Introduction to Marketing Spring 2018

Individual Written Assignment: Environmental and

Competitive Analysis

Working individually, you are expected to select a consumer product category and carry out
environmental and competitive analysis within this category. You should carefully analyze relevant
external environment factors in order to identify those that have implications for the planning and
implementation of marketing campaigns. You should also carefully analyze the competitive
environment in the product category with the aim to identify what brands are important and what their
positioning, marketing strategy, and strengths and weaknesses are. In your work you are expected to
use relevant concepts and models from the textbook and class discussions. The directly relevant
chapters in the textbook are Chapter 3 (environmental analysis) and Chapter 18 (competitive
analysis) but you are strongly encouraged to draw on other relevant concepts, theories, and models
from other chapters in the textbook and other high-quality sources.

When carrying out the analysis and writing it up in the report it is important to draw on reliable sources
and research to support your critical analysis and application of concepts. It is essential that your
research is referenced. Correct referencing is important because it identifies the source of the ideas
and arguments that you present, and sometimes the source of the actual words you use, and helps to
avoid plagiarism which is a serious academic offence.

Your individual assignment is due on Wednesday the 21st of March.

The quality of your work on this assignment is important not only for your own learning and grade but
also for the group project that follows later in the course. In the group project you will be required to
select a consumer poduct category and produce a marketing plan for a new brand in the selected
category. Group members’ individual assignments should be used as input when selecting the
product category for the group assignment and when writing summary sections on the marketing
environment and competitor analysis.

Students are required to submit their assignments via Safe Assign. The plagiarism detection software
will compare your assignment with your classmates’ assignments, previous year’s assignments and
search the Internet and electronic journal databases for instances of plagiarism. Reports containing
plagiarism will be awarded zero and their authors will be reported for academic dishonesty.

The length of the report should be 2-3 single-spaced pages (or around 1,500 words) excluding title
page, figures, and references.
Introduction to Marketing Spring 2018

Your analysis should be guided by the following outline:

Title Page

1. Executive Summary

2. External Environmental Analysis

Demographic Environment
Economic Environment
Cultural Environment
Political Environment
Technological Environment
Natural Environment
Marketing Implications

3. Competitive Analysis
Direct and Indirect Competitors
Competitor Analysis Table
Competitive Positions
Competitive Objectives (market share etc.)
Competitive Strategy
Marketing Implications

4. References
Use the Harvard style of referencing (author + year at the citation & reference list at the end of the
report). There are several good introductions to the Harvard style online and you should consult these
to make sure that you reference correctly in your report.
Introduction to Marketing
Key Exemplary
components Grade band: A
(90 – 100 %)
Executive Executive summary:
Summary Summarizes all major
findings concisely.
External Outline of all or almost all
Environmental relevant changes/trends in
Analysis marketing environments
and clear/logical
implications for company.
Competitive Thorough analysis of the
Analysis competitive situation and
specific competitors using
appropriate analysis tools
and concepts (Comp.
Table, Market Positions
etc.)
Clarity and Logic Explains all ideas clearly
and concisely in a logical
progression with effective
supporting evidence.
Conceptual Exceptional use of
understanding concepts from the course.
GRADING RUBRIC
Accomplished
Grade band: A-/B+/B
(80 – 89 %)
Executive summary:
Summarizes most major
findings concisely.
Outline of relevant
changes/trends in
marketing environments
and implications for
company.
Adequate analysis of
competitive situation and
of specific competitors
using some analysis tools
and concepts.
Explains most ideas clearly
and concisely with
supporting evidence.
Appropriate use of
concepts from the course.
Spring 2018
Developing Beginning Failing Mark
Grade band: B-/C+/C Grade band: C-/D+/D Grade band: F
(70 – 79%) (60 – 69%) (0 – 59%)
Executive Summary Executive Summary Not provided. /10
provided but some provided but very poor
difficulties in respecting quality.
the guidelines.
Outline of some Outline of few or Not provided. /30
changes/trends in irrelevant
marketing environments changes/trends in
and some implications marketing
for company. environments.
Implications for
company are
limited/not provided.
Some analysis of Inadequate analysis of Not provided. /30
competitive situation; competitive situation;
identification of some lacks identification of
relevant competitors. relevant competitors.
Incompletely explains Repeatedly fails to Consistently fails to /10
ideas and does not explain ideas clearly, explain ideas clearly, and
effectively use and uses little or no completely lacks
supporting evidence. supporting evidence. supporting evidence.
Some appropriate and Limited or No or consistently /10
some inappropriate use inappropriate use of inappropriate use of
of concepts from the concepts from the concepts from the
course. course. course.
Introduction to Marketing
Writing and The text has no or very few
presentation errors in grammar,
skills capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling.
All supporting evidence is
referenced. The report is
visually appealing.
Total
The text has few errors with
grammar, capitalization,
punctuation, and spelling.
Most supporting evidence
is referenced.
Spring 2018
The text has errors in The text has numerous The text has extremely /10
grammar, capitalization, errors in grammar, many errors in grammar,
punctuation and spelling capitalization, capitalization,
distract or impair punctuation, and punctuation. Parts of the
readability. Supporting spelling repeatedly text is
evidence is referenced distract the reader. incomprehensible.
incorrectly. Supporting evidence is Supporting evidence is
not referenced. The consistently not
report is not visually referenced. The report is
appealing. visually unappealing.
100