Do’s and Don’ts in Markstrat:
Read the manual: even though it is long, and tedious. IT IS THE BEST GUIDE to SUCESS.
Make an excel sheet to keep all the data about the competitors. This will helps you analyze and predict what the competitors are up to.
Be the first one in the Vodite market. Do not be afraid that your product won’t be good enough. You can always change it later through R&D. Consumer’s awareness and perceptions are the most important factors to gain the market share in the Vodite market.
Use your resources: talk to the professor early in the period, or others who already played this game.
Continually have R&D to improve the products because the PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE in Markstrat is real.
A product should only target one segment. Trying to target more segments with one products will be the disadvantage for the long run.
Take a risk. Don’t be afraid to take short term losses for long term gains. Be creative but smart about your decision.
Make sure that you have enough money to keep your product in the portfolio competitively. Too many products without management will decrease the market share in the long run.
Map out your team decisions. Know why you are doing what you doing, have data, and numbers to support it. Do not go with “I think we should”. That’s vague and dangerous.
Performances in the later periods determine your win or loss, so do not get too comfortable with the initial success.
People said buy all the reports. But I think it is redundant. A couple of research reports I suggest buying are:
Industry benchmarking: you will be able to see what other teams spend on R&D, thus predict their next steps.
Market Report: shows how much product did other teams sold, their prices, and based costs
Consumer Panel: shows the market share each product gains in each segment.
Distribution Panel: market share per distribution channel. This will help to allocate the commercial team
Semantic Scales: Brand perceptions, important characteristics...