The Challenge

Simulating Real-World Marketing Decisions

In my capstone class for the Marketing track, my team and I worked throughout the semester to compete among peers in a simulation in which we played the role of a Marketing Manager. As a Marketing Manager at Allstar Pharmaceuticals, we over-sought 10 years worth of marketing decisions, competing with other groups in the class.

The Work

Strategizing and Reacting to the Simulated Market

Our initial task was to read the business case and formulate a strategy paper that would guide our decision making.

The simulation consisted of decisions including:

• Sales force allocation: Identifying appropriate channels for our product and consumers.
• Portfolio management: New product introductions, discontinuations, or product reformulations.
• Pricing: Based on strategy, consumer sensitivity, inflation, and market trends.
• Advertising: Budgets, target audiences, digital marketing.
• Promotion: Including trade allowances, co-op advertising budgets, point of purchase, samples, and coupons.
• Special: Circumstantial decisions or problems.

The Results

Top-of-the-Class Success

We began the simulation with a stock price of $38. By using our strategy to inform our decision-making, as well as purchasing market research and identifying ongoing trends, we were able to increase our stock price by 328% over 10 years to a stock price of $164.

In the simulation we generated over $1.2 billion in net income for the company, and ranked 3rd overall in the simulation across all classes.