduction: Include a description of the product and business.
2. Customer behaviour and motivation: Assess customer behaviour for this product, their decision-making process, and what marketing channels would be used (B2B, B2C or both) to reach customers, in facilitating them to buy this product.
3. Customer needs and preferences: Explain how you would conduct market research, on one (1) of the target markets that you previously identified for this product. Use the 4Ps to organise your research focus.
4. Value propositions for a product life cycle: Examine how the value proposition changes throughout each product life cycle (PLC) stage for the target market previously identified.
5. Conclusions and Recommendations: Having undertaken the market research what are your conclusions, and what will you recommend to the company directors?
6. Bibliography (Use the APA reference style).

2500 words maximum.

Part B: PMKT102 assessment reflection (15%)

1. Review your answer in Part A above of this assessment.
2. Describe the two most important things that you learnt from completing the assessment?
   • Think about WHAT you have learned but also HOW you learned it.
   • How did this new knowledge integrate with previous knowledge and experience, i.e. how does theory relate to practice?
3. Identify two changes you would like to make given more time and explain how each suggested change improves your original version.

500 words maximum.

Support resources

If you are completing a learning reflection for the first time, you should consult the following resources from the Digital skills for online learning micro-course which forms part of the OERu's Learning in a Digital Age course.

How to prepare a learning reflection

1. Purpose and stimulus resources
2. Tasks
3. Outputs

Marking Rubric

Use the rubric below to give yourself an idea of how well you have completed the assessment.

This is the same rubric that will be used to mark your assessment if you choose to be formally assessed.

Part A: Prepare a marketing report for a product or service (85%)

Criteria	C	B	A	Weighting
Purpose and objective(s)	The purpose and objective of the report are vague, and the report does not adequately addresses the objective(s).	The purpose and objective of the report are clear, and the report addresses the objective(s).	The purpose and objective of the report are clear, and the report addresses the objective(s) in a focused and logical manner.	10%
Discussion: Customer behaviour and motivation	Aspects of the customer behaviour for this product, their decision-making process, and marketing channels to be used (B2B, B2C or both) to reach customers were missing or not fully explained. Discussion provides some justification and explanation but is lacking in supporting references.	The customer behaviour for this product, their decision-making process, and marketing channels to be used (B2B, B2C or both) to reach customers were explained but lacked clarity. Discussion provides justification and explanation with some supporting references.	The customer behaviour for this product, their decision-making process, and marketing channels to be used (B2B, B2C or both) to reach customers were clearly and fully explained. Discussion provides justification and explanation, and is clear and logical with adequate supporting references.	20%
Discussion: Customer needs and preferences	Research methodology is muddled. Some aspects of the 4Ps are missing. Discussion provides some justification and explanation but is lacking in supporting references.	Research methodology is outlined but lacks clarity in places. All aspects of the 4Ps are included. Discussion provides justification and explanation with some supporting references.	Research methodology is clearly outlined. All aspects of the 4Ps are included. Discussion provides justification and explanation, and is clear and logical with adequate supporting references.	20%
Discussion: Value propositions for a product life cycle	All four stages have not been considered for the product. Discussion provides some justification and explanation but is lacking in supporting references.	The four stages have been considered for the product, but explanation is sometimes muddled. Discussion provides justification and explanation with some supporting references.	The four stages have been clearly considered for the product. Discussion provides justification and explanation, and is clear and logical with adequate supporting references.	20%
Conclusions and recommendations	Conclusions are relevant and portray most of the key points of the document. Recommendations are specific action-oriented suggestions, oriented to the business being discussed. Conclusions/Recommendations flow logically from the document but the logic may not always be clear. Presentation lacks clarity and format is muddled.	Conclusions are relevant and portray the key points of the document. Recommendations are specific action-oriented suggestions, oriented to the business being discussed. Conclusions/Recommendations flow logically from the document but the logic may not always be clear. They are presented in a clear, itemised format.	Conclusions are relevant and accurately portray the key points of the document. Recommendations are specific action-oriented suggestions, oriented to the business being discussed, and organised in a relevant manner. Conclusions/recommendations flow logically from the document in a manner which is evident to the reader. They are presented in a clear, itemised format.	20%
Clarity and technical presentation Format, spelling, grammar etc.	Report presentation is unclear, many grammatical and spelling errors. Referencing does not comply with the APA style.	Adequate report presentation, some grammatical and spelling errors. All references are included in the reference list with only a few APA style errors.	Very clear report presentation, accurate grammar and spelling. Correct implementation of the APA reference style.	10%

Part B: Learning challenge reflection (15%)

Criteria	C	B	A	Weighting
Reflective thinking	The reflection attempts to demonstrate thinking about learning but is vague and/or unclear about the personal learning process.	The reflection explains the learner's thinking about his/her own learning processes.	The reflection explains the learner's own thinking and learning processes, as well as implications for future learning.	20%
Analysis	The reflection attempts to analyze the learners own experience but the value of the learning to the student is vague and/or unclear.	The reflection is an analysis of the learning experience and the value of the derived learning to self and others.	The reflection is an in-depth analysis of the learning experience, the value of the derived learning to self and others, and the enhancement of the learner’s appreciation for the discipline.	50%
Making connections	The reflection attempts to articulate connections between this learning experience and course content, but the connection is vague and/or unclear.	The reflection articulates connections between this learning experience and content from this and other courses, past learning experiences citing a few examples.	The reflection articulates multiple connections between this learning experience and content from this and other courses, past learning, life experiences and future goals citing multiple examples.	30%