The MARKSTRAT World

This note was long due, but the culprit for this delay is the topic I am writing about. I am talking about MARKSTRAT, the simulation marketing game, which is a part of the curriculum for the course on Market Decision Making.

There are ninety teams taking part in the game. The teams have been divided into 5 Industries A, E, I, O and U, each having their own advantages and disadvantages as in a real life market. There are 5 consumer segments each having its own characteristics. The teams are doing research to improve their products, developing their own strategies and learning from the strategies of their competitors and also launching new products.

And as the fate of the teams is changing after every round as per their net contribution, the Products of companies- stars, cash cows, dogs and question mark of the BCG matrix are also basking in glory one day and are flop on the other day. As a summary and as I always say, I am rediscovering Marketing and management. What could be more interesting than seeing your competitors go in red all the way? While you a business czar think aggressively of price wars and acquisitions and watch the novice falter on every step.

But as the game is progressing, the pressure is building up. After all, it is only a small contribution of 6000 Markstrat $ that separates us from the team which is second in Industry ‘I’. Whatever is the outcome -for me like many others- MARKSTRAT is more than part of a course, and we are spending disproportionate time on it aggressively planning for our future actions.

At the same time, Ziv Katalan, our Decision Modeling Professor from Wharton has covered the Monte Carlo Simulations using the Crystal Ball software. Now we are modeling our decisions on oil prices, options valuations, and have also revisited the old Newsvendor Problem.

On the whole this term is more intensive than the last but the component of fun has also increased. And in case if our team does well in the marketing game, I will write more about our progress. And if we do not do that well, I leave a clue for you, I adopt a non disclosure policy (The copy right to the last line belongs to our Accounting professor).