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MKT 500 Assignment 3 Branding, Pricing, and Distribution
$10.00MKT 500 Assignment 3 Branding, Pricing, and Distribution
Continuing to build your marketing plan, this assignment focuses on branding, pricing, and distribution of your product and service.
Write a four to five (4-5) page paper in which you:
- Create the domestic and global product branding strategy.
- Determine and detail the optimum pricing strategy.
- Examine how your pricing strategy supports your branding strategy.
- Prepare a distribution channel analysis identifying the wholesaler, distributor, and retailer relationships (include any e-Commerce as well).
- Discuss whether a push or pull strategy will be used, justify your rationale.
- Discuss how the distribution strategy fits the product / service, target market, and overall marketing strategy for the company
- Support your marketing plan with at least two (2) reference sources that discuss the nature of the assignment
Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements:
- Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions.
- Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length.
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Minicase 1: Verizon and Rivio Use the Web to Offer Big Benefits for Small Businesses. Page 553
$20.00Q1. In what ways might IT strategy and alignment differ for small businesses as opposed to that of larger organizations?
Q2. What are some of the major challenges for aligning IT in a small organization?
Q3. What are some of the pros and cons of using large providers to meet the IT needs of small business customers?
Q4. Conduct some research on the Rivio system and make your own assessment as to whether the claim of Rivio’s chairman – that “Rivio will enable Verizon’s small business customers to more efficiently run the businesses, giving owners and employees more time to focus on revenue-generating activities” – is hype or reality.
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Mini case: Blades Inc.
$20.00- If Blades uses call options to hedge its yen payables, should it use the call option with the exercise price of $0.00756 or the call option with the exercise price of $0.00792? Describe the tradeoff.
- Should Blades allow its yen position to be unhedged? Describe the tradeoff.
- If Blades does not enter into the agreement with the British firm and continues to export to Thailand and import from Thailand and Japan, do you think the increased correlations between the Japanese yen and the Thai baht will increase or decrease Blades’ transaction exposure?
- Do you think Blades should import components from Japan to reduce its net transaction exposure in the long run? Why or why not?
Chap 6
- Did the intervention effort by the Thai government constitute direct or indirect intervention? Explain.
- Did the intervention by the Thai government constitute sterilized or non sterilized intervention? What is the difference between the two types of intervention? Which type do you think would be more effective in increasing the value of the baht? Why? (Hint: Think about the effect of nonsterilized intervention on U.S. interest rates.)
Chap 8
1. What is the relationship between the exchange rates and relative inflation levels of the two countries? How will this relationship affect Blades’ Thai revenue and costs given that the baht is freely floating? What is the net effect of this relationship on Blades?Chap 10
1. What type(s) of exposure (i.e., transaction, economic, or translation exposure) is Blades subject to? Why?The Mini Case 2
Blades, Inc. needs to order supplies 2 months ahead of the delivery date. It is considering an order from a Japanese supplier that requires a payment of 12.5 million yen payable as of the delivery date. Blades have two choices:
• Purchase two call options contracts (since each option contract represents 6,250,000 yen).
• Purchase one futures contract (which represents 12.5 million yen).
The futures price on yen has historically exhibited a slight discount from the existing spot rate. However, the firm would like to use currency options to hedge payables in Japanese yen for transactions 2 months in advance. Blades would prefer hedging its yen payable position because it is uncomfortable leaving the position open given the historical volatility of the yen. Nevertheless, the firm would be willing to remain unhedged if the yen becomes more stable someday.
The table below summarizes the option and futures information available toBlades:
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Minicase: Can Brazil Become a Global Competitor in the Information Technology Outsourcing Business?
$7.50- Use the theories of international trade and investment that have been presented in this chapter to help explain Brazil’s intentions and actions regarding the international information technology sector.
- What recommendations would you give to the Brazilian government and its outsourcing industry in order to improve their prospects for success in building a strong international competitive position in the information technology outsourcing business?
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MINI-CASES I. Deals-R-Us Brokers (Part 1)
$5.00MINI-CASES I. Deals-R-Us Brokers (Part 1)
Fred Jones, a distant relative of yours and president of Deals-R-Us Brokers (DRUB), has come to you for advice. DRUB is a small brokerage house that enables its clients to buy and sell stocks over the Internet, as well as place traditional orders by phone or fax.
