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- Peer Review: MARS Sales Management Simulation
Peer Review
MARS Sales Management Simulation
- Reviewed:
- Dec 2, 2004 by Business
Ratings
Overall Rating:
4.7 stars
Content Quality:
4.7 stars
Effectiveness:
4.0 stars
Ease of Use:
5.0 stars
- Overview:
- The MARS SMS is an internet-based sales management simulation for use in a sales
management or personal selling course. The site currently hosts two Internet
based marketing simulations, both of which seek to develop student?s analytical,
problem-solving, and decision-making skills. Involving experiential learning,
it is an opportunity for a team of students to compete online. Teams compete
interactively rather than against the computer; thus the decisions made by each
influences the outcome for all. The simulation allows up to ten student teams to
apply decisions necessary in the management of a multi-product line
over several periods, including those related to product design, distribution,
communications (advertising, sales promotion, publicity, personal selling), and
pricing (wholesale level, retail level). The Sales Management Simulation
accommodates up to sixteen student teams. Team decisions include those related
to sales force compensation (salary, commission, bonus), training, supervision,
motivation (recognition, contests) and account management. The assumption is
that students are a newly promoted, first-line sales manager who must make
decisions about account management, supervision, salaries, bonuses, contests,
training, quotas, supervision and recognition. Each simulation offers a variety
of research studies which are helpful to students in determining decisions for
the following quarter, as well as a report for instructor use which highlights
specific strengths and weaknesses of each team. The simulation is accompanied
by several support materials, including a student manual, instructor manual,
test bank, and PowerPoint slides. - Type of Material:
- Online multi-team Internet-based simulations.
- Recommended Uses:
- As a supplementary learning tool, these simulations are probably best used as
out-of-class assignments with decisions being required on a weekly or bi-weekly
basis. If used in upper level marketing courses, instructors may wish to
require that additional, but related written assignments (such as quarterly
objectives, strategy and implementation justification, etc.) accompany each
decision. As the simulations are Internet-based, they are particularly
appropriate for online course offerings. - Technical Requirements:
- An active Internet connection and a web browser represent the sole technical
requirements for the simulation. As the simulation software is hosted on the
MARS website, equipment and software compatibility issues common in CD or PC
based simulations are eliminated. - Identify Major Learning Goals:
- Both simulations seek to help students:
1. Develop group management skills.
2. Develop problem-solving, analytical, and decision-making skills.
3. Develop/reinforce discipline specific knowledge by integrating many topics. - Target Student Population:
- The Marketing Management simulation is appropriate for an undergraduate
principles-level introductory course or an upper-level marketing management
course.
The Sales Management simulation would be best used in an undergraduate
sales management course, or a personal selling course which also incorporates
sales management related topics. - Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
- For the simulations to offer a more meaningful learning experience, both require
some exposure to the content areas (e.g., personal selling theory) in which
decision-making is required. For this reason, it may be difficult to integrate
the marketing management simulation into a principles level course, as several
of the key content areas are rarely covered prior to the final few weeks of the
semester. While minimal computer skills are necessary to input decisions or
view output reports, each student team must pay a $100 registration fee directly
to the simulation site via credit card.
Content Quality
- Rating:
-
- Strengths:
- The content includes dimensions of sales management which would be important for
students to learn, such as how to supervise, train, and reward employees. It
also allows for involving the internal and external environments and the
varying skills and motivation of people. In addition to exposing students to
several key marketing concepts and related decision-making tasks, the MARS
simulations provide a variety of reports which are helpful to students in
analyzing their performance and preparing for the upcoming decision-making
period. Prior quarter decisions that were rated as exceptionally positive or
negative by the "President" of the company are highlighted, as are performance
and profitability comparisons to the industry average. Students have the option
of purchasing a variety of marketing research reports which could further
enhance their ability to analyze past failures/successes, as well as plan for
the future. For example, brand awareness, competitive sales force allocation,
customer satisfaction reports and perceptual maps of the various competitive
products are among the research reports available for purchase in the Marketing
Management Simulation, while Benchmark, Contest Effectiveness Report,
Salesperson Satisfaction, and Sales Forecast reports are but a few of the
reports available in the Sales Management Simulation. - Concerns:
- In any simulation, the appropriateness of the modeling routine used to generate
results is always of concern. The computer simulation is still a game. If
experiential learning is the goal, and it is a good goal, a further step would
be to develop a "real" sales organization in the class and go sell a product
or service. Then the sales management process is very real to the students.
This could be a logical next step, if time would permit.
Insufficient information is available at this time to be able to gauge the
quality of the computer model used to generate the simulation results. Without
actually performing the simulation over time, it is difficult to accurately
evaluate its effectiveness.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
- Rating:
-
- Strengths:
- When teaching lecture courses, particularly at the Principles level, it is often
difficult to facilitate student understanding of how various marketing
decisions interact and the importance of making truly integrative and
complimentary marketing decisions. From this perspective, advanced marketing
simulations such as those offered by MARS do serve as effective teaching tools.
The "Instructors Proprietary Team Suggestions" provides specific recommendations
for each team competing in the simulation, and thus facilitates
the instructor's ability to counsel students and highlight incompatible or
inadequate marketing decisions. In addition, as a teaching tool, the MARS SMS
could be a good addition to the standard lecture style of teaching, which should
serve only as an introduction to a topic. It seems easy to use, straight
forward and probably engages the students. - Concerns:
- A potential concern is that some students prefer personal interaction, instead
of computer simulations. The effectiveness of the simulation as a teaching tool
is largely dependent upon a number of additional factors, including:
1) Team size: the greater the number of team members, the greater the
likelihood of social loafing among one or more members; it is possible that all
the high achieving students would be in one group, but this does mirror the
real competitive external environment of sales.
2) Supplemental assignments: requiring students to analyze the results of prior
quarters, and provide written reports or summaries of problems encountered and
justification for future strategies (as well as objectives for the upcoming
quarter) would enhance the learning process as such assignments would clearly
discourage students from arbitrarily making decisions with little thought or
planning;
3) Number of quarters played: when students are aware that a simulation game
will end after a certain number of quarters, they often engage in "end-game
behavior", such as eliminating all R&D expenses during the last quarter to boost
profitability. One solution would be for instructors to end the game without
warning, or to actually require one or more decisions beyond the stated "end
date", or to simply make students play until told otherwise.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
- Rating:
-
- Strengths:
- Ease of use appears to be a primary advantage of the MARS simulations, as both
offer a number of helpful supplements for training and testing purposes,
including an instructors' manual, a student manual, PowerPoint presentations,
and a test bank. It requires no special equipment and the communication process
is easy. Unlike many simulations which are distributed on CD and
installed locally on the user's computer, the MARS simulation is installed on
and run from the Mars server, via the Internet, making it easily accessible to
all users, regardless of computer platform or operating system. When compared
to simulation software that is restricted to a computer lab or University
computer network, the fact that the MARS simulations can be accessed and run
from any PC or location offering Internet access clearly facilitates ease of use
in an online learning environment, particularly one in which students are
geographically dispersed. - Concerns:
- Probably the ease-of-use is the reason professors enjoy this teaching venue.
However, it is probably not as effective as actually managing a project with
"real" rewards, etc.
- Other Issues and Comments:
- Congratulations to the author for finding and using new information to enhance
the students' learning experience. Anything faculty can do to make the text
material come alive and engage the students to assimilate the material into
their knowledge base is a positive addition to any course! - Creative Commons:
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