Master of Marketing - News

Innovative Marketing Strategies

In the unit of study Innovative marketing Strategies, Master of Marketing students were given the task of presenting possible future marketing strategies for one of the world's most-loved dolls.

Working in groups, they examined and analysed the current marketing issues faced by this iconic toy brand due to increasing competition, changing values and differing requirements in overseas markets.

Each group then answered questions such as, "How far can the future marketing strategy move from the previously used image and branding?" This can be a difficult question to address when dealing with an iconic brand.

The project involved collecting data relating to the toy's very different markets in the Middle East, Japan and Brazil, and deciding how localised the future strategy should be.

At the end of the project, each group presented their ideas for possible future marketing strategies for the doll. They had developed many creative proposals, including positioning the doll in the nostalgia market and targeting older generations rather than children. Another suggestion was to create specific accessories for each local market, rather than changing the doll itself.

Students thoroughly enjoyed working on this semester-long project. Professor Donnel Briley stressed that there were no right or wrong answers, with students instead assessed on their analysis, creativity and logic.

Australian Consulting Project

The unit of study Australian Consulting Project gives Master of Marketing students an opportunity to use their learning gained across the many topics covered in the program. The project requires the application of analytical tools and project-management skills to a particular marketing issue within an Australian company chosen by the student.

This year, student projects ranged from addressing the implementation of a marketing strategy for a global electronics brand to increasing the number of sponsors of a not-for-profit legal service.

Jason Cohecha chose to conduct his project with an Australian study-abroad agent. The marketing issue he identified was the importance of word-of-mouth marketing to the business. His project objective was to measure customer willingness to generate word-of-mouth marketing for the company. He also aims to develop guidelines for integrating this measurement into the company's new customer relationship management system.

Students will work on their projects over the next couple of months, and will then deliver a written report, along with a presentation to their client organisation and to their supervisor. Students will be assessed on problem identification, analysis, creative and actionable solutions, client-management skills and persuasive presentation. The student supervisors are very much looking forward to attending the final presentations.