2008 Annual Kellogg Marketing
Competition Handbook
Platinum Sponsor:
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AKMC 2008 Handbook
Table of Contents
What is Annual Kellogg Marketing Competition?..............................................................3
Calendar of Events………………………………………………………….………………………………………………….4
Rules………………………………………………………………………………………….…….…………..…………….…… 5
Promotional Tools Description……………………………………………………….………..……………………… 8
Marketing Basics: STP/4P……………………………………………………………………..………………………….10
Contacts………………….………………………………………………………………………………………………………12
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What is the Annual Kellogg Marketing Competition
AKMC is an annual event dedicated to giving first years a chance to use their skills and creativity
to work on a marketing campaign from beginning to end. Students form teams of 5 and apply
to the competition. 13 selected teams draft products and create a full marketing campaign
around them, culminating in a special AKMC TG November 7th, where each team sells 500 units
of their product.
Teams apply the frameworks they learn in MKTG 430 to a real marketing campaign. Scoring is
divided equally among:



The marketing campaign plan presentation, as judged by current brand managers of
premier retail and CPG companies
Campaign execution, judged by fellow students through a survey to the school
The final sale during TG, as judged by units sold and highest overall margin
The AKMC provides participants a great chance to show recruiters their interest in marketing,
and gives participants a great opportunity to develop stories to share during interviews. Most
importantly, AKMC is regarded as one of the most exciting and fun events at Kellogg!
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Competition Calendar of Events
October-November, 2008
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Rules of the Game
General Rules
Once teams have been assigned a product they are responsible for contacting their brand
manager. Teams cannot receive any promotional materials from the brand team beyond the
logo provided from the Marketing Competition Committee contact.
Teams cannot discuss their campaign ideas with 2nd years. The competition is about creativity
and assembling a campaign from beginning to end. The committee doesn’t want teams to
“anchor” themselves to ideas from previous years at the expense of new ideas this year.
Most importantly, have fun!
The Marketing Competition is divided into three stages: the STP presentation, the campaign
period, and the final TG event. Below are details on each:
STP Presentations
Teams will present their segmentation, targeting, and positioning (STP) plan, as well as tactics
they intend to use to execute their strategy. Each team will present their STP plans to a panel
of judges. You will receive feedback within a few days of the presentation. Although you will
not be able to revise these presentations for scoring purposes, feedback can be incorporated
into your promotional material execution.
Campaign Period: Promotion and Marketing Rules
Each team will receive 100 PROMO Bid Points for its promotions. These PROMO bid points will
be spent on promotional activities (see below in Promotional Tools).
Teams are also permitted to spend $100 (real money), which will be reimbursed at the end of
the competition. Teams are not allowed to spend more than $100 total for competition-related
items.
Guidelines for what you can and cannot buy include:
 Items used for producing competition materials, but that are not physically present in
the school or at the TG, will not be counted in the budget (eg. paper cutter, computer,
etc.)
 Anything that is physically in the school and/or at the TG (beyond just your team
members and their normal clothing) will count against your $100 budget unless
approved by the co-chairs
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
Items that you currently own or can get access to without paying for will generally not
be counted, provided that said object will not cause an unfair advantage for the team.
In other words, items that other teams could not reasonably attain will not be counted.
 For example, costumes that you own or can borrow free of charge will be
approved. Abnormally large donations will not be approved (such as a PS2, use
of the Bud girls, etc.)
These rules apply to both the promotional period and the TG event. Make sure you keep all
receipts, you’ll need them for reimbursement! Don’t forget to use the tax-exempt form.
Northwestern will not reimburse money spent on taxes.
Posting Rules
Only approved material may be posted.
Authorized posters must have an “Authorized” stamp. Post and promote only what, where, and
how you have been authorized to post and promote. (Honor Code applies). Promotions will
take place on the ground floor of Jacobs Center and in all Jacobs Center bathrooms.
Promotions cannot be posted on wood, paint, or glass (including mirrors). No postings are
allowed in the following:
1) Anywhere above ground level, except for bathrooms
2) Class/study/group rooms (including doors)
3) Inside Kafé Kellogg
4) Stairs or stairwells
5) Entrances to Kellogg
6) Floors
Post with blue painter’s tape or masking tape ONLY. Avoid covering plaques containing
important administrative information (room number, room name, etc). And avoid covering
existing publications, including those posted by other teams.
