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THE BRANDPRO CHALLENGE

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 WELCOME TO BRANDPRO
The BrandPRO simulation allows you to develop your skills along the key dimensions of Brand Strategy.

BRAND STRATEGY

BRAND BRAND POSITIONING STRATEGY

TARGETING
STRATEGY PRODUCT PRICING COMMUNICATION
STRATEGY STRATEGY STRATEGY
Influencing brand value Setting the brand price, taking Influencing brand perceived
Allocating brand resources
through Research & into account consumer value through communication,
across selected consumer
Development and modification expectations, competitive i.e. specifying perceptual
segments in order to build a
of the brand physical advantages, competitive prices, objectives and allocating
competitive advantage.
characteristics. brand profitability, etc. advertising budget.

THE MARKSTRAT HERITAGE

BrandPRO is an offspring of Markstrat, the world renowned Marketing Strategy simulation used by leading
business schools worldwide and by over 1,000,000 students.
StratX designs world class action-based learning tools in Marketing, Strategy and Innovation to provide live,
realistic and powerful learning experiences. Built on solid theoretical grounds, StratX simulations have garnered
worldwide acclaim for their learning effectiveness and ability to engage students.

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 COMPETITORS
YOUR MISSION
Congratulations on your new position! You and the other members of your team will be in charge of marketing
two Sonite brands in the BrandPRO world.
Your objective is to maximize the value of your company as represented by its Share Price Index (SPI).
The SPI evolves over time according to your yearly decisions. The SPI value is based on multiple indicators
including net contribution generated, product market share, revenue growth, and etc.
Your company SPI is equal to 100 at the beginning of the simulation. A final value greater than 100 means that
you have created value over the 5 years. Otherwise, you have destroyed value.

Grow
Revenues
Increase
Increase
Market
Contribution
Share

How to
Maximize
your SPI ?

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 THE BRANDPRO WORLD SONITE PRODUCTS
The BrandPRO world is a fictitious country of 80
million inhabitants that roughly behaves like most
markets. Inflation is virtually zero and no major
political, social or economic event is anticipated in
the near future.

THE SONITE PRODUCT CATEGORY

A Sonite is a sophisticated electronic equipment
equivalent to a digital camera, GPS system, ECONOMY
smartphone or computer.
A Sonite is characterized by the four attributes Inversely related to Price
listed on the right. The more sophisticated the
product is, the higher its unit cost.
PERFORMANCE
THE SONITE MARKET
Display Size – 4 to 40 Inches
Understanding consumer needs and matching their
Processing Power – 5 to 100 Gigaflops
expectations is key to designing a favorable
offering.
Exceeding consumer expectations is not always a CONVENIENCE
smart decision. This may in particular result in a
Number of Features – 10 to 20
lower margin or you may upset your consumers.
Battery Life – 24 to 96 Hours
For instance, a long-lasting battery may be heavy
and a large screen may not fit in a purse.
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 SONITE CONSUMERS
Sonite consumers are adults who purchase the products for personal or professional use. The BrandPRO market is
divided into three major groups of consumers or segments which have similar needs and purchasing behavior.

TRENDY SHOPPERS (TNDY) SAVVY SHOPPERS (SVVY) PROFESSIONALS (PROS)

Individuals who like fashionable The largest segment in the Individuals or organizations who
products. They usually have a Sonite market, and likely to grow purchase Sonite products for
high income and a higher level even more. professional usage.
of education. Savvy shoppers are cautious on Can afford fairly expensive
Use Sonite products for private how their money is spent and products and often view price as
usage, less frequently than the highly rational in their an indication of quality.
average consumers. purchasing decisions. Look for high performance and
Purchase expensive products, in Demand affordable products average convenience products.
part to reveal their social status. with low performance and
Demand products with a high convenience.
convenience and good
performance.

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 COMPETITORS
COMPETING FIRMS – M, T and R
Three firms including your own fight to market Sonite products in the BrandPRO world.
All firms start with a different situation in Year 1. Many differences exist in terms of product specifications,
target consumers, awareness levels of their brands, market shares, sales, profitability, R&D expertise, etc.