DRUB has just decided to offer a set of stock analysis tools that will help its clients more easily pick winning stocks, or so Fred tells you. Fred’s information systems department has presented him with two alternatives for developing the new tools.
The first alternative will have a special tool developed in C++ that clients will download onto their computers to run. The tool will communicate with the DRUB server to select data to analyze. The second alternative will have the C++ program running on the server; the client will use his or her browser to interact with the server.
- Classify the two alternatives in terms of what type of application architecture they use.
- Outline the pros and cons of the two alternatives and make a recommendation to Fred about which is better.
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Chapter 8 Minicase: Proposal to accept Muster or Skilboro
$10.00Flowton Products enjoys a steady demand for stainless steel infiltrators used in a number of chemical processes. Revenues from the infiltrator division are $50 million a year and production costs are $47.5 million. However, the 10 high-precision Munster stamping machines that are used in the production process are coming to the end of their useful life. One possibility is simply to replace each existing machine with a new Munster. These machines would cost $800,000 each and would not involve any additional operating costs. The alternative is to buy 10 centrally controlled Skilboro stampers. Skilboros cost $1.25 million each, but compared to the Munster, they would produce a total saving in operator and material costs of $500,000 a year. Moreover, the Skilboro is sturdily built and would last 10 years, compared with an estimated 7-year life for the Munster.
Analysts in the infiltrator division have produced the accompanying summary table, which shows the forecast total cash flows from the infiltrator business over the life of each machine. Flowton’s standard procedures for appraising capital investments involve calculating net present value, internal rate of return, and payback, and these measures are also shown in the table.
As usual, Emily Balsam arrived early at Flowton’s head office. She had never regretted joining Flowton. Everything about the place, from the mirror windows to the bell fountain in the atrium, suggested a classy outfit. Ms. Balsam sighed happily and reached for the envelope at the top of her in-tray. It was an analysis from the infiltrator division of the replacement options for the stamper machines. Pinned to the paper was the summary table of cash flows and a note from the CFO, which read, “Emily, I have read through 20 pages of excruciating detail and I still don’t know which of these machines we should buy. The NPV calculation seems to indicate that the Skilboro is best, while IRR and payback suggest the opposite. Would you take a look and tell me what we should do and why. You also might check that the calculations are OK.”
Can you help Ms. Balsam by writing a memo to the CFO? You need to justify your solution and also to explain why some or all of the measures in the summary tables are inappropriate.
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Chapter 13-Minicase 1 (page 598) – Intranets: Invest First, Analyze Later?
$3.00- Where and under what circumstances is the “invest first, analyze later” approach appropriate? Where and when is it inappropriate? Give specific examples of technologies and other circumstances.
- How long do you think the “invest first, analyze later” approach will be appropriate for intranet projects? When (and why) will the emphasis shift to traditional project justification approaches? (Or has the shift already occurred?)
- What are the risks of going into projects that have not received a thorough financial analysis? How can organizations reduce these risks?
- Based on the numbers provided for Candence Design System’s intranet project, use a spreadsheet to calculate the net present value of the project. Assume a five-year life for the system.
- Do you see any relationship between the “invest first, analyze later” approach to financial analysis and the use of behavior-oriented charge back systems?
- Relate the Needham case to knowledge base (Chapter 10).
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MINICASE: ACCT-06 (Psych Me Out)
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Chapter 7: Minicase Prairie Stores
$7.50Chapter 7: Minicase Prairie Stores
What is the Rate of Return Percentage?
Terence Breezeway, the CEO of Prairie Home Stores, wondered what retirement would be like. It was almost 20 years to the day since his uncle Jacob Breezeway, Prairie Home’s founder, had asked him to take responsibility for managing the company. Now it was time to spend more time riding and fishing on the old Lazy Beta Ranch. Under Mr. Breezeway’s leadership Prairie Home had grown slowly but steadily and was solidly profitable. (Table 7.6 shows earnings, dividends, and book asset values for the last 5 years.)
