Bangor harvard referencing

BANGOR UNIVERSITY

AND

MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE OF SINGAPORE

Course : Master of Business Administration in International

Marketing

(MIMD5 1709A (T2) / MIMD5 1710A (T1))

Module Code and Title : ASB4439 International Marketing

Module Tutors : Dr Richard Tan Chee Beng

Assessment : Group Assignment

Due Date : 5 January 2018

Duration / Word Length : 3,000 words (+/-10%)

Weighting within Module : 60% (100 marks)

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTION: You are to imagine that you represent the market implementation group of an existing multinational corporation, (that is head-quartered in Asia), that is deciding to enter a new country (this could be in any part of the world). Your responsibilities, as a group, are to: 1. Chose a foreign country to enter for the existing multinational corporation, 2. To develop an international marketing plan for (1) and to submit this plan in a written

format. To ensure you only focus on relevant areas, conduct your analysis in the content of the impact the environmental forces will have on key components of your marketing strategy, e.g. potential target markets, the 4P’s and positioning strategies. If an environmental issue does not impact on any of these areas, it is not relevant and therefore should not be included in the plan. Ensure that you supplement these areas with a rich variety of other relevant academically referenced sources. If the country’s Asian origin poses some advantages or challenges, discuss these as well, citing how you will surmount the challenges or exploit the advantages, if any. No primary research is to be undertaken.

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GROUP FORMATION: Group membership is via self-selection with the following 3 conditions. Each group must comprise:  C1: 4 students,  C2: at least 1 female and at least 1 male member,  C3: a minimum of 1 Chinese and 1 Indian in any group.

In case of difficulty in meeting these conditions, consult your MDIS lecturer. Note:

• If you fail to participate in a group you will nevertheless be expected to complete the assignment.

• If one of your team members has special circumstances, the MDIS lecturer expects submission on time along with medical evidence of illness or any other evidence for the special circumstance for that particular group member.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES: All group members should approve all sections of the work submitted. Please allocate ONE group member to submit:

• 1 hard copy of the written plan (the report) to Admin Centre, together with: o 1 completed Coversheet, to include the full names and ID/registration

numbers of the remaining group members. o 1 completed Declaration by Students Submitting a Group Assignment Form. o 1 completed Group Contribution Form. All group members must show evidence

of working on the assignment. Examples of activities include but are not limited to: conducting a literature search, preparing slides, searching the internet for examples, organising group meetings and minute keeping.

• Additional requirements (not included in the word count): Students must submit

meeting notes. These should encompass minutes of at least 5 meetings. Meetings can be in person, using Skype or indeed through discussions on social networking sites; no set format is given.

• ONLY 1 electronic copy of the written plan (the report) to Turnitin via Blackboard.

DO NOT submit individual copies as this will cause confusion on Turnitin. Any suspected cases of plagiarism will be reported. Coversheet and declaration and contribution forms are available to download from Blackboard.

Note:

• Avoid submitting work in ways that makes it difficult to mark, for example: over- zealous stapling of pages, using plastic wallets, binders, or files that are difficult to open, and binding pages in such a way that writing in the margins cannot be read.

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THE MARKETING PLAN (written report): The following sub-heading should provide the structure of your plan. 1. Title Page (not included in the word count):

a. Module code and title, b. Word count, c. Names and ID/registration numbers for each group member.

2. Executive Summary:

a. This is the last section written and it should represent your main goals and recommendations. It should be no longer than 1 page.

3. Table of Content to include page numbers for sub-sections (not included in the word count).

4. Company’s mission statement and short profile of the company to include: a. A Brief description of the company, product(s) and current target markets.

5. Country selected – briefly identify the country of intended operations and justification for

its selection, to include: a. Market (size) potential

i. Economic/Legal environment: e.g. GDP, poverty, inflation rate, major imports/exports, distribution of wealth, principle industries, trade restrictions etc.

ii. Cultural environment: languages, religion, family structure, roles of men and women, traditions, education levels etc.

iii. Competitive environment: focus on the company’s direct competitors in the country. Discuss how the company will be positioned relative to the competitors and if there are any concerns.

iv. Physical Infrastructure: relating to ease of logistics. v. Geography: climate and types of areas.

vi. Media/Technology: types available.

6. Entry mode selection: a. Justify your entry mode selection by analysing the strengths and weaknesses of each

and how it relates to the market potential of the country you have selected.

7. Target market, provide an analytical description: a. A reasonably detailed profile of 1 or 2 target markets within the foreign market. b. If this differs greatly from the company’s existing market, explain how the company

will change its strategy to meet the needs of this new market. c. Justify the target market chosen by focusing on the benefits of the company’s

product(s) that will meet the target markets needs.

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8. Positioning strategy, consider: a. The design/redesign of the image of your product(s) to meet the markets identified. b. Your ability to deliver the target market (added) value.

9. Place strategy, consider:

a. The factors, including infrastructure and geography that will affect your choice distribution channels.

b. How are going to manage them?

