The WinnigStrat world is a fictitious industrialized country of 80 million inhabitants whose monetary unit is the Simulation dollar ($). This world does not intend to represent any country, market or industrial sector. However, it roughly behaves like most markets, and the general management and marketing knowledge that you have acquired through business experience or formal education applies to this new world.
In the Simulation world, both inflation and GNP growth is fairly stable, and no major political, social or economic event is anticipated in the near future. There are a handful of competing companies that manufacture and market consumer durable goods. These goods are comparable to electronic products such as digital cameras, GPS systems, mobile phones or computers, as well as office equipment, cars, books, or any other consumer durable goods.
Initially, the competing companies are identified by a unique letter such as M, S, L or H. Your first task will be to give a name to your company, starting with this letter and reflecting the spirit within your team.
Each firm starts in a different situation in terms of product specification, target consumers, product awareness levels, market share, distribution coverage, profitability, R&D expertise, etc. Consequently, the marketing strategy of each firm should be adapted to its particular situation within the industry.
Nevertheless, no firm has a relative advantage over the others and initially many characteristics are common to all firms. For instance, the initial product portfolio of all companies is comprised of two products. Each firm will have the opportunity to design and develop new R&D projects and to introduce new products or new models of existing products. All R&D departments have the same capabilities to develop new projects, in their range of experience. Similarly, all commercial teams are equally qualified to handle distributor relationships.