Most of the company’s supermarkets had been modernized and its brand name was well known. Mr. Breezeway was proud of this record, although he wished that Prairie Home could have grown more rapidly. He had passed up several opportunities to build new stores in adjacent counties. Prairie Home was still just a family company. Its common stock was distributed among 15 grandchildren and nephews of Jacob Breezeway, most of whom had come to depend on generous regular dividends. The commitment to high dividend payout” had reduced the earnings available for reinvestment and thereby constrained growth.
Mr. Breezeway believed the time had come to take Prairie Home public. Once its shares were traded in the public market, the Breezeway descendants who needed (or just wanted) more cash to spend could sell off part of their holdings. Others with more interest in the business could hold on to their shares and be rewarded by higher future earnings and stock prices. But if Prairie Home did go public, what should its shares sell for? Mr. Breezeway worried that shares would be sold, either by Breezeway family members or by the company itself, at too Iowa price. One relative was about to accept a private offer for $200, the current book value per share, but Mr. Breezeway had intervened and convinced the would-be seller to wait.
Prairie Home’s value depended not just on its current book value or earnings but on its future prospects, which were good. One finan- cial projection (shown in the top panel of Table 7.7) called for growth in earnings of over 100% by 2022. Unfortunately, this plan would require reinvestment of all of Prairie Home’s earnings from 2016 to 2019. After that the company could resume its normal dividend pay out and growth rate. Mr. Breezeway believed this plan was feasible.
He was determined to step aside for the next generation of top management. But before retiring, he had to decide whether to recommend that Prairie Home Stores “go public”-and before that decision he had to know what the company was worth. The next morning he rode thoughtfully to work. He left his horse at the south corral and ambled down the dusty street to Mike Gordon’s Saloon, where Francine Firewater, the company’s CFO, was having her usual steak-and-beans breakfast. He asked Ms. Firewater to prepare a formal report to Prairie Home stockholders, valuing the company on the assumption that its shares were publicly traded.
Ms. Firewater asked two questions immediately. First, what should she assume about investment and growth? Mr. Breezeway suggested two valuations, one assuming more rapid expansion (as in the top panel of Table 7.7) and another just projecting past growth (as in the bottom panel of Table 7.7). Second, what rate of return should she use? Mr. Breezeway said that 15%, Prairie Home’s usual return on book equity, sounded right to him, but he referred her to an article in the Journal of Finance indicating that investors in rural supermarket chains, with risks similar to Prairie Home Stores, expected to ‘earn about 11 % on average. 16 The company traditionally paid out cash dividends equal to 10% of start-of-period book value. See Table 7.6.
TABLE 7.6 Financial data for Prairie Home Stores. 2011-2015 (figures in millions)
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Book value, start of year $62.7 $66.1 $69.0 $73.9 $76.5
Earnings 9.7 9.5 11.8 11.0 11.2
Dividends 6.3 6.6 6.9 7.4 7.7
Retained earnings 3.4 2:9 4.9 2.6 3.5
Book value, end of year 66.1 69.0 73.9 76.5 80.0
Notes:
1. Prairie Home Stores has 400,000 common shares.
2. The company’s policy is to pay cash dividends equal to 10% 01 start-of-year book value.
TABLE 7.7 Financial projections for Prairie Home Stores, 2016-2021 (figures in millions)
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
1- Rapid-Growth Scenario
Book value, start of year $80 $ 92 $105.8 $121.7 $139.9 $146.9
Earnings 12 13.8 15.9 18.3 21.0 22.0
Dividends 0 0 0 0 14 14.7
Retained earnings 12 13.8 15.9 18.3 7.0 7.4
Book value, end of year 92 105.8 121.7 139.9 146.9 154.3
Constant-Growth Scenario
Book value, start of year $80 $84 $88.2 $92.6 $ 97.2 $102.1
Earnings 12 12.6 13.2 13.9 14.6 15.3
Dividends 8 8.4 8.8 9.3 9.7 10.2
Retained earnings 4 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.9 5.1
Book value, end of year 84 88.2 92.6 97.2 102.1 107.2
Notes:
1. Both panels assume earnings equal to 15% of start-of-year book value. This profitability rate is constant.
2. The top panel assumes all earnings are reinvested from 2016 to 2019. In 2020 and later years, two-thirds of earnings are paid
out as dividends and one-third reinvested.
3. The bottom panel assumes two-thirds of earnings are paid out as dividends in all years.
4. Columns may not add up because of rounding.