Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing
Individual Assignment
June 2020
Discovering Marketing Essentials (DME)
Examination /Assignment Registration 20th April to 03rd of May 2020
Period
Examination / Assignment Registration 04th to 10th May 2020
Grace Period
Assignment Submission Period 11th to 17th May 2020
Assignment Acceptance time period Weekend and Weekday from 9.00am to 3.00pm
Presentation Date N/A
Email address to send soft copy dme.pgd@slim.lk
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GUIDELINES
ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION:
You are required to register for examinations / assignments within the above given
period. Assignments will not be accepted if you have not registered for the
exam/assignment.
Assignments should be submitted to SLIM within the Assignment Submission Periods
indicated above.
Assignments will not be accepted after the late submission period under any
circumstances.
SLIM will issue an acknowledgement slip upon the submission of your assignment and
it must be retained by the student as proof of submitting the assignment.
ASSIGNMENT COVER PAGE:
Attached cover page format should be used, printed in the relevant colour (Stage 1-
Blue/Stage 2-Green/ Stage 3-Pink).
THE ASSIGNMENT MARKING SHEET should be attached after the cover page followed by the
Assignment checklist & declaration form.
A SOFT COPY of your assignment should be sent to the above mentioned email address for
which you will receive an automated reply of receipt of the assignment. If you have
not received the automated reply, please verify with course coordinator. The soft copy
is only a reference document that will not be considered as an assignment submission.
IMPORTANT NOTES
If you have not submitted the assignment" your results for the respective subject will
appear as “Fail” in the final grading.
In case of absence at the examination, the student has to re-do the assignment in order
to pass the subject in the next examination.
If you are a student of an Accredited Study Centre, you can submit the assignment to
the accredited study centre and presentation date and time will be notified to the
centre once all assignments are received by SLIM Home and SLIM web site.
Present university students are allowed to submit the assignment without attending
lectures since they register as self-study students. However, they have to attend
individual presentation sessions.
Refer student deliverables indicated below for specific details about assignment
submissions and presentations.
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The state of the printing industry in the world
Printing remains one of the key sectors in the world economy with an ever-increasing annual
market share gain, according to Smithers Pira the worldwide authority on packaging, paper and
print industry supply chains with earning $980 billion in the year 2018.
This growth was largely due to the higher growth rates in packaging and labels as levels of
consumerisms were on the rise in the rapidly developing affluent middle class in Asian countries.
However, there are already significant indicators which showcase digital printing is on a rapid
growth in comparison to analogue printing methods. Digital share of the entire market has
doubled from 9.5% in 2008 to 19.7% by 2018. If packaging were to be excluded the figures are
even higher, 23.5% in 2012 to 38.1% by 2018.
The market for printing despite its growth seems to be travelling to a different direction
particularly as once solely print exclusive products are now being taken over by digital mediums.
Further, E-books, online magazines and online newspapers have contributed to the dip in demand
in recent years.
However, the demand for packaging and labeling has only been on an upwards trend. It is also
expected that mature markets such as USA will lose significant ground to emerging markets such
as China followed by India, Mexico, Brazil and Russia which will all climb higher in the ranking as
largest print markets. All above mentioned countries are in essence where the worlds’ largest
portion of economy will consist within the next few decades and it seems only natural that the
printing industry provides a valuable insight as to where the markets are heading.
As per the current trends in the world printing industry, Litho printing accounts for over 70% of
the total volume of print even by 2022. However, it is important to note that most print jobs by
Litho are low value publications such as newspapers to which the demand is decreasing. The
fastest growing area remains digital aided value addition printing.
The digital printing market has also advanced with constantly dropping prices which has enabled
digital based printers to offer more cost-effective solutions. Inkjet is the fastest-growing print
process in the digital arena and technologies such as 3D printing are also slowly yet steadily
appearing in the open markets and will grow in the coming years.
www.slap.lk
PrintLife (Pvt) Ltd., has been in the printing and packaging industry for the last 15 years in paper
board and paper based packaging. They expect to introduce a new corrugated packaging solution
with new investments in 2020.
Corrugated packaging is now used in many industries including fast food, confectionary, tobacco,
dairy, electronic etc.
Assumption – You have been the Marketing Manager of PrintLife for the last 5 years with 10
years’ experience in the printing and packaging industry.
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The Board of Director of the company is requesting you to conduct a feasibility study to introduce
the new corrugated solutions to the market. You are requested to provide the following
information related to your study.
