***subject is marketing , please make answers long.. thank you so much<3

Marketing Plan

From the real international market, select a company of your choice wishing to start its activities in Saudi Arabia. The Company hired you as Marketing Manager of Saudi Arabian Region.

You have to establish a marketing department starting from the Analysis of the market, formulate overall marketing goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics within the context of an organization's business, mission, and goals designing and planning the entire function.

Write a Marketing Plan considering the following points (2x5=10 Marks)

1. Introduction, Goals and Objectives

To introduce this section you should include the "mission statement" of the business; an idea of what its goals are for customers, clients, employees and the consumer.

1. Introduction about the business.
2. Business vision and mission
3. Business objective.
4. Products and services offered

2. Environmental Analysis

Conduct an environmental analysis that looks at and comments on your local area and your network of business contacts, competitors and customers.

3. Target Market Analysis

Identify the target market, describing how the company will meet the needs of the consumer better than the competition does.

4. SWOT Analysis

Conduct a SWOT analysis for your chosen company based on your research.

Strengths: List the strengths of the business approach;

Weaknesses: Describe the areas of weakness in the company's operations;

Opportunities: Examine factors that may improve the business's chances of success;

Threats: List the external threats to the business' success.

5. Marketing Mix (4 P’s ) Analysis

Describe each of the 4Ps of your chosen company.

Product or Service

Identify the product or service by what it is, who will buy it, how much they will pay for it and how much it will cost for the company to produce it, why a consumer demand exists for your product, and where the product sits in comparison to similar products/services now available.

Place

Identify the location of the business, why it is located there (strategic, competitive, economic objectives), the expected methods of distribution, and timing objectives.

Promotion

Describe the type of promotional methods that will be used. Identify techniques such as word of mouth, personal selling, direct marketing, sales promotion etc. television, radio, social media and newspaper ads.

Price

The prices of the products or services that reflects the overall company strategy. Should be competitive as well as a reflection of the quality, costs and profit margin.

) Genosis Metals provided the following information for last month:

            Sales                              $20,000

            Variable costs                    8,000

            Fixed costs                        4,000

            Operating income            $8,000

If sales reduce to half the amount in the next month, what is the projected operating income?

A) $0

B) $4,000

C) $2,000

D) $6,000

Answer the following questions using the information below:

Buildz Manufacturing currently produces 1,000 tables per month. The following per unit data for 1,000 tables apply for sales to regular customers:

            Direct materials                               $50

            Direct manufacturing labor                10

            Variable manufacturing overhead      15

            Fixed manufacturing overhead          30

                  Total manufacturing costs         $105

2) The plant has capacity for 3,000 tables and is considering expanding production to 3,000 tables. What is the total cost of producing 3,000 tables?

A) $255,000

B) $225,000

C) $175,000

D) $235,000

3) What is the per unit cost when producing 3,000 tables?

A) $58.33

B) $175.00

C) $85.00

D) $125.45

Answer the following questions using the information below:

Pederson Company reported the following:

            Manufacturing costs            $150,000

            Units manufactured            5,000

            Units sold                           4,700 units sold for $75 per unit

            Beginning inventory          100 units

4) What is the average manufacturing cost per unit?

A) $40.00

B) $42.00

C) $30.00

D) $32.00

5) What is the manufacturing cost for the ending finished goods inventory?

A) $12,000

B) $8,000

C) $11,000

D) $5,000

Answer the following questions using the information below:

Northern Star sells several products. Information of average revenue and costs is as follows:

            Selling price per unit                      $20.00

            Variable costs per unit:

                  Direct material                           $4.00

                  Direct manufacturing labor         $1.60

                  Manufacturing overhead             $0.40

                  Selling costs                                $2.00

            Annual fixed costs                         $96,000

The company sells 12,000 units at the end of the year.

6) The contribution margin per unit is ________.

A) $11.00

B) $12.00

C) $4.00

D) $14.00

HR Management

Walmart’s Global Strategy

Walmart’s international division has an important job. With 80% of the retail industry’s growth coming from outside of the United States, WalMart international’s $137 billion in international sales in 2014 -  29% of sales overall - is a key driver of overall revenue growth. To drive this performance, David Cheesewright, CEO of WalMart’s international division, is focusing on current operations in growth markets and e-commerce.

