Helping Ines: Your Task

In your groups, you should write a marketing plan for Ines. The focus should be on thinking about:

• the four Ps of the marketing mix
• factors affecting the marketing of products
• customer characteristics.

Each group should spend three weeks [tutor to add dates here] discussing the kind of advice they would want to give Ines to help her write her marketing plan.

Each group should create a Word or rtf document and attach it to a posting in the group’s discussion forum. Your file should answer the following questions:

1. How would you explain the following basic marketing concepts, particularly as they relate to a winery operation:
   • market types
   • customer characteristics
   • stages in the marketing process
   • the Ansoff matrix.
2. Evaluate factors that affect the marketing of wines. These factors might include:
   • economics
   • social factors
   • politics
   • regulations
   • competition
   • technology
   • organisation
   • customer qualities
   • product characteristics.
3. Propose a marketing mix for Nuhaka Hill Vineyard.
4. When you developed a marketing mix for Nuhaka Hill Vineyard, what additional information would have been useful? Where could you find this information?
5. Describe the stages in the marketing process that Ines will have to go through when launching her new wine.

There is no one right answer to this task. It is important that, whichever decisions you make, you explain why you think it is a wise marketing move, considering the information you have.

Team members will have different ideas, but you need to agree on one approach and present this as the group’s marketing plan. This will help you develop negotiation skills online.

How will this work?

For each group, your tutor will appoint a chair and a presenter. The chair should keep the discussions on track and make sure the tasks are done in time. The presenter is responsible for the development of the output. The final document should be compiled and shared with the rest of the group in your discussion forum a few days before the deadline. This will ensure that it represents the views and decisions of the team.

[tutor to list group names and roles here]

• Group [...]
  • Chair: [name]
  • Presenter: [name]
• Group [...]
  • Chair: [name]
  • Presenter: [name]
• Group [...]
  • Chair: [name]
  • Presenter: [name]

[tutor to make sure each group has a separate discussion forum to complete this task]