Element 2

This component is designed to address LOs 1-3:

LO1: Analyse and evaluate a range of key international emerging (macro-environment) themes and make a critical assessment of their significance for organisations.

LO2: Synthesise and critically analyse a range of key emerging micro-environment themes: making a critical assessment of their significance for a sector or industry.

LO3: Evaluate and propose international strategic marketing responses to the key emerging themes judged to have the greatest potential impact on organisations.

Key Elements and Task

The individual component of this task asks students to reflect on some of the emerging industries and emerging markets that they have learned about during this module and to develop sustainable marketing plans with strong digital components.

Imagine that you are the VP of Global Marketing of a 3D Printing and Rapid Prototyping Services company that is rapidly making a name for itself.

Your 3D printing business is already established in several countries around the world, including some BRICS markets (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), but your senior management team is interested in finding out whether MINT countries (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, Turkey), another group of countries with the potential to realize rapid economic growth would offer interesting opportunities for their company.

Develop a report which addresses the following tasks:

1. An introduction of your 3D printing company, including an explanation and justification why you have chosen this as a focus for your case study (10%)
2. An outline of the tools and frameworks that could be used to analyse your target market environments at both macro and micro levels. Critically evaluate the usefulness (pros and cons) of these tools when making strategic investment and brand development decisions (20%)

Using two tools that you have identified in the previous section, analyse two MINT markets at macro and micro environmental levels, and critically assess, for the benefit of your senior management team, which one of these markets offers the best prospects for your 3D printing company over the next two years (30%)

4. For the single chosen market that you have identified, develop an outline marketing plan with a strong digital component that is designed to be as responsive as possible to changing patterns of consumer behaviour in the market you have decided to enter (40%)

Your paper should be no more than 3,000 words. You are entitled to make assumptions about your chosen organisation and the industry/industries in which it operates in circumstances in which up to date market intelligence is not available to you.