NMIMS Jan 2016 Assignments

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B2B Marketing

Q1. As a manufacturer of CCTV camera, prepare Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning strategy for the same. (10 Marks)

Q2. An automobile component OEM manufacturing alternators has appointed your advertising agency to design the promotional strategy for their product. You are required to prepare a marketing communication campaign & select appropriate media vehicle for the same keeping in mind the target audience. (10 Marks)

Q3. Read the following Case & solve the questions given:

Unique Chemicals is currently in the business in B2B segment & are involved in marketing & selling chemicals and equipments that are required for cleaning in the hospitality industry.

Their major clientele comprises of 5 star & 3 star hotels, restaurants, hospitals & corporate.

The Managing Director of the company is currently facing a challenge of sustaining the clients as there is cut throat competition.

One of the major & loyal clients (XYZ )of Unique Chemicals in the hotel industry has discontinued purchase of supplies from them as a competitor has approached XYZ & has offered all the supplies at a throw away price as compared to what Unique Chemicals offers.

There was no communication from XYZ regarding this change. Since there were no orders from XYZ, Unique Chemicals approached XYZ & got the communication that they have changed the vendor.

Questions:

a. Suggest strategy which should be adopted by Unique Chemicals to acquire business from XYZ. (5 Marks)

b. Recommend a promotional strategy to be adopted by Unique Chemicals in general. (5 Marks)

Brand Management

Q1. Name any 3 brands which you believe have achieved Brand Resonance. Explain how these brands have succeeded in winning over heads and hearts of their customers (10 Marks)

Q2. Comment on any three brand logo changes recently done. Why and when should any brand change its logo? (10 Marks)

Q3. Patanjali Ayurved has been a surprise and a fast growing entrant in the field of FMCG Products. Beginning with Ayurvedic medicines it has increased its footprint into consumer goods including even packaged noodles and biscuits. Kindly answer the following:

a. Why has Patanjali grown so fast as a Brand? (5 Marks)

b. How can competitors brace the onslaught of Patanjali in their respective categories? (5 Marks)

Business Ethics, Governance & Risk

Q1. Mr. Abhay Sharma, M.D. Fresh Drinks Ltd., was looking at the “AD Punchline” created by his product manager Robin Singh. He was taken aback by the claim that their new product “Vital-mix” energy drink is “The finest fitness plan for health – real fruit and no sugar.” Robin Singh, the product manager, was little uneasy when asked by his M.D. as to how we can claim “Finest health plan drink” when they know that there are preservatives and permissive food colours. Robin defended by saying that all cream and cosmetics advertisements, also make similar claims as a way of communicating dominance of their brands. What ethical advice you will give to Mr. Abhay Sharma to develop a persuasive advertisement, without compromising on the ethical aspects of commercial advertising? (10 Marks)

Q2. Avantika, a top graduate from Georgetown in Social Sciences, has applied to Swirl Shades Ltd. for a management position. The CEO was questioned by other panel members after the interview regarding the necessity to hire Avantika, as she is a black woman with unpleasant personality. But because of her outstanding academic records, the CEO wants to select her. Do you think it is ethical to hire Avantika? Why or Why not?

Q3. Rohit Taneja was a human resource manager reporting to the President of Human Resource Management, of a multinational company. One of his tasks was to administer the psychometric test and maintain the assessment profiles of all senior executives. The Executive Committee of the Board of Directors decided to start the succession planning process and hence requested for a summarized profile on each senior executive. Rohit Taneja asked the consulting firm who had carried out the original assessment to prepare the summary as it would help to avoid misinterpretation. The consulting firm prepared the summaries and sent them to the President of Human Resource Management for review. The president handed them to Rohit Taneja, who was to compile and prepare the final report for the Executive Committee. But, the next week, some revised summaries came from the President. He had made major changes to the consultants’ summaries. On one summary, for example, the President had altered “high potential” to “low potential”. Rohit was shocked at the changes. The modifications violated his sense of ethics, but he was frightened that by questioning them, his job and future can get in trouble.

a) What would you have done if you were Rohit? Why? (5 Marks)

b) If the employees get to know about the entire case what would be its impact on the organization and its employees? (5 Marks)

Business Law

Q1) Miss Shweta started a new business of grocery. She get an order from Mr. Varun to deliver certain products, but rest of the information like time, place etc. of delivery were not communicated by Mr. Varun. There are certain rules which every buyer and seller should follow so as to complete the process of delivery of goods. Discuss, those rules of delivery of goods, (with example for each rule), which both have to keep in mind, as per the Sales of Goods Act 1930. (10 marks)

Q2) “A contract is not valid unless and until all the essential elements necessary to make a valid contract are not present”. Elaborate. (10 marks)

Q3) You purchased a new brand, first hand, LG refrigerator costing Rs 80000 from Ammar Sales. Later you came to know that the refrigerator is not a fresh piece but instead a renovated, an old refrigerator reconditioned as new one.

