Over the course of the semester, you are to select 2 of the projects listed on the following pages, and turn in a 3-5 page report for each project. You must use 10-pt or 12-pt Times New Roman, double-spaced formatting with 1 inch margins. Introduction 1. Successful companies have a competitive advantage because they can identify competencies and use them to create differential benefits for their customers. Using your university or a company you are interested in working for after graduation, identify the distinctive competencies. What differential benefits does it provide for students/customers? Discuss your ideas as to how the university/company could improve its competitive position. 2. Find an example of a company or non-profit that has successfully delivered on promises to develop and implement “green marketing” initiatives. Write a case study discussing the methods used by the company. 3. Prepare a SWOT analysis for a local company of your choice and then provide an overview of the state of the company based on the SWOT analysis. You should include at least four items per category with justification. Big Data & Research 4. Analyze the following topics and the advantages and disdavantages of each of these communication methods to collect data from consumers: telephone interviews, face-to-face interviews, online questionnaires, focus groups, and observation (ethnography). a. The amount of sports nutrition drinks consumed in a city. b. Why a local bank has been losing customers. c. The amount of money spent “over the state line” for lottery tickets (in a state that doesn’t sell lottery tickets such as Nevada). d. Consumer attitudes toward several sports celebrities. 5. Some marketers attempt to disguise themselves as market researchers while they really just want to sell you something. Talk to four individuals about their experiences with these kind of marketers. Report on their experiences and discuss consumer attitudes toward these practices as well as suggestions regarding what should be done about these practices. 6. One measure discussed in Chapter 4 was garbology or going through consumers’ trash to collect data about them. Grab a bag of your own trash or a friend’s trash and conduct a garbology study. Be sure to include a list of all of the items found and analyze what the items and the combination of items say about you or your friend. 7. The Internet of Things provides a number of benefits for both businesses and society, yet there are also risks and ethical issues. Explain the Internet of Things to three consumers and ask them the following questions. What are some of the risks and ethical issues that stem from the Internet of Things? Do the benefits outweigh the costs and why? What physical objects would you consider not allowing to be connected through the Internet? Why? Discuss the results of your interviews as well as discuss the answers from the perspective of someone working in marketing. 8. Select a rewards program for any retailer or brand. (You’ll need to be able to access information about the program online and provide the link.) Discuss how the brand could measure the four elements of CRM through the rewards program. How would data be collected for each CRM characteristic? How could the data be applied by the company to provide loyal consumers with a strong relationship with the brand? Consumer Behavior 9. You are an entrepreneur who designed a new line of boutique hotels located along the Florida coast. Each of the 75 rooms in each hotel will offer upscale décor, Wi-Fi, iPhone docks, and a yoga mat for a nightly rate of $220. The hotels will include an onsite restaurant, a full service bar featuring local musicians, and a fitness room featuring free morning yoga classes. Describe in detail the demographics, such as age, gender, family life cycle, income, social class, ethnicity and place of residence, and any other characteristics (psychographics, lifestyle) of your target customer. 10. Develop a positioning strategy for your university. Who are your competitors (both direct and indirect)? Who are the main competitors’ positions? What target markets are most attractive to your university? How would you position the university for those target market segments relative to the competition? Marketing Mix 11. Brainstorm an idea for a new product. Describe the product and conduct a few interviews or a focus group with at least four individuals to ask them about your idea. Summarize their opinions, and evaluate how likely it would be that your product would be successful if commercialized. What changes to your product would you make based on consumer feedback? 12. Identify three cobranding opportunities for brands/products of your choice. Describe each of the cobranding opportunities and define the advantages that would result from each. 13. For three of the following, discuss what problems you and other consumers have with the packaging of the product. Explain ways the packaging could be improved and what you believe the results would be of updated packaging. (Be as creative as you want and feel free to draw a picture!) a. Dry cereal b. Laundry detergent c. Frozen orange juice d. Gallon of milk e. Potato chips f. Loaf of bread g. Wine 14. Visit the grocery store and find the section that carries one of the following: ice cream, laundry detergent, cereal, frozen meals, or beer. Describe what attracted your attention first when you arrived at that section (at least three things). Which package attracted your attention, and what was it about that package that attracted you (brand, cobrand, package design, etc.)? Which are you most likely to buy based on first impressions alone and why? If you pick up the products and examine their packaging in detail, would you still make the same purchase decision? Why? 15. Describe an idea for a new product or a new brand of an existing product. Then, determine your creative strategy for the product – appeal, execution format, tonality, and creative tactics – you would use. Using the appeal you decided on, create three magazine ads for your product. 16. Search for a brand of your choice on Twitter.com. Review the results and provide a summary of the following: a) the proportion of tweets that are positive vs. negative. What does this tell you about the brand?, b) the major aspects of the brand that consumers think are positive, c) the major aspects of your brand that consumers think are negative, d) the amount of tweets that are questions. Discuss what the results mean for the brand. What actions, if any, should the brand take to address the results? Marketing Profession 17. Interview a marketer about their motivation to go into marketing, their job responsibilities and accomplishment, their career path, the most important trends they see in marketing, and career advice they would give. Summarize the interview and add your own observations about the field of marketing and the careers it offers. If you have any trouble reading the instructions the instruction in the file should be clearer.