**** NEW For 2022! ****
The Advanced Marketing Strategy case involves a pair of student participants who will be presented with a marketing related challenge (case). The case and evaluation are like the Marketing case; however, the Advanced Marketing Strategy case allows for more preparation time and the marketing challenges are more complex. The intent of the case is to challenge students to think creatively and strategically. It is assumed that the students have received a briefing (in the form of a case study) one week prior to the meeting. As a judge in this event, your job is to assume the role of the client described in the case scenario and evaluate how effectively each team presents their recommendation.
The Case Scenario
The students will have received the case information one week prior to the meeting; however, they will be aware of the client company before they receive the case. During the preparation week, they will have access to any broadly available resources, although they will have been instructed not to contact the client organization, and to work on their analysis and plan on their own, with no input from faculty, peers, or industry professionals. Within the scenario of the case, it will be assumed that the Advanced Marketing Strategy team has not yet met the judges/client but has received the brief case outlining the situation.
The presentation for the Advanced Marketing Strategy Case typically reflects a situation where students would take on the role of a marketing consultant giving a presentation on a strategic marketing decision to an organization’s senior marketing or management team. Typical situations could include new product launches, generating awareness, marketing plan development, increasing sales, branding considerations, or similar scenarios.
The Advanced Marketing Strategy Case typically focuses student recommendations on any combination of product decisions, pricing, segmentation/targeting, promotional elements, or distribution decisions.
Within the scenario of the case, it will be assumed that the team has not yet met the judges/client but has received a communication outlining your situation. Students will be made aware of the industry that the client company operates in advance of the event.
General Judging Considerations
The students’ role in this event is to present recommendations for a marketing scenario as described in the case. Students should be able to identify the main problem/issue as part of the background and outline the specific organizational objectives that apply to the scenario. They will outline possible alternatives and present a well-supported recommendation that includes implementation details related to timing, budget, and resources required. Presentations should be convincing, creative, and supported with data as indicated in the case scenario. Students are expected to use industry-standard business and marketing terminology during their presentation.
It is assumed that each judge is from the client company.
Event Objectives
To demonstrate the students’ ability to:
- Analyze a problem situation
- Develop appropriate marketing strategies to remedy the situation
- Present the solution in a convincing manner
Eligibility
- This specific case is open to all current college students, regardless of which program or level. Students can be enrolled in any program including diploma, graduate certificate, or degree program students. Note that this is the only event category in the OCMC that allows students to compete that are not diploma students.
- Repeat OCMC students cannot enter an event in which they previously participated.
Student Preparation
- Participants should familiarize themselves with the evaluation criteria. Please refer to the case evaluation form for details.
- Once they have received the case scenario, students are expected to work on the analysis and plan on their own, with no input from faculty, peers, or industry professionals.
Presentation
- Presentations must not exceed 15 minutes. There will be a five-minute question period following the presentation with judges.
- Participants are responsible for managing their time when presenting. Judges will be conscious of time when listening to presentations and will ask a team to stop if necessary.
- At the conclusion of the question period the students will leave the room.
- The judges will use the remaining minutes in the cycle to complete the evaluation form.
Evaluation by Judges
- Judges are to ask questions of the students (challenge the students) at the end of each presentation.
- Judges will not provide any verbal feedback to participants during the competition. They are permitted to ask questions during the official question period.
- Judges will complete an evaluation form with numerical scores and appropriate summary comments.
- Judges will rank each team from top to bottom. In the case of a tie between any of the top 5 teams, they will re-evaluate those teams to break the tie. There cannot be a tie amongst teams ranked one to five.
- Judges’ decisions are final!
Feedback
Each student candidate will receive a feedback form from the host College approximately three weeks following the competition.