Final Exam Questions

Course MKTG 6010 Online (Customers and Markets)

Fall 2021 / Professor Tao (Tony) Gao

Deadline:Due at11:59 pm on Saturday, Dec. 18, 2021via Blackboard. Please upload your answers using the assignment link given in Blackboard. No late submissions will be accepted.

Format requirement: Please givekey, pertinent, complete information as required in your answers, using about 7 single-spaced pages to show your net answers (using size 12 of the Times New Roman font and keeping a 1-inch margin on all four sides of the pages). Please insert your answers into this document and as my own questions and instructions already occupy about 5pages, please limit the length of the whole completed document to about 12 pages.Please type your answers in blue.

There will be penalty for net answers going over 8 pages (5 points deducted per extra page beyond 8; 8 pages is fine; "net answers" don't include my original questions). But if your net answers come significantly less than 6 pages, you may fail to include all required information in your answers.

Note on collaboration:This is a completely individual assignment and no collaborations of any form are allowed between or among members of the class or with outside parties.Similarities among answers from different students will be closely monitored.

By submitting your answers, you attest that you have not discussed the final exam questions with anyone in and outside of our specific Marketing 6010 class in this semester and the answers are the results of completely your own individual intellectual efforts.

Please say sorry but no to any fellow classmates who may approach you for questions on this exam or related course contents. By helping others on this completely individual exam, you would put yourself in danger of being detected for plagiarism as when two students' answers are identical, both students would be singled out for close examination and potential penalty.

Note on use of external sources: Please do not use any outside materials from external websites (of any type, other than the Blackboard course page, Sabre website, and the online textbook site), journals, or magazines. The only materials allowed to access are the textbook, the Sabre simulation materials formally distributed in class or accessible from the official Sabre website, and our cases.

Please feel free to use any class lecture notes posted in the Blackboard and those you have taken on your own from my class lectures, but I myself will generally not be available to help provide additional materials or help evaluate your initial answers. I will only be able to answer emails that ask for clarifications of certain questions themselves, not how to best answer them.

If you find some questions to be challenging, please consider the fact that given the take-home and open-book nature, the final exam, overall, needs to be somewhat demanding.

Question 1 on Sabre and Strategic Marketing Decision-Making(32 points):

The two following studies are from a hypothetical Sabre simulation in a particular round.

Market Study 2: Purchase Intentions by Segment (%)
Company	Product	Alpha	Beta	Gamma	Delta	Epsilon	Overall
1 Red	Baller	2.4	1.4	1.1	5.1	15.4	4.8
	Banness	9.3	6.1	3.5	3.2	2.5	4.6
2 Orange	Caster	3.2	1.9	1.7	6.2	10.6	4.8
	Cloudstar	12.5	10	8.6	3.9	2.8	7
	Cameler	14.2	12.5	8.9	3.9	2.8	7.8
3 Yellow	Danil	2.9	1.7	1.4	7.5	21	6.6
	Dowell	9.8	8.7	6.9	4.8	3.6	6.5
	Daibi	15.2	27.4	44.6	7.5	5.1	19.1
4 Green	Faldo	3	1.8	1.5	8.2	20.7	6.9
	Fano	19.8	22.2	14.7	4.5	3.2	11.7
	Fame	7.8	6.3	7.1	45.1	12.4	20.2
Numbers based on units (not value).

Market Study 3: Market Share by Segment (%)
Company	Product	Alpha	Beta	Gamma	Delta	Epsilon	Overall
1 Red	Baller	3.6	2.2	2	12.9	24.8	9.2
	Banness	14	9.8	6.4	8.1	4	8.4
2 Orange	Caster	3.3	2.1	2	10.4	11.8	6.4
	Cloudstar	5.5	4.5	4.6	2.9	1.2	3.7
	Cameler	22.7	21.4	17.2	10.7	5.8	15.8
3 Yellow	Danil	4	2.5	2.5	18.5	33.4	12.6
	Dowell	12.3	11.6	9	8.5	3.4	8.9
	Daibi	8.9	16.8	34.8	8.1	3.9	14.5
4 Green	Faldo	0.6	0.4	0.4	3.5	7.1	2.5
	Fano	24.3	28.1	20.1	8.8	3.2	15
	Fame	0.8	0.7	0.8	7.6	1.5	3
Numbers based on units (not value).