Shopping trends indicate that what customers buy is changing fast, and that they are quickly switching to online shopping platforms. After decades of work trying to develop a foundation in the Chinese market, Walmart is consolidating its portfolio of stores in that country, closing nonperforming retail stores and investing in successful ones. To enter the Chinese e-grocery market, Walmart holds a 51% stake in Yihaodian, which has posted triple-digit growth—twice the market rate.

The company’s operations in Brazil and Mexico are experiencing slowing growth, in part a result of economic cycles and their brand’s lifecycle, but they still offer the opportunity to develop strong, mature

businesses. International expansion comes with country specific challenges. After experiencing too many regulatory difficulties in India, Walmart canceled plans to open retail stores there. Instead, Walmart India is focusing on business-to-business sales.

Although Walmart has successfully dominated the U.S. market, it has found that expanding its reach across the globe does not always fit with its strengths. In addition, navigating the variety of economic and regulatory requirements across different countries adds significant complexity to the company’s operations. Finally, gaining access to and managing workforces with different values, cultures, and languages present tremendous challenges.

1)    What strategies should a company use to determine which countries it should expand into?

2)    How can a company assess how cultural and economic differences might impact its ability to succeed in different countries?

3)    What things can companies do to manage a global workforce more effectively.

Web Wizard, Inc., has provided information technology services for several years. For the first two months of the current year, the company has used the percentage of credit sales method to estimate bad debts. At the end of the first quarter, the company switched to the aging of accounts receivable method. The company entered into the following partial list of transactions during the first quarter.

1. During January, the company provided services for $41,000 on credit.
2. On January 31, the company estimated bad debts using 2 percent of credit sales.
3. On February 4, the company collected $20,500 of accounts receivable.
4. On February 15, the company wrote off a $150 account receivable.
5. During February, the company provided services for $31,000 on credit.
6. On February 28, the company estimated bad debts using 2 percent of credit sales.
7. On March 1, the company loaned $2,600 to an employee, who signed a 6% note, due in 6 months.
8. On March 15, the company collected $150 on the account written off one month earlier.
9. On March 31, the company accrued interest earned on the note.
10. On March 31, the company adjusted for uncollectible accounts, based on an aging analysis (below). Allowance for Doubtful Accounts has an unadjusted credit balance of $1,210.

1. For items (a)–(j), analyze the transaction to determine effects on specific financial statement accounts and the overall accounting equation. (Enter any decreases to Assets, Liabilities, or Stockholders Equity with a minus sign. Do not round intermediate calculations.)

2. Prepare the journal entries for items (a)–(j). (If no entry is required for a transaction/event, select "No Journal Entry Required" in the first account field. Do not round intermediate calculations.)

3. Show how Accounts Receivable, Notes Receivable, and their related accounts would be reported in the current assets section of a classified balance sheet at the end of the quarter on March 31. (Do not round intermediate calculations.)

4. Sales Revenue and Service Revenue are two income statement accounts that relate to Accounts Receivable. Name two other accounts related to Accounts Receivable and Notes Receivable that would be reported on the income statement and indicate whether each would appear before, or after, Income from Operations.

Lodi Company is authorized to issue 100,000 shares of no-par, $6 stated-value common stock and 10,000 shares of 9%, $100 par preferred stock. It enters into the following transactions on December 31:

Required:

Chart of Accounts

General Journal

Prepare journal entries to record the transactions on December 31. Memorandum entry is not recorded. Additional Instruction

PAGE 1PAGE 2

GENERAL JOURNAL

Record items 1 and 2 on page 1 and items 3-5 on page 2

Case Study: The Huffington Post: How a Singe Voice Became Many Instructions:

Read the following case study and watch this video: https:// youtu.be/jscdWufGB24

Introduction The Huffington Post began life as just another liberal blog in an already crowded field; it aggregates news from other sources, but eventually it grew into a full-fledged news organization. The Huffington Post i s an unlikely success story, built i n large part on the notoriety of Arianna Huffington and her allies. According to a Washington Post article, ''skeptics dismissed it as a vanity outlet for [Arianna Hllffington] and her Hollywood friends. But the Huffington Post has become an undeniable success, its evolution offering a road map of what works on the Web" (37).

