Learning Strategy

I listen, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand.

Old Chinese Proverb

Learning Strategy
Business simulations are a form of combative

training where participants pit their business skills

against those of formidable opponents under the

watchful eye of a training coach.

When we study one discipline at a time, we are like a bunch of blind people trying to understand what an elephant is.
Its a sheet of rawhide. Please tell me what it is? Its a steel tube.

Its a snake.

Its a tree trunk.

With business simulations, you can crawl all over and under the enterprise to help you to see and understand the whole thing.
Accounting Marketing Distribution It is an enterprise!

Finance
Human Resources

Production

ADSIM
The new Principles of Advertising Simulation from McGraw-Hill Irwin and SmartSims
Click your left mouse button to progress through the presentation

What is AdSim?
Its an Advertising Simulation set in the Consumer Electronics Industry where you are required to make decisions about
Agency Selection Brand Positioning, Message and Media Selection Customer Relationship Management Other Marketing Communications Decisions Budgeting

The first Decision Tree Item when you open the simulation is the Year Ahead Report.
The First Page of the Report is a News Update on the scenario, explaining what it is that you should be trying to achieve in AdSim.

The second Decision Tree Item is Select Firm Name. This is your one and only opportunity to change the Name of your firm. After the first decision period, you cannot change your firm name again.

Clicking the Genie tree item allows you to make decisions about your first Product. The first page of the Report is an Overview of the Marketing Plan for this Product and the other Reports are your Sales Targets and Advertising Budget.

The Marketing Plan Target Report shows you how many units that you need to aim to sell this year. In this example you are expected to sell at least 410,000 units and achieve Sales Revenues of approx $80m.

To achieve your Sales Target, you have an initial Advertising Budget of $6.45m

So far you have not purchased any Market Research, or hired an Agency, but your default plan includes $5m of Media Advertising, and $220K of Customer Relationship Management Policies that you cannot change yet, and $400K of Marketing Communications Activities that you cannot change yet.
If you choose not to make any decisions, then these default decisions will be used to process your results.

The Market Research tree item is where you can view free Market Research Reports that your staff have prepared, or that you purchased the previous period on the Purchase Research tree item. The first page of the Report is an Overview of Reports available to you this period.

Clicking the Agency Selection tree item allows you to select an Advertising Agency to assist you with developing and implementing an Advertising Plan for your Product.

Each Agency specializes in one of three key media areas: TV, Print or Radio. Alternatively you can choose not to hire an agency by selecting Internal Plan.

Choosing the TV Magic Agency has deducted a $350K Agency Fee from your Budget and the default TV Magic Media Plan of $5.25m has been implemented. You still have the option to adjust the Agencys Plan under the Media Planning decisions.

Clicking the Message Strategy tree item allows you to select Positioning Statements that will be used by your staff and Advertising Agency when creating your Products advertising messages.

Each tab gives you a choice of four Positioning Statements to choose from and your four choices in combination will affect your Products Top of Mind Awareness and hence it Sales.

Here you can change to a custom Advertising Strategy by adjusting your Products media allocation. Alternatively you can leave the values that your Agency has chosen.

Clicking on the Media Planning icon will allow you to evaluate the media allocation strategy that your Agency has chosen.

Here you can change to a custom Advertising Strategy by adjusting your Products TV station allocation.

Clicking the TV icon will allow you to evaluate the TV Station Strategy that your Advertising Agency has chosen.

Selecting one of the media tabs opens its sub-category Decision Screen. e.g. Network TV and different Time Slots.

Here you can change to a custom Advertising Strategy by deciding how to split your Network TV Advertising Budget between the different Time Slots.

Other media types include Newspapers, Magazines, Radio and Interactive Media

Selecting a Report and clicking the Add Button adds it to the Selected Purchases. Clicking the Apply Button buys all of your selected purchases for next year.

The Purchase Research screen allows you to buy a selection of Market Research Reports for the next period.

In this example we have chosen to purchase five Reports for next year.
Without these Reports it would be difficult for you to evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising.

Choosing to purchase five Market Research Reports has deducted an Evaluation Research fee of $175K from your Products Promotion Budget. Note that you still have $55K available to either purchase further Reports, or to increase your media advertising expenditure.

