MKTG90005 Marketing Strategy
The Complete Study & Assessment Guide · Semester 2 2026MKTG90005 Overview
- Postgraduate
- University of Melbourne
- Semester 2 2026
- Assessment based
MKTG90005 Marketing Strategy is a University of Melbourne postgraduate capstone built around preparing, implementing and adjusting strategic marketing decisions. The subject brings earlier marketing knowledge into one applied system.
- Assessment focus Simulation decisions, a group marketing plan, a defended presentation and individual reporting.
- Core discipline Connect evidence to a strategic choice and align every tactic with that route.
- Revision priority Practise diagnosis, framework selection, recommendation, trade-off and control as one chain.
How MKTG90005 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Individual contribution to weekly Executive Briefings / Participation | 20% | Individual work throughout the semester, including pre-work, presentations and workshop participation |
| Group Marketing Plan | 25% | Group report in Weeks 6-7, peer review required, 3,000 words |
| Group Presentation to the Executive Board (inc. oral defense) | 20% | Group presentation with oral defence; submitted in Week 10 and presented in Weeks 11-12 |
| Overall Simulation Performance | 20% | Weekly group decisions assessed throughout semester through the cumulative balanced scorecard |
| Individual Assignment | 15% | Individual 1,000-word report during the examination period at the end of semester |
Current MKTG90005 dates
| Date | Item | Control |
|---|---|---|
| Week 7 | Group Marketing Plan | The current Subject Guide schedules the group report for Weeks 6-7. |
| Week 10 | Group Presentation submission | The current Subject Guide lists submission in Week 10 and presentations in Weeks 11-12. |
| 26 October 2026 | Individual Assignment | The current Subject Guide schedule places the individual assignment after SWOT VAC. |
Dates are as published in the current course materials. Confirm exact deadlines and submission settings in the live LMS.
What MKTG90005 covers
Follow the subject from strategic scope and objectives through STP, communications, external and internal analysis, channels, product decisions and pricing.
Strategic Thinking and Business Scope
Strategy as a learning loop; insight quality; market boundaries; business scope; decision conditions.Strategic marketing is a learning loop that connects analysis, strategy development, implementation, evaluation and control. This chapter shows how a precise business scope determines which customers, competitors and evidence belong in the analysis.
- Strategy as a repeatable learning loop
- Information, insight and analysis paralysis
- Customer need and competitive arena
- The elements of business scope
- Evidence, mechanism and implication
- Decision conditions and review signals
Mission, Objectives and Strategic Options
Mission and intent; decision grade objectives; portfolio logic; competitive position; growth routes.Mission, strategic intent, marketing objectives, strategy and tactics sit at different levels of a decision hierarchy.
- Mission and strategic intent
- Decision grade marketing objectives
- Portfolio resource allocation
- Generic competitive positions
- Product-market growth paths
- Offensive and defensive responses
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Actionable segments; opportunity and fit; target choice; perceptual evidence; reasons to believe.Segmentation, targeting and positioning form one connected choice system. Segmentation identifies customer differences that predict a different response to marketing action. Targeting compares segment opportunity with organisational fit and commits resources.
- Segmentation variables and methods
- Measurability and actionability tests
- Segment attractiveness and fit
- Targeting pattern choices
- Perceptual mapping and interpretation
- Positioning and reasons to believe
Integrated Marketing Communications
Insight and objectives; message strategy; channel roles; customer response; outcome measurement.Integrated marketing communications begins with customer insight and a defined response objective, then translates positioning into message strategy, complementary channel roles, budget and measurement.
- Customer insight and communication objectives
- Message strategy and creative proof
- Advertising and media roles
- Promotion, public relations and direct response
- Personal selling, events and sponsorship
- Response measurement and integration
External Market and Competitor Analysis
Industry pressure; strategic groups; competitor response; customer journeys; critical success factors.External analysis connects market size, growth and trends with industry structure, strategic groups, competitor behaviour, customer choice and critical success factors.
- Market size, growth and trends
- Five Forces and industry attractiveness
- Strategic groups and mobility barriers
- Competitor objectives and response
- Customer analysis and journey barriers
- Critical success factors
Internal Analysis, SWOT and TOWS
Capabilities and organisational fit; value activities; evidence based SWOT; strategic TOWS responses.Internal analysis examines performance, organisational alignment, value-chain activities, activity systems, portfolio choices and marketing capabilities to determine what the organisation can sustain.
- Resources, capabilities and core competence
- Organisational alignment through 7S
- Value chains and activity systems
- Marketing capability assessment
- Evidence based SWOT summaries
- TOWS response design
Customer Engagement and Distribution
Touchpoints; channel functions; structure and intensity; member roles; service and governance.Distribution is a network of functions that creates availability, service, information and control rather than a simple route for physical goods.
