BSBFIM501 Assessment 2 Answers: Budget Planning Project

Carefully read the following:

King Edward VII College has been operating for 5 years. The College is based in Melbourne CBD and has an additional campus in Sydney. The College offers a range of courses in management, marketing, human resources and international business. It currently has around has around 500 students enrolled across all of its courses. Courses are offered at all levels, from Certificate II to Graduate Diploma.

King Edward VII College is very popular due to its competitive pricing structure, innovative teaching methods and state of the art facilities.

The College currently employs 24 staff members that include the CEO, a Marketing Manager and Marketing Assistant, Promotions Officer, Human Resources Manager, Operations and Finance Manager, Administration Manager, Office Assistant, Receptionist, Academic Manager, Student Services Officer and approximately 14 trainers.

As the Marketing Manager for the company, you are allocated a budget each year to spend on marketing.

This year the budget you have been allocated is $25,000, which is approximately 10% of revenue. Your budget does not include salaries and wages of staff, which is accounted for through another cost centre.

Your marketing plan for the year includes the activities below. The amounts in brackets are your cost projections for each activity:

• Redesign web site to improve branding ($2,000 in December, another $2,000 in April and $1,000 in May)
• Design and implement an incentive scheme for referrals by students ($200 per month)
• Conduct a radio advertising campaign from the start of February until the end of June, costing $2,000 per month
• Online communications: newsletters, websites. Blogs, Twitter (zero cost: staff time only)
• Stand at the Education Expo in December (Package deal $3,300)
• Develop and publish 2016 Promotional Brochure in November ($1,500)
• Sponsor a community organisation to improve local community profile ($2,000 in March)
• Contingency amount ($800)

You would also like to conduct a TV advertising campaign and have been quoted a price of $30,000 to run the campaign. As this is obviously well over the budget limit, you need to negotiate an increase in budget. In order to negotiate this increase, you will need to research and present an argument for using TV advertising and the benefits to the company.

Put this item in your budget, but it can only remain in the budget if the CEO agrees to it.

Complete the following activities:

1. Develop a draft marketing budget

As the Marketing Manager for King Edward VII College, you are required to develop a budget for marketing for the year. Review the case study information provided to you and, based on amounts allocated to each marketing activity, develop a marketing budget using the Marketing Budget Template to discuss at a meeting with the CEO.

Save this document as Draft Marketing Budget.

Prior to the meeting, you are also required to research the benefits of television advertising in order to present a case for an increase in budget. Make notes to assist you at the meeting.

1. Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment and ask for an appointment to discuss it with them.

Attach your draft marketing budget to the email.

Your assessor will advise you of the time and date of the meeting.

1. Participate in a budget meeting

The next part of the assessment requires you to participate in a meeting with the CEO (role-played by your assessor) to discuss the marketing budget. At the meeting, you will need to:

• Provide a copy of your completed budget to the CEO
• Explain each of the planned marketing activities
• Confirm the amount allocated to each of the marketing activities, including the amount allocated for contingencies.
• Negotiate to increase the budget to accommodate the TV advertising campaign you wish to run (as per the case study information, you will need to present the benefits of television advertising to convince the CEO).

During the meeting, demonstrate effective communication skills including:

• Speaking clearly and concisely
• Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
• Asking questions to identify required information
• Responding to questions as required
• Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding

1. Revise the marketing budget

Following the meeting, revise your marketing budget to incorporate feedback from the CEO.

Save this document as Revised Marketing Budget.

1. Send an email to the CEO (your assessor).

The text of the email should be in grammatically correct English, written in an appropriate (polite, business-like) style.

It should introduce and summarise the contents of the attachment, and seek their feedback and ask for the place, date and time of the meeting with your team.

Attach your revised marketing budget to the email.

1. Meet with your team to discuss the budget.

The final part of the assessment requires you to meet with your team to confirm the budget for the year.

You are also required to introduce the team to the company’s Finance Policies and Procedures, so revise this before the meeting, and write a short summery of it to share with your team.

At the meeting, you will need to:

• Discuss the overall budget allocation
• Discuss the amounts allocated to each marketing activity
• Discuss the amount allocated for contingencies
• Provide an outline of the Finance Policies and Procedures.

During the meeting, demonstrate effective communication skills including:

• Speaking clearly and concisely
• Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding
• Asking questions to identify required information
• Responding to questions as required
• Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding

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