Making Sustainable Products; The assessment is designed around the core question for this course- ‘how do we deliver value to our customers in a sustainable manner?’ Or even more simply ‘how do we make truly sustainable products?’ The report is a basically a marketing plan but one uses frameworks learned on the course (Circular Economy, NSF, Input-Output analysis) to ensure that what is proposed is moving the product to a point in the near future, where you can say with confidence, that it is sustainable. Be careful when choosing a product (I am using the broad definition of product here- a physical good, a service or an idea). You will need to be able to find out information on what it is made of and its supply chain, so avoid complex goods and services. I cannot expect you to find out exact details of the materials used and where they come from but you should be able to find out about similar or approximate materials and processes. For example, I can’t expect you to find out the exact process by which Zara make a wool/nylon blend of fabric and where exactly these come from. But you can find out where and how nylon is made and the modern supply chain for wool. You can build your case from here on what you would change, though you should mention and appraise the limitations of your data.
You have to write the assignment by answering the part 1 questions bellow :
Part 1: The Current Product and Sustainability Diagnosis
- Executive Summary*
- Short overview of key findings. NOT a section that just tells me about what you did. Tell me what you found and plan to do.
- Company and Brand Introduction
- A brief overview of the company, its capabilities and the product
- Table of Contents*
- Situational Analysis
- Macro-environmental analysis
- Micro-environment analysis
- SWOT
- Market and Marketing Summary:
- Segments, Targets, Current Position
- Statement of Value (Market needs being satisfied) and Customer benefits.
- Marketing Mix (4 or 7 depending on product chosen)
Examine the current mix to set out how value is created, communicated and delivered whilst using sustainability frameworks to highlight issues that need t be addressed. For example, the Product section would include a review of what it is made of, packaging, labelling, product range) AND an analysis using sustainability framework to highlight for example, an LCA or Input-Output based assessment of the impact of the product and issues diagnosed using the NSF and CE.
- Product (Idea, good, service)
- Price (Including cost to Citizen Consumer)
- Distribution (Channels)
- Promotion (Communication)
- Process
- People
- Physical Evidence
- Summary of Key sustainability and broader value-based issues
- i.e. what issues must change to product address, ‘broader value’ means the output of the ‘Understanding value phase highlight changes required to Creating, Communicating and Delivering value