Corey Johnson

MKTG480

Data Summary for CAKE

Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6

Total Trade $8,644 K $9,139 K $8,973 K $3,983 K $5,324 K $5,668 K

Marketing
Budget

Total Promotions $4,903 K $5,045 K $5,158 $2,201 K $2,588 K $2,758 K

Budget

Number of 200 241 241 251 287 292

Channel
Managers

Channel Priority Mass: Mass: Mass: Mass: 40% Mass: 55% Mass: 55%
100% 100% 100%
Percentages Super: 35% Super: 30% Super:
Super: Super: 40% Super: 40% 35%
38% Spec.: 0% Spec.: 0%
Spec.: 0% Spec.: 0% Spec.: 0%
Spec.: 0% E-G: 100% E-G: 100%
E-G: 100% E-G: 100% E-G: 100%
E-G: 80% E-B: 0% E-B: 0%
E-B: 0% E-B: 0% E-B: 0%
E-B: 0%

Analysis of CAKE Channel Management Performance

1. Explain the effects of channel-related decisions on your sales fluctuations? What

were your recommendations to improve the outcome? Were those implemented or
rejected by your CMO (or the team if you don’t have a CMO)? Why or why not?
a. CAKE was doing well when the trade marketing budget was in the range
of $8,000-$9,000 but sales fell significantly as the marketing budget
dropped. It was recommended to increase marketing by a drastic amount
after sales fell, but the CMO was not able to find enough money due to
budget constraints. CAKE’s sales would never reach the highs that were
observed earlier in the simulation.
 2. Explain how you came up with trade marketing, promotions number of brand and
channel managers, channel priority percentages and channel margins. Would you
change those in any particular period? If so, why?
a. Channel priority was based mostly upon the shopping habits of our target
segments. Most of the numbers given to the CMO were calculated by a
certain percentage increase from the previous budget. However, the CMO
had never found enough room in the budget to reach these calculations. If
we were able to change the data in a given period, it would be in period 4.
During period 4, we saw our lowest sales and lowest marketing budget;
we would have liked to had a larger marketing budget due to the poor
sales performance CAKE had during this period.
3. What were your successes and failures as the channel manager of this product?
a. Successes were saw mostly during the beginning periods of the simulation
when CAKE was one of the market share leaders. Failures were obvious
during the middle periods (especially period 4) when CAKE’s sales
decreased by a dramatic amount.

Data Summary for CANDY

Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6

Total Trade $8,192 K $8,132 K $8,477 K $8,516 K $7,553 K $7,229 K

Marketing
Budget

Total Promotions $5,361 K $5,043 K $5,559 K $4,855 K $4,573 K $4,268 K

Budget

Number of 199 234 234 577 391 398

Channel
Managers

Channel Priority Mass: 0% Mass: 0% Mass: 0% Mass: 0% Mass: 0% Mass: 55%

Percentages Super: 62% Super: 60% Super: 60% Super: 10% Super: 15% Super: 35%

Spec.: Spec.: Spec.: Spec.: 95% Spec.: 85% Spec.: 0%

100% 100% 100%
E-G: 0% E-G: 0% E-G: 100%
E-G: 20% E-G: 0% E-G: 0%
E-B: 90% E-B: 80% E-B: 0%
E-B: 100% E-B: 100% E-B: 100%

Analysis of CANDY Channel Management Performance

 1. Explain the effects of channel-related decisions on your sales fluctuations? What
were your recommendations to improve the outcome? Were those implemented or
rejected by your CMO (or the team if you don’t have a CMO)? Why or why not?
a. CANDY’s trade marketing and promotion budgets stayed near the same
range throughout the course of the simulation. However, sales fluctuated
as the coverage distribution increased or decreased. When CANDY was
only available in 57.8% of specialty stores, sales decreased by 20%. In
contrast, when CANDY was available in 85.2% of specialty stores,
CANDY ‘s sales increased by 20.8%. As with the other brands, there was
never enough money in the budget to reach the recommended trade and
promotions funding.
2. Explain how you came up with trade marketing, promotions number of brand and
channel managers, channel priority percentages and channel margins. Would you
change those in any particular period? If so, why?
a. Recommendations for the number of brand managers were based upon
what we felt would need the most help to stay competitive with rival
brands, with more managers being recommended to the brands that needed
the most help. Marketing and promotions budgets were based on
percentage increases over the previous budgets, but were not met due to
budget constraints. If any numbers could be changed, it would be an
increase in marketing during the 5th period, in order to take advantage of
the period in which the channel coverage was at it’s highest.
3. What were your successes and failures as the channel manager of this product?
a. Failure was observed early in the simulations when channel coverage was
at its lowest and reflected upon CANDY’s sales. Success was primarily
observed in the 5th and 6th periods when sales increased dramatically,
largely due to being available in a larger number of stores across all
channels.

Data Summary for COCOA

Period 1 Period 2 Period 3 Period 4 Period 5 Period 6

Total Trade N/A N/A N/A $5,942 K $5,643 K $6,470 K

Marketing
Budget

Total Promotions N/A N/A N/A $3,310 K $3,162 K $3,403 K

Budget

Number of N/A N/A N/A 275 267 284

Channel
Managers

Channel Priority N/A N/A N/A Mass: 60% Mass: 45% Mass: 55%
Percentages Super: 60% Super: 50% Super: 35%

Spec.: 5% Spec.: 15% Spec.: 0%

E-G: 0% E-G: 0% E-G: 100%

E-B: 10% E-B: 20% E-B: 0%

Analysis of COCOA Channel Management Performance

1. Explain the effects of channel-related decisions on your sales fluctuations? What

were your recommendations to improve the outcome? Were those implemented or
rejected by your CMO (or the team if you don’t have a CMO)? Why or why not?
a. Sales increased during every period largely due to an increase in product
awareness and a consistent marketing and promotions budget.
Recommendations were mostly to increase marketing and promotions
budgets, but were rarely met by the CMO due to budget constraints.
2. Explain how you came up with trade marketing, promotions number of brand and
channel managers, channel priority percentages and channel margins. Would you
change those in any particular period? If so, why?
a. Most of the marketing and promotions budgets were based on amounts
relative to rival brands. Channel priority was based on the shopping
behaviors of target segments. Margins were kept consistent throughout the
simulation, largely in part to decrease the chances volatility. Managers
were calculated by estimated needs of the brands. All in all, COCOA
found to have success in comparison to other brands, so we would not
change COCOA’s budget and brand priorities,
3. What were your successes and failures as the channel manager of this product?
a. We did not observe many failures with the COCOA brand, as our numbers
increased across the board with each period. With numbers increasing
during each period, management of this particular brand seemed to be
successful. COCOA is considered to be a success, but in hindsight, it
would have been ideal if we could have achieved the same success at a
lower budget in order to free up capital for the other less successful
brands.