IMPORTANT: Please carefully read Assignment Brief and Guide – Essay.pdf, and fol

IMPORTANT: Please carefully read Assignment Brief and Guide – Essay.pdf, and follow all guidelines.
You are required to prepare a 2,500-word essay that critically analyse the marketing environment and Product Life Cycle. You need to choose one organisation from the following: KPMG, Lloyds, Barclays, Price Waterhouse Coopers, NatWest, or HSBC. You need to include examples from practice to support your answer.
WHAT ARE YOU ASKED TO DO? 
This task will require you to include all the following: 
1) Introduction (300 words): 
o
A brief introduction of your selected organisation (e.g., KPMG, Lloyds, Barclays, Price Waterhouse Coopers, NatWest, or HSBC). 
o
You should provide the aims of the essay. 
o
Summarise what you will cover in the rest of the essay. 
2) Marketing Environment (1000 words): 
o
Use PESTLE analysis to discuss the marketing environment of your selected organisation.
o
Apply the Porter’s five forces to discuss the competitive situation of your selected organisation. 
3) Product Life Cycle (1000 words): 
o
A definition of the Product Life Cycle 
o
Discuss the importance of using the Product Life Cycle 
o
Discuss each stage (Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline) of the Product Life Cycle with specific example(s) from the organisations listed above. 
o
Identify and briefly discuss at least two strategies that can be implemented in each stage to achieve positive outcomes. 
4) Conclusion (200 words) 
•
To summarise the key points of your essay 
IMPORTANT: 
•
All tasks must be supported by relevant industry and academic research. 
•
You must NOT include headings/sub-headings, bullet points, numbering, and table of contents in your essay.
• You must include a minimum of 15 different sources.
List of sources
Books 
•
Armstrong, G. (2009) Marketing: an introduction. Pearson education. 
• Baker, M.J. (2017) Marketing strategy and management. Bloomsbury Publishing. 
• Chernev, A. (2019) Strategic marketing management: Theory and practice. Cerebellum Press. 
• Fahy, J. and Jobber, D. (2019) EBOOK: foundations of marketing, 6e. McGraw Hill.
3
Introduction to Marketing Management 
• Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G. (2016) Principles of marketing, sixteenth edition. United Kingdom: Pearson. 
• Kotler, P., Keller, K., Manceau, D. and Hemonnet-Goujot, A. (2019) Marketing Management (16e édition) (No. hal-02176421). 
•
Keller, K. L., Kotler, P. and Chernev, A. (2021) Marketing management. United Kingdom: Pearson. 
•
Park, S. (2020). Marketing management (Vol. 3). Seohee Academy. 
• Thomas, J. (2020) January. Marketing concept: examining AMA definitions, evolution, influences. In Seventeenth AIMS International Conference on Management. Kerala: Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode.
Academic Journals: 
• Cao, H. and Folan, P. (2012) ‘Product life cycle: the evolution of a paradigm and literature review from 1950–2009’, Production Planning & Control, 23(8), pp.641-662. 
• Cambra-Fierro, J., Gao, L., López-Pérez, M.E. and Melero-Polo, I. (2022) ‘How do macro-environmental factors impact customer experience? A refined typology, integrative framework, and implications’, The Service Industries Journal, 42(9-10), pp.653-687. 
• Wirtz, J., Tuzovic, S. and Kuppelwieser, V. (2014) ‘The role of marketing in today’s enterprises’, Journal of Service Management, 25(2), pp.171-194. 
• Mohammad, H.I. (2015) ‘7PS marketing mix and retail bank customer satisfaction in northeast Nigeria’, British Journal of Marketing Studies, 3(3), pp.71-88. 
• Jain, M.K. (2013) ‘An analysis of marketing mix: 7Ps or more’, Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 1(4), pp.23-28. 
•
Grundy, T. (2006) ‘Rethinking and reinventing Michael Porter’s five forces model’, Strategic change, 15(5), pp.213-229.
Websites
•
Bloomberg Businessweek
•
The Financial Times
•
Harvard business review (magazine)
•
Statista
•
Mintel
•
www.skills4studycampus.com
•
The Economist
•
Marketing Week
•
Forbes
•
ICAEW
•
ACCA
•
AccountancyAge
•
CIMA
Important:
All of your work must be based on reliable research and have 15 different sources within it. Please ensure you use both direct and indirect citations. You must reference all sources used in your work, using the Harvard Referencing Guide from CCCU.  
Word Count (2,500
words +/ –10%)
The essay should have 2500 words exclusive of the cover
and reference pages. You are required
to produce an essay using a variety
of research materials, which must be properly referenced in accordance
with the CCCU/Harvard Referencing style.
– You must reference all information used in the essay,