ehh… Marketing 3321 has a game called, wait for it, The Marketing Game that we play once a week. A simplified marketing simulation, the class is divided into teams of 4, a firm, and four teams are grouped in an industry. I luckily chanced to be placed in Industry A on Firm 1 (A1) which is really good cause otherwise I’d likely have forgotten which team I’m on.
happy to report though, that after 3 weeks of the simulation my team is kicking ass! We’ve managed to snag 44% of the gross sales in the industry and (as far as I can tell) are the only team with a target market already picked out. Everyone else keeps butting heads with each other and changing targets only to find that everyone else has changed to the same market as well.
There are also 2 channels for distribution. Channel 1 represents dealers that offer a higher level of service, but also charger a higher markup (50%) with channel 2 being discount retailers like Best Buy or WalMart that charge a lower markup (35%). This is important because the 6 market segments typically purchase their devices from different channels. Our target segments (Managers with a side of Creators) purchases their devices primarily from Channel 1.
One of the reasons I selected the markets (that incidentally prefer the most expensive equipment) is that even though the market is smaller for those items, the markup and per-unit contribution is much higher.
Each period, we submit out plan and wait for the report. The report contains information about our firm’s financials and production, as well as general information about what other firms in our industry are doing. Additional information in the form of “marketing reports” can be purchased at the time the plans are submitted.
Unfortunately, the budget for the following period doesn’t appear to follow any rhyme or reason. We are responsible for almost 50% of all sales in our industry, but our budget is only 28% of the industry total. Further adding to my confusion, is the fact that even though we increased sales in every measurable way, our budget has fallen! Last period it was 29%.