[three_fourth]Introduction
This advanced strategic marketing capstone is designed to help graduates meet key challenges in contemporary marketing and business environments. The capstone is a third year unit in a minor in marketing for some Business and Creative Industries students, and is a requirement for students in the marketing major.

Introduced over five years ago, the Markstrat™ simulation (more information below) requires students to consolidate, apply and extend knowledge and skills from prior units. Students work in an immersive, competitive, online simulation. Student teams work to set strategic goals, implement and monitor them, make tactical adjustments based on market and brand position and, finally, evaluate the success of their marketing activities on their business. This directly replicates an evolving marketing environment as well as being very challenging and fast-moving.

Delivery format
This unit runs for one semester (1/8th EFT) in the final year of several Bachelor courses. All enrolled students are invited to register for and orient themselves to the simulation prior to the start of semester. Approximately 25 hours of lectures and tutorials support the delivery of the unit. Tutorials generally operate as team-based working environments where students are developing and implementing their strategic marketing plans. Students also spend substantial time outside of tutorials working on their simulated decision-making activities.

Within each tutorial, teams compete with each other in the market environment, completing seven simulated ‘decision-rounds’ over seven weeks in the semester. Initially, teams participate in three ‘practice’ rounds to gain experience of the process and to develop their decision-making capacity. Following a comprehensive analysis of the market environment at that point, they then set a number of strategic marketing objectives in their marketing plan for where they want their business to be in terms of its overall market position, its position within the two product categories and brand positions in identified consumer segments. This plan is implemented over the next four decision periods.

After each simulation, students go through a process of analysing and evaluating market and brand behaviour, as well as examining operational, financial and share price positions, to improve their ongoing tactical decisions with the aim of achieving their strategic objectives set in their plan. This is implementation period is a very compressed experience, reflecting 4 years of a business’ normal marketing strategy planning.

Assessment
Assessments include reports, evidence of teamwork and student reflection. The simulation itself is not currently assessed but forms the basis of the iterative analysis and evaluation of their business in a competitive marketing environment that underpins the reports that the students prepare. Each student produces their own evaluation report following the team experience of implementing the strategic plan, drawing on the reporting functions in the simulation and theory taught for evidence. These are primarily teacher-assessed, with a small component of reflective self-assessment (10%). Self-assessment is primarily focused on their performance as a team member in a high-pressure situation. An end of semester exam is also used currently to provide students with an additional opportunity to demonstrate synthesised declarative knowledge and reasoning based on a combination of theory learned and applied experiences from the simulation.

Review is used for managing the assessment process and determining the assurance of learning goals.

Resourcing
The simulation license is not free, but the teaching team believes the cost is justified because it offers a complex simulation that will prepare students for decision-making in industry. The provider firm (StratX Simulations) provide the simulation software, the participant and instructors’ guides and the Web-based platform to manage the simulation decision rounds. Tutors require time to learn the simulation, and to gain experience in the process. Other than that, the simulation is operated on the same basis as for any other unit with regards to teaching load.

Outcomes
The simulation provides students with tremendous insights into the importance of making good decisions, clear implementation plans, and the evaluation of outcomes – before they go into the workforce. They gain knowledge in strategic marketing planning, including key areas such as portfolio management and development, environmental analysis, allocation of organisational resources, comprehensive market analysis and forecasting and development and implementation of competitive marketing strategies. Additionally, students develop key professional learning outcomes. These are related to: developing a professional identity as a marketer in a ‘real world’ marketing department; their capacity to work in teams in high-pressure conditions; to work with other nationalities; and, to address group issues in a productive manner.

Students find the competition element of the simulation to be a strong motivating factor, along with the realism of the experience. They feel immersed in the process and treat it as a real business experience with real consequences. Based on strong anecdotal feedback, the unit has developed a high profile in industry. During interviews, employers often ask graduates about their experience and outcomes in the unit, and students have also used it as evidence of their capability. Nonetheless, as with any significant change in curriculum experience, some students initially struggle with the ‘realness’ of the experience. Those students can take longer to engage in the important learning outcomes from the simulated decision-making component in the unit.

More information
For more information and the specific learning outcomes associated with this unit, see the unit outline at: http://www.qut.edu.au/study/unit-search/unit?code=AMB359&idunit=39478&unitSynopsisSelection=1%7C25%7CSEM-1%7C2014
Information on the Markstrat simulation can be found at: http://web.stratxsimulations.com/simulation/strategic-marketing-simulation/[/three_fourth]

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Key characteristics
Single semester unit, online simulation, team-based competition.
Student numbers: 150+

Author/contact
Lynda Andrews, Queensland University of Technology [email_link email=”l.andrews@qut.edu.au”]Email Lynda[/email_link]

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