1. Choose a brand that you think is weak in the minds of customers. What is the
brand? Who is the target market? Why do you think this is a weak brand? How
would you attempt to Build or rebuild this brand?
2. You will undoubtedly be asked to develop a social media strategy once you get
established in a marketing career path. Choose a retailer who desperately needs
help with their social media strategy. Describe the product assortment/target
market (for my purposes in grading). What’s wrong with their current approach?
Clearly state the primary objectives underlying your recommended social media
strategy. Discuss and justify the components of the social media strategy. How
will you evaluate the effectiveness of this strategy in achieving these objectives?
3. A large part of this course has been focused on the Marketing issues & Challenges
(MIC) team project. At the core of the MIC project is a detailed marketing plan. Now,
you have been asked to provide guidance-specific guidance-to your new employer on
how to approach marketing planning, what elements are necessary to include in a
good marketing plan, and what cautions or concerns you have about developing and
utilizing marketing plans. Please include some great sources of secondary information
and provide your insight on when primary data collection is needed. Based on your
experience with the MIC project, what is the one biggest obstacle to overcome when
developing a workable marketing plan?
4. Marketing managers do a lot: develop market strategies and plans; capture
marketing insights; connect with customers; build strong brands; shape market
offerings; deliver value; communicate value; create long-term growth, etc. Please
choose two of these "tasks." Provide a specific example for each of these two tasks
that demonstrate these tasks being performed effectively; i.e., "best practices." Justify
why these are great examples. [This is not necessary – but, if it helps to make your
points, include documentation; e.g., reference to an article, an advertisement, the
website url, etc.]
M KTG690-Final Exam
5. Throughout this course, we have used information databases (e.g., Euromonitor);
strategy development procedures (e.g., questions to ask when developing channel
systems); theories (e.g., Porter’s 5 Forces; attitude theory; means-end chain); simple,
albeit quite complex, concepts (e.g., customer satisfaction and retention); marketing
metrics (e.g., Customer Lifetime Value); articles (e.g., The "Consumer Decision
Journey" – from the McKinsey Quorterly); videos – short and long (e.g., Wall Street
Journal on advertising using mobile devices or Heath on "Making Ideas Stick");
personal applications/reflections (e.g., marketing yourself; daily quotes); professional
applications (e.g., your MIC projects; Keeping it Recrl presentations); guest speakers
(Robert Carr and Jon England from Walmart; Ryan Michaelis from Hormel Foods;
Doug Wilson on marketing plans; Peter Vomocil on marketing metrics; and Katrina
Galas on branding the Olympics), etc., etc. According to you [and only you], what are

the two most important things you learned in this class? Briefly explain. How will
they help you in your educational career, professional career and/or life?