10. Product strategy, consider: a. Adaptation/standardisation – how would you deal with this issue in specific terms in

regards to your chosen market? 11. Pricing strategy, consider:

a. Justify your selected strategy in relation to the market potential of the country selected.

b. Optimal returns in terms of your marketing objectives; to increase market share or attain maximum profits?

12. Promotional strategy, consider: a. The factors, including media and technology that will affect your choice of the

promotional strategies which will effectively communicate to your potential customers the value of your product(s).

13. Conclusion: summarise your findings and recommendations to include the most pivotal issues you have identified and how you are going to manage them.

14. References and Appendices (not included in the word count). WRITING MECHANISMS:

• Use Times New Roman Font. • Use 1.5 spacing for the main body of the plan. • Number pages. • Word count 3,000 (+/-10%) excluding executive summary, tables, charts, figures,

references and appendices: o Tables, charts, figures, references and appendices must be used appropriately

and referred to within the main body of your plan, they must not be used to circumvent the word count.

o All materials submitted must be readable/assessable as A4 printed material; do not include video, sound or any other form of interactive files.

• Spelling and grammar must be checked to ensure accuracy. • Use Harvard Referencing Guide (available to download from:

http://www.bangor.ac.uk/library/help/documents/harvardreferencingguide.pdf

http://www.bangor.ac.uk/library/help/documents/harvardreferencingguide.pdf

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ASSIGNMENT ADVICE Help with English: Please use the Manchester Academic phrasebook, this phrasebook provides general ideas on phrases that can be used in good academic writing and includes a section on critical writing. http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/ How to Read a Research Paper: An important part of academic writing and research is the process of establishing what is already known about the subject (i.e. what have others already written in the field?) and evaluating this is in some way. You are required to use journal articles in your assignment. Essentially, the journal is an outlet for contemporary thought in a discipline or area, containing peer-reviewed work (research papers), which is often more current than that found in books. When you are forming your presentation, you will find much useful information in research papers, but an important failing in academic writing is the tendency to simply describe what the authors have said/found. It is common for students to report findings on literature in a narrative and descriptive way, without bothering to evaluate it in the context of the research issues being investigated. This is an important cause of indifferent marks in essays. In evaluating you can use your own judgements, or counter arguments presented by other researchers, to do it for you. There are no hard and fast rules for evaluating research papers, and with experience you will improve, but some useful questions to ask when reading and evaluating papers are:

• What have I learned from this paper? What has it told me? • Has the researcher presented any evidence (data/findings) to support his/her theory? • Are the results generalisable to other situations/applications? • What conclusions does the author draw from the findings? Do you agree with them,

or are they over-the-top? • Is there any other explanation or a simpler explanation for what is reported?

Literature Searching: how to find journal articles on a topic An objective of this course is to develop your skills in critically reading and thinking about consumer behaviour. To do this, it is essential you read about the subjects in greater detail than the material covered in class. We expect you to look for articles for you assignments, other than the ones distributed in class. However, it is important that you use your time well, and don’t try to read every paper written on a subject. For this reason, you have to learn how to be strategic in your search for supplementary information about a subject. A good guide on how to search for journal articles is provided on: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/library/help/documents/UsingLibraryEdatabases.pdf How to Handle Citation and References for Written Assignments: the importance of getting your citation and referencing right. Internal and external examiners are invariably impressed by meticulous citation and referencing. It is one of the first things most of us look for in any kind of written assignment,

http://www.phrasebank.manchester.ac.uk/

http://www.bangor.ac.uk/library/help/documents/UsingLibraryEdatabases.pdf

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before we get down to reading the content in detail. What better reasons do you need for using this document to ensure that first impressions of your own work are favourable? A very good guide on how to handle citations and references is provided on: http://www.bangor.ac.uk/library/help/documents/harvardreferencingguide.pdf Terminology: Citation describes any formal mention that you make in a written work of yours to something written by someone else. For formal documents such as continuous assessment assignments, seminar papers or dissertations, every citation must be supported by a reference, which supplies the details a reader would need in order to follow up the citation. As a general rule, you should always cite your source whenever you are reporting on someone else’s work or using their terminology. You will lose no marks for “borrowing”; on the contrary, you are supposed to have read the literature and assimilated the ideas of others. Examiners are usually pretty familiar with the most popular writers on a given subject, and will have a shrewd suspicion your explanation owes something to an undiscovered primary source. You will lose marks for not citing. Inadequate citation could leave you open to the suspicion of plagiarism (which results in a mark of your explanation owes something to an undiscovered primary source. You will lose marks for not citing. Inadequate citation could leave you open to suspicion of plagiarism. Using the Harvard System: When you include a citation (i.e. you want to use someone else’s work), put the year of the publication in brackets, after the author’s name, to signal that it is a citation. The corresponding reference will be found in an alphabetically arranged list at the end of the article, paper or dissertation, in a section headed “References”. There is no need for any other indication. A guide to the Harvard Referencing style is also posted under the assignment section of Blackboard.

END OF ASSIGNMENT

http://www.bangor.ac.uk/library/help/documents/harvardreferencingguide.pdf