Part 1 – What is Strategic Marketing?Learning Outcomes Creating Value for Customers:  Student can demonstrate an understanding of the concept of value creation.  The Role of the Customer in the Company’s Strategic Planning.  Student can assess the company’s commit to serving customer needs as evidenced in a company’s mission statement.   SWOT analysis:  Student can conduct a simple SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) of a product or service offering and draw inferences from an analysis of the results.  Competitive Analysis:  Student can conduct a simple competitive analysis based on criteria important to the customers of the product or service.Directions Select your product or service offering from the below  list (The same product/service will be used in every paper) Tesla Model S Spotify 23andMe DNA Test Amazon Echo (Alexa) Dot Apple Watch Taco Bell Nacho Fries Research your product or service offering through the Internet and UMUC’s virtual library (your references will need to be mostly academic sources. See library services if you do not know what an academic source means).  Do not limit yourself to searching solely on the product or service name.  Look up the industry it is in (Hoovers.com is a good source for this via the UMUC library) and search on that industry as well.  Look up the direct competitors.  Check industry journals and the trade press. Ask your family, friends, coworkers and others what they think about the product and each of the competitors.  You may want to visit a retailer to compare the products on the shelves or visit all of the websites.  Keep all your research as you will need it for future writing assignments. Prepare your assignment beginning with a title page with your name and the name of your product or service.  Then answer each of the following eight questions (four in part 1 and four in part 2) in order and number the beginning of your response to each question.  Although you do not need to repeat the question, each section should have a heading.  The paper should contain approximately 5+ pages of analysis for the responses to the eight questions. Creating Value for Customers. Consider the customers you believe currently use your product or service and the definition of marketing offered in the course content.  As we begin our study of marketing, what are your preliminary thoughts as to how you think the company creates value for its customers based on the concepts in this week’s readings.  Role of the Customer in the Company’s Strategic Plan.  The readings indicate that the best marketing begins with the customer and that commitment to the customer begins with including the customer in the company’s mission statement.  Find your company’s mission statement.  Repeat it (or attach as an exhibit if it is too long) and comment on its effectiveness in demonstrating the company’s commitment to having a customer focus.  Could the mission statement have more focus on the customer?  How would you recommend it be modified?  Is it supported with value statements or other evidence of a customer focus?   SWOT analysis.  Identify at least one element of each of the SWOT categories (a strength, a weakness, an opportunity, and a threat).  Explain your choice using a citation if needed.  Then identify possible implications for each of the four elements. Create a Table in which these elements are posted.  For example, if a strength is a a strong national brand name, the implication is that the company may be able to launch other related products under the positive umbrella of the same brand name.  Conversely, if a major weakness is the company is carrying a lot of debt, the implication is that the company not not be able to achieve significant growth, but may have to consider retrenchment strategies.   Competitive Analysis. Identify at least two major competitors or those two products that are trying to sell essentially identical products to the same type of consumer.  Then, identify at least three criteria that are important to those consumers when they are making their decision as to which of the three competing offers to buy (e.g. price, specific benefit, service, warranty, convenience, specific feature, etc.).  Make a little chart with the three criteria along the left-hand side and the competitor products (including your own product) across the top.  Rank each of the products on a scale from 1= low to 5= high on each performs on each of the three criteria.  Add down each column.   Which product ranked highest overall based on the sum of the columns.   Then, look at the highest score in each of the criteria boxes.  Which products ranked the highest on each of the three criteria? Was it the same product, was it three different products?  What do these results tell you about the competitive environment of your product category.  Which product is the leader?  Which product is the follower, challenger and nicher if those categories apply?  Attach your chart as an exhibit.                     Part 2 – Customer Satisfaction, Loyalty,  Management and EmpowermentLearning Outcomes Customer empowerment.  Student can identify how their chosen product or service offering uses social networks to communicate and empower customers to be part of the marketing process. Customer satisfaction.  