The document summarizes the results of a business simulation competition for MBA students. The author's team achieved the highest net cumulative contribution by initially targeting the largest segments in the core device market to gain market share and constrain competitors' budgets. They then waited for competitors to enter the new STAR market before following with heavy investments targeted at the fastest growing, highest value segments to gain market share in that market as well. Their strategy of an early, diversified portfolio and monitoring competitors allowed them to maintain the largest budget and highest net contribution overall.

1. SABRE BUSINESS SIMULATION RESULTS
MBA COMPETITION ON MARKETING STRATEGY 2016
NAZAR SMAL

2. SABRE BUSINESS SIMULATION
 SABRE provides a competitive environment which immerses the participants in a dynamic
competitive situation.
 Teams may launch and withdraw products from the marketplace as well as advertise, price,
distribute and design those products to best fit varying market segments. Each decision period
represents a year of business activity.
 At the start of each period team members receive a company report and various market studies.
The company report is a detailed snapshot of the company's results while the market studies detail
product awareness, customer purchase habits, customers' perceptions, etc.
 Each year teams make a series of strategic decisions - product planning, sales force deployment,
R&D expenditures and market research purchases for two markets: Device market (core market all
teams start with) and STAR market (new unknown market with big potential).
 The simulation is run (simulating one year in the marketplace) determining market share, product
contribution and overall profit for each company.
http://www.sabresim.com/

3. SABRE MBA COMPETITION
 Participants: MBA students of the Alberta School of Business
 Course: MARK 502 Marketing Management
 Period: January – April 2016
 Main Goal: Maximal Net Cumulative Contribution
 Maximal # of Products: 5
 My Role: Team Leader
 My Team: Orange team (Company 2)

4. RESULTS: NET CUMULATIVE CONTRIBUTION
My Team: Orange

5. STRATEGY
 Be the first to grab the market share in volume and value
in core Devices market by targeting the largest value or
the fastest growing segments with our profitable products.
With such approach we wanted to leave no room for
competitors to earn a lot of money, thereby constraining
them to low budgets
 Wait till competitors enter the new unknown STAR market,
get proper data for analysis and then enter the Star
market with heavy investments in the fastest growing and
highest value segments. Consequently, gain market share
in STAR market and constrain competitors to low budgets
in both markets

6. MARKET SHARE
 We achieved to grab 79% Market Share of Sales on core Device market and 40% in new STAR
market

7. TARGET SEGMENTS
 We targeted 5 of 5 the most important
segments in terms of growth and size, with
precisely targeted products
 I was calculating the perceptual shifts of
ideal points for each segment and was
making the predictions of outcomes for
each move based on created model of
market in Excel
Device segments
Star segments
3 products
2 products

8. PORTFOLIO DIVERSIFICATION
 We had a diversified portfolio with at least 30% of gross margin on each product. With the
growth in sales volume, product unit costs decreased, resulting in bigger gross margin
Product Gross Margin (%)
Orange 47%
Mango 47%
Avocado 50%
Coconut 48%
Papaya 44%
Total 48%

9. TACTICS
 Once we grabbed the Device market and started to earn Net Contribution five times bigger
than the closest competitor, we had about a $20,000 budget for each move to preserve our
growth comparing to $9,000 of competitors. We just needed to update R&D for our 5 most
profitable segments to keep up with our target segments’ preferences
 We tried to foresee the next moves of competitors and had backup R&Ds prepared in case of
aggressive moves from competitors that naturally took place

10. THANK YOU