Managing Marketing
Assignment briefing June and September 2013
Andrew Sherratt
Senior Examiner
Professional Diploma
Presentation Objectives
• To explain the requirements of the assignment options
• To improve your ability to prepare your submission for the assignment in
order to increase likelihood of passing
• To enable you to plan your work for the assignment
Assignment options
1. Improving Information for Marketing
– Investigate current information available for supporting marketing
activities to enable recommendations to be made for improvements
to information for the future.
2. Developing the Role of the Operational Marketing Manager
– Development of operational marketing through changes to the
structure and team involved in marketing to bring benefits to the
organisation.
Common requirements
• Executive summary
– A summary of the actual content which has been included in the
report
– 500 words maximum, excluded from word count
• Report format
– Professional, formal report suitable for presentation to the senior
management team
– Does need referencing for any concepts included
• Description of the marketing function/department
– 1 sides A4 maximum plus department structure diagram
Assignment Option One
• Improving Information for Marketing
– Broad interpretation of information covering formal and
informal sources, considering all the information which is
available to support marketing activities
– Evaluation of the team involved in the generation of
information and management activities for the team
involved to improve information for marketing
– Performance measurement and budgets for information
to ensure it is cost effective in the future.
Improving Information for Marketing
• Task One
– Audit of information sources used for marketing purposes
– Productivity analysis of the information process
• Task Two
– Team involved in information generation
– Changes needed to provide the required information
– Team management issues
• Task Three
– Potential team conflict and overcoming causes
– Change management for resolution of conflict in the team
Improving Information for Marketing
• Task Four
– Performance measurement and management standards
– Measuring plans against the standards
– Internal marketing for information management
• Task Five
– Critical evaluation of information for budgets
– Internal and external data sources
• Task Six
– Development of system to monitor, evaluate and report on financial
performance of information activities
– Performance standards to improve performance
Improving Information for Marketing
• Overall requirement is to demonstrate
– Audit current information sources
– Evaluate the team involved in information generation whilst
recommending improvements
– Conflict identification and resolution
– Performance measurement of the team with internal marketing plans
– Critical evaluation of information sources for budgeting
– Monitoring financial performance of marketing information activities
Assignment Option Two
• Developing the Role of the Operational Marketing Manager
– Enhancing the recognition of the marketing function in the
organisation
– Developing the structure and team involved with marketing to
develop operational management
– Building a business case for the changes required and on-going
activities after implementation
– Personal Development Plan for the operational marketing manager
Developing the Role of the Operational
Marketing Manager
• Task One
– Evaluate difference between management and leadership
– Current role of the operational marketing manager
• Task Two
– Critically evaluate current organisation structure for delivering
marketing with recommendations for improvement
• Task Three
– Establishing and building the marketing team
– Sourcing appropriate team
Developing the Role of the Operational
Marketing Manager
• Task Four
– Prepare a budget to develop the role of operational marketing
– Evaluate information sources for the budget
• Task Five
– Establish systems to monitor financial performance of operational
marketing with the revised role
– Standards of performance to compare budget with actual
• Task Six
– Personal development plan for the operational marketing manager
– Business case for the recommendations
Developing the Role of the Operational
Marketing Manager
• Overall requirement is to demonstrate
– Management v leadership with current situation
– Ability of the current structure to deliver marketing and recommended
changes
– Building a team to improve operational marketing performance
– Budget for recommended changes
– Performance monitoring systems for the recommendations
– Business case for implementation
Good assignments
• Answer the requirements given in the brief for all tasks
• Apply theory well to the specific context of the organisation
and the area being discussed
• Demonstrate depth of thinking in terms of the implications of
proposals made (or what happened for option one)
• Give justified recommendations after evaluation of options
• Are professionally presented
• Promote the profession of marketing as a substantial
contributor to organisation success
A final common requirement for the
briefs