Part A – Written Assessment
Making a marketing expense budget
Shrub Master Corporation is a growing company, based out of
Wollongong NSW, Australia. Shrub Master Equipments specializes
in the manufacturing of a variety of farm & grassland mowing
equipment. The growth in the past 8 years has been quite significant
because of the high quality & low maintenance equipment. The
sales targets for the financial year 2010-2011 have been far exceeded.
Shrub Master is now introducing a new range of cordless, silent, electric power
driven lawn mowers both for the large & small households. This is a new field
which Shrub Master Equipment is venturing into. The CEO Robin William wants no
expense spared for the marketing campaign, however he also wants an effective
campaign wherein each dollar spent gets maximum mileage.
You are the marketing manager of Shrub Master Equipment & have been given
the task of making a marketing expense budget. The marketing campaign will be
spread over 6 months wherein a budgetary review will be done after a 3 month
period.
In Part B you are required to monitor the budget after the marketing activities have
been implemented & make any necessary changes & corrective action.
In Part C you are required to make a report on the same.
You have thought of the following marketing activities
f Mailer distribution campaign in the residential area spreading 6 square Kms.
For this you need to design, print & have the mailers distributed. The designing
cost is $550 for a 4 colour mailer which is of the size 7 inches by 5 inches. The
printing cost is $350 for a stack of 800 mailers printed on a glossy paper with a
thickness of 110 gsm. You need 1600 mailers for this. Apart from this you will
have to hire 6 boys working 5 hours a day covering 1 sq km each. You intend
paying them $10 per hour. You will also have to train them for 2 hours before
they start on the first day. These 2 hours will be a paid training. The mailer
campaign will be repeated 8 times.
f Newspaper Advertising: You intend advertising in the “Daily Herald” which is
a leading newspaper. A full page single insert, coloured costs $9000 & reaches
an audience of around 80,000 people. You will have to get a new advertisement
designed for this & the designing costs $500. You intend to have this ad
repeated for 5 consecutive Saturdays.
f Radio Commercial: You also decide on a 60 second radio commercial on
87.9 FM, which is a very popular radio station. The charges for a 60 second
commercial are $2000 which will be repeated 8 times in a day at prominent
times. You decide to run this radio campaign for 20 days spaced at regular
intervals. The radio station also prepares the ads/jingles & charges $750 per
jingle. You think it will be a good idea if the station prepares the ad.
You have to prepare an individual marketing expense budget for each of the above
Marketing expenses & then collate them into a Marketing Activity Master Budget.