FIRM M – YOUR FIRM

Firm M is the company that you have just joined. You
will manage two existing brands: MOJO, a low-end
offering, and MOON, a mid-range one. None of these FIRM M
two brands is leading in a segment. MOJO
You will not launch any new brand. MOON

FIRM T – THE MARKET LEADER

Firm T covers the entire market with 3 brands: TOIZ,
TOGA and TOKI.
Firm T is number one in revenues and profits with a
leading position in two segments. MARKET
FIRM R – THE SMALL PLAYER
FIRM T
Firm R is the smallest company in revenues and profits. FIRM R
TOIZ
Firm R markets ROCX, a successful low-end brand, and TOGA ROCX
ROSE, a brand with low convenience. TOKI ROSE
It will launch a new brand in Year 4 or 5 to challenge
the robustness of your strategy.
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 YOUR ROLE
You are in charge of the strategy for your two brands MOJO and MOON for a total duration of 5 years of your
BrandPRO experience.

1. ANALYZE YOUR FINANCIAL AND 2. DECIDE ON THE STRATEGIC 3. RUN THE SIMULATION AND
MARKETING POSITION DIRECTION OF YOUR FIRM START A NEW YEAR
Use the information available When your situation analysis is Check that your decisions are
with key data on your firm and completed, make the four error-free and click RUN to move
on competitors, brands and strategic decisions shown below. to the next year.
consumers to analyze your You can use the forecasting tool You can then access your results
position. to check your expenses against and start the next cycle
your budget. “ANALYZE → DECIDE → RUN”.

TARGETING STRATEGY BRAND POSITIONING STRATEGY

Decide on how to allocate PRODUCT STRATEGY PRICING STRATEGY COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
your resources across brands
and consumer segments. Design a product that will be Decide on a price that will Decide where you would like
Appropriate communication appropriate to the chosen match the expectations of to position your brands and
and sales channels will be positioning. Which Power or your target consumers, and which message you want to
decided automatically. Battery Life will be attractive that will provide you with a communicate to your target
to the target? sufficient unit margin. consumers.

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 BRAND TARGETING STRATEGY
The first pillar of Brand Strategy is the allocation of a brand’s resources across selected consumer segments in
order to build a competitive advantage.
Deciding to target a given segment should be based on a careful evaluation of its attractiveness and of your
competitive position in this segment.
The attractiveness of a segment depends on its size, growth rate and on other factors listed below. A high
attractiveness indicates that your firm will benefit from positioning an offering targeted at this segment.
Your competitive position measures your ability to compete in this segment, i.e. your ability to develop and
market a superior offering and build a competitive advantage such as a higher awareness, a superior brand
positioning, an adequate pricing, etc.

Position of Sales/Share in Access to

Threat of
Competing Segment and Marketing
New Entrants Trend Channels
Brands

Number & Positioning of Product

Contribution
Size Of Existing Development
Margin Offering Capability
Competitors

Segment Size Awareness

SEGMENT COMPETITIVE
& Growth Etc … Level in Etc …
ATTRACTIVENESS Segment POSITION
Rate

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 BRAND POSITIONING STRATEGY
The second pillar of Brand Strategy is the adequate positioning of the brand in the selected segment(s).
The perceptual mapping of similarities and preferences is a key tool to analyze and/or decide on brand positioning.
There are three maps, each showing a different pair of dimensions: Economy (equivalent to Affordability and inversely
related to Price), Performance (influenced by Processing Power and Display Size) and Convenience (Battery Life and
Number of Features). A sample perceptual map is shown below.
The positioning of a brand can be implemented through a product strategy (changing its characteristics through R&D), a
pricing strategy, and a communication strategy (changing its perception by consumers).
SAMPLE PERCEPTUAL MAP – ECONOMY × CONVENIENCE
A large rounded square such A small square such as this
as this one represents the one corresponds to the
position of the ideal point positioning of one of the
for a consumer segment. competitive brands, ROCX in
this example. ROCX is
In this example, TRENDY
perceived at +7 on the
consumers would prefer a
Economy axis and at +1 on
brand positioned at +12 on
the Convenience axis.
the Convenience axis and at
−15 on the Economy axis. Brands close to each other
on the map are more likely
The position of ideal points
to be in competition than
changes over time as
brands far from each other.
consumer needs evolve. The
squares with a lighter color Brands close to the ideal
represent where ideal points point of a segment are likely
were located one or two to be preferred by the
years before. consumers in this segment.

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 DECISION PROCESS
You are now ready to proceed with your first year of decisions!
In total, you will have to complete 5 years in the BrandPRO simulation, as explained below.

