Like every StratX simulation, competition and teamwork are at the heart of Markops.
It places real market forces at the heart of the learning experience, while focusing on operational marketing, and keeping the key principles of strategy at the heart of decisions.
Markops is all about giving participants a platform from which to apply their ideas, and the security to build skills with confidence.
Working in groups of 3 to 5 participants, each team competes against a set of computer controlled firms.
Indirect competition allows teams to see the pure result of their decisions. Markops provides total flexibility in the number of teams, allowing Markops Online to work with any class size, from a few students to more than 300.
Once the teams are set, the simulation begins. The goal is for each team to successfully pilot their company over a defined timeframe of six periods of six months. Teams must determine their strategic options producing an immediate result, which teams use to continually refine their approach within an ever changing market. The result is a real world challenge that covers all the essential elements of operational marketing, allowing participants to test theories and turn ideas into action at rapid speed.
Throughout the simulation, each team is responsible for creating and implementing the marketing strategy of a consumer goods company. Success strictly comes from the decisions made. These include:
Product portfolio strategy, to decide which new projects proposed by R&D will be fully developed and brought to market
Segmentation and positioning strategies to determine which market segments will be targeted, and how products will be positioned
Marketing mix strategy to set day-to-day operational marketing decisions such as pricing, production, communication and distribution
How you put Markops Online to work is up to you. Integrating it with any undergraduate or entry-level marketing course is easy. We can even help you design a course based on your pedagogical objectives.