Simulation Game Assignment: Analysis Of Questions And Reflective Task

Question

Task: This reflective task is based around the simulation game. To complete this task satisfactorily, students must:
• Complete the simulation game
• Answer all questions
• Demonstrate their in-depth understanding of the relevant course materials
• Demonstrate their ability to draw insightful connections between the course materials and the simulation games/questions
• Demonstrate an in-depth reflection on the learning experience; Viewpoints and interpretations are insightful and well supported.
Answer the following questions based around the simulation game:
Question 1
Target Segment
How did you make the market / segment selection decisions? What were the factors you considered in selecting segment to target? Explain the rationale behind your decisions, and support your answers using relevant theories and concepts.
Question 2
Whole Product Solution and Positioning Statement
How did you allocate your budget across the different components of the whole product solution? How did you take into account the unique needs of the targeted segment in making these allocations? Explain the rationale behind your decisions, and support your answers using relevant theories and concepts.
Question 3
Results and Feedback
How did you change your decisions based on results and feedback you obtained from the previous round? What aspects of the feedback were most useful in changing your decisions? Explain, and support your answers using relevant theories and concepts.
Question 4
Critical Reflection
What did you find the most challenging aspect of the decisions to be made in the simulation? Was there something that you found particularly frustrating? What did you learn during this simulation about succeeding with a disruptive innovation? What would you say are the key factors to keep in mind when launching a disruptive innovation for the mainstream market? Critically reflect upon your experience in the simulation. Support your answers using relevant theories and concepts.

Answer

Question 1
Target Segment
In order to gain higher attention from marketplace, it is discussed in this Simulation Game assignment that it is necessary to draw specific empirical framework to meet market requirements based on various different factors. However, market attributes and attractiveness can be achieved by implementing coactive approaches such as STP model while creating marketing plans to prioritize positioning and deliver the product (Kanter, 2015). STP model allows developing communication based on audience requirements and helps to promote commercial products while appealing targeted audience. Meanwhile, target segmentation confines various distinct possibility and factors that influences organizations to implicate innovative approaches to launch technology based products such as self driving vehicles.

Target Segment Factors
Market segmentation allows dividing organization's customers into groups of people with common needs and characteristics. Market segmentation helps to define innovative approaches to meet customer requirements cost effectively. Various factors that influence stakeholders to segment customers are mentioned below.

Demographic
Demographic characteristics of customer group significantly influences stakeholders to segment customers based on age, education, economy, and ethnicity. These factors incorporate evidence and opportunities to positioning specific products. Customer groups mentioned in this Simulation Game assignment can be created by understanding economic conditions and social structures of the consumers which influences stakeholders to develop separate plans for specific requirements.

Geographic
Implementation of self-driving vehicles significantly depends on the geographical barriers and locations. Segmentation of marketplace based on geographical aspect allows to understand location capacity, geographical barriers and infrastructure of marketplace. This segmentation considers various distinct factors such as region, area, population density and climate conditions.

Psychographic
Customer segmentation illustrated in this Simulation Game assignment based on psychographic characteristics refers to various distinct personalities and emotions of customers while considering personal attributes, hobbies, lifestyle, risk aversion and personal preferences. This segmentation allows the organization to develop and design specific products.

Behavioral
Customer segmentations can be developed by understanding behavioral nature of the customers while highlighting customer purchasing behavior and brand loyalty (Anselmetti, 2016). These segmentation includes various important aspects such as distribution channel used, benefits sought, usage level and brand loyalty that are required to consider for implementation of technological goods.

Question 2
What is the role of whole product solution and Positioning Statement discussed in this Simulation Game assignment?
Budget allocation are required to implicate with precision and specific purpose under increasing market pressure as it allows to incorporate changes and expectations of the targeted customer segments ( König and Neumayr, 2017).

During the budget allocations, each business venture requires to consider three distinct steps such as spend criteria, weights and guardrails and allocation unit.

Spend Criteria
This segment of budget allocation allows incorporating various necessary aspects of business venture such as sales, profit, market share and competitive intensity. The spend criteria can be developed by understanding recent sales growth and collected revenue from the business.

Weights and Guardrails
Guardrails for spending and the weight given are often implicated by instincts rather than considering business drivers. This budget allocation step mentioned in this Simulation Game assignment allows determining threshold values while considering weighting of criteria.

Allocation Unit
Allocation unit allows determining budget amount of each business drivers such as marketing, production, advertising and promotion. Allocation of budget based on unit allows determining specific needs and collaborative efforts to improve product quality based on the requirements of targeted segments.

Blend corporate finance and Marketing thinking
Instead of focusing on the inputs such as market share and competitive pressures, I looked at the ROI drivers to determine effective allocation of budget. We used corporate-finance principles to ensure market growth and competitiveness of the marketplace and internal economic concepts to improve and enhance future profit pulls for the brand. The budget allocation mentioned in this Simulation Game assignment is mainly developed by regional marketplace while considering geographic location. Allocation of such budget allowed reaching collective business goals along with meeting market segment needs. This systematic empirical framework of budget allocation allows launching new products such as self-drive vehicles and increasing brand share.

During the allocation, we focused on the regression based model to focus on the facts rather than feelings. These fact based allocation allowed to include brand-specific characteristics, internal and external drives along with competitive intensity.

My positioning statement as discussed in this Simulation Game assignment is to determine effective implementation of self-drive vehicles to improve automobile industry that allows Australian communities to incorporate effective tools to enhance public transportation and risk free accommodation.

