The Role of a Marketing Consultant

Team Project Overview
The Marketing Assessment Project is a 5-part, team project. The assignments provide students an opportunity to take on the role of a marketing consultant who has been hired to apply key marketing principles and concepts to a specific company and/or product (provided by the instructor). Student teams will perform market, industry, competitive, and consumer research in order to evaluate the company’s marketing effectiveness and make strategic recommendations.
Company/Product: Vessi: The 100% Waterproof, Extremely Breathable Knit Shoe
The assignment components include:
• Part 1: Team Contract, Company Profile, and Business Evaluation.
• Part 2: Environmental Scan, SWOT Analysis.
• Part 3: Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning.
• Part 4: Product Management, Branding, and Pricing Strategies.
• Part 5: Channel, and Retail Strategies. Integrated Marketing Communications, Advertising, and Promotion Strategies. Final recommendations.
Part 1 Deliverables: Team Contract, Company Profile, and Business/Market Evaluation.

1. Team Contract
   a. Create a 1-page team contract (see the “Team Contract Guidelines” attached to the assignment dropbox). Submit your team contract as a separate document to the Part 1 Assignment Dropbox.
2. Company Overview
   a. include their mission statement
   b. describe what they do and what industry they compete in
   c. describe the specific product/product line you’ll be focusing on
3. Industry/market profile
   a. the total market size (in annual sales and number of customers)
   b. the company’s approximate market share
   c. the company’s annual sales revenue
   d. the company’s annual growth rate for the past five years
4. BCG Matrix (Chapter 2).
   a. Label the market share and market growth axis values based on your research.
   b. Place your company/product in the appropriate quadrant on the matrix.
   c. Identify competitive products/brands and also place them in appropriate quadrants on the BCG matrix.
   d. Summarize your findings and justify why you placed the products where you did.
5. Product Growth Strategy:
   a. Identify the product growth strategy your company is using (Chapter 2). Provide evidence to support your claim.
6. Research Sources:
   a. List and cite exactly five preliminary information resources you can utilize for this project.
   b. The company website is a good start, but the others should be research databases and articles located through the PSU library.

Project Format Guidelines
All assignments should be submitted as Microsoft Word compatible documents (except for presentations). Use single-spacing and a size 12 font with one inch margins. Use essay format (including an introduction, content, and conclusion…when applicable). Don’t worry about page length. Focus on the assignment deliverables, course concepts, relevant research, and supporting materials.
As research assignments, all content should be cited and sourced. Students should select a single citation format (APA, MLA, Chicago Style, etc.) and utilize it for the entire project.
Late assignments are subject to a penalty equal to 5% of the total possible points per day. For example, an assignment worth up to 100 points that is submitted 3 days late will incur a 15% (15 point) penalty. Late discussion contributions will not be accepted.