History Arianna Hllffington was born Arianna Stasinopoulos in Greece, educated in England, and gained wide fame as an author, conservative columnist, and popular commentator in the 1980s and early 1990s. She is the ex-wife of former Republican congressman Michael Huffington. In the late 1990s her views shifted radically to the left. She explains her change in political leaning during a 2008 Time interview: "I left the Republican Party [because] my views of the role of government changed" (38). On May 9, 2005, Arianna Huffington, Kenneth Lerer, and Jonah Peretti launched the Huffington Post with about $2 million in seed capital. The website consisted of little more than a few blogs and some basic political news. It drew on news stories published by reputable news organizations, as well as the general public, "but what set the Huffington Post apart was the humor with which It was delivered. This is not to say the publication did not have a serious point to get across" (39). Indeed, the Huffington Post positioned itself to be the liberal counter to right-wing media (40). In August 2006 the Huffington Post announced its first round of venture capital funding, With a $5 million investment from SoftBank Capital, which enabled the publication to increase its staff with in-house reporters who could update the site around the clock as well as a multimedia team to produce video reports." Among the new hires was a political editor, Melinda Henneberger, a former Newsweek magazine print journalist, who brought conventional journalistic credibility to the publication. Just a year after its launch, the site drew approximately 2.3 million unique visitors a month, thus making it one of the more popular blog sites. In early 2008 the site garnered 3.7 million unique visitors and enabled It to beat out its conservative competitor; the Drudge Report, for the first time (42). Its success drew further funding in 2008, with an additional $15 million investment, which allowed the publication to "finance the expansion of Huff Po, as it is known, into the provision of local news across the United States and into more investigative Journalism" (43).

Challenge Ms. Huffington faced several significant challenges In cofounding the Huffington Post. At the time, the landscape was dominated by powerful conservative voices, such as the Drudge Report. Moreover, the failure of other liberal blogs to draw huge audiences or active participation had produced a conventional wisdom that progressives were simply not interested in this type of content or interaction. Hence, convincing advertisers to support a liberal blog site would be a herculean undertaking. In addition, "[w]hen she launched her group blog in 2005, skeptics dismissed it as a vanity outlet for her and her Hollywood friends" (44). Lastly, the meager seed capital of $1 million had to be supplemented before long (45). In short, Arianna Huffington had to quickly prove that a liberal blog site could not only capture but sustain a sizable readership before investors or advertisers would make any commitments.

Strategies Ms. Huffington's two objectives were obvious: drive traffic to the blog site and keep them coming back. "In 2006, she was named to the Time 100, Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people" (46). As a popular cable talk show pundit, author, and notable proponent of the political left, she took every opportunity to promote the Huffington Post. With appearances on shows ranging from Real Time with Bill Maher and Charlie Rose to The Mclaughlin Group and Larry King Live, she continually drove traffic to her namesake fledging blog site (47). In addition, the staff of the Huffington Post became adept as news aggregators in identifying the most compelling content on the web that matched its left-leaning editorial slant, as well as some juicy celebrity gossip, and reposting portions of these articles on the blog site. Ms. Huffington's editors are especially skillful at optimizing these story snippets "for search engine results, so that in a Google search, a Huffington Post summary of a Washington Post or a CNN.com report may appear ahead of the original article" (48). This practice is not without its critics. Indeed, Jack Shafer, who covers media for Reuters.com opinion section, characterized it this way: "Huffington glories in carving the meat out of a competitor's story, throwing a search-engine optimized (SEO) headline on it, and posting it" (49). The company site defends the practice as falling under the fair use doctrine. As the funding and ad revenues for the Huffington Post grew, the site eventually hired inhouse reporters, columnists, and investigative journalists to create original news items to complement the content it aggregates. To achieve Huffington Post's second goal of retaining readership, it was clear from the start that it had t o provide quality content from well-known political posters. Ms. Huffington led the way as a prolific blogger. In addition, she initially relied heavily on her impressive "rolodex of A-list celebrities and high-powered friends, soliciting early contributions from the likes of Larry David, Diane Keaton and Alec Baldwin" (50). Soon other notable voices followed, and, perhaps most importantly, the site threw open its doors to a legion of bloggers.A lthough bloggers received no remuneration, tens of thousands of posts poured In. This approach was not without its critics, as CNET writer Josh Woff indicates, "([i]n most industries refusing to pay your labor force is not only unethical, It would likely border on slavery and be illegal as well. Apparently in the world of blogging it's considered good business practice" (51). The company justified the practice by saying they offer bloggers "visibility, promotion, and distribution with a great company" in exchange for their contributions (52). Finally, Ms. Huffington's role in fundraising played a key role in the !blog site's success because it gave the site the capital necessary to rapidly expand its staff and infrastructure.