Question 3
Results and Feedback
Decision making process is an important aspect of business administration as it allows determining the effectiveness of implemented approaches and strategic planning on targeted customer base. Each aspect of business process improvement provides specific results and feedback that influences the decision making process of the stakeholders. Stepwise discussion is mentioned below to evaluate each results and feedback.

Targeted Segments
During the stimulation game it has been observed within this Simulation Game assignment that the requirements of each group of the customer segments vary depending on different characteristics. In the process of the implementation of technological goods at marketplace faced various obstacles such as cost effective criteria, accommodation of self-drive vehicles and infrastructure of the existing roads and highways (Kumar and Sundarraj, 2018). Meanwhile, evaluation of these factors allows us to develop potential solutions while improving roads and highways that can easily accommodate self-drive vehicles. Feedback of customers also helped to determine price structure and content creation while considering cost, accommodation and transportation necessity.

Swot analysis
A Swot analysis has been conducted to understand the current situation of the organization within the marketplace to determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This effective analysis allowed developing better contrast in production and distribution process to enhance customer satisfaction and to ensure productivity and profitability within organizational context.

Pestel Analysis
A pestle analysis mentioned in this Simulation Game assignment has been evaluated to determine the external drives of the organization while considering various distinct characteristics of the targeted segments of the marketplace. This systematic empirical framework of investigation allows improving decision making process to provide utmost quality assurance and solutions of several issues related to the implementation of technological goods.

Question 4
Critical Reflection
Factors that Affects Decision Making Process
Effective decision making process is designed to provide sufficient support and solutions for the business ventures to address various distinct challenges within the implementation of disruptive innovation in mainstream marketplace (Meer, 2017). Effective evaluation of such challenges by the management-executive positions allows increasing effectiveness and productivity of the organization. Various features that set challenges for new entries are mentioned in this Simulation Game assignment.

Information overload
As the implementation process confines a significant amount of information. During the period, I found difficulties to determine effective solutions for each business development process and overwhelmed by massive database. As various data sources are misguided and confusing, I faced limitations to use such data to develop strategies and techniques to improve automobile industry.

Misidentification of Problem
Implementation of newly developed technology incorporates various obvious issues that lies throughout the business process. Lack of proper research and specific information regarding self-drive vehicles set significant limitations to enlist effective decision during stimulation.

Impulsiveness
Various obvious circumstances such as stress, time constraints significantly affects the decision making process as various decisions were required to take quickly within the stimulation process. In such a hostile environment, I forget to evaluate important data or ignored effective solutions to meet the requirements of stimulation process. Furthermore, various taken actions has set obstacles to exaggerate effective planning during stimulation.

Opinions and Objectivity
During the process, I struggled to stabilize my overconfidence which significantly affected positive attributes and proper value of the stimulation process. In the meantime, I also got affected by various halo effects such as pre-convinced ideas and prejudices and faced difficulties to meet the objectives of the stimulation process.

Key factors discussed in this Simulation Game assignment of launching Disruptive Innovations
Disruptive Innovations have significantly gripped the consciousness of modernize business propositions due to its ability of startup business organizations to succeed within underserved marketplace. Increasing usage of disruptive innovation has significantly challenged high end business firms and affected their profitable market segments. As per the book " The Innovator's Dilemma"  of the famous scholar Clayton M. Christensen who invented a theory to support the successive nature of emerging disruptive innovation startup firms as emerging solutions by newly developed technologies and innovations (Flemming et al. 2015).

There are various key elements as discussed in this Simulation Game assignment that are required to include within the implementation of newly renovated technologies to succeed within targeted market segments. During the stimulation process, I personally focused on three key elements that are mentioned below.

New Feature Improvement
This purpose allows to aid new facilities and accommodation while considering the effectiveness of disruptive potential of new innovations. This factor influences customer's purchasing mindsets. Implementation of self-drive vehicles allows the community to incorporate effective transportation and help reduce fatal accidents due to human errors.

Prioritize Customer Requirements
Introduction of e-commerce and internet allows considering customer needs and requirements effectively. I intended to implicate technological goods while adopting internet and technologically advanced facilities for the mainstream society and customers. During the stimulation game, I have learned that customer's buying journey are required to improve by increasing facilities which are user-friendly and easy to accommodate.

Promotion of Newly Developed Technology
During the stimulation as discussed in this Simulation Game assignment, I have learned that the promotion of newly developed technologies and Innovations are essential within larger mass market to confine bigger attention and embrace adoption. Effects of disruptive innovation can be used to reduce cost and energy along with ensuring sustainable development sector within the transportation industry.

Reference List
Anselmetti, R., 2016. Simulation Game assignment The Autonomous Vehicle: End of the Road, or the Beginning of A New Era?: Concept and Challenges of a Disruptive Innovation within the Automotive Industry.

Flemming, B., Gill, V., Godsmark, P. and Kirk, B., 2015. Automated Vehicles: The Coming of the Next Disruptive Technology. In The Conference Board of Canada; Conference Board of Canada: Ottawa, ON, Canada.

Kanter, Z., 2015. How Uber’s autonomous cars will destroy 10 million jobs and reshape the economy by 2025.

König, M. and Neumayr, L., 2017. Users’ resistance towards radical innovations: The case of the self-driving car. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour, 44, pp.42-52.

Kumar, V. and Sundarraj, R.P., 2018. The Value of Disruptive Innovations. In Global Innovation and Economic Value (pp. 189-256). Springer, New Delhi.

Meer, E., 2017. Simulation Game assignment Why incumbents and entrants need each other: The road to autonomous vehicles (Master's thesis).