Assignment 3: Background Report

Now that you have learned about the basic concepts and the need for marketing in today’s changing environment, select an existing publically owned company for which you would like to use as the basis for your research throughout this course.

View the link Public Companies for a comprehensive list of publicly traded companies.

The assignments throughout the course will focus on the application of different marketing principles and concepts to a company you choose.

This will entail mapping the company’s business operations to the requirements of the different assignments, finding advertisements on the company’s products, and searching for any recent press releases, so it is recommended that you gain an in-depth knowledge of the operations of the company you have selected.

Over the span of the course, you will gather information from a number of probable sources. Some of the sources may include, but are not limited to, the Internet, public libraries, business magazines, newspapers, the Harvard Business Review, the Wall Street Journal, annual reports, consultant/industry analyst reports, databases, Department of Commerce publications, Temple and other university libraries, trade and academic journals, Moody’s, Value Line, etc.

You may be surprised and overwhelmed by the volume of information that is available for many topics, though you may have to do some “detective work” to locate them.

You may find Web sites such as Hoovers.com and Lexis-Nexis extremely helpful.

Select a publically owned company and develop a three- to four-page background report on the company.

Your report will contain background information on your selected organization and their product or service offerings.

Be sure to include:

1. A description of the organization and their current products and/or services.

1. The company locations, both national and international, in which the organization operates.

1. A thorough historical background summation of the company, including when it first began operations.

1. On the company’s Web site you should be able to access the company’s financial records shared with their investors. This may be located in the annual report section of their Web site. Discuss your overall impression of the company’s financial status based on your observation of their financial records.

1. Be sure to include the company’s mission statement along with your interpretation of what that mission statement tells you about the company and its concern for its employees and for its customers.

Apply current APA standards for writing style to your work.

Use the following file-naming convention: LastnameFirstInitial_M1_A3.doc. For example, if your name is John Smith, your document will be named SmithJ_M1_A3.doc.

By Wednesday, February 12, 2014 deliver your assignments to the M1: Assignment 3 Dropbox.

Assignment 1: Whistleblowing and Sarbanes-Oxley Due

Week 3 and worth 100 points

Use the Internet or Strayer Library to research instances of whistleblowing in publicly traded companies within the last 12 months.

Write a two to three (2-3) page paper in which you:

1. Describe the key characteristics of a whistleblower, and briefly summarize one (1) researched instance of whistleblowing in one (1) publicly traded company within the last 12 months. Include the details of the issue that the whistleblower reported and the effect of the whistleblower’s actions on both the whistleblower himself and the company.
2. Decide whether or not the whistleblower was justified in reporting the company’s actions. Provide a rationale for your response.
3. Examine the extent to which the whistleblower would be protected under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Justify your response.
4. Use at least two (2) quality resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia is not an acceptable reference and proprietary Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

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.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Determine the underlying causes for passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and determine protections afforded to whistleblowers.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in law, ethics, and corporate governance.
• Write clearly and concisely about law, ethics, and corporate governance using proper writing mechanics.

From the start of this course, you have accessed the Interactive Marketing Plan tool and used the step-by-step guide to complete Part C of your marketing plan. You are required to submit a marketing plan for a hypothetical product-based company. Your plan must include the company’s social media strategy, and information collected from Steps 6-7 of the Interactive Marketing Plan, located in the course shell. Note: Some elements may not be covered in the Interactive Marketing Plan and will require additional research.

Note: You may create and / or make all necessary assumptions needed for the completion of this assignment.

Write a six to seven (6-7) page paper in which you:

1. Develop the company’s branding, pricing, and distribution strategy.
2. Provide the following marketing strategy information:
   1. Classify the company’s major competitors as inter- or intra-competitors. Categorize the competitors’ major strengths and weaknesses.
   2. Develop the differentiation strategy in relation to the closest competitor.
   3. Establish whether the company’s intention is to be a leader or follower within the industry.
   4. Assess the level of impact that the salient macro-environmental issues (e.g., legal, technological, social, and economic, etc.) and trends with which the company must contend could potentially have on the company’s marketing strategy.
   5. Discuss the marketing research tools that you used in your marketing strategy.
3. Construct an implementation strategy for your hypothetical company in which you specify the essential activities and responsibilities. Include a timetable for completion of each component of your strategy.
4. Develop a five (5) year expansion plan that includes future profitability and market share growth. Include necessary graphs to explain your plan.
5. Specify two (2) social media and / or media tools that you would use as you develop your plan. Justify each of your chosen tools.
6. Choose two (2) performance standards, two (2) monitory methods, and two (2) financial controls that you would implement that differ from the standards that you had provided in Assignment 1. Justify your choices.
7. Assess the potential for your company’s overall performance in relation to the marketing plan objectives.
8. Suggest the integrated marketing communications that are most relevant for your marketing plan. Relate each marketing communication to your company’s advertising strategy.
9. Use at least five (5) academic resources that address sustainability and monitoring of effective marketing plans and determine the applicability for your hypothetical company. These resources should be industry specific and relate to your chosen product / service. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

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.

The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are:

• Develop strategies to assess performance and achieve marketing goals.
• Develop pricing strategies and distribution channels for products.
• Analyze integrated marketing communications and its relationship to advertising strategy.
• Evaluate marketing research tools involved in the marketing process.
• Use technology and information resources to research issues in marketing management.
• Write clearly and concisely about marketing management using proper writing mechanics.

• The assignment: (2–3 pages)

  • Identify the policy area that you selected.
  • Describe the online resources that you think are the most useful for researching the policy area that you selected and explain why.
  • Describe the online resources that you think are the least useful for researching the policy that you selected and explain why.
  • As a result of completing this assignment, explain at least one insight you had or conclusion you drew about using online resources for legal research.

  Support your Application Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are asked to provide a reference list only for those resources not included in the Learning Resources for this course

   

  • There are numerous benefits to using online resources for policy research, but there also are many potential drawbacks, particularly if those resources are free. While an unprecedented amount of information is available at the click of a mouse, it might be incomplete, unedited, or unfiltered. The absence of an organized flow of information makes it difficult to determine whether the information you find is accurate.

    Criteria for evaluating online resources vary depending on your research needs. When conducting legal research, you should look for the following attributes and select the resources that best match your needs: authority (author/publisher); purpose; currentness; and objectivity/bias. For example, if a government entity puts information online, then it likely has strong authority, but you may still need to check on how current the information is.

    To prepare for this assignment:

    • Review the assigned pages of Chapter 8 in your course text, Legal Research Methods. Pay particular attention to appropriate uses of the Internet as a tool for legal research. Also note the differences between fee-based online services versus free websites.
    • Select a policy area that interests you (e.g., education, healthcare, etc.).
    • Utilize all of the following free online resources, which organize information according to topic or subject, to search for information about your selected policy area:
    • • Cornell: Legal Information Institute
      • WashLaw
      • MegaLaw
    • During your search, note any benefits or drawbacks of each resource. Think about which online resources were the most or least useful.