ANALYZE DECIDE RUN

5 reports providing financial, Decisions in four strategic Any errors or warnings in
technical, marketing and sales areas: targeting, product, your decisions will be
data broken down by firm, pricing and communication. indicated in the left-hand bar.
brand, consumer segment, Each year you will be given a You cannot run the simulation
etc. budget depending on your with errors in your decisions.
Data available on competitors results. This budget and Execute your decisions by
and competitive brands. investments for the year will clicking on the RUN button.
All market research data is be indicated in the left-hand
Stretch your legs for 2
systematically provided. bar.
minutes and start again.

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

Make sure to allocate sufficient time to your initial situation analysis! It is acceptable to allocate relatively more time to Year 1.
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 BRANDPRO DECISIONS

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 TARGETING STRATEGY
Use the decision screen below to allocate your marketing and sales resources across brands and consumer segments.
The impacts of this decisions are multiple: raising and/or maintaining brand awareness, informing consumers on brand
attributes, influencing brand perceptions (see also setting perceptual objectives), increasing the availability of products
in stores, etc.
Your marketing and sales teams will automatically use these strategic guidelines to select the most appropriate
advertising media and distribution channels and reach the desired consumers. This channel selection is not fully
accurate; as a consequence, a share of your resources will be directed to non-targeted consumers.
Make sure to respect your allocated budget while entering decisions in this form. You will not be able to Run the
BrandPRO simulation if you exceed your budget.

Enter your decisions in the white cells Totals by brand and by segment are calculated
(in thousands of $). automatically as your enter decisions.

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 PRODUCT STRATEGY – INFLUENCING BRAND VALUE THROUGH RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
A brand perceived far from the ideal point of a segment will most likely not be one of the preferred brands.
To position ROSE closer to the ideal point of PROS on the map below, Team R must improve its Convenience, i.e. increase its
number of features or its battery life, or both. To make MOJO more attractive to SAVVY Shoppers, Team M must reduce its
Performance, i.e. decrease its processing power or its display size, or both.
Brand modifications are done by the R&D department and take one year to complete. You may only initiate one brand
modification per year.

Use the perceptual maps to

determine the optimal physical
characteristics to achieve a
target position.
By comparing the current
characteristics of several brands
and checking their positions on
the maps, you should be able to
infer which combination of
attributes will help you move
your current position closer to
the needs of your target
segment(s).
What should you do to make
MOON more relevant to PROS,
or to TRENDY shoppers, or to
both groups ?

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 PRODUCT STRATEGY – MODIFYING A PRODUCT THROUGH RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
Use this decision screen to modify the physical attributes (processing power, display size, …) of your brands. You may
initiate one brand modification per year, but may not modify a given brand two years in a row.
Product strategy should be consistent with your positioning strategy, as explained in PREPARE > Product Strategy.
Your R&D department will charge you a development budget to modify a brand. The larger the upgrade (or downgrade),
the higher the development budget.
Modifying a brand impacts production unit cost. The higher the new attributes, the higher the unit cost.
A brand modification takes one year to complete. The brand with the new attributes will be marketed one year later.

(1) Select in the menu the brand which

you want to upgrade/downgrade.

(2) Check this box to open the page.

(3) The current brand characteristics are

listed here, as well as the minimum and
maximum authorized values.

(4) Enter the new desired characteristics

for the selected brand.

(5) Check the impact of the requested

modifications on the R&D budget and on
the future unit cost of the brand.
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 PRICING STRATEGY – INFLUENCING BRAND VALUE THROUGH PRICING
The price of a brand is the cost paid by consumers in exchange of the value provided by this brand in term of
performance and convenience.
Changing the price of a brand will reposition it along the Economy (affordability) axis of the perceptual map. As economy
is inversely related to price, increasing price will decrease economy and vice-versa.
Several factors should be taken into consideration to decide on how to price your brand: consumer expectations,
competitive prices, competitive advantage, brand profitability, etc. See the explanations below.

The Gross Unit Contribution indicates how much profit is generated

by a brand for each unit sold. It is equal to:
Retail Price − Distribution Margin − Manufacturing Cost
Distribution Margin is fixed and equal to 35% of retail price.
Manufacturing Cost depends on the physical attributes of your
brand: the higher the attributes the higher the cost.
Make sure that your Gross Unit Contribution will be high enough to
cover your fixed costs (marketing & sales expenses) and still
generate a good contribution to your firm.