I. As a consumer, discuss the rights you will have, as per the Consumer protection Act 1986. (5 Marks)

II. If you want to lodge a complaint discuss how and where to file a complaint? (5 Marks )

Consumer Behaviour

Q1. Explain in brief what consumer research is and explain in detail consumer research process (10 Marks)

Q2. Why do you think applications of consumer Behaviour in Marketing are crucial for marketers? Explain with an example. (10 Marks)

Q3a) Chinese company would like to enter Indian market with their low cost washing machine. Work out a complete market research questionnaire to get the primary data. (5 Marks)

b) Give your recommendation to the Chinese company based on availability of secondary data. (5 Mark)

Customer Relationship Management

Q1) You are the Chief Marketing Officer of a luxury Hospitality Hotel brand in India. Recently a substantial chunk of your customers are shifting their loyalty towards a rival foreign luxury hotel brand. What will you do to prevent customer defections & maintain their loyalty with your Hotel brand? (10 marks)

Q2) You are the Branch manager of your Public sector undertaking bank, namely ‘ABC bank’ & lately, it has been reported to you that your bank branch is making the least of profits in comparison to your competitor bank branches operating in your area. What steps will you undertake to turnaround the fortunes of your bank branch? How will CRM help you in this effort? (10 marks)

Q3a) An average customer has bought your branded glares titled as “Go-Go Goggles” for 3 years & then stops for 6 months. Over 3 years, your average customer has made 12 purchases. You have earned a profit per unit of Rs.3,000. What is the lifetime of the customer? Also Calculate the LTV of the average customer. (5 marks)

Q3b) You are the Sales Manager of a Pharma company & need to train your sales staff about Sales Force Automation which has been recently introduced into the company. Which aspects of application areas would you highlight in your training program? (5 marks)

Integrated Marketing Communication

Q1. Explain various types of Out of Home (OOH) Media with examples. Explain minimum two example of each OOH Media. Also, give example of failure of OOH Media by companies. Explain your example in detail. (10 Marks)

Q2.Prepare a Keller’s Brand Equity Pyramid for a product from Consumer Durables. (10 Marks)

Q3. M/s Clean is launching a handwash with a name “No Germs”. The company plans to target Urban Market as well as Rural Market. The company plans to position its product on lower middle and poor class. The price is below the competitor’s pricing so that a common man can afford hygiene at lower cost. The company is using penetration strategy. M/s Clean appoints you as a Country Head and asks you to prepare the presentation on below questions.

a) Which media channels you will use for the promotion of “No Germs” in Urban Market? (5 Marks)

b) Which media channels you will use for the promotion of “No Germs” in Rural Market? (5 Marks)

International Marketing

Q1. M/s Kalyani is an Indian Jewelry Brand and enjoys loyalty of Indian customers because of purity of products and transparency in all transaction. The company now plans to enter England in United Kingdom. What are the various parameters for evaluating this external environment? (10 Marks)

Q2. From the same case above, you are required to prepare 4P’s of Marketing Mix for Kalyani Jewelers. The 4P’s should be for England Market. Write your assumptions. (10 Marks)

Q3. A culture is a way of life of a group of people--the behaviors, beliefs, values, and symbols that they accept, generally without thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication and imitation from one generation to the next.

a) Explain with example how the similarities and differences in culture of Japan and India could impact multi-national operations of a company in India and Japan. (5 Marks)

b) Explain with examples the cultural differences in Non-verbal communications. Compare and evaluate between any two countries of your choice. (5 Marks)

Management Theory and Practice

Q1: There have been arguments in favor of management as an art, management as a science or management as a profession. What is management according to you? You are not allowed to take a stand that says that management is combination of art, science and profession. (10 marks)

Q2: You have started a business organization which aims at opening up a chain of laundries across the city of Mumbai. Explain how you would use information technology in your business. (10 marks)

Q3: You own a retail store having outlets all over India. You have started facing tough competition from online retail companies, not only from India but also from abroad. Now, you are planning to make a strategic shift in the major functions of your business organizations for which you will have to make strong decisions in your company. In this background, answer the following questions.

a) What will be the premises on the basis of which you will make these strong decisions? (5 marks)

b) Do you think it is possible for a decision maker to be totally rational in the process of decision making? (5 marks)

Marketing Research

1. You want to understand the customer’s experience in a hotel and want to use qualitative research methodology. Explain any four methods available for qualitative research. (10 marks)

