Divide into six teams. Each team will be responsible for one of the following industries: entertainment; pharmaceuticals; computers and software; financial, legal, or accounting services; agriculture; and textiles and apparel. Interview one or more executives in each of these industries to determine how the Uruguay Round and NAFTA have affected and will affect their organizations. If a local firm cannot be contacted in your industry, use the library and the Internet to prepare your report?

Form six teams. Each team is responsible for one of the uncontrollable elements in the marketing environment. Your boss, the company president, has asked each team to provide a one-year and a five-year forecast of what major trends the firm will face. The firm is in the telecommunications equipment industry. It has no plans to become a telecommunications service provider, for example, Verizon and AT&T. Each team should use the library, the Internet, and other data sources to make its forecasts. Each team should examine a minimum of one data source. The team should then pool its data and prepare its recommendation. A spokesperson for each team should present the findings to class?

Divide the class into teams of five. Each team will be assigned a different grocery store from a different chain. (An independent is fine.) Appoint a group leader. The group leaders should meet as a group and pick fifteen nationally branded grocery items. Each item should be specifically described as to brand name and size of the package. Each team will then proceed to its assigned store and collect price data on the fifteen items. The team should also gather price data on fifteen similar store brands and fifteen generics, if possible. Each team should present its results to the class and discuss why there are price variations between stores, national brands, store brands, and generics. 

As a next step, go back to your assigned store and share the overall results with the store manager. Bring back the manager’s comments and share them with the class?

Do you think it is likely that America will ever see someone like Ron Popeil in the future? Why or why not?

Divide the class into teams of eight persons. Each team will conduct a focus group on the quality and number of services that your college is providing to its students. One person from each group should be chosen to act as moderator. Remember, it is the moderator’s job to facilitate discussion, not to lead the discussion. These groups should last approximately 45 minutes. If possible, the groups should be videotaped or recorded. Upon completion, each group should write a brief report of its results. Consider offering to meet with the dean of students to share the results of your research?

Contests and sweepstakes are very common in the entertainment industry. Radio stations have contests almost weekly (some daily); local television morning shows quiz viewers on trivia; even movies offer sweepstakes in conjunction with film previews and premiere nights. Think of a television or radio program unlikely to have contests or sweepstakes (things like Cops, The View, Scooby Doo, or your local classical music radio station, for example). Once you have chosen your program, design a contest or sweepstake to promote the show or the channel on which it airs. List the objectives and describe the rationale behind each part of your promotion?

Is it possible to identify a single market for two distinctly different products? For example, how substantial is the market comprised of consumers who use Apple and who drive Volkswagens? Can you think of other product combinations that would interest a single market? (Do not use products that are complementary, like a bike and a bike helmet. Think of products, like the iPod and the car, that are very different.) Complete the following sentences and describe the market for each set of products you pair together.

Consumers of:

Propel fitness water could also be a target market for ______________.

Proactiv Solution skin care products could also be a target market for ______________.

Alienware computers could also be a target market for ______________.

Specialty luggage tags could also be a target market for _______________.

Form a team of three classmates to identify the different retail stores in your city where pet supplies are sold. Include non-store forms of retailing, such as catalogs, the Internet, or the local veterinarian. Team members should divide up and visit all the different retailing outlets for pet supplies. Prepare a report describing the differences in brands and products sold at each of the retailing formats and the differences in store characteristics and service levels. For example, which brands are sold via mass merchandisers, independent specialty stores, or other venue? Suggest why different products and brands are distributed through different types of stores.

Form a three-person team. Divide the responsibility for getting newspaper advertisements and menus for several local restaurants. While you are at the restaurants to obtain copies of their menus, observe the atmosphere and interview the manager to determine what he or she believes are the primary reasons people chose to dine with them. Pool your information and develop a table comparing the restaurants in terms of convenience of location, value for the money, food variety and quality, atmosphere, and so on. Rank the restaurants in terms of their appeal to college students. Explain the basis of your rankings. What other market segments would be attracted to the restaurants and why? Do the newspaper advertisements emphasize the most effective appeal for a particular restaurant? Explain.

Choose a partner from the class and go together to interview the owner or manager of several small businesses in your city. Ask them what their promotional objectives are and why. For example, are they trying to inform, persuade, or remind customers to do business with them? Also determine if they believe they have an awareness problem or whether they need to persuade customers to come to them instead of competitors. Ask them to list the characteristics of their primary market, the strengths and weaknesses of their direct competitors, and how they are positioning their store to compete. Prepare a report to present in class summarizing your findings.