Results Today, the Huffington Post is the number one blog in the blogosphere.53 It has over 9,000 bloggers,54 with approximately 25 million visitors every month. The viewership, content, and success o f the Huffington Post have not gone unnoticed. The site won the Webby Award for the best political blog in 2006 and 2008 and was the People's Voice Winner lh the political blog category in 2009, 2010, and 2011 (55). Time named it the second best blog in 2009 (56). As with other successful blog sites, AOL snapped up the Huffington Post in February 2011 for $315 million (57). Arianne Huffington was appointed president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group at AOL in order to help ensure continuity in the quality of content and contributions (58). Some fear that HuffPo's distinctive viewpoint may be compromised by a loss of independence. However, Huffington Post executives claim that "[t]he AOL deal has the potential to create an enterprise that could reach more than 100 million visitors in the United States each month ... [and we] estimate that the Web site will generate $60 million in revenue this year, compared with $31 million in 2010" (59). Whether such optimism is justified remains to be seen. It is worth noting that publication expanded into Canada in May 2011, a promising sign that the site Is aggressively attempting t o expand Its readership (60). However, there has been a dark cloud on the horizon for the blog site. In April 2011 Jonathan Tasini, a well-knowrn labor advocate, filed suit against the Hufflngton Post in the United States District Court of New York on behalf of 9,000 uncompensated bloggers. He is alleging damages of over $105 million (61). Ms. Huffington was quick to counter, asserting the blog site is two things, "[a] journalistic enterprise, hiring hundreds of journalists with benefits, great salaries and we are a platform that is available to anyone who does quality work to disseminate their ideas, promote their books, movies, political candidacies or whatever it is they are engaged in" (62). The courts will determine if this is, indeed, the case.

Questions 1. Arianna Huffington drew on some of her celebrity contacts early on to popularize the website. Do you think a person without her connections could have been equally successful? What strategy changes would a non-celebrity have to make to succeed? Explain. Support your answer with specific, cited examples from the case study and the course text.

2. Do you expect that AOL's purchase of the Huffington Post will have a largely positive or negative effect on its viewership? Name some pros and cons, and compare them. Support your answer with specific, cited examples from the case study and the course text.

3. Beyond Arianna Huffington using her celebrity contacts, what other strategies did the staff implement to make this the number one blog in the blogosphere? Can these same strategies be applied to other blogs? Explain why or why not. Support your answer with specific, cited examples from the case study and the course text. *

4. What are the possible strategic marketing benefits and drawbacks of the acquisition of the Huffington Post by AOL? Explain. Support your answer with specific, cited examples from the case study and the course text

Review the three scenarios below. Look for which, if any, of these scenarios presents an example of post-investment holdup.

1. Your firm conducted a search for a new chief financial officer and hired a highly qualified candidate with a yearly salary of $250,000. After six months, the person left to join another firm.
2. Your firm has an exclusive contract to assemble automobile seats for a number of luxury models. Almost 100% of the materials are imported and, of those, over 50% include parts manufactured in China. All of the prices on the parts from China increased by 25% when the U.S. imposed tariffs on China. Your company has informed all of its customers that increased cost must be passed on for your firm to continue supplying the seats. All of your customers reluctantly agreed to pay the additional cost.
3. Your company took note of your progress toward your MBA, and when the director for customer services left the company, you were asked to take over as interim director. You were encouraged to apply for the full-time position once you got your MBA. You served for 13 months, at which time your company was acquired by another company and your position was abolished.

In your discussion post, address the following:

• Which of the above, if any, are an example of post-investment holdup?
• Define the following and explain each within the context of a chosen scenario:
  • What is the sunk, or stranded, cost?
  • What is the contract?
  • Was the contract breached?
  • What are the damages?

The Gourmand Cooking School runs short cooking courses at its small campus. Management has identified two cost drivers it uses in its budgeting and performance reports—the number of courses and the total number of students. For example, the school might run two courses in a month and have a total of 63 students enrolled in those two courses. Data concerning the company’s cost formulas appear below:

For example, administrative expenses should be $3,700 per month plus $46 per course plus $7 per student. The company’s sales should average $850 per student.

The company planned to run four courses with a total of 63 students; however, it actually ran four courses with a total of only 59 students. The actual operating results for September appear below:

Required:

1. Prepare the company’s planning budget for September.

Prepare the company’s planning budget for September.

2. Prepare the company’s flexible budget for September.

Prepare the company’s flexible budget for September.

3. Calculate the revenue and spending