- Customer touchpoints and engagement phases
- Physical, sales and finance functions
- Inventory, service and information flows
- Direct and intermediated structures
- Channel length and intensity
- Member governance and conflict
Product and Pricing Strategy
Product layers and line choices; innovation posture; pricing objectives; cost, value and competition.Product and price express one value logic. The chapter separates core benefit, actual product and augmented value, then evaluates product-line stretch, filling, modification, innovation and removal.
- Core, actual and augmented product
- Product-line depth and breadth
- Stretch, filling and modification
- Pioneering and follower choices
- Pricing objectives and strategic role
- Cost, value and competition bases
Students analyse market and customer information, choose a strategic direction, coordinate marketing actions and revise decisions as performance evidence changes. A competitive simulation is the central learning device, so the course is less about reciting isolated framework definitions and more about showing why one choice follows from the evidence.
The Semester 2 2026 assessment structure is entirely coursework based.
It combines individual contribution to weekly executive briefings and participation, a group marketing plan, a group presentation with oral defence, overall simulation performance and an individual end of semester report. The published Subject Guide states that there is no examination.
That makes reflection and traceability especially important: assessed work needs to connect earlier decisions and results with the next plan, use market and financial evidence visibly, align tactical choices with the strategic direction and explain what could go wrong.
This guide follows that reasoning path.
It begins with strategic thinking and business scope, then moves through mission, objectives and strategic options. Segmentation, targeting and positioning establish who the organisation serves and why it should be chosen. Integrated marketing communications assigns roles to messages and channels. External and internal analysis diagnose the market and the organisation, while SWOT and TOWS turn evidence into response.
The final chapters connect customer engagement, distribution, product management and pricing. Every worked scenario is original and exists to practise the course's question types without reproducing proprietary assessment prompts.
Worked example · free
Convert a performance pattern into a strategic decision
- 1Separate the observed pattern from its explanation: traffic rose and conversion did not, but that does not prove price or advertising caused the gap.
- 1Use the interview evidence to identify a plausible mechanism: decision-stage buyers need waterproofing and repair assurance that the page does not surface.
- 1Make a bounded choice: revise the landing message around verified proof and retain only traffic sources that reach qualified commuters.
- 1Set a review signal: if proof engagement rises but conversion does not, investigate price, delivery and product fit before adding media spend.
Key terms
- Strategic marketing
- Strategic marketing aligns market evidence, organisational direction and coordinated decisions so the firm can create and sustain customer value.
- Business scope
- Business scope defines the customer need, target, offering, geography, channel and capabilities that bound the competitive arena.
- Strategic intent
- Strategic intent expresses an ambitious direction that guides objectives and resource choices without replacing a specific strategy.
- Marketing objective
- A marketing objective states a measurable customer or market outcome, a time horizon and the conditions that define success.
- Market segment
- A market segment is a group whose shared needs or behaviour predict a meaningfully different response to marketing action.
- Target market
- A target market is the selected segment whose attractiveness and organisational fit justify focused resources and a distinct offer.
- Positioning
- Positioning designs the distinctive, credible value meaning an offering should hold for a selected target relative to alternatives.
- Value proposition
- A value proposition connects the target's important benefit with an offer and a defensible reason to believe.
- Critical success factor
- A critical success factor is a condition organisations must satisfy to compete effectively within a defined market arena.
- Core competence
- A core competence is a coordinated capability that creates customer value, supports strategic access and resists easy imitation.
- SWOT analysis
- SWOT summarises supported internal strengths and weaknesses alongside external opportunities and threats for a defined decision.
- TOWS analysis
- TOWS combines internal and external findings to develop strategic responses with explicit mechanisms and trade-offs.
- Channel intensity
- Channel intensity describes how widely an offering is distributed through intensive, selective or exclusive coverage.
- Value-based pricing
- Value-based pricing begins with the benefits and alternatives that shape customer willingness to pay, then checks cost and competition.
MKTG90005 FAQ
How is the subject assessed?
The published assessment combines individual contribution to executive briefings and participation, a group marketing plan, a group presentation with oral defence, overall simulation performance and an individual end of semester report. Together the five weighted rows total the full subject result. Check the current LMS task pages for live dates, instructions and rubric details.
Is there a final examination?
The Semester 2 2026 Subject Guide states that there is no examination. The individual report occurs during the examination period, but it is an assignment rather than a final exam. Revision should therefore focus on applying frameworks, interpreting simulation evidence, defending strategic choices and checking the current requirements for each coursework task.
What makes the simulation difficult?
The challenge is integration. A pricing move can change demand, brand meaning, competitor response and available resources, while results arrive after several connected decisions. Strong teams distinguish a poor assumption from weak execution, keep a record of why choices were made and use each quarter's evidence to revise the next decision without chasing every short-term fluctuation.