Student can identify how customers communicate their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the chosen product or service offering.   Customer Relationship Management.  Student can explain customer lifetime value and how a customer relationship management program can have a role in attracting and retaining most valuable customers. Customer privacy.  Student can identify the product or service offerings privacy policy and analyze its effectiveness in protecting their customer’s information.Directions You may want to find a Most Valuable Customer (MVC) of the product or service if you are not one yourself, or alternatively think like an MVC.  What is the evidence of an MVC of your product or service?  It isn’t just that the customer regularly buys the product or service.  It means that the customer is treated differently — better — than other customers.  It means that the MVC represents about 20% of the company’s revenues.   These are the customers with whom the company regularly communicates, offers special deals,  and other ways as outlined in the text and as you can find with just a little bit of googling on the internet.  You may want to calculate the lifetime value of a most valuable customer.  See the discussion of the lifetime value calculation in the week’s reading, and calculate the LTV using this simple equation:  LTV = (Price – cost to produce the product) * number of annual purchases * number of years expected to purchase – initial acquisition costs.  For simplicity sake, you can assume your customer will have a relationship with you for ten years and you can make an educated guess as to how much the initial acquisition costs were to get him as a customer in terms of advertising or other types of promotion efforts.   If you are not an MVC yourself, make and share your assumptions about your calculation. If you are not an MVC, you might want to find someone who is and ask them why they are loyal to the product or service and what they feel the company does for them that is special that they don’t do for other customers.   You may need call or visit a store to take a look at your product or service if the website does not provide you everything you need to evaluate the company’s product or service privacy policy.  Usually the privacy policy is available on the website. Answer the following four questions in order and number the beginning of your response to each question.  Customer Empowerment.   How does your product or service offering empower its customers as discussed in the course readings this week?  In other word, how are customers part of the marketing for the company? Identify the feedback vehicles they may use, especially social media. Do the social media efforts seem to be creating buzz marketing? If not, what could they do to generate more ‘buzz’?  Customer satisfaction.  How does your product or service offering communicate ways for customers to express their dissatisfaction? If possible, outline what remedies the product or service may be taking to ensure satisfaction.   Customer Relationship Management.  Does it appear that your product has a customer relationship management strategy?  In other words, do they treat the top tier of customers differently than other customers? If so, what is your evidence?  If not, should they have a CRM strategy?  Or, are there compelling reasons why your product or service should treat all customers the same?  Refer to course content concepts in your response.   Customer privacy.  Review your product or service offering’s privacy policy (usually published on its website). Analyze whether you think they do enough to protect the customer’s privacy or what steps you might suggest they take to protect customer’s privacy.  Refer to the privacy policies or the information on warranties and guarantees.  The company’s customer support page might also be useful. Do they publish a remedy should the customer’s privacy be breached?  Should they? General Submission Requirements: Review below as well as Writing Assignment Instructions under Content. Prepare as a word processed document (such as Microsoft Word). Use a simple 12-point font such as Times New Roman. Use black ink for majority of your work and only use colors if it enhances your ability to communicate your thoughts.    Your assignment should be the equivalent of approximately five pages of double-spaced text (although more are acceptable), approximately 1/2 page for each of the eight questions (four in Part 1 and four in Part 2).  You may attach exhibits that will not be counted towards the page count of double-spaced text. The cover page and References page are not part of the written analysis. Be sure your name, writing assignment number, and the name of your product or service are on the cover page of your writing assignment. Include a References page, which includes references that explain the concept and references to the actual product. You should use a minimum of six (6) references, four (4) of them should be dated 2016 to the present. You should use APA style for a paper which includes formatting for page numbers, page margins, etc. More information about using a style guide can be found in the UMUC’s virtual library accessible from your LEO classroom in Content ‘Learn to Use APA’ or at umuc.edu/library.

