Introduction to Marketing

The Introduction to Marketing simulation exposes participants to all aspects of modern marketing. It allows your students to develop and execute a complete marketing strategy, including brand design, pricing, ad copy design, media placement, distribution, and sales force management. Throughout the exercise, students receive information on customer needs as well as a feedback on customer satisfaction with brands, prices and advertising. They discover how their actions reflect in both brand profitability and firm profitability. They will learn to prepare sales projections and analyze simple accounting statements. They will study competitive tactics and adjust their marketing strategy to stay ahead of the competition. Storyline Students receive an interesting challenge - to lead a new marketing division of an established, large bicycle company. The division's task is to create a business around innovative technologies: a more economical form of carbon fiber and an advanced 3D printer that uses the new material to efficiently build a bike frame of any size and shape. This enables strong, lightweight bikes that are tailored to the size and usage of each customer. The fabrication equipment can be set up in regular warehouses local to where the bike shops are built. This distributed manufacturing allows the new division to eliminate most of the inventory that would otherwise be held, thus reducing the costs of distribution.