MOON is perceived as more expensive than all other brands

(-18). MOON is also the brand perceived closer to the needs
of TRENDY shoppers in terms of Performance.

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 PRICING STRATEGY
Use this decision screen to set the price of your brands. Prices are given in $ and may be changed once a year.
Your pricing strategy should be consistent with your targeting and positioning strategies, as explained in the Brand
Strategy concepts.

Enter the new prices in Prices of competitive

the white cells. brands in the previous
year are listed here.

Perceptual maps may be

displayed by clicking
here.

The Brand Profitability

tool computes the future Use the Brand
Gross Unit Contribution Profitability tool to verify
of your brands, taking that new prices will allow
the distribution margin you to make a sufficient
and the manufacturing margin.
unit cost into account.

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 COMMUNICATION STRATEGY – INFLUENCING BRAND VALUE THROUGH COMMUNICATION
Brand perceptions may be influenced by advertising. Advertising can be used to reposition a brand on the perceptual maps.
Two simultaneous decisions are required to position a brand with advertising: specifying perceptual objectives and allocating an
adequate advertising budget to the brand and targeted segment.
Use the perceptual maps to set perceptual objectives. You must specify the dimension(s) on which you want to communicate and
the coordinates of the location where you would like to position your brand.

Let’s assume that you want to

reposition MOON on TRENDY
shoppers.

This map show that MOON is

perceived as slightly expensive
and too low on Convenience.

To influence perceptions and

position MOON closer to the
perceived needs of TRENDY
Shoppers, you may want to
communicate along these two
dimensions?

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 COMMUNICATION STRATEGY – SETTING PERCEPTUAL OBJECTIVES
Use this decision screen to set perceptual objectives for each of your brands.
Perceptual objectives should be consistent with your positioning strategy, as explained in section Managing
Communication & Perceptual Objectives of the PREPARE section.
Setting perceptual objectives will have no or little impact on brand positioning unless you allocate a significant
marketing and sales budget to the brand.

(1) Select the brand on which you want to communicate.

(2) Select the two dimensions on which you

want to communicate.
The appropriate perceptual map is
automatically shown at the bottom of the
page depending on the choice of dimensions.

(3) Enter the desired position on the map in the blue cells.
The current brand position is given in the grey cell.
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 FORECASTING TOOL – ESTIMATE YOUR FUTURE CONTRIBUTION
Use this tool to estimate your net contribution for next year. The form below is automated and will do most of the
calculations for you.
In step 1, the tool estimates the size of consumer segments next year. It will use the figures from the market forecast
study.
In step 2, you must enter your best estimates of brand market shares in each segment for next year. Make sure to
anticipate competitive actions.
In step 3, the tool calculates your Profit & Loss statement for next year, using the estimated segment shares to calculate
volume sales, and using your decisions to calculate the other rows: revenues, production costs, marketing & sales, etc.

(1) Read estimated

segment sizes here.

(2) Enter segment

share estimates in
white cells.

(3) Read volume,

revenues, costs and
profits here.
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 BRANDPRO NAVIGATOR

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 SIGNING IN BRANDPRO
Use BrandPRO on a desktop, laptop or tablet running Windows, Mac OS, iOS, Android, Linux, etc.
Open your favorite internet browser (Firefox, IE, Safari, Chrome, …) and go to brandpro.stratxsimulations.com.
You will need a Participant Activation Key, a Team Name and a Team Password to sign in BrandPRO.

PARTICIPANT ACTIVATION KEY (PAK)

This is the license to the software.
For some courses a PAK will be provided
to you by the instructor.
Otherwise, please visit the StratX store at
www.stratxsimulations.com to purchase a
PAK.

TEAM NAME AND PASSWORD

The course participants will be grouped in
teams.
Each team will managed a fictitious
company for a total duration of 5 years.
Your course instructor is in charge of
assigning participants into teams and of
communicating your team name and
password to you.
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 NAVIGATING BRANDPRO
The BrandPRO navigator includes four screens: HOME, PREPARE, ANALYZE and DECIDE.
The HOME and DECIDE pages share the same window. The HOME page displays all the BrandPRO components and the
DECIDE page is where you make decisions. This is your main workplace, as described below; it should not be closed,
otherwise, you will have to sign in again.
The PREPARE and ANALYZE popup windows provide essential information to discover the BrandPRO world and to
analyze the situation of your firm. These two windows may be closed at any time and re-opened later.