Topics that are off limits are any images, language, or innuendo which would be inappropriate,
distasteful, or adult in nature. (Keep it PG – kids come to TG, as do recruiters, alumni,
prospective students, etc!) Do not include references to alcohol, and NO sexual innuendos!
Also do not include anything that could be perceived as offensive by a subgroup of students. If
you have a question, ASK BEFORE submitting copies of ads for approval. (FYI, several years ago,
one team developed an entire campaign, printed multiple ads, etc, only to be told by the
administration that they had to redo all of their work due to inappropriate content.) Basically,
respect yourself, your classmates, our visitors, and your school.
Campaigning begins at 7:30am on Thursday, October 30th and NOT ONE MINUTE EARLIER.
Teams are only permitted to send competition-related emails to small groups of people (10 or
fewer) – no listservs. You cannot ask other people to send your email to a listserv either. The
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only exception is if the team has purchased the right to email the class listerv. Also keep in
mind that your target audience may not appreciate multiple emails, and may voice their
opinions in the market research survey (see below).
All teams must remove their promotional material on the evening of Wednesday, Nov 5th, by
5pm. Any team that intentionally sabotages another team’s campaign will be automatically
disqualified, will lose their deposit, and will be referred to the Honor Committee. The Kellogg
Honor Code applies.
Teams will be judged based on a market research web-survey to the Kellogg student body
(performed by Kellogg Marketing Competition leadership team) evaluating recall on the teams’
campaigns. Adherence to the rules will also be taken into consideration. Be aware that
competing teams may not take the survey and individuals may only take the survey once.
Final “Selling” Event at Kellogg TG
Each team will receive 100 TG Bid Points for the Friday TG Mega-Mart Event. These TG Bid
Points will be spent on items such as in-store circulars, booth location, etc. Each visitor to the
TG Mega-Mart will be given 20 AKMC Mega-Bucks that they can choose to spend on any of the
products. Teams will be judged by their revenues and profitability and by the event execution
scores as judged by competition judges. Teams are responsible for post-TG cleanup of their
booth area. Also, no messy materials (e.g. sand, water, jell-o) should be used. In addition,
Kellogg prohibits having helium balloons in the atrium, so these cannot be part of your
campaign or booth at TG. And finally, no alcohol can be involved in campaigns or booths, and
awards will be given after the final event.
Disclaimer: Any and all omissions from the rules will be determined on an ad-hoc basis by the
competition co-chairs. The competition co-chairs have the right to interpret the rules as we
deem necessary.
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Promotional Tools
As stated above, teams will have the opportunity to bid on various promotional tools, both
scarce and non-scarce. Teams will bid on scarce tools, then “buy” non-scarce tools after scarce
tools are distributed and unused or losing points returned. Bidding is similar to the Kellogg
class bidding, with the lowest winning bid establishin the amount charged to all of the winning
teams.
Teams do not have to bid on any scarce tools, but they may obviously not bid over 100 points.
A bidding spreadsheet for submission will be distributed separately.
SCARCE Promotional Tools:
Media Options
Instructions
st
1 Floor Posting
Posting on both billboards on 1st Floor of Jacobs. Only one sheet can be
posted per billboard.
Atrium Balcony
Hang a billboard from the Atrium Balcony railings. Billboards can cover
both sides of the entire railing, but cannot go below the surface of first
floor, nor can it be wider than the railings.
Atrium Pillar
Use an Atrium Pillar as a billboard! Your posting can cover as much of
the pillar as you’d like, but can't cover neighboring windows or go above
the bottom edge of the first floor
Club Listserv
A major club’s weekly email will include your ad. Only one team will be
posted per club.
Lunchtime Guerrilla
Take over the Atrium for the lunch break! Events must be approved by
Marketing
co-chairs in advance.
McManus Posting
Posting on McManus notice boards next to elevators. Only one sheet
can be posted per billboard.
Serial Ad
Ad posting on the front-page of Serial for one full day.
Table Tents
Table-top ads on the Atrium tables. Table tents cannot be larger than
one 8.5x11 sheet of paper.
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NON-SCARCE Promotional Tools:
Media Options
$50 for your Budget
Mailbox stuffing
Mass e-mail
Restroom Postings
Viral Email
Website
Wild Postings (Small
Posters)
Instructions
Get an extra $50 to spend on your campaign.
Size of mailbox stuffing materials should be such that students can still
receive materials from other parties. You are allowed to use 3dimensional materials, as long as it does not entirely cover students'
mailboxes.