1.1. Using information from the two above studies, discuss the nature of the performance result for product "Fame" in this particular round. Name three major reasons why this performance situation may have occurred and discuss their respective strategic marketing decision-making implications for Company 4. (9 points)

Your answer:

1.2. Judging from your own Sabre competition experience in Summer 2021, identify the most notable example of a product that had a similar performance issue as "Fame" experienced above. Name the product name, company name, and round number. Then, use relevant data from the actual Sabre simulation you experienced to discuss which of the above reasons you identify in Question 1.1 is(are) most relevant in explaining this product's performance situation. (5 points)

Your answer:

1.3. Furthermore, the product with the highest achieved overall market share, Cameler, received one of the worst net income performances of all products by all companies (from Income Statement reports not shown here). Name four major reasons why this situation (of market leading products generating very poor financial impacts) may have occurred and discuss their strategic marketing decision-making implications for all companies. (8 points)

Your answer:

1.4. One relatively sophisticated type of competitive analysis we could perform is to specifically evaluate the total net contributions (in dollar amounts) across all products for each competitor company. Specify which top five reports or studies, in the context of Sabre, you would most importantly use in order to best estimate the total net contributions across all specific products by each of your competitors. Also, please mention the main information you would use from each report or study you have identified and explain how, in total, you would have enough information to generate these competitive profit estimates. (10 points)

Your answer:

Question 2 on Sabre and Strategic Marketing Decision-Making (16 points):

SWOT allows companies to identify key favorable and unfavorable factors both within and outside of the company and use them to make strategic decisions. Conduct a detailed SWOT analysis for your own Sabre company (for your specific team) at the end of Round 6.

Please list yourteam number or color here:

2.1. Specifically, please name 5 most significant, pertinent strengths (name 5Ss), weaknesses (name 5Ws), opportunities (name 5Os), and threats (name 5Ts) that your new management team should consider in making its strategic marketing decisions in Round 7 and beyond.Note the reports and studies that each of your key discussion points was based on (12 points)

Your answer:

2.2. On that basis, please identify top 5 strategic decisions that you think your new management team must make given the specific circumstances facing your own company at the end of Round 6. Justify your answers. (4 points)

Your answer:

Question 3: Discuss 6 most significant learning take-aways for you (personally) on a company's strategic marketing decision-making from the overall SABRE experience. Justify your answers using the specific experiences you had in our Sabre simulation in this semester. In other words, what are the principles of strategic marketing that were particularly learned or reinforced in this simulation that can be applied to the real world? As each team will likely have met some unique opportunities and challenges over the course of the simulation, please draw on your lessons/learnings from those unique experiences and vantage points. Yet another way of understanding this question is: How might you become a better senior leader for a company now that you have completed the Sabre simulation?(12 points)

Your answer:

Question 4 on Sabre and Overall Course Materials (18 points):

You're a part of the Green company (let's say it's a real company in this case) that competes in a Sabre market as we know it from our class experience. Upon seeing this perceptual map, your company's CEO immediately recognizes the strategic opportunities of designing two new products (new R&Ds) for segments 2 (Beta) and 5 (Epsilon), respectively.

Period: Market: Company: World: Instructor Mode 3 Devices Company5(T5-W1/T5-W1) W1 Report 5 - Product Sales Report Run Name: UMassMon-W1 Company: T5-W1 (Company 5) Period: 3 Gats Gamer Green Total Market Devices Devices STAR R&D Project RProj_1 RProj_3 Starpwr Retail Price $ 290 445 1050 Unit Cost* $ 129 118 462 Ini. Inventory k 29 0 0 29 Requested k 90 310 100 500 Disposal k 0 0 0 0 Produced k 76 263 100 440 Sold k 67 209 100 375 Fin. Inventory k 38 55 0 * NOTE: Unit cost is blended cost of previous inventory (if any) and new production.Period Market World 3 Devices W1 25 Legend . Baller 20- Banness Gamma O Caster 15 Camst O Danil Daibi Diamond 10- Faldo Y Axis Fano Speed Gamer 5+ Winner Hammer Halter Holder O. Presto Prong Pippen -5+ Segment 1 - Alpha -10. UT Segment 2 - Beta Segment 3 - Gamma Segment 4 - Delta Segment 5 - Epsilon -15 -20+ 25 UI- - - - -25 -20 -15 -10 -5 0 10 15 20 25 X Axis Complex