Assessment Question

 

ITM assessment consists of an individual piece (100%). The assessment debrief has been designed to achieve the learning outcomes of the module and to develop your subject understanding. This assignment provides a number of tasks that you will have to complete.

 

For an industry and product of your choice, you are an innovation manager in charge of the launch of a new product development project. In order to complete this task, you should develop a report for the senior management team that outlines the main issues that need to be considered as the project nears the commercialisation stage ( e.g. timing, target market, price point, marketing communications, sales force, distribution).

The report should comprise the aspects indicated in the structure below:

 

• A full contents index (and related page numbers)
• Executive summary (a short summary of the report; 1 pages max.)
• The main body of the report should include:

 

1. Background:

To the industry ( context)

Description of, and rationale for the new product (degree of innovativeness/ newness, radical/ incremental)

Target market

Product/ customer value proposition

 

2. Communication plan:
   • A marketing communications strategy for the new product launch outlining the aims and objectives of your marketing communications plan:
   • Highlight which marketing communications promotional mix tools should be used (e.g. traditional and/or new media), with clear recommendations on which of these should be used, and why. This part of the answer should also utilise relevant theories and concepts discussed in the module.
   • Schedule, timing and implementation
   • Evaluation and feedback (e.g. how will the outcomes be measured?)

 

 

3. Sales Plan.

Proposed sales channel strategy ( direct, distributor, field or inside sales model)

Sales enablement plan ( how will you recruit and train your sales function)

Sales revenue figures, pipeline and lead generation plan

This part of the answer should also utilise relevant theories and concepts discussed in the module.

 

4. Conclusion

 

 

Please submit your work as follows:

 

1. The presentation: should be in a business report style format: i.e. a full contents index (and related page numbers), clear headings in the body of the work that covers the key areas and include strategic recommendations outlined above and a brief conclusion.

 

2. Bibliography: Include at the end of the report a bibliography (Harvard referencing) and attach any relevant information (e.g. relevant tables or diagrams) in the appendices. (These will not be included in the overall word count).

 

3. You may draw upon information and rationale developed to elaborate your formative assignment where relevant.

 

4. Sources & evidence: Show evidence of your secondary desk research activities including a range of key sources (e.g. journals, books; reports; respected newspapers and other online resources such as blogs etc.) to underpin the contextual information, choice of strategy and recommendations.

 

5. Clearly indicate your key recommendations/proposals for the organisation to consider and implement, with a relevant choice of marketing communications and sales channels, timings and any budgetary implications. These recommendations should stem from the analysis.

 

6. You should demonstrate academic knowledge and understanding in the application of marketing communications. Use theories and concepts from the taught elements and from your wider reading to analyse the current context/ approach and outline your strategic proposals.

 

References, tables, diagrams and appendices do not count towards the 3000-word count

 

 

 

 

Further notes:

 

1. Make an early start on your assignment and make a plan for completing the report tasks. You will note in the delivery schedule that different sessions can be useful in completing different tasks.

 

2. Backup your typed work on several drives on regular bases. An extension is unlikely to be granted to anyone claiming to have lost their work through disk failure, printer failure, etc.

 

3. Use relevant references throughout the assignment and provide a list of these at the end of the assignment, using Harvard referencing style.

 

4. Please append all extra materials, and refer to them clearly in the assignment body, g. – “please refer to Table 1 in Appendix 1”.

 

5. Keep an electronic copy of your assignment should your tutor request it. Also should your disk get misplaced, etc.