Download Guidelines for the Second Markstrat Report

Guidelines for the Second Markstrat Report
Report Objectives
The marketing plan is a key document in developing a marketing strategy. The second report is not
intended to be a full marketing plan. Such a document would contain much more details about the
execution of the strategy. Instead, the second report should focus on the analysis and implication parts of
that document. I want you to focus on the planning process (thinking) rather than the plan (execution).
In the first report, you examined the initial situation of your industry and your firm and provided a
description of the status quo. The second report should build on the insights you gained from this
analysis but add a detailed analysis of changes that have occurred since Year 0. The objective is then
twofold. First, you should try to anticipate the likely changes that will occur in the market place for the
next 3 to 4 periods (Years 5 to 8). Second, you should determine the implications of these trends for the
industry and your firm. Finally, you need to consider what changes are needed for your strategy to cope
with these trends.
Report Content
1) Conduct an analysis of key success factors over time:
 When looking at the market leaders in Years 0 to 2, what conclusions can you draw about the early
key success factors (very brief)?
 When looking at the market leaders in Years 3 and 4 and changes in the market place, what
conclusions can you draw about the current key success factors (look at customer, competitor,
channel behavior and trends; also look at failures)?
 What are the likely key success factors going forward? Will they stay the same or change?
2) Future Strategy:
 Given the likely future market conditions identified in part 1, what changes do you need to do for
your strategy and for your firm (e.g., the way you manage it, the way you analyze the market, …)?
3) Detailed 3-Year Brand Plan
 Develop a detailed pro-forma income statement for each brand (current brands and planned new
brands), showing expected revenues, marketing spending (advertising, sales force, R&D) and net
contribution.
 The brand portfolio and the spending should be consistent with your overall strategy. (Take into
account the budget constraint: It is 40% of your previous net contribution up to a maximum of about
$30M.)
Other Comments
The report is due next Friday, June 6, 2008. As a word document, the report should not exceed 10 pages
plus the detailed pro-forma statements (which you can do in excel). The format of the report is whatever
you want it to be. To give some guidance, I will post a number of documents with suggestions on the
format of a marketing plan. If you choose to do it in power point, the above page limit does not apply.
The Marketing Plan tool in Markstrat provides a pro-forma statement for the next year. You can build
the 3-year forecasts using it as a template for the outline.
In addition to the report you also need to submit decision 5 (due at noon on Friday, June 6, 2008). The
Markstrat data will be available online starting from Friday evening (April 11, 2008). There will be no
class session for this decision; you need to find the time for a group meeting.
For more information about marketing plans and about possible structures for the report, I will post a
number of documents on the Markstrat website (http://faculty.insead.edu/christen/markstrat/index.html).
If you have questions or need consulting advice for your decision, please do not hesitate to contact me.