2. A company is planning to do research on new deodorant targeting youth. They want you to do the sampling of under-graduate students in Mumbai. How will you ensure randomness in the process of sampling? (10 marks)

3. You want to know whether the demand of a particular model of shampoo brand is dependent on age and/or income.

a. Design a suitable questionnaire. (5 marks)

b. Justify the categories in age and income. (5 marks)

Marketing Strategy

Q1. Prepare a SWOT analysis for any company of your choice. Also, elaborate on the points mentioned in SWOT. (10 Marks)

Q2. M/s Smart and Beautiful is an International clothing company having its presence in 13 countries, it plans to sell branded clothes in Indian Market. The company hires you to study the market for new Business. Explain competitive analysis using Michael Porter’s Five Forces Model in this case. (10 Marks)

Q3. M/s Parampara sells two types of Soap in Indian Market i.e. Subah and Savera. Subah is a market leader from last 10 years, but recently is facing tough competition with new competitors. Subah is sold at lower price and that is one of the prime reasons that they have maximum market share.

Savera has been the launched as a Market challenger to give competition to new products from competitors.

a) Which market leader strategy you will adopt for Subah Brand? Explain in detail. (5 Marks)

b) Which market challenger strategy you will adopt for Savera Brand? Explain in detail. (5 Marks)

Services Marketing

Q1: An internationally acclaimed Salon has set up its services at the well-known 5-star hotel and has been operating for the past six months satisfactorily. It offers basic salon services to both male and female clients in separate sections. It has a steady flow of regular customers, walk-ins, hotel guests and special customers. It now wants to develop and design, new offerings adding to the basic services it offers. These new services that are to be added will have to be tailor made to suit the weather, skin type, hair type etc. To create the new offering the team comprises of marketing manager (that is you), a financial manager and an aesthetician. What will be your suggestions to create the service concept and package besides blue printing the service offering? {10 Marks}

Q2: ‘Bakers-Inn’ has been recently started by a graduate chef. It bakes assorted cakes. The array of goodies it offers is assorted cakes, seasonal cakes and assorted breads n pizzas’. On some days the owner found that certain products sold more while during certain months seasonal products sales were high. While, some festive months egg products sold more and few days eggless products were purchased more. As a student of marketing how will you streamline (a) the demand and supply mismatch (b) manage capacity of cakes, seasonal cakes and breads n pizzas, put in order the systems and process while doing this crafting a service environment for the products of ‘Bakers-Inn’? {10 marks}

Q3. Caselet

The real estate road has been dimly lit for the past year. One look at the real estate report shows statistics or number don’t lie. The demand for housing has seen a dip and the sector has sluggish sales.

The sector is plagued with number of challenges such as, raising funds for real estate project’s, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI’s) has seen a decrease in last financial year. Input cost have risen due to inflation, financing cost had increased for developers hence prices have gone above buyer’s range resulting number of unsold units, wide gap in demand and supply for economically affordable homes. The industry needs to have a look beyond the IT and ITES sector for commercial office spaces, speculation in land and property prices, land encroachment, lack of regulations combined with lack of transparency adding to the growing concerns. The value chain of this sector is spread over 3 to 5 years and four components such as conceptualisation, planning & design, development and handover and maintenance. As said, 3 to 5 years depending on size, scale, location and type of development. The strength of the sector is in its transformation of urban landscape, growth of sector thereby supporting high economic growth, regulatory and tax reforms, rising disposable incomes and urbanization. The growth of the sector will bring visible transformation like increased scale, development of new operating models (leasing and rentals), introducing corporate, new regulations, advancement in technology and newer funding sources as well as new product offering.

Along with the strengths and challenges the builders and realtors have to grapple with the expectations of the stakeholders and government. In view this, discuss and debate on

Q3 (i) As a part of the ‘Builders Marketing Team’ discuss the financial scenario of Real Estate sector/industry? (5marks)

Q3 (ii) From the perspective of international realtors gauge the economic scenario of the Indian Real Estate sector? (5marks)

Business Statistics

Q1. Explain the calculation and utility of standard deviation and standard score (Z) with an example for each. (10 marks)

Q2. The student scores in an examination are 25, 30, 35, 36, 40, 44, 46, 54, 64, 75, 65, 60, 80, 85, 90, 95, 46, 50, 65, 50. The daily pocket money (in Rs.) for the same students (respectively) are 100, 120, 125, 150, 150, 150, 150, 200, 200, 150, 200, 250, 300, 250, 500, 250, 300, 500, 400, 500.

Find the following:- Pearson’s Correlation coefficient, Regression of scores on pocket money, Regression of pocket money on scores. (10 marks)

Q3. (a) Explain Bayes’ Theorem with an example. Is it applicable in case of independent events? (5 marks)

Q3. (b) Two cards were drawn, without replacement, from a pack of 52 cards. What is the probability that they are both Aces? What is the probability for the same case if the cards were drawn with replacement?

