NMIMS Semester 3 APRIL 2025 Marketing Assignments
Customer Relationship Management
1. Acquiring new clients and retain existing ones, is one of the key reasons why organizations need to focus on their CRM activities. How is CRM expected to help your business acquire and retain customers?
2. Your company manufactures industrial exhaust fans and water coolers. The industry is hypercompetitive with too many players competing for the same set of customers. You are launching a product, which will change the industry. In this context how will you persuade your existing customers to buy the new product?
3. Organisations that implement CRM are often dissatisfied and failure rates are very high.” In context of the statement:
a) What are the primary causes of dissatisfaction in CRM implementations and how do you mitigate them?
b) What are the factors that you should consider to limit the failures in CRM projects?
Marketing Strategy
Q1. Imagine you are the marketing manager for a new luxury smartphone brand entering the Indian market. The company aims to create a unique position in a highly competitive market. Discuss the strategic mapping and key decisions you would consider while formulating the marketing strategy for this product. Explain how external environmental factors, such as economic conditions and technological advancements, would influence your strategy.
Q2. You are tasked with developing a marketing strategy for a new premium skincare brand in India that targets middle-to-high-income urban women aged 25-45. Describe how you would segment the market for this product and select the target market. Discuss how you would position the brand using the concepts of customer value and competitive advantage.
Q3. M/s XYZ is a startup that has recently launched an innovative, eco-friendly, reusable water bottle in the Indian market. The bottle is crafted from high-quality stainless steel, ensuring durability and safety. Its primary objective is to promote sustainability by reducing single-use plastic waste. The product is competitively priced at INR 500 and is available in a variety of colors (red, blue, green, black) and sizes (500ml, 750ml, 1L). The company has identified its target market as environmentally conscious urban consumers aged 18-45, residing in metro cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. Their market research indicates a growing interest in sustainable products but also reveals competition from established brands offering similar reusable bottles priced between INR 400–700. M/s XYZ has allocated a modest marketing budget and plans to use a mix of digital platforms, such as Instagram and YouTube, and online marketplaces, like Amazon and Flipkart, for its product promotion and distribution. The company is looking for innovative strategies to differentiate its products and create a strong market presence.
a) Using Ansoff’s Product-Market Growth Matrix, develop a comprehensive marketing strategy for M/s XYZ, addressing potential opportunities for market penetration, market development, product development, and diversification.
b) Suggest an appropriate pricing strategy for the product, considering factors like competitors’ pricing, consumer willingness to pay, and the brand’s sustainability message. Justify your recommendations with a rationale.
Consumer Behaviour
Q1. Critically evaluate how buying a home theatre system would be different from buying a shampoo of your choice using the Tri-component model. Use any existing brand of the above-mentioned product categories to explain the same.
Q2. Following a public vote in which more than 37,000 people had their say, “Brainrot” has been declared that the Oxford Word of the Year for 2024. Brainrot is a term is used for low- quality online content that people binge-watch or scroll through for long periods and how this influences their product and brand choices. It is linked to social media trends, viral topics and trending topics. Please analyse how this phenomenon influences consumer buying behaviour.
Q3. Apply the concept of Just Noticeable Difference [JND] to the following
Appointing brand ambassadors – Asian Paints and Kansai Nerolac Paints are planning to appoint a brand ambassador. Do you recommend that both paint companies should have a brand ambassador on the basis of JND. If yes please suggest two names of brand ambassadors – one for Asian Paints and the other for Kansai Nerolac with reasons thereof.
Q3(a): Appointing Brand Ambassadors for Asian Paints and Kansai Nerolac Paints
Cadbury’s Perk and Nestle’s Kitkat are 2 competing chocolates. Both want to run a promotion for Perk and Kitkat. Perk has announced a promotion on their 30 numbers x 13.8 gms bar pack size – get 10 bars more at the same price [price of 30 Bars of Perk at Rs. 150, after promotion they are giving 40 Bars at Rs. 150]. Nestle has a pack of 10 Kitkat’s of 13.8 gms each. What promotion would you recommend for Nestle’s Kitkat. Please justify the same based on JND.
Sales Management
1. A sales manager notices that one of their top-performing sales personnel, Ravi, has been consistently missing targets over the last three months. Upon discussion, Ravi shares that he feels undervalued and mentions that newer team members receive more recognition. As a sales manager, what steps would you take to motivate Ravi and ensure he regains his enthusiasm and performance levels?
2. Prepare a Sales Plan for a brand of electronic goods focusing in rural market
3. Read the case & answer the questions based on the case:
XYZ Pvt. Ltd., a growing FMCG company, is planning to expand its market presence in Tier- 2 and Tier-3 cities. The sales manager, Mr. Mehta, has been asked to prepare the sales budget for the upcoming financial year. He reviews historical sales data, market demand, and competitor strategies to set a target of a 20% increase in sales. He allocates funds for promotional campaigns, salesforce incentives, and distribution enhancements. However, during the budget review meeting, the finance team recommends a 10% cut, citing cost constraints. This forces Mr. Mehta to reconsider the allocation of funds without compromising the growth target.
Questions:
a) How should Mr. Mehta prioritize his budget allocation to balance cost efficiency with achieving the sales growth target?
b) What alternative strategies can Mr. Mehta consider to optimize resources and still meet the expansion goals?
International Marketing
Q1. What are your views on Foreign Direct Investments FDI and FII and how do both impact our country?
Q2. Many countries today are promoting “Go Local “to promote Local consumption. What is your view on nations promoting local production and how does it impact globalization?
Q3. Read the following case study carefully and then answer the questions that follow: Your firm manufactures Incense sticks also called Agarbatti, in India and desires to market them globally. Although there is competition, you see that Mauritius has a huge potential and plan to expand your company’s retail operations in Mauritius.
a) Discuss the market entry strategy that you would recommend to launch your company products in Mauritius.
b) How does global pricing policies help in launch of products. In your view which pricing policies do you think would be appropriate while launching of Incense sticks in Mauritius?
Brand Management
Q1. The strategic brand management process has four main steps. Please explain and relate one of the steps namely ‘Identify and establish brand positioning and values’. You may relate this specific step to the brand ‘MAGGI’ (from Nestle).
Q2. Gillette Limited, world famous for its razors also has numerous products based on brand extension principles. They have products like Gillette shaving gel, foams, after- shave lotion and more. List and relate how Gillette Limited would have evaluated brand extension opportunities available to them. List at least any three brand extension opportunities identification steps.
Q3. McDonalds is a world-famous fast-food restaurant chain. They also have over 500 numbers of outlets in India. McDonald’s has several outlets opened through a franchisee route. McDonald’s also does innovative sales promotion ideas. By understanding certain aspects of McDonald’s story, one can understand brand management better. Answer the following questions and support MBA learning students to understand branding better by reading your notes.
A) Identify any two brand elements of McDonald’s in India and provide your understanding of the criteria based on which various brand elements are decided by McDonalds. Your answer must related to McDonalds brand elements only.
B) Identify and relate any two innovative sales promotion ideas used by McDonald’s in India and explain what may have been the purpose of doing it.
