You are an employee of a medium sized company, Toga Toys Plc., that makes a range of toys for children 2 to 9 yaers old. The company is privately owned By Mike Mitchell, an entrepreneur. Mike has built his business over the last 20years by aquiring other smaller companies and also developing his own products.The company has a reputation of being innovative and manufacturing toys that help educate children as well as being fun to play with. The company trades under a number of brand names that reflect its historical origins, however where possible, the various manufacturing bases(factories) negotiate collectively with suppliers to keep costs down. The factories are based in the southern part of the country and most of the group''s sales are made in that area. The products may be bought in toyshops and departemment and chain stores. Mike Mitchell is thinking about developing an internet site. There is a sales force that works on behalf of the whole company selling to the retailers. Mike is aware of the fact that his business could be more profitable if his marketing activities were more sophisticated, currently most sales are made as a result of his salespeople''s good relationships with the buyers in the various retail outlets. The company spends some money on advertising, which is mainly in the trade press ie aimed at retail distributors. There is no specific marketing plan for the group. Mike Mitchell has plans to retire in fifteen years time and to ensure that he is able to live in the ''lap of luxury'' he intends to make some effort to increase the value of the business. He believes the answer to be better marketing. As a result you have been recruited as a graduate marketing trainee and placed on a management development programe. One objective of the programe is to allow you to develop your skills and enable you to show how your understanding of Marketing may help improve the future prospects of the company. On arrival at Toga Toys Plc you have been asked to address the following tasks: 1-Assuming that one of your first tasks is to advise Mike Mitchell on the type of Marketing information that he requires to run his business, make a list of the marketing information that you believe would be useful for marketing decision making. Illustrate how the information might be used. ( To define their marketing position and making their marketing decisions based on that position by Looking at Macro-environmet-PEST and Micro-environment-SWOT; understanding the segment. Marketing trend analises; Market size: volume and value-projection for the next 5 years; competitor aspects-market; regulations-safety-legislations-quality 2-Write a report advising Mike Mitchell how an understanding od the market segmentation might help him improve his business prospects. Your report should include a discussion of appropriate segmentation criteria and provide an example of how they might be used in the toy market. (Identifying a criteria by which we are going to segment the market , by using previous market researches; how is it going to help us achieve our objectives? to target 2 to 9 years olds, but they don''t have any buying power therfore their parents must be considered to be targeted; to consider competion and define similar set of needs; Look at age; gender; income,lifestyle,comsumption(avg),brand loyalty. 3-Mr Mitchell has told you that many of his management team, some maybe in the marketing departemnt, are ignorant of issues concerning consumer behaviour. he believes that if the managers were more customer-oriented, sales would increase significantly. he would like you to present a seminar for his managers entitled:''Undersatnding customer behaviour- how it can increase your sales''.Provide details of the issues you would discuss and the practical examples you would use to illustrate your talk. (lookn at how to define the consumer behaviuor; consumer buying decisions; who is buying and how are they buying? psychology aspects;atributes; apply need theories-buying process-decision making;ilustrate waht decisions customer face when choosing to buy one product over the other. Other information Toga Toys Plc were the first manufacturer to develop a fun game for children which helped them to learn to spell, SpellWhiz, in 1990. The product was targeted at children and their parents. Competitors GlobalToy Plc and FunKids Plc alert Toga Toys success developed ''me too'' versions in 1994. Research indicates that consumers assesss toys on the basis of the fun they provide, educatinal value, sturdiness and value for money.