Complete Excercise 8A steps 1 and 2 on page 274 of your text. Create a product positioning map only for “Hershey’s company. Using information from the case, the PPM, and your research, write a brief narrative to state your strategic recommendations for Hersey relative to the competitors in this segment of Hershey’s business.

Questions:

Purpose Organizations continually monitor how their products and services are positioned relative to those of competitors. Product-positioning maps, often called perceptual maps, provide useful strategic in-formation for marketing managers as well as corporate executives responsible for strategic planning. Hershey uses perceptual maps in strategic planning.

Headquartered in McClean, Virginia, Mars, Inc. is the third-largest privately held company in the United States and a major rival to Hershey. Five of Mars’ leading candies are 3 Musketeers, Snickers, Twix, Milky Way, and M&M’s. Headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestle’s is the largest food company in the world and also a major rival to Hershey. Four of Nestle’s leading candies are Kit Kat, Baby Ruth, Nestle Crunch, and Butterfinger. Four of Hershey’s leading candies are Mr. Goodbar, Krackel, Hershey’s Kiss, and Almond Joy. All 13 of these candies compete for market share, shelf space, and customer loyalty.

Instructions:

Step 1

Do some research that can enable you to develop a perceptual map based on High/Low Quality and High/Low Price including the 13 candy bars just identified. How could this information be helpful for Hershey? Which company’s products do you prefer? Why?

Step 2 

Do some research that can enable you to develop a perceptual map based on High/Low Calories and High/Low Nutrition including the 13 candy bars just identified. How could this information be helpful for Hershey?

M2 Assignment 1 Discussion 

Assignment 1: Capital Rationing

The availability of funds effects the capital budgeting decisions.  The amount of funds available for capital expenditures will be either limited or unlimited.  Funds would be considered unlimited when a firm is willing to acquire, through borrowing or equity, any amount of capital as long as the return on the investment is higher than the cost of the funds.  When the funds that a firm will make available for capital investment are limited, and the firm has more opportunities for profitable investments than the limited funds can cover, the condition is described as capital rationing.

Your assignment is to focus on the following:

* Describe how capital-budgeting decision criteria would be different in a capital-rationing situation than in a situation in which capital rationing was not necessary, and explain the reasons for the difference in criteria.  

* Describe the discounted-cash flow technique or techniques you would recommend in a capital-rationing situation and explain your reasons for your recommendation.

Write your response as a one-page memo.  Post your memo in the discussion forum and solicit feedback from your classmates.

By the due date assigned, you are to submit your response to the Discussion Area. Use the same Discussion Area to comment on your classmates’ submissions and continue the discussion through the end of the module.

Comment on how your classmates would address differing views.

Grading Criteria

Maximum Points

Quality of initial posting, including fulfillment of assignment instructions 16

Quality of responses to classmates 12

Frequency of responses to classmates 4

Reference to supporting readings and other materials 4

Language and grammar 4

Total: 40