What should a strong marketing plan show?
The task outline emphasises justification, reflection, coherence and agility. A strong plan connects earlier decisions and performance with the future route, uses tables to show market and financial evidence, explains target and competitor choices, links tactical budgets to strategic direction, and finishes with a critical evaluation of risks, responses and contingencies.
How do I choose the right strategy framework?
Start with the decision. Use portfolio tools for resource allocation across offerings, product-market logic for growth routes, perceptual maps for customer positioning and Five Forces for structural industry pressure. Define the axes and evidence before applying the tool. The framework should expose a trade-off and support a choice, not simply add a familiar diagram.
How should I prepare for oral defence?
Rehearse the reasoning behind the recommendation rather than memorising the slide order. Be ready to explain the selected target, rejected alternatives, evidence quality, strategic sacrifice, remaining weakness, competitor response and control signal. Each team member should understand the joined logic because questions can move across product, price, communication, channel and simulation performance.
How should I revise an individual report?
Audit each paragraph for four links: evidence, interpretation, decision and consequence. Confirm that tables agree with the prose, distinguish verified facts from assumptions and remove framework descriptions that do not change the recommendation. Finish by aligning the conclusion with the opening objective and naming the most important risk and next review condition.
Questions students ask in each MKTG90005 chapter
- What makes an insight strategic?
- A strategic insight does more than restate a number. It explains why the pattern may exist, identifies the customer, competitor or capability mechanism, changes a live choice and states what evidence would confirm or overturn it. That structure makes the claim useful for the next simulation or planning decision. Chapter 01 · Strategic Thinking and Business Scope
- What is the difference between an objective and a strategy?
- An objective states the outcome the organisation wants to achieve and the conditions that define success. Strategy states the route and trade-offs used to achieve it. Tactics implement that route. Keeping the levels separate prevents a media activity or discount from being presented as the strategy itself. Chapter 02 · Mission, Objectives and Strategic Options
- What makes a segment actionable?
- An actionable segment is identifiable, reachable and sufficiently different in need or response to justify a distinct offer, message, price or channel. A colourful persona is not enough. The team must be able to locate the group, estimate its opportunity and deliver a meaningfully different marketing action. Chapter 03 · Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
- What makes communications integrated?
- Integration means that different tools reinforce a coherent position and perform complementary roles across the customer decision. It does not require identical creative execution everywhere. Each activity should identify its target, barrier, message, proof, place in the sequence and connection to the next customer step. Chapter 04 · Integrated Marketing Communications
- Why does market growth not prove attractiveness?
- Growth shows demand movement but not who retains value. Strong buyers, concentrated suppliers, easy switching, intense rivalry or improving substitutes can absorb profit even in a growing category. Combine growth with structural pressure, margin pools, retention and the firm's ability to occupy a defensible position. Chapter 05 · External Market and Competitor Analysis
- What makes a capability strategically important?
- A capability matters when it supports customer value or cost in the chosen strategy, is difficult for rivals to reproduce and can be delivered consistently through people, systems and linked activities. A positive attribute or single skilled employee is not automatically a core competence. Chapter 06 · Internal Analysis, SWOT and TOWS
- How should a channel be selected?
- Begin with the service outputs the selected target needs, then identify the functions required to deliver them. Compare member capability, economics, information access, control and strategic fit. Choose structure and intensity after those steps, and define governance and performance signals before expanding coverage. Chapter 07 · Customer Engagement and Distribution
- How should product layers be analysed?
- Start with the customer outcome, then identify the actual features, quality and brand that deliver it, followed by augmented services such as advice, delivery or warranty. Determine which layer carries the intended difference and whether operations can provide it consistently across the selected channel. Chapter 08 · Product and Pricing Strategy
How to prepare for the assessments
Revise by rebuilding the strategic chain rather than memorising a catalogue of models. Begin with scope, mission and objectives, then practise selecting the tool that clarifies the live decision. For each chapter, write a one-page map containing the customer or market question, the evidence required, the choice the framework supports, the main trade-off and the signal that would change the decision.
Use your simulation record as a learning log: note the assumption behind each quarter's move, the expected result, the actual pattern, competing explanations and the next adjustment. When preparing the group plan, connect tables to claims and claims to resource choices; never leave a framework as a standalone diagram.
Rehearse oral defence by having teammates challenge the target, the rejected alternative, the weakest evidence and the contingency. For the individual report, practise short original scenarios under time, then audit every paragraph for evidence, interpretation, decision and consequence.
The final submission check should verify the live LMS requirements, task form, citations, numbers, visual labels and alignment between the executive summary, recommendation and control plan.
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