UNIVERSITYOF COLOMBO,SRI L,ANKA

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND FINANCE

Postgraduate&mid-careerDevelopmentUnit
Masterof BusinessAdministration (SemesterII-First half) Examination- September,2010

MBA 536-Marketing Management

Three (03)Hours
in PartII
Answerthree(3) questionsin all selectingone(01)questionfrom partI andall questions
This is anopenbookexamination
in four (4) printedpages
Thepapercontainsfour (5) questions
answerbooks
Answersfor Part i andPart 11shouldbe writtenin separate
PART I
Answeronequestiononly fromthis part

l.

Assumethat you are working for a sportinggoodsretail company.Overall saleshave beendecliningfor the
last three years and managementis very concerned.Each retail store has its own individual databasesthat
keep track of salesfor specific items. However at the overall managementlevel, only salesfigures for each
storeare reported.Managementhas askedyou to Dreparereportsby sale items (such as specific brand X and
model Y of running shoes)and by categoriesof sale items (such as all running shoes)so that they can make
accurate decisions on which product lines to drop to reduce overall inventory costs, As a Business
lntelligence (BI) specialistor as a part of a developmentteam, you will need to develop a procedureto
extract data from each individual database,reconcile data formats and types, aggregateall data into a data
repository,and develop queries based on managementrequests.You will communicate and work closely
to ensurethat the createddata repositoryand reportsmeet their needs.This
with managementrepresentatives
usuallyinvolvesa seriesof back and forth discussionduringwhich both sidesask and answerquestions.You
have to develop a good understandingof the businessconcernsand be able to frame them into technical

requirementsfor the BI project. You also needto educatemanagementregardingpossibilitiesand constraints

you
of the technologyas ittranslatesinto businessapplications.Dependingon your level of responsibilities,
will developor contributeto the developmentof a realisticestimateof time, resourcesand cost to achievethe
intendedgoal etc. etc.. Once the project is launched,you will develop full specifications,develop and test
subsystems,and integrateinto final product. Throughoutthe developmentprocess,you will conducta series
of increasinglyrigorous technical, functional and user tests. Based on the results of these tests, you can
expect revision of technical specifications,and overall systemand unit design, along with project timeline,
resourcesand cost revisions. Of particutar importance will be a focus on user needs and requirements,
businessapplications,and easy-to-useuser interface.Your BI team may be also invoked in developingand
in usingthe new system.
deliveringtrainingto managersand other stakeholders
(50 marks)

Z. Assumethat you are working for a large hospital. Expensiveequipment is often shared betweenunits and
moved throughout the hospital facilities. One of the concerns expressedby medical professionalsand
managersin the organizationis the difficulty of tracking specific piecesof equipment.As a result more units
are purchasedto make sure that at least one of them is always available when needed.From efficiency
perspectivethere is no data to track usageof specific equipment.The BI team you are a party of has been
asked to work with the technology infrastructureteam to make recommendationson an RFID (RadioFrequency ldentification) based system that will enable to track to location and daily usage of every
individual piece of equipment.The focus of your team will be to specifu the data managementpart of the
overall system.you will need to educateyourself on RFID technology options and available systems,and
specificallyon the type of data and software.systemsthat best interfacewith RFID units. You will research
what other healthcareorganizationshave implementedRFID systemsand with what results.You will needto
interfaceclosely with the lT group as well as usersto understandand take into accountthe constraintsand
requirementsfrom both the infrastructureand the applicationsides.You will need to researchsolutionsand
meet with potentialvendorsto discussadvantagesand limitations of eachpotential solution. You will needto
understandthe types and frequencyof reportsthat usersand managementwill require to optimize operations.
Future plans for possiblesystemcapacityand functionality expansionswill be taken into considerationin the
selection process.Once the researchis completed, you will contribute to the development of an overall
proposal to upper managementthat presentsselectedsystem options with associatedtechnology features
(presentedfrom the user perspective).strengthsand limitations of each option, estimated cost of design
and/or buy, testing, implementationand maintenance.You may have to conduct further researchto answer
targetedmanagementquestionssuch as vendor suppon and reliability.
(50 marks)

you have
3. The evaluatorsof your group presentationgave their comments ol1 your research project that
Given the views of the evaluationpanel,how would you enhanceits reliabilitl'
undertakenas an assignment.
and validity? Answerthis questiontaking following areasinto account'
Analysis)
a. Introduction:Backgroundof Marketing/ManagerialProblem/lssue(Situation
(5 marks)
b. MarketingResearchProblem

(10marks)
c. The aim/objectiveof the study/research

(5 marks)
the issue?)
or address
d. The informationneeds(Whatinformationis neededto understand
(10marks)
e. DatacollectionProcedure

(5 marks)
f.

DataAnalysisand discussion
(5 marks)

c,. Limitations of the research

(i0 marks)

(Total50 marks)
PART II
Answerall Ouestions
4. Every nationengagesin significantinternationalbusinessbecausecountriesand their companiescan no
longeraffordto pay attentiononly to their domesticmarket.ln decidingto go abroad,a companyneedsto
marketingobjectivesandpolicies.Thecompanymustdeterminewhetherto marketin
defineits international
a few countriesor many countries.It must decidewhich countriesto consider.In general.the candidate
Emerging
risk, andcompetitiveadvantage.
countriesshouldbe ratedon threecriteria:marketattractiveness,
and risks.Considera productfrom Sri Lankato marketin two
marketsoffer a uniqueset of opportunities
differentcountriesfrom emergingor affluentworld.
availablein thoseparticulartargetmarketsandfinalizethecountryto go
Criticallyevaluatethe opportunities
for withjustification.
(25 marks)

5. Companies are doing less broadcasting and more narrowcasting. The shift from mass marketing to
segmentedmarketinghas had a dramatic impact on marketingcommunications.Just as massmarketinggave
rise to a new generationof mass-mediacommunications,the shrft toward one-to-onemarketing is spawning
a new generation of more specialized and highly targeted communications efforts. Under lntegrated
Marketing Communications concept, the company carefully integrates and coordinates its many
communications
channelsto deliver a clear,consistent,and compellingmessageabout the organizationand
its products.Companiesmust ask not only "How can we reachcustomers?"but also "How can we find ways
to let our customersreachus easily and conveniently?"
Briefly explain the factors changing the face of today's marketing communicationsand by referring to an
organization based in Sri Lanka, discuss how the Integrated Marketing Communications assist the
organizationsto find thoseways mentionedin the abovestatement.

(25 marks)