Essentials of HRM

Q1) Rajat works as an Assistant Manager in a retail outlet, of late it is seen that his performance is much low as compared to his earlier record. The HR manager was very concerned about the same and wanted to do a Job analysis for this particular profile. Which all method can the HR manager use for collecting job analysis data? Discuss any one. (10 marks)

Q2) You are the HR head of a manufacturing company, a selection procedure for new management trainees is to be planned using assessment centre technique. Which all methods of assessment centre technique can be used for the selection? Elaborate any two. (10 marks)

Q3) Ananya joined as an officer in a Private sector bank through her campus selection. She was in high spirits while joining country’s one of the leading banks. She had expected a lot of challenge in the work whereas all she was assigned to do in the first six months was the work of a cashier. When called for a six months review she communicated her concern to the Branch manager who then shifted her to the forex department.

1. Which approach to Job design has been used by the Branch manager here? Explain (5 Marks)

2. What are the other approaches to Job design which can be used? Explain (5 Marks)

Financial Accounting and Analysis

Q1: The following transactions occurred during the month for circle ltd, pass all the necessary journal entries as at the month end and give the necessary narration for the same (10 Marks)

Q2) Alfa Ltd is operating in different geographical areas as well as is selling five different products in the market. Discuss how, as per AS17 on Segment reporting, a particular component of an entity is business segment or a geographical segment will be decided. (10 Marks)

Q3) Suppose you want to measure profitability of a concern as you want to invest Rs 10 lacs, which you receive from your father in Law as a gift .Discuss

a) any of the ten profitability ratios and (5 Marks)

b) also discuss what relationship these ratios indicates . (5 Marks)

Marketing Management

Q1. Explain the 4P’s of Marketing Mix with reference to any mobile of your choice. (10 Marks)

Q2. Assume you want start a new company which will sell shoes to the higher middle class consumer of India. What elements of external environment that you will need to study before you start the business? Explain with reference to the shoe industry. (10 Marks)

Q3. You have been appointed as a Marketing Manager with a company that manufactures Refrigerator. The company sells refrigerator in all the metro cities of India. The company now plans to extend the product line with the launch of Washing Machine.

a) You have been asked to decide the Brand Name, Product unique features, pricing, distribution and promotion for the new washing machine. Explain with reason. (5 Marks)

b) You have been asked to design the Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning for the New Washing Machine. (5 Marks)

Strategic Management

Q1. As CEO of a company, how will you explain to your employees the “Need of Globalization”? Explain what will be the major Challenges your Company will face if it decide to go Global. (10 Marks)

Q2. Briefly explain the effect of the Mc Kinsey Framework, if it is implemented in your organization. Why do you think that it will have positive changes in your organization? (10 Marks)

Q3. Recently a Noodle Making Company was banned for some time, due to high content of Lead Component. What will be your strategy as a CEO for the following?

(a) How would you handle crisis and stakeholders during the banned period? (5 Marks)

(b) What long term strategic changes will you like to bring in your company, from the learning from the incident? (5 Marks)

Taxation – Direct & Indirect

Q1. As a tax advisor, explain the various deductions available to an Individual u/s 80 of the Income tax Act. (10 Marks)

Q2. Ascertain the head of taxability of the incomes and give reasons for the same (10 Marks)

·         Dividend of Rs.84,000 received by Mr. Raja from an Indian company.

·         Lease rent of vacant plot of land of Rs.52,200 received by Mr. Kumar.

·         Rs.8,400 won by Mr. Shan from a crossword puzzle.

·         Rs.2,52,000 received by Mr. Kumar from his friends on his wedding anniversary.

·         Rent of building let out along with certain amenities of Rs.1,52,000 (Rs.1,00,000 pertain to rent of building and Rs.52,000 towards other amenities) received by Mr. Subham.

·         Compensation amounting to Rs.1,25,252 received by Mr. Sohil from the Government for compulsory acquisition of Industrial land.

·         Interest of Rs.8,252 received by Mr. Sahil on a bank deposit.

·         Compensation of an amount of Rs. 1,35,000 received from Employer

·         Fees of Rs 1,45,000 received from one of the client for winning a case in Income tax.

·         Interest of Rs.3,500 received on refund from tax authorities

Q3. Explain the following:

a. The definition of Income is not restricted to the Actual Income received or accrued during the previous years but goes beyond and includes Deemed Income also. Explain the same with suitable examples. (5 Marks)

b. Explain the importance of FORM C, FORM D, FORM E1 and FORM F under the Central Sales Tax Act. (5 Marks)