During the course of the simulation, companies will be able to launch marketing, digital and circular initiatives. Some initiatives will be available later in the course of the simulation. You can implement up to three initiatives per year.
All initiatives (marketing, digital or circular ones) are expected to have an impact on the customer purchase funnel (“customer centricity” – see section IV.3. on “Market Research Studies”). Besides having an influence on the purchase funnel, circular initiatives may also increase the global company eco-score (see section II.7.C).
The initiatives are grouped as follows:
Marketing Initiatives
Product Placement – Product placement is the inclusion of a branded product in media, usually without explicit reference to the product. Blockbuster movies usually attract people from all generations. Investing in product placement in Blockbuster movies and series should raise your awareness among all types of customers and enhance the image of your products.
Is this initiative renewable? Yes, the partnership is renewable each year.
Extended Warranty – It consists in offering (for free) prolonged warranty to your products. It will reinforce customers’ trust in the high quality of your products and reassure them that they are taking low risk by purchasing your products. It will also encourage potential customers to consider your products and is thus expected to have a direct impact on sales.
Is this initiative renewable? Yes, renewable annually.
Digital Initiatives
Influencers – Your firm decides to launch a marketing campaign by writing sponsored articles and by co-creating content with brand ambassadors, more specifically “influencers”. Influencers are individuals whose specific status, position or media exposure make them potentially influence other consumers’ behaviors. After carefully choosing the influencers who better fit your audience and your products, your campaign is launched on various social networks (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.). This initiative is expected to have a positive effect on your sales, especially among younger customers, during the year where the initiative is launched.
Is this initiative renewable? Yes, this initiative is renewable at certain point of the simulation.
Retargeting – Your firm decides to pay for “retargeting”: once a user has shown a particular interest in one of your products on your website, this specific preference is stored; the user will face advertising messages (banners) about this specific product on the other websites s/he will visit.
This initiative is expected to have a positive effect on your sales, during the year where the initiative is launched.
Is this initiative renewable? Yes, this initiative is renewable at certain point of the simulation.
Data Analytics – You would like to make the most of your databases, as you know that they could be a very rich source of information. You decide to call an external consultant specialized in data analytics, who will help you optimize your decisions and reduce your churn rate (rate at which customers stop doing business with your company).
This initiative is expected to have a positive effect on your sales, during the year where the initiative is launched.
Is this initiative renewable? Yes, this initiative is renewable at certain point of the simulation.
Contextual Campaign FIFA World Cup – FIFA World Cup is an important event that takes place every four years. It is considered as one of the most interesting events for a company to communicate at a wide audience. Your firm decides to sponsor this event and to create contextual digital content, taking the form of paid advertising (purchasing advertising space online on some relevant websites, social media, …) and organic content (creating online content, such as unpaid posts on social media, …), specifically to support your national team.
This initiative is expected to have a positive effect specifically on the firm’s awareness and on sales, during the year where the initiative is launched.
Is this initiative renewable? Yes, this initiative is renewable at certain point of the simulation.
Circular Initiatives
Used Product Recycling (Waste Recyling Initiative 1) “Bring back your used product and give it a second life!”. This initiative encourages customers to bring back their used product, instead of keeping it at home without using it. If you launch this initiative, you will accept all used products, and even if the customer does not plan to buy a new product in your company. By doing so, you commit yourself to coordinating with a recycling company, so that components of the product (glass, metal, …) can be transformed and used in another sector. A customer who brings back its used product will get a one-week free trial of one of your products.
Impact and impact duration? This initiative is expected to have a positive effect on your sales and on your eco-score during the year where the initiative is launched.
Is this initiative renewable? No, this is a one-shot initiative but allow you to unlock a new initiative on recycling.
Waste Recycling (Waste Recyling Initiative 2) Your firm decides to transform waste deriving from the production and assembly lines of the company products. A partnership is concluded with a recycling company, so that they transform waste into new components (raw materials). By doing so, you commit yourself to provide a recycling company with your waste.
Impact and impact duration? This initiative is expected to have a positive effect on your eco-score, during the year where the initiative is launched, as the partnership has a one-year validity.
Is this initiative renewable? Yes, the partnership is renewable each year.
Photovoltaic Panels (Energy Initiative 1) – Your firm decides to invest in photovoltaic panels, in order to produce your own energy at the company level.
Impact and impact duration? This initiative is expected to have a positive effect on your eco-score. As you communicate about this initiative, it will probably result in an increase in demand, during the year where the initiative is launched, as customers may appreciate this sustainable effort.
Is this initiative renewable? No, this is a one-shot initiative but allow you to unlock a new initiative on energy.
Windmill Park (Energy Initiative 2) – Your firm decides to create its own windmill park, in order to be more and more independent in terms of energy consumption.
Impact and impact duration? This initiative is expected to have a positive effect on your eco-score. As you communicate about this initiative, it will probably also result in an increase in demand, during the year where the initiative is launched, as customers may appreciate this sustainable effort.
Is this initiative renewable? Yes, renewable annually: you may want to increase each year your current own energy production by extending your windmill park.
Global Firm Carbon Footprint (Carbon Initiative) – Your firm decides to optimize product transportation between the company’s warehouses and stores/retrieval points and to optimize the car rides linked to sales force’s store visits. Besides cost savings, this initiative aims at reducing global carbon footprint of the company. To achieve this goal, your firm buys the one-year license of a famous transportation optimization software.
Impact and impact duration? This initiative is expected to have a positive effect on your eco-score, only during the year where the initiative is launched. As you communicate about this initiative, it will probably result in an increase in demand, also during the year where the initiative is launched, as customers may appreciate this sustainable effort.
Is this initiative renewable? Yes, the software license can be renewed each year.
Global Product Packaging (Packaging Initiative) – Your firm intends to work on product packaging, so that plastic gets removed and replaced by recyclable packaging.
Impact and impact duration? This initiative is expected to have a positive effect on your eco-score. As you communicate about this initiative, it will probably result in an increase in demand, during the year where the initiative is launched, as customers may appreciate this sustainable effort.
Is this initiative renewable? No, this is a one-shot initiative.
Education (Education Initiative) – “We care about Education”. Your company undertakes to provide an Educational Institution (school, university, etc) with spare parts and technical help to repair their hardware material. It helps lower the education sector impact on global planet resources, as fewer natural resources are used when products get repaired compared to building new products.
Impact and impact duration? This initiative, showing your effort on global planet resources, is expected to have a positive effect on your eco-score, during the year where the initiative is launched. As you communicate about this initiative, it will probably result in an increase in demand (during this year), as customers may appreciate this effort.
Is this initiative renewable? Yes, renewable annually.
All initiatives may thus be ordered each year and have an impact for one year only.