It is highly recommended to read this handbook carefully prior to the beginning of the Markstrat Challenge. If you do not, you may put your team at a disadvantage.
Unless otherwise instructed by your professor, you should read the following four chapters prior to Decision Round 1:
•Introduction to the Markstrat Challenge
•Overview of the Markstrat World
•Understanding Your Annual Report
In these four chapters, you will discover what your new challenge and objective is, what the Markstrat world looks like in term of products, consumers, distribution channels, competitors, etc.; how your company operates and what decisions you will have to make in order to run it through the next 5 to 10 years, and what information will be made available to you in your annual report.
You are then advised to read the last two chapters prior to Decision Round 2:
•Positioning and Research & Development
•Users’s Guide to the Marketing Plan Tool
There, you will learn in more detail: how to use the semantic scales and the multidimensional studies to reposition brands; how and when to reposition brands or to launch new ones and how the R&D and Marketing departments work together.