Use top menu

THE HOME/DECIDE WINDOW to navigate

This window allows you to navigate across

all pages using the left-hand buttons or the
central images.
It also enables you to logout; check what
your teammates are doing; access the
handbook; and print your report.
The CHECKLIST will help you check your
errors, warnings, highlights and budget
before attempting to run the simulation.
The RUN button will open a new page
dedicated to running your decisions.
All pages except the HOME have a top
menu to navigate through the different
pages.
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 TEAM IDENTITY
One of your first decisions will be to change your team name. Choose a name that reflects your spirit and make sure to involve all
your teammates in this choice.
Initially, your team name looks like Team-37 or Team-124, where 37 or 124 is the serial number of your team. The new name may
be up to 8 characters long and must only contains letters and/or digits plus the two characters space and dash.
The following names are valid: Just4You, MYSTERY, I Love U, So-Good, 24 Hours. The following names are not authorized: Last
Resort (too long), Olé ! or Ben&Jerry (forbidden characters).
Your new team name will be automatically followed by your serial number, and will look like MYSTERY (37) or So-Good (124).

Click here to change

your team name

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 CHECKING DECISIONS
Check your Errors, Warnings and Highlights before attempting to run the BrandPRO simulation.
Errors, such as exceeding your budget, will prevent you from running the simulation; they must be fixed.
Warnings should be carefully analyzed as they may indicate a potential error.
Highlights summarize some of the key decisions made, such as a product modification.

Click here to
review errors,
warnings and
highlights.

This team will not

be allowed to run Error
its decisions! Click on a title to view Warning
a detailed message. Highlight

CHECKING YOUR DEVIATION FROM AUTHORIZED BUDGET

At the end of each year, you are given a marketing budget for the following year. This budget is a function of your Earnings Before
Taxes, as explained in the BrandPRO Operational Rules.
Your expenses include the marketing and sales expenses allocated in your Targeting Strategy decisions and your R&D expenses
decided in the Product Strategy page.
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 REVIEWING DECISIONS Select a brand in the menu
You may review your past and current
decisions at any time by clicking on the
REVIEW button in the left bar.
The menu at the top lets you select one of
your two brands.

Click here to review

your decisions

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 EXECUTING YOUR DECISIONS
Once you have made and checked your decisions for the current year, you may run the simulation to move
onto the next year, get new results and see if your strategy has been successful in creating value.
Please note that running the simulation for a given year is an action that cannot be cancelled. Please make sure
to get the go-ahead from your teammates before clicking on the Run button.

(1) Check your errors and warnings. Fix

your errors, if any. Then, analyze and
validate your warnings, if any.
You will have to run the
(2) Check your expenses against your BrandPRO experience
authorized budget. FIVE times.

(3) Click on the RUN button to open the

RUNNING YOUR DECISIONS page.

4) Consult your teammates. When you

all agree, click on this button and wait
for a few minutes before starting the
next year.

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 WORKING IN TEAM WITH BRANDPRO
You and your teammates can sign in and work in BrandPRO in parallel, each using his or her login details.
However, a decision page can only be used by one team member at a time. When you use a decision page,
your teammates will not have access to it until you quit the page.
The TEAM INFO page shows which of your teammates are logged in, as indicated below.

Which team members are logged in ?

How long ago did they log in ?

Are they making decisions? If yes, these

two columns will tell which page is used
and how long it has been used.

Click here to unlock the decision page in

use.

WHEN SHOULD I DISCONNECT ONE OF MY TEAMMATES AND HOW TO DO IT ?

The disconnect button appears in front of a teammate currently accessing a given decision page. This page is
then locked and you cannot use it. To access it, you may need to click the corresponding disconnect button.
The disconnect button is particularly useful if one of your teammates closes the internet browser without
properly logging out. The decision page he or she may have been using will be locked for about 20 minutes.
Make sure you only disconnect inactive teammates, not ones that are making decisions.
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 WE WISHtips
Additional YOU A LOT OF SUCCESS IN BRANDPRO!
• How is my budget calculated?
• Should I correct Errors and warnings before submiting for run?

The StratX Team

Access BrandPRO: http://brandpro.stratxsimulations.com

Visit our website: www.stratxsimulations.com
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