Marketing Management Assignment Brief
Blockbuster Entertainment
Introduction
Blockbuster is an American-based provider of home video and video game rental services,
originally through video rental shops (both owned and franchised), later adding DVD-by-mail,
streaming video on demand, and kiosks.
Blockbuster first opened in Dallas, Texas, in 1985. Aggressive growth followed until, at its zenith,
Blockbuster achieved almost 50% share of the US’s gigantic home rental market (Marketing
Week).
The first Blockbuster store in the UK opened in March 1989 (Walworth Road, London).
Blockbuster's goal was to be the destination of choice for movies, games and home entertainment
both in-store and online. In September 2002, Blockbuster UK introduced its online DVD rental
service. This service has grown and now allows customers to have access to almost every DVD
and Blu-ray disc available in the UK.
At its peak in 2009, Blockbuster had up to 60,000 employees. As of January 3, 2010, there were
over 5,000 Blockbuster stores in the U.S. and 17 countries worldwide.
Competition
The fortune of Blockbuster was not to last, and, according to Marketing Week ‘it ignored a tiny
upstart with a different business model. In the middle of the dotcom boom - 1999 - a new rental
firm was launched called Netflix. The company offered a subscription service in which customers
could order DVDs over the phone or internet and have them delivered to their homes. Soon Netflix
augmented that service with internet video streaming of movies for the same basic rental price. By
2003, Netflix had 1 million loyal customers and a 95% share of the online DVD rental space in the
US.’
While the movie giant was having problems in America, they have also faced big competition in
the UK. In 2003, Online Rentals rebranded to LoveFilm and In January 2011, LoveFilm claimed to
have over 1,500,000 members, over 67,000 titles, and over 4 million rentals per month across five
countries. Through a series of mergers and acquisitions, LoveFilm has, in a few years, become
the leading online DVD rental outlet in the UK and across Europe.
Changing Times
Blockbuster suffered a key setback some years ago when it had to curtail the lucrative late fees it
charged customers, in response to competition from mail-order firms that allowed unlimited rental
periods.
It also misunderstood its customers and their behaviour by suggesting that its customers were
more “spur-of-the-moment renters who did not necessarily plan their movie watching in advance”
and so did not consider the internet of a real opportunity for them.
Illegal file sharing
Not only have many online organisations started trading, providing an alternative to Blockbuster,
but illegal downloading has also had a massive impact on the film industry with at least 7 million people in
Britain using illegal downloads, costing the economy billions of pounds and thousands of jobs, according to
a report.
Shared content on one network was worth about £12bn a year according to the research commissioned by
the Strategic Advisory Board for Intellectual Property.
David Lammy, minister for intellectual property, said: "Illegal downloading robs our economy of millions of
pounds every year and seriously damages business and innovation throughout the UK.
The Future of Blockbuster Inc.
The company filed for bankruptcy on September 23rd 2010 with reported debts of $900m. The future of the
UK operations hang in the balance as the company struggles to find a way to compete successfully.
Question
You have been employed by Blockbuster’s marketing department to recommend a marketing plan for
Blockbuster to stop the decline and ensure growth in the future.
You have agreed the plan will include:
 An audit of the marketing environment;
o This will include an overview of the internal and external marketing environment as well as
an analysis of competition;
o A SWOT analsis;
 SMART Objectives;
o To clarify what Blockbuster will achieve;
 A clear segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) strategy;
o To indicate your chosen market and how Blockbuster will stand out from the competition;
 Proposals for each of the 7Ps;
o Your report will explain how you will use or adapt the tools of the marketing mix;
 Control and evaluation;
o Which will show how you will measure the success of our marketing plan.
Notes
Blcokbuster can be located in a country/town of your choice
You do not need to worry about budgets
Assessment Criteria
Your report will be assessed using the following criteria/weightings:
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An audit of the marketing environment and associated SWOT analysis – 25% of total mark;
SMART objectives – 5% of total mark;
Segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP) strategy - 20% of total mark;
Proposals for each of the 7Ps – 30% of total mark;
Control and evaluation – 10% of total mark;
Range of sources used, cited and appropriately referenced – 10% of total mark.
Wherever possible, you should include academic models and theory to underpin your answer as well as
evidence of reading. You must explain your reasons for suggestions and recommendations.
 Word Count – 3000 words excluding appendices and bibliography
 Harvard System of Referencing – you should refer to reading using Harvard to ensure that you do
not plagiarise.
 Hand in date – 18th August 2011
 Presentation – report style of writing
Group
The assignment should be undertaken in groups of 3-4 members.
Uploading the assignment
You MUST include the names and student number of each team member on the front page of each
assignment. Only ONE member per team should upload the assignment.
Report writing skills
Although there are similarities between the skills required for essay writing and report writing, a report is a
more structured document. All reports attempt to communicate findings for one reason or another, whether
to inform decision makers, change opinions or maintain a record of development. Remember, this needs to
be written for a business manager audience.
Stages in report writing
The following stages are involved in writing a report:
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planning your work;
collecting your information;
organising and structuring your information;
writing the first draft;
checking and re-drafting.
Draw up an outline structure for your report and set the work within a sensible timescale for completion by
the given deadline.
Writing a Marketing Reports
The structure can follow the basic stages of a marketing plan:
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Where are we?
Where do we want to be?
How will we get there?
How well did we do?
Where are we? - In this section you should explain the findings of a marketing environment audit, covering
the macro (external) environment, the micro (internal) environment and competition (using Porter’s Five
Forces analysis).
Your findings should be drawn together as a SWOT analysis, which is usually written in a table
S
O
W
T
Where do we want to be? - You should set clear, SMART objectives
How well did we do? - There should be two sections:
1. The first section is the strategy and you should consider the segmentation strategy, perhaps a
growth strategy (using Ansoff’s model) and possibly Porter’s generic strategy. You can incorporate
the models into your report
2. The second section should cover each of the 7Ps. You should explain what your suggested plans,
giving reasons for your recommendations. Theory should be included wherever possible. For
instance, you might include the Product Life Cycle.
How well did we do? - In the final section, you should cover the control and evaluation techniques you
plan to use, again giving reasons for your choices.
Presentation
The ability to write well is seen as of great importance in business. As such marks are allocated to the style
and presentation of writing in the assignments. You are generally asked to write in a professional style,
which is known as report style of writing. Essentially, this means that you need to use sub-headings and
indented numbering for points etc. This is because it looks much more commercially credible than
academic essays. This approach allows you to break the work up, highlight the key points, and structure
your answer in a logical the key points, and structure your answer in a logical language; small errors can
change the sense considerably.
Do not write in the first person (“I”).
An example of report style of writing
1. Headings and Sub-headings
Use plenty of headings as the examiners will mark your work quickly and often scan the headings and subheadings.
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Bullet points - These are perfectly acceptable as its easy for the examiner to read the main points
quickly
Numbering systems - Again a good idea
2. White Space
A. Leave lots of white space on the page ( i.e. paper which has nothing written on it!) As a rule of
thumb, aim for 25% of the page to remain white.
B. The reason for leaving space is that it looks easy on the eye and persuades the reader that your
report will be quick and easy to read (important in the business world)
C. You can indent lines like this and leave spaces between paragraphs.
4. Underlining
By all means underline points and highlight others but don’t over use these tools. Sometimes assignments
have so many highlighted comments in bold, that they no longer stand out.
5. Tables
You should aim to use tables in your answers as these ensure that you have covered all the main points
and on the whole, delegates tend to write more succinctly in tables.
Start now and good luck!