The Forecast Results tree item gives you Reports detailing the target financial performance of your Product for next year.
These Reports are based on the Marketing Plan that you are trying to implement. Ideally, you want to try to sell more product than the targets in these Reports. The first page of this Report is a Summary of the Key Results and an explanation of what the other Reports are.

Pushing the Rollover Button closes the Decision Screens and brings up the screen below.

Pushing OK will process your Decisions and move the simulation to the next decision period. Pushing Cancel takes you back to the Decision Screens.

After the Rollover you will see an updated Year Ahead Report. It will be a General News Update on the scenario, and a reminder of what it is that you should be trying to achieve in AdSim.

Depending on the financial performance of your Product the feedback picture may or may not change. This Period you have been upgraded from Steady to Good.

In the 2nd Year the Industry Reports will appear. It gives you Reports describing what is happening in your industry. The first page of this Report is a Summary of the Key Results and an explanation of what the other Reports are.

In AdSim Single-Player you compete against a Single Computer Competitor.

The aim of AdSim is for you to achieve a higher cumulative Net Marketing Contribution than your Computer Competitor. This Report is in the Industry Reports.

Current Results gives you Reports detailing the financial performance of your Product last year.

Here you can see that your Product earned approx $27.5m, and sold 10% more units than your Sales Target.

The Market Research Reports that you purchased last year will now be available to you, e.g. the Brand Awareness Tracking Study that you ordered.

When you check your Forecast Results, it will give you feedback on how close you are to achieving your Sales Targets.

Additional Screens

In Period 3 of the simulation you will be given access to the Customer Relationship Management Decision Screen In Period 5 of the simulation you will be given access to the Marketing Communication Decision Screen

Clicking the Customer Relationships tree item allows you to select Customer Relationship Management Policies that will be implemented by your Firm.

Each tab gives you a choice of four Customer Relationship Management Policies to choose from and your four choices in combination will affect your Products Customer Relationship Rating from your Customers.

For example, your first choice is to determine what type of CRM System to implement.
Each choice as you move down the list offers to improve your Customer Relationship Rating by a greater amount, but at a greater Cost.

Clicking the Marketing Communications tree item allows you to select Marketing Communications Activities that will be implemented by your Firm.

Each tab gives you a choice of four Marketing Communications Activities to choose from and your four choices in combination will affect your Products Marketing Communications Rating from your Customers.

For example, your first choice is to determine what type of Consumer Sales Promotion Activity to implement.
Each choice as you move down the list has a different level of attractiveness to both New and Existing Customers and each choice has a different Cost to implement.

As you continue to play AdSim you will find that your Computer Competitor becomes an increasingly more tough opponent. Each year will be slightly harder than the last and more of a challenge to achieve promotional and financial success. To win, you need to make more money than your Competitor and therefore a higher cumulative Net Marketing Contribution.

RULES OF THE SIMULATION

TEAM OF 4 MEMBERS ALL THE MEMBERS SHOULD BE FROM ONE SPECIALIZATION SECTION AND SAME TUTORIAL GROUP EACH MEMBER IS REQUIRED TO PAY RS300/ ONLY FIRST 25 TEAMS WILL BE ENTERTAINED

HOW TO REGISTER
EACH TEAM IS REQUIRED TO FILL AN APPLICATION FORM AND DEPOSIT THE SAME ALONG WITH THE FEES IN THE AO OFFICE LATEST BY 21st AUGUST. LIMITED NUMBER OF TEAMS WILL BE ENTERTAINED ON FIRST COME FIRST SERVE BASIS LAST DATE OF REGISTRATION IS 21st AUGUST

EVALUATION
TEAM WILL BE EVALUATED ON THE BASIS OF CUMMULATIVE NET MARKETING CONTRIBUTION THERE WILL BE 2-4 QUIZ (1*10 MARKS) REGARDING THE SIMULATION GAME. AVERAGE MARKS SCORED WILL CONSIDERED AS WEIGHT. E.g. Team scored 7 marks and one student1 scored average marks in quiz 5 marks whereas student 2 scored 10 marks, then you will be awarded Student1= 7*0.5 =3.5 marks Student 2 = 7 *1.0 = 7 marks