This is a case study about two different organisation or firms and analysing there marketing competing techniques
Word limit: No more than 1500 words (plus or minus 10%). Assignments that exceed
2000 words will be referred back to the author for revision and penalties for
late submission will be applied until the assignment has been resubmitted
within the specified word limit.
Aim: The primary aim of this assignment is to explore your capacity to analyse the marketing
strategies and marketing processes of real organisations and determine their effectiveness. It also
aims to determine your ability to analyse such practical matters using early concepts (such as
marketing intelligence, market segmentation and target marketing to name a few examples) covered
in the formative weeks of the unit.
Core Task:
Basing your arguments on the academic literature that you have studied in the first six topics of this
unit, write a report on the ways two different organisations have been able to compete in their
markets. Your report should discuss the following points about each of the two organisations:
1. Evidence that the organisation has a gain a competitive advantage from their marketing
processes.
2. Theoretical analysis of the reasons for the achievement of this advantage.
Your discussion is to be based on two suitable published case studies. This means case studies
published in the academic literature – for example, the series of case studies in a textbook, or
published in journals etc. Case studies and short articles in newspapers, magazines, website opinion
pages and the like are definitely not acceptable, although such materials may be used to supplement
the published case study and your analysis. All sources must be properly referenced. If in any doubt
about the suitability of a case study, seek an early ruling from your tutor.
This is a substantial piece of scholarly work and will require extensive engagement with both unit
theory and at least two detailed case studies.
Process:
1. Choose your two cases. They all need to be published cases in academic sources (e.g.
textbooks, journal articles). It is obviously important that each case represents an instance of
a company achieving a clear success in terms of their marketing function.
2. Analyse and locate evidence. Begin to analyse each case in terms of the two questions –
particularly question one listed previous. It is vital that you respond to both questions, but
the evidence successful marketing practice is more likely to be in the case material itself. It is
in this part of the process that you might bring in supplemental material from company
documents/websites, media analysis and so on. Be sure to reference all sources properly.
You need to try and show clear and where possible objective evidence of sustained
competitive advantage.
3. Analyse and explain. You need to move from the presentation of evidence to explaining how
the company/organisation was able to achieve its success through its strategies. This part of
the assignment requires you to consider any aspect of the marketing strategy process and/or
any aspect of the organisations’ marketing-based strategising that you think has enabled
them to sustain their competitive advantage. You will need to show that you understand
relevant theories and concepts from the course and that you can apply them to an analysis
and assessment of different companies’ marketing actions and performance. Consider using
relevant models and theoretical perspectives to make your analysis. For example, you might
find that one successful organisation has executed its marketing strategy by applying Ansoff’s
Matrix in a disciplined manner, whereas another successful organisation has executed a
successful marketing strategy by consistently exploiting some interesting form of customer
segmentation. You may find an opportunity to critique various concepts and theoretical
positions through seeing how they apply or don’t apply to your case organisations. Evidence
that you understand and can use tools discussed in the early topics of the unit will add value.
4. Write up. On completing your analysis, you obviously need to write it up. You should respond
to this task in report format, with headings and subheadings used to help readers understand
the structure of your paper. A possible structure might be:
a. An introduction which both sets up the task and the rest of the paper, and introduces
the core concepts that the task is designed to deal with. You might also take this
chance to scope the work – for example the time frame that will be used to assess the
marketing success for the case organisations.
b. Description of the two cases. Describe each case, each organisation and the sources of
your information.
c. Evidence of Marketing-related success (leading through to a competitive advantage for
the firm). Marshal all the evidence that you can that you think reveals that each
organisation has well and truly found success in the marketing realm.
d. Analysis and Explanation. Provide a detailed analysis of how each organisation
achieved its success in marketing terms.
e. Conclusion. Summarise the key points and what can be learnt from the overall analysis.
5. Submission. Once you have completed the report and are satisfied that you have done your
best, submit it via Turnitin on Blackboard. Submission needs to be made before midnight
(AEST) Friday 27th November 2015. Please be reminded of the plagiarism rules which apply.
The marking criteria for the assignment are on the next page. They are published to give you
detailed guidelines about the way in which your mark will be calculated. Please read them
carefully. Note that they are a guide, not a definitive formula for allocating marks. No set of
criteria can accurately describe every possible assignment and so your final mark will reflect
the application of academic judgement by your marker to your whole assignment.
Assignment 1: Case Study Analysis Marking Criteria
School extension policy
Students wanting an extension must make a request at least 24 hours before the assessment item is
due and the request must be received in writing by the unit assessor or designated academic.
Extensions within 24 hours of submission or following the submission deadline will not be granted
(unless supported by a doctor’s certificate or where there are exceptional circumstances – this will be
at unit assessor’s discretion and will be considered on a case by case basis). Extensions will be for a
maximum of 48 hours (longer extensions supported by a doctor’s certificate or exceptional
circumstances to be considered on a case by case basis).
A penalty of 10% of the total available grade will accrue for each 24-hour period that an assessment
item is submitted late. Therefore an assessment item worth 20 marks will have 2 marks deducted for
every 24-hour period and at the end of 10 days will receive 0 marks.
Please note: work commitments are rarely a sufficient reason to approve special consideration and
being away on holidays is never a reason. There is no penalty for submitting an assignment BEFORE
the due date, so if you are going away just manage your time to get assessment tasks finished before
you go. You’ll enjoy your holiday more.
Extensions will NOT be approved because of problems with personal computers or storage devices.
Back up your work every day to a secure location.