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Assessment is a common aspect of each and every classroom.  In the twenty-first century classroom, assessment for learning is essential to ensure that students are mastering key skills. The video, Assessment for Learning (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., points out key strategies that can be employed in the classroom in order to ensure student success.  After watching the video, share your thoughts on the structures and strategies a teacher needs to put into place in order to ensure that an effective classroom environment is created to foster twenty first century learning. Choose one of the following digital tools to enhance your written response (Smore (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., Prezi (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., PowToon (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., Sliderocket (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., Screencast-O-matic (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site., or other presentation software).  Utilizing technology in this discussion will further prepare you for the Final Project in Week 6.Address and include the following: Key strategies from the      video Your own ideas about      both formative and summative assessments How both sets of ideas      could be implemented to create an effective classroom environment Be sure to include      examples to illustrate and support your ideas.Professor: We speak a great deal about assessment and accountability and how each has an integral role in student achievement. Yet, many are still left with the feeling our current level of testing is too rigid, too demanding, not differentiated………basically a whole bunch of phrases which leaves many with the feeling the current assessments used in schools do not provide the ‘whole picture’. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills (2007) suggests, ‘While the current assessment landscape is replete with assessments that measure knowledge of core content areas such as language arts, mathematics, science and social studies, there are a comparative lack of assessments and analyses focused on 21st century skills’ (p. 1). Using either the article or your own thoughts and reflections, how should teachers assess 21st Century Learning Skills? 21st Century Skills Assessment (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Reference: Partnership for 21st Century Skills. (2007). 21st century skills assessment. Retrieved by http://www.p21.org/storage/documents/21st_Century_Skills_Assessment_e-paper.pdfDesigning effective lessons Without question, one of the key points that make a class successful is having lessons that are engaging and effective. Creating these types of lessons does not happen overnight; planning requires time, focus and a careful eye to ensuring that the needs of each student are met. So, how does a teacher create a rigorous curriculum plan that leads to improved student performance and yet allows them to balance other teacher responsibilities? Where should a teacher begin when thinking about all the parts of a successful instructional plan? Newman (2013) discussed various pitfalls teachers face when developing plans. One is referred to “accidental learning” where emphasis is placed on the activity itself, and less on the concept and/or purpose behind the activity: “students may be fully engaged in and enjoy these activities, but learning occurs only accidentally because the activity focuses on the engagement rather than the meaning” (Newman, 2013, “Accidental Learning”). Another issue that occurs to the best of us is the need to cover a breadth of information, as opposed to focusing on the key concepts students will need to know. Putting in long hours of planning does not equate or always result in solid lesson plans.   We organized a table of Kizlik’s (2017) article, “Six Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.” to include common mistakes and how to address them.A few mistakes to avoid when lesson planning Accidental learning –      don’t get caught focusing your energies on ‘cool’ activities.      Just because students are engaged does not mean they are learning. Don;t      mistake the two! Breadth of coverage –      often times teachers focus on covering the entire unit or textbook. In the      rush to coverage everything the breadth of material is covered often with      little depth. Poor planning and      management – putting in long hours of planning does not always equate with      solid plans. Remember, to focus on quality of the time planning and not      the quantity of time.Five Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans1. The objective of the lesson does not specify what the student will actually do that can be observed. Remember, an objective is a description of what a student does that forms the basis for making an inference about learning. Poorly written objectives lead to faulty inferences.  2. The lesson assessment is disconnected from the behavior indicated in the objective. An assessment in a lesson plan is simply a description of how the teacher will determine whether the objective has been accomplished. It must be based on the same behavior that is incorporated in the objective. Anything else is flawed.  3. The materials specified in the lesson are extraneous to the actual described learning activities. This means keep the list of materials in line with what you actually plan to do. Overkilling with materials is not a virtue!  4. The instruction in which the teacher will engage is not efficient for the level of intended student learning. Efficiency is a measure that means getting more done with the same amount of effort or the same amount with less effort. With so much to be learned, it should be obvious that instructional efficiency is paramount. 