Assessment Overview

All students are required to work, initially in groups of 5 or 6 students then individually, to identify and solve a marketplace issue, which could be industry or market based. There will be a number of issues presented to you in weeks 1 and 2, from a ‘real world’ client. You will form groups and confirm which one of the issues presented will be the focus of your project. You will then, as a group prepare a proposal and then collect relevant information and apply appropriate marketing theories to examine the current situation. You then have the option to do your analysis as a group or as an individual (or a mix), regardless of which approach you take as an individual you will then develop managerially sound business recommendations that address the issues that you have identified.  You should be guided by the evaluation criteria set out below and the learning objectives for this assessment element.

In order to fully justify the recommendations that you make, you will be required to:

1. Explain the data (primary and/or secondary) that your group has used to develop your assessment of the current business/market/environmental situation and justify the collection techniques for, analysis of, and limitations of these data.

2. Discuss the theories that support your project, and their relationship with the data that you have collected. You must also critique their applicability to the business situation under examination and explain how they help you to make business decisions.

3. Relate your recommendations to your assessment of the current situation, the theories that you have chosen to apply, and the data that you have collected and analysed.