Part B – Combined Marketing/Operations Question (60)
For Part B of this task, you are asked to consider the organisation that you work for, or one
that you are very familiar with.
Prepare a brief introduction for this assessment to identify your chosen organisation – see
‘Note’ (1) below on page 3 for further guidance.

Task:
“The cross‐functional nature of the value adding process at work in the modern business cuts
across departmental boundaries with an interdependent relationship between marketing and
operations, requiring that they communicate, share their knowledge and experience to inform
what the organisation produces and delivers to the customer.” (Piercy, 2007)
Critically examine the role of operations and marketing within your chosen organisation in
terms of how it helps the organisation to build and maintain competitive advantage. You need
to examine from both a marketing and operations perspective. Some areas that you might
consider, but you are not limited to, include:
Examine the extent to which operations and marketing work together to develop competitive
advantage. What are the benefits to this interface in helping to develop competitive
advantage?
How successful is the interface between the organisation’s marketing and operations
strategies to develop / maintain competitive advantage? Where and how can improvements
be made to these strategies?
Consider if there are any conflicts / challenges that occur between the two functions in
developing and maintaining competitive advantage. How have these conflicts / challenges
been overcome (or how might they be overcome)?
NOTE:
(1) You are required to write concisely to transmit your analysis. Please note for Part B (60)
the length of your answer for Part B should reflect this (i.e. approximately 1800 words). The
introduction should be no more than 200 words and should clearly and concisely set the
context for your answer to Part B.
(2) In your answer, make full use of the range of material available in this course (including
academic and industry sources). For Part B, we would expect to see a minimum of 6
academic references in addition to the core course textbooks (i.e. Kotler & Keller and Slack
& Brandon-Jones) to support your answer.
(3) Make sure that you use clear and relevant examples to illustrate both marketing and
operations elements.