TASK ONE
Conduct a marketing audit covering the following areas.
1.1. Analyze the micro environment to evaluate the following factors
1.1.1. Available business customers in the Sri Lankan market
1.1.2. Channel intermediaries in the industry
1.1.3. Market competition in corrugated packing manufacturing
1.1.4. Technological actors/environment impact the industry
1.2. Macro environment actors which can influence the business
1.2.1. How the current economic condition influence the industry
1.2.2. Influence of the political environment to the industry including any new rules and
regulations
TASK TWO
Conduct a business market segmentation and implement a suitable targeting strategy. The report
must also explain the reason behind the selection of the target customers to serve with your
product range.
TASK THREE
2. Business buyers are the main target market for this type of packaging. As such, evaluate the
following in relation to business buying behavior
2.1. Briefly explain the eight step business buying process along with the case. (The student
is supposed to explain how a decision on corrugated packaging purchase is done based
on the above 8 steps).
2.2. Evaluate major factors that might influence the business buying decision of corrugated
packaging.
2.3. Describe the involvement of the buying centre with related to the case given.
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IMPORTANT:
Please refrain from copying-and-pasting information from the Internet or another source and
make sure to reference your work according to the Harvard referencing format.
Word allocation for each task
Task Content Weightage
Task one 40%
Task two 20%
Task three 40%
Total ( word count 1500 ± 10%) 100%
Note: Please refer the given assignment marking scheme for marks allocation.
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ASSIGNMENT CHECKLIST & DECLARATION
This document is intended as a guide to check and improve your assignment. Review your
assignment together with the specific guidelines and criteria (marking schedule) that are
mentioned in the programme handbook given to you.
You are expected to confirm that your assignment fulfils the below requirements. Please tick
(√) in the cages as necessary.
Student Name
Registration No ( As per registration book )
Cover page with relevant colour code of the stage
Stage 1 – Blue
Stage 2 – Green
Stage 3 – Pink
Assignment checklist & declaration form ( This sheet)
Assignment marking scheme is attached
Assignment sheet is attached
Table of contents
Body of the assignment
References
Course fee paid in full (coaching/registration/exam and membership)
Exam registration completed
Assignment emailed to relevant email address
(You will receive an automated reply of receipt for the assignment. If you have not
received the automated reply, please verify with course coordinator. The soft copy is
only a reference document that will not be considered as an assignment submission)
I’m fully aware that any misleading information provided in the above checklist will lead to the rejection
of my assignment.
I, the undersigned, confirm that I have read and understood the statement about plagiarism which is
outlined in the students’ handbook. I confirm that the work that I have submitted accompanying this
report is wholly my own, and that any quotations or sections of text taken from the published or
unpublished work of any other person is duly and fully acknowledged therein.
Signature: _________________ Date: _________________
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Assignment Marking Scheme
June 2020
Subject Discovering Marketing Essentials (DME)
Student Registration Number
Marks
Criteria Awarded
Allocated
Aligning to the purpose of the assignment 20
Some of the answer addresses to the purpose of the question 1-5
This has addressed the purpose of the assignment 6-10
Has addressed the purpose of the assignment coherently 11-15
This has addressed the purpose of assignment comprehensively 16-20
Clarity of expression 20
An attempt to organize in a logical manner 1-5
Satisfactory showing of logical manner and organization 6-10
Shows higher level of Carefully and logically organized 11-15
Shows coherent structure with clearly expressed ideas 16-20
Using examples/evidences 20
Shows a little use of examples 1-5
Some use of examples. Some evaluation attempted 6-10
Some use of examples. Well evaluated 11-15
Shows appropriate examples are fully and reliably evaluated 16-20
Critical analysis of concepts, theories, conclusions 20
Demonstrates limited evidence of critical analysis 1-5
Demonstrates some critical analysis of relevant theory 6-10
Demonstrates application of theory through critical analysis 11-15
Demonstrates application of critical analysis well integrated 16-20
Following assignment guidelines 20
Limited follow-up of assignment guidelines 1-5
Some level of follow-up of assignment guidelines 6-10
Good display of adherence to assignment guidelines 11-15
Excellent adherence to assignment guidelines 16-20
Total
100
Special Remarks
Signature of the Examiner
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Discovering Marketing Essentials (DME)
Assignment Topic
Student Name
Reg. No.
June 2020 Examination
Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing
Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing
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