One email may be sent to the entire school during the campaign period.
You may place five posters in each of your assigned restrooms, as per
the instructions above. Posters must not exceed 8.5”x11”
One email may be sent to ten people. Then hope they pass it on! You
may not explicitly ask them to forward the email.
Create a website for your brand.
Flyer postings almost anywhere on the ground floor. Each sheet must be
8.5”x11”
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Marketing Basics to Get You Started
4Cs: Consumer, Competitor, Company, Collaborator
The 4 C’s are used to identify a market opportunity/entry for a company in a category,
segment, industry, country, etc.
 Consumer analysis: What does the consumer need? Always start with the consumer! If
you can’t show the consumer a need for the product, you will not succeed.
 Competitor analysis: Do competitors exist? How strong are they? How will they react?
 Company analysis: What are your firm’s capabilities? Is the firm able to produce and
deliver the product?
 Collaborators or Channel Partners analysis: Can synergies be gained through working
with retailers, suppliers, distributors, or companies with complementary products.
STP: Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning
Segmentation: Divides the market into distinct groups of buyers with different needs,
characteristics, or behavior. Bases for segmenting the market include:
 Geographic segmentation: Divides market into different geographical units such as
nations, states, regions, counties, cities, or neighborhoods.
 Demographic segmentation: Divides market into groups based on variables such as age,
life-stage, gender, income, family size, occupation, education, religion, race, and
nationality.
 Psychographic segmentation: Divides buyers into different groups based on social class,
lifestyle, or personality characteristics.
 Behavioral segmentation: Divides buyers into groups based on their knowledge,
attitudes, uses, or responses to a product.
Targeting: After evaluating different segments, you must decide which and how many
segments to serve. A target market consists of a set of buyers who share common needs or
characteristics that the company decides to serve.
Positioning: A product’s position is the place the product occupies in the consumers’ minds
relative to competing products. Products may be positioned based on attributes, usage
occasions, users, against a competitor, away from a competitor, or based on product classes.
The classic positioning statement:
To (target market), X is the brand of (frame of reference) that (benefit/point of difference)
because of (product attribute).
“To health conscious women ages 35 – 50, K is the brand of cereal that has a perfect balance of
flavor and health because it is made with wholesome grains and contains 30% of your daily
fiber needs.”
A positioning statement is not limited to products but can be extended to services too:
“To affluent and sophisticated travelers, the X resort is the warm weather vacation experience
that provides the ultimate in relaxation because of our commitment to high quality service and
professional personnel.
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4Ps: Product, Price, Promotion, Placement
Kotler’s 4Ps or Marketing Mix is used in marketing execution/implementation cases such
as in new products launches.
Promotion
· Buying process
· Consumer awareness and interest
· Trial, Repurchase, Loyalty
· Select sales (Pull versus Push) Pull = advertising /
Push = discounts to merchandisers
· Advertising medium (reach and frequency)
· Direct selling
· Sales promotions – incentives to consumers,
sales force, and channel members
· Public relations
Placement (Distribution Channel)
· Channels (consider level of sales and
margins desired)
· Coverage (trade off between coverage
and costs)
· Inventory – levels, turnover, carrying
costs
· Transportation – alternatives,
efficiencies, costs
Price
· Retail and discounts
· Strategy: MR = MC, skim, penetrate
· Economies of scale vs. profit margin
· Perceived value vs. cost plus margin
· Economic incentives to channel
· Establishing barriers to entry
Product
· Features and capabilities
· Positioning decisions and market
segmentation
· Differentiated vs. commodity
· Quality, service, variations in product
· Brand strength
· Service and warranties
· Future strategy
Porter’s 5 Forces
The 5 Forces will be covered in greater detail in your Management and Strategy course. A
general overview:
 Buyer power: bargaining power of buyers.
 Supplier power: bargaining power of suppliers.
 Substitutes: threat of substitute products or services.
 Potential entrants: threat of new entrants. What sort of barriers to entry exists?
 Rivalry: competitiveness of industry players.
Profitability
· Profit = Volume * Price – Cost
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Questions? Contact us!
Name
Email
Tonya Fenske
tfenske2009@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Blaire Fraser
bfraser2009@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Blake Hamill
bhamill2009@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Alissa Menovich
amenovich2009@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Alix Reisinger
areisinger2009@kellogg.northwestern.edu
Aviva Tropp
atropp2009@kellogg.northwestern.edu
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