Marketing

Simulation: Managing Segments and Customers

BUS 656: Marketing Strategy and Planning
Professor Joe Cannon

Overview

In this simulation, you are the newly appointed CEO of Minnesota Micromotors, Inc. (MM), a $12 million manufacturer
of motors for orthopedic medical devices. You are responsible for determining the companys marketing strategy. This
includes its go-to-market approach (primarily sales-force deployment and distribution-channel strategy) and
associated elements of product policy, including pricing and market positioning of the companys medical device
motor line.


You will need to make critical decisions about how marketing resources, such as sales force time and market research
funds, should be allocated. You will also need to determine how MM will meet the needs of the market and its
intended customer base. In doing so, you should understand how market segments value MMs product offering, and
whether and how MMs positioning, relative to segment needs and behaviors should change.

The simulation is to be run individually or in a team of two. If you choose to do it as a team of two, I suggest that
teammates plan to be together for running the simulation (which could take 2-3 hours). It is possible to share a
computer screen at a distance and if you are comfortable with that process, you can work as a distance team. If that
will be a technical challenge for you, then go ahead and complete the activity individually.


Learning Objectives

The simulation allows you the opportunity to pull together your thinking around a range of marketing strategy
decisions, including but not limited to:
Understanding the link between marketing strategy formulation and effective implementation and execution
Using segment/customer needs analysis to make product design decisions and associated tradeoffs
Understanding segmentation, targeting, and positioning
Learning more about setting and changing prices
Learning more about channel conflict and maintaining consistency across multiple go-to-market channels
Appreciating the importance of fine-tuning marketing strategy to match changes in the market over time
Using hard and soft metrics to measure firm performance
Responding to competitive actions and reactions
Tradeoffs between customer acquisition and retention
Distinguishing among various costs in sales, marketing, and production
Appreciating the relationships among customer satisfaction, customer buying patterns, customer loyalty, and
firm profitability

Think about these objectives as you run the simulation. If you know what to look for, you might perform better and
learn more.


Activities

There are four main activities in the simulation and they parallel to the marketing strategy process.
1. Analysis There are three resources you can analyze before running the simulation
Watch the videos in the simulations Prepare tab. Start with the Introduction video and then review
the different customer videos.
Read the foreground reading (see RamCT or simulation Prepare tab), The Orthopedic Motor Market:
Minnesota Micromotors, Inc., and Brushless Motor Technology case study.
Review the How to Play guide (see RamCT or simulation Prepare tab), a series of 7 PowerPoint slides
which tell you how the simulation works. On slide three, that slide refers to 1. Foreground Reading
which is the case described above, and also refers to a video

2.

3.

4.

Planning planning will involve creating a brief-style write-up (see details in Deliverables below).
This write-up should be completed before you start running the simulation but after you have read the
Minnesota Micromotors case and after you have explored the workings of the simulation.
Implementation this involves actually running the simulation.
You can run the simulation up to five times.
On average, students take about 45 minutes to run the simulation the first time. Subsequent runs get
faster, and running five simulations will take about 2-2.5 hours. More deliberative students and student
teams will take longer. Be prepared.
I suggest running the simulation three times using the recommendation and two alternatives you
outlined in your case brief. Then, based on what you have learned, run two additional strategies in an
effort to maximize your score. You will see your score after you complete a full run of the simulation.
Simulation scores are based on customer satisfaction (30%), market share (10%), cumulative profit
(40%), and cumulative revenue (20%). Only your highest score will count toward your grade.
Last year the average high score was about 61. The top score in the class was 85.
Control in marketing strategy, control includes monitoring and evaluating how your strategy is performing.
You will engage in this activity in two ways.
First, during each run of the simulation, you should review the data and feedback you receive so that you
can adapt your strategy with information on how well it performs.
Second, you should reflect on each run of the simulation and use that experience to guide your next
strategy.

Deliverables

There are two deliverables that you should put into a single document.
1. Mini Case Brief (60 points) before your first run of the simulation, you should prepare a case brief that will
serve as your plan for the simulation. The case brief should only include:
Alternatives two unchosen alternatives with pros/cons analysis. The alternatives should include a brief
one sentence or headline description of your strategy, followed by a one paragraph (or series of bullets)
that offers a more detailed description, and then pro/con analysis. Include a proper Mason-Mitroff
conclusion for each unchosen alternative.
Recommendation your first choice strategy with same elements as described above under alternatives.
Implementation plan Details on how you will implement your recommendation (not for each unchosen
alternative). This should take into account the elements of the simulation over which you have control
so be sure you understand that. We expect this section to be more detailed than a normal case brief.
Each section is worth 20 points using the criteria we have used for evaluating case briefs.
MAXIMUM LENGTH of this part is TWO PAGES.
NOTE: there is NO problem statement, NO situation analysis, NO extras or spreadsheet. While I
encourage you to perform that analysis on your own, you do NOT need to report it in the case brief.
2. Post Hoc Assessment (40 points mostly based on your highest simulation score, but also your presentation
and assessment). This is your teams summary of each run of the simulation. We would like to see it
presented in a format like that shown below. Create a table with the five headings.
Maximum length of this section is ONE PAGE. Be concise. Choose words carefully.

Combine both of these elements (the case brief and post hoc assessment) into a single document for submission
through SafeAssign.

Strategy
More detail
Adaptations
Post-Hoc Assessment
Results
Become the
This plan focused on driving Over time our strategy was This strategy performed quite
62
dominant low- down manufacturing and
adapted in response to the well on customer satisfaction
end, low price marketing costs by
following
and market share, but failed to
player by
We also focused on XXX
achieve our objectives on. We
charging
market segment and
attributed this to
adapted the strategy by
Strategy 2