5. The student activities described in the lesson plan do not contribute in a direct and effective way to the lesson objective. Don’t have your students engaged in activities just to keep them busy. Whatever you have your students do should contribute in a direct way to their accomplishing the lesson objective. This article further details the Five Common Mistakes in Writing Lesson Plans (and how to avoid them). http://www.educationoasis.com/instruction/bt/five_common_mistakes.htm (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.Understanding how students organize knowledgeAs you think about how teaching and learning SHOULD best occur consider the following questions?* What is the role of the teacher in the classroom?* Should the teacher be the ‘expert’ in the classroom?* What does it mean for students to be actively engaged in the classroom?* How should a teacher reconcile their own values with different teaching philosophies?The answers to these questions will certainly help guide how your classroom runs and the way in which teaching and learning occurs. Constructivism Constructivism is a theory that helps us connect the dots between how students learn, and what strategies a teacher might employ in the classroom to engage and access their students’ current and prior knowledge. Check out the video (see Video Section) on constructivism. Building on students’ prior knowledge Students enter the classroom with a range of experiences and knowledge. Being able to access this information is critical to engaging students and connecting learning to their real lives. Check out this article; “ Are You Tapping into Prior Knowledge Often Enough in Your Classroom?” for excellent advice on tapping into the prior knowledge of your students: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/prior-knowledge-tapping-into-often-classroom-rebecca-alber (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.  Reference: Kizlik, B. (2017). Six common mistakes in writing lesson plans (and what to do about them). Adprima. Retrieved from http://www.adprima.com/mistakes.htm Newman, R. (2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.Required ResourcesTextNewman, R. (2013). Teaching and learning in the 21st century: Connecting the dots (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/ Chapter 9: Designing      Effective Lessons This chapter focuses on       the specific ways to design and plan effective lesson plans.  It       introduces the understanding by design lesson planning strategy and       examines how a teacher can craft an instructional plan using the backward       mapping approach. Chapter 10: Engaging and      Connecting Students to the Learning  This chapter examines       how individuals organize information in their brains and how they make       meaning of situations and events.  It also focuses on the theory of       learning called constructivism and looks at the works of Vygotsky and       Piaget. MultimediaMichael Pershan.  (2012, July 6).  What if Khan Academy was made in Japan? (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [Video file].  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHoXRvGTtAQRystad, M.  (2013, April 7).  Assessment for learning (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [Video file].  Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcLMlY6R7RM This video explains      multiple strategies for assessment for learning, or formative      assessments, to inform instructional decisions.TED Talks.  (2011, March).  Salman Khan: Let’s use video to reinvent education (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. [Video file].  Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.htmlWebsitesCommon Core State Standards Initiative (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://www.corestandards.org/) Official Common Core      State Standards website.Recommended ResourcesArticleDarling-Hammond, L., & Adamson, F. (2010).  Beyond basic skills: The role of performance assessment in achieving 21st century standards of learning (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site..  Stanford Center for Opportunity Policy in Education.  Retrieved from https://scale.stanford.edu/system/files/beyond-basic-skills-role-performance-assessment-achieving-21st-century-standards-learning.pdf This article discusses      the key role of accountability measures in education and the role of      performance  assessments in twenty-first century learning.International Society for Technology in Education.  ISTE Standards Teachers. (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Retrieved from http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-T_PDF.pdfTextPopham, W. J.  (2010). Classroom assessment: What teachers need to know (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. This text discusses the      range of topics teachers need to know about assessment.WebsitesJing (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://www.techsmith.com/jing.html)Khan Academy (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://www.khanacademy.org)PowToon (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://www.powtoon.com)Prezi (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://prezi.com)Screencast-o-matic (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://www.screencast-o-matic.com)Sliderocket (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://www.sliderocket.com)Smore (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (https://www.smore.com)YouTube (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. (http://www.youtube.com)

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