The Marketing Game!
Preface
We are indeed excited about
this new second edition of The Marketing Game! And we hope you will be too. It includes
many new innovations and improvements that build on the success of our original
simulation.
Eight years ago, we started
work on the first edition of The Marketing Game! Our aspiration was not just to improve on
other competitive marketing simulations that had been available in the past, but rather to
pioneer a new generation of simulations. We wanted the game to be flexible, so it would
effectively serve a wide variety of marketing teaching and learning needs, from the most
basic to the most sophisticated. We wanted it to be the best simulation in the world, and
at the same time the easiest to use so it would be attractive to people who had never
previously considered teaching with a simulation. We wanted to design it to be rich in
student interest and realism, and yet to create a strategy planning environment where
random events would not mask the relationship between good decisions and results achieved.
No one leams anything in situations like that, but they were all too typical of most
simulations. We also wanted participants both to have fun and be challenged analyzing the
results of the simulation and planning new strategies, while at the same time making it
fast and easy for instructors to diagnose how participants were progressing. In sum, our
wish list in preparing the first edition of the game appeared to represent a tall order!
It is indeed gratifying that
the game has proved so successful and that students and instructors alike have been
enthusiastic about what we achieved toward our original objectives. At the same time,
creative colleagues at hundreds of colleges, universities, and companies who had worked
with the first edition of the game for a number of years came up with a host of great
ideas on ways to make it even better. We are grateful to the many students and faculty who
have shared suggestions, criticisms and ideas about ways to improve or update this student
manual, the student and instructor software, and the other instructor materials that
accompany the simulation. Our most ardent supporters and loyal users have often been our
best critics!
In the spirit of the first
edition, this new second edition of The Marketing Game! is designed to provide the basis
for a high-involvement learning experience. It's fun. But it is also challenging. The
focus is on effective marketing strategy planning in a competitive environment. It gives
you the opportunity to analyze markets and target market needs. You make decisions in a
number of strategy decision areas to develop a marketing plan that satisfies your target
market and earns a profit for your firm. If you wish, you can use the PLAN software that
comes with this manual to more easily and quickly evaluate the budget and financial
implications of your strategy.
It has been a priority to
make the simulation and the market environment realistic. Firms compete by developing and
marketing one or more software products and supporting customers with service
after-the-sale. Marketing managers select and focus on target markets from among a variety
of business and consumer segments and reach their targets with different channels.
Promotion including personal selling, advertising and sales promotion must consider
middlemen and final customers. Prices must be set to offer customers the value they seek
and yield profits for the firm. The simulation starts in the growth stage of the product
life cycle and continues into market maturity. R&D decisions make it possible to
modify the produces) over time to better meet customer needs and competitive challenges.
The game can continue for as many decision periods as the instructor desires. The
instructor also has a variety of optional ways to "set up" or adjust the market
environment to meet specific teaching and learning objectives.
Both the text and computer
simulation have been carefully written to build on the marketing strategy planning
framework and the 4Ps organization pioneered by E. Jerome McCarthy. This organization is
used in Basic Marketing most widely used text in marketing. But, importantly, it has been
adopted and used in almost every other marketing text. Moreover, because this framework
really works, it has become the cornerstone of marketing strategy planning in most firms.
By building on this standard we ensure that the simulation will work well in a variety of
learning and teaching situations and with students who have different levels of knowledge
and experience whether the students are just learning about marketing or are seasoned
executives.
In fact, this flexibility is
possible because the game is not based on just one simulation, but several simulations
within one integrated framework. It has been specially designed so that the instructor can
select the number of decision areas and increase the number of decision areas (and thus
the difficulty level) over time. This innovation, introduced with the first edition of the
game, is one reason the game has quickly became one of the most widely used marketing
simulations in the world. It is why the game works well whether it is used with senior
executives in management development programs, with undergraduate and graduate students in
the first marketing course, or with students in electives such as marketing strategy and
product management.
One of the key advantages of
using a simulation rather than some other realistic learning approach such as case
discussions or industry studies-is that it provides immediate feedback. Even in the real
world feedback is often slow and mistakes can certainly be very costly. In contrast, with
a well-designed simulation, strategies can be formulated and then tested and refined over
time. The experience and learning that result are cumulative.
We have designed The
Marketing Game! to ensure that these pedagogical benefits are realized. It is set in a
dynamic market environment. Thus, a poor decision early in the competition does not
frustrate the learning process or leave a student/manager with poor results from then on.
New decision periods bring opportunity for new successes. And firms with early successes
can't coast on their laurels, but must constantly "earn" their customers'
business. Thus, there is ample opportunity to learn from both successes and mistakes.
In addition, this is not a
narrowly defined market in which success by one firm dooms others to failure. There are a
number of different types of opportunities to pursue. Each firm can develop its own
effective and profitable marketing strategy. As in the real world, the marketing manager
in the game decides whether to compete head-on with other firms or pursue a niche with
less competition. Either way, however, good decisions produce good results. As simple as
that sounds, it is perhaps the single greatest strength of this simulation and where so
many others fall short.
Moreover, this is not a
"zero sum" game one in which one competitor must lose for another one to win.
While many other simulations rely on the assumptions of zero sum competition, we believe
that approach fails to consider the pedagogical reasons for using a simulation in the
first place. It simply doesn't make sense to assume that if one student participant does a
good job that another must be doing a bad job. In The Marketing Game!, good work and smart
decisions are reinforced with good outcomes and that reinforces the learning process for
everyone involved.
A marketing budget for each
firm in each period highlights the trade-offs among marketing expenditures that marketing
managers must make when developing a marketing strategy. A "smart" marketing
strategy must be based on a marketing mix that is consistent with target market needs but
that doesn't mean that it must be a high-cost strategy.
The text includes budget
planning and marketing strategy forms that help develop skills in analyzing alternative
marketing plans. These can be used by themselves or in combination with the accompanying
PLAN software, which is discussed in Appendix A at the end of this text.
There is a very complete
Instructor's Manual to Accompany The Marketing Gomel The manual gives many suggestions to
help make the simulation a successful teaching/learning experience for instructors and
students alike.
We have made hundreds of
revisions and improvements in the simulation software, the instructor materials, and in
this book. We won't catalog all of the changes here. After all, a long "what's
new" list probably isn't relevant for most students who are participating in the game
for the first time. But instructors who have used the game in the past will find a
detailed list of the changes at the beginning of the revised instructor's manual.
Our students and hundreds of
our colleagues from around the world who teach with the game report that The Marketing
Game! is an exciting and integrating learning experience. Our sincere hope is that you
will have the same reaction.
180 + DISC