USEFUL REFERENCES FOR PART B:
The following provides some ‘initial’ readings for Part B of Assignment 2. Remember, you will
need to support your answers with a range of academic and non-academic sources.
Textbook Chapters:
Kotler, P. and Keller, K.L. (2016) Marketing Management, 15th Edition. Pearson Education
Limited: Harlow – Chaper 1: Defining Marketing for the New Realities; Chapter 2: Developing
Marketing Strategies and Plans; Chapter 3: Collecting Information and Forecasting Demand;
Chapter 5: Creating Long-term Loyalty Relationships; Chapter 11: Creating Brand Equity;
Chapter 12: Addressing Competition and Driving Growth; Chapter 13: Setting Product
Strategy; Chapter 14: Designing and Managing Services; Chapter 17: Designing and
Managing Integrated Marketing Channels; Chapter 23: Managing a Holistic Marketing
Organisation for the Long-term
Slack, N. and Brandon-Jones A. (2019) Operations Management, 9th Edition. Pearson
Education Limited: Harlow – Chapter 1: Operations Management; Chapter 2: Operations
Performance; Chapter 3: Operations Strategy; Chapter 4: Managing Product and Service
Innovation; Chapter 5: The Structure and Scope of Operations; Chapter 6: Process Design;
Chapter 8: Process Technology; Chapter 9: People in Operations; Chapter 15: Lean
Operations; Chapter 16: Operations Improvement; Chapter 17: Quality Management.
Articles from Reading List:
Please also refer to the readings provided in the Course Reading List – i.e.:
From Unit 1:
Vargo, S.L. and Lusch, R.F. (2008) ‘Service-dominant logic: continuing the evolution’, Journal
of the Academy of Marketing Science, Vol. 36, Spring, pp.1-10
Peppard, J. and Rylander, A. (2006) ‘From value chain to value network’, European
Management Journal, Vol. 24, April-June, pp. 128-141
From Unit 2:
Hofacker, C.F., Malthouse, E.C. and Sultan, F. (2016) ‘Big data and consumer behaviour:
imminent opportunities’, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 33 Iss. 2, pp. 89 – 97
From Unit 3:
Almquist, E., Senior, J. and Bloch, N. (2016) ‘The elements of value: measuring and
Delivering what customers really want’, Harvard Business Review, September, pp. 47-53 5
Pfitzer, M., Bockstette, V. and Stamp, M. (2013) ‘Innovating for shared value’, Harvard
Business Review, September, pp.100-107
From Unit 4:
Hammer, M. and Stanton, S. (1999) ‘How Process Enterprises Really Work’, Harvard
Business Review, Nov/Dec, Vol. 77, Issue 6, pp.108-118
Unit 6:
Hauser J.R. and Clausing D., (1988) ‘The House of Quality’, Harvard Business Review,
May/June, Vol. 66 Issue 3, pp. 63-73
Unit 7:
Edelman, D.C. and Singer, M. (2015) ‘Competing on customer journeys’, Harvard Business
Review, November, pp. 89-100
From Unit 8:
Quinn J.B., (1999) ‘Strategic outsourcing: leveraging knowledge capabilities’, Sloan
Management Review, Summer, Vol. 40 Issue 4, pp. 9-21.
From Unit 9:
Chan K. and Mauborgne R., (2004) ‘Blue Ocean Strategy’, Harvard Business Review,
October, Vol. 82 Issue 10, pp. 76-84.
From Unit 10:
Andersen, J.C. and Narus, J.A. (1991) ‘Partnering as a focused market strategy’, California
Management Review, Spring, pp. 95-113
Rawson, A., Duncan, E. and Jones, C. (2013) ‘The truth about customer experience’, Harvard
Business Review, September, pp. 1-10
Other ‘Useful’ Readings:
Bardhan A. and Pattnaik S., (2016) ‘Effect of cross-functional integration between operations
and marketing on negative critical incidents’, Total Quality Management, 2017, Vol. 28, No.
12, pp. 1357–1377
Dixon, M., Karniouchina, E.V., van der Rhee, B., Verma, R. and Victorino, L. (2014) ‘The role
of coordinated marketing-operations strategy in services: implications for managerial
decisions and execution’, Journal of Service Management, Vol. 25, No. 2, pp.275-294
Mahmood, U., Zubair, S.S. and Salam, A. (2015) ‘Synergistic relationship between Total
Quality Management and Marketing Management in creating customer’s value’, Journal of
Business Strategies, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp.99-114
Sombultawee A. and Boon-itt S., (2017) ‘Marketing operations alignment: A systematic
literature and citation network analysis review’, Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, pp.1-
10 6
Walters, D. (1999) ‘Marketing and operations management: an integrated approach to new
ways of delivering value’, Management Decision, Vol. 37, Issue 3, pp.248-258
Zanon, C., Filho A., Jabbour C., and Jabbour A., (2012) ‘Alignment of operations strategy:
exploring the marketing interface’, Industrial Management and Data Systems, Vol. 113, Issue:
2, pp.207-233
General Guidance for Task 2:
(1) The word count does not include the Title Page, Appendices, Reference List and words
in tables and diagrams.
(2) You will be required to cite the sources used within the text and to provide two
accompanying Reference Lists – one for each part of the assignment task. Each needs to be
presented on a separate page at the end of your answer to the relevant part of the task (i.e.
Part A and Part B).
For guidance regarding citation and referencing, please refer to guide).
Guidelines
Critical analysis and clarity of argument
Knowledge and use of the academic and industry literature
Relevance
Structure and organisation
Bibliography and referencing
OPERATIONALIZING & COMMUNICATING VALUE
TASK 2:
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQs)
To assist you when completing the
Operationalizing & Communicating Value
Assignment 2 (final individual assignment)
task, the following are some of the
questions that are typically asked and the
responses provided: Question
Answer
What is meant by ‘academic references’? The main sources of academic references
include: articles from academic journals,
academic books / textbooks, academic
research reports, conference proceedings.
On the other hand, examples of
practitioner / industry sources include:
press and media, business publications
(e.g. Harvard Business Review),
government reports, market research
reports / market intelligence (e.g. Keynote,
Mintel and Euromonitor), and company
websites / reports / communications.
Do not use Wikipedia – this is not a
reliable source to use for academic work.
I’m concerned about using my own
company name when answering some of
the questions in Part B, due to
confidentiality issues.
You can retain the anonymity of the
company by referring to it as ‘Company X’,
‘Company Y’, etc. However, for the
marker’s information, in your answer you
will need to state in your introduction that
you have taken this approach due to
confidentiality issues. Also, it would be
useful to give an indication of the industry /
sector in which the company operates.
In Part B, can I use the fictitious company
that my group developed for the groupwork based assignment?
No. For Part B of this assignment, you are
required to base your answer on a real-life
company that you work for or are very
familiar with.
In Part B, I want to use material that is
classed as ‘for internal use only’ by the
organisation that I work for – how do I
acknowledge this source in my
assessment?
If you are using a specific confidential
internal company document, then we
recognize that it might be difficult for you to
acknowledge that specific source.
Therefore, you will need to let the marker
know the situation in the main discussion
(rather than not acknowledging the source
of the information at all) – i.e. that the
source for this information is undisclosed
due to confidentiality reasons.

CITATION