Scenario: Based on the case, Seeing Through a Crowded Market.

Assignment: You are to take the perspective of an employee of the new product development company that is assisting D&J Enterprises. You have been asked by your manager to prepare an assessment of the various marketing channels available for the launch of Clearly Better lens cleaner. You must provide D&J Enterprises with: (1) an end-user segmentation chart that illustrates the service outputs that will be demanded by the various end-user segments that you have identified; (2) channel costing for each channel; (3) estimated market share needed to break-even; and (4) a recommendation as to which marketing channel or channels should be pursued if any.

Assignment Details: The paper should use Times New Roman 12 point font (i.e., same as what you see here). Margins should be set at one inch top and bottom, left and right. The paper should be single-spaced and not exceed five (5) pages. Attachments do not count towards the five (5) page limit. You may have as many attachments as you deem necessary. Citations should be used if you are citing someone elses material. Any citation format is acceptable as long as it is consistent throughout the paper. If necessary, the reference page should follow all other attachments.

Due Date: Thursday, February 20^th Beginning of class

Assignment Format: Please use the following format:

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MEMORANDUM

To: D&J Enterprises

Fm: (Your six digit student number this allows for a blind review of all papers)

Date: (Should be no later than the assignments due date but can be earlier if you so choose.)

Re: Marketing Channel Analysis Lens Cleaner

Recommendation: (In one or two sentences state your recommendation.)

Issue: (Simply state what you are writing about in this memorandum.)

Facts: (In this section provide relevant facts about the topic.)

Assumptions: (Explicitly state any assumptions you are making about the market, selling prices, markups to be used, etc.)

Analysis: (Discussion of what the facts mean and how you view the market channels/segments based on existing markets, market valuation, etc. and your assumptions. This is where you should discuss the end-user segmentation chart, channel costing, etc. although the actual charts should be attachments in order to conserve space. A clearly defined set of decision-making criteria and decision logic should be presented, ultimately leading to your recommendation.)

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Additional Notes/Suggestions:

1. You may want to conduct limited outside research to establish selling prices and other facts. But I do not expect significant research. This assignment is more about working with channel costing and the service output segmentation chart.
2. Note that the industry commonly uses 1, 2, 4, and 8-ounce bottles. Therefore, as the common unit of analysis is ounce you should make calculations based on comparable ounce costs or selling price.
3. Due to the ranges used for markups and selling prices, consider putting the following assumption in the Assumptions section: In order to conduct the needed quantitative analysis, numerous assumptions have been made about markups and selling prices. Please review to the specific attachment to view the stated assumptions. Then, on the actual page where you perform the calculations, list the assumptions there. If not, you will: (a) have a very long list of assumptions in the body of the paper, and (b) completely overwhelm the reader. Assumptions stated on the page where the calculations are performed will be much more useful.
4. All other assumptions should be stated in the Assumptions. Keep in mind that I do not have to agree with your assumptions as long as they are reasonable.
5. In the body of the memorandum be certain to refer the reader to attachments as appropriate. If you do not, from a grading perspective the attachment does not exist.
6. Typically I use my own grading guidelines document for grading these types of papers. I will post an example on Blackboard. Note that the papers are graded for content as well as spelling and grammar.
7. Each student is entitled to one rough draft review. This should preferably be submitted electronically to the course instructor. The review is limited to content only. Given the size of the class, all rough drafts submitted forty-eight (48) hours or more before the papers due date are guaranteed a review. Rough drafts can be submitted after that cut-off but there is no guarantee the instructor will have sufficient time to provide a review although he will endeavor to do so. Questions about content, calculations, etc. do not count as the rough draft review. Please feel free to ask as many questions as you desire.