LINKS Simulation Scheduling Request

LINKS Sign-Up Form:
LINKS MarketingTacticsSimulation /

This LINKS Sign-Up Form provides essential information to permit LINKS Simulations staff to manage LINKS on your behalf.

This LINKS Sign-Up Form is for one industry or for multiple industries with identical game-run schedules. Use separate LINKS Sign-Up Forms for industries with different game-run schedules.

LINKS SimulationsVariant / MarketingTacticsSimulation
Instructor’s Name
Instructor’s College/University
Instructor’s Phone Number(s)
Instructor’s E-Mail Address
Course Number/Title/Section
Number of Firms (between 2 and 8)
For multiple industries with identical game-run schedules, identify the number of firms for each industry in the “Number of Firms” line above. For example, “Two Industries: A (4 firms) and B (5 firms).”
Payment Method
If students are paying for LINKS with personal credit cards via the “Pay For LINKS” link on the LINKS website, Payment Method is“Students Pay With Personal Credit Cards.” If the instructor’s institution is paying for LINKS via institutional invoiceattached to an e-mail message sent to the instructor (for forwarding to the relevant within-institution person), Payment Method is“Institutional Invoice.”
LINKS staff execute scheduled game runs daily at 900am, 100pm, 500pm, and 900pm U.S. Eastern Time. Please choose one of these four times for each round in your LINKS event.
If other game run times are desired (e.g., with multiple game runs per day or in corporate/ExecEd events with LINKS), please contact us () well ahead of time to ensure that our staff can meet your specific game run scheduling needs.
LINKS Schedule / Date / Time
(your local time) / Special Instructions and
Instructor-Optional Switches
Initialization (and advancement to M#3 and passcode e-mailing to you and your students)
M#4 / [round 1]
M#5 / [round 2]
M#6 / [round 3]
M#7 / [round 4]
M#8 / [round 5]

In academic degree-granting programs, the LINKS Marketing TacticsSimulationcosts $27 per student for a four-round event (after initialization and advancement to month #3, the normal starting position when students assume managerial control of their LINKS firm). Extra rounds beyond four cost an additional $4 per student per extra round.

Here’s asample LINKS schedule for a LINKS MarketingTacticsSimulation event. For information about other instructor-optional switches, access the LINKS sign-up webpage ( or the “Customizing LINKS” link on the LINKS Simulations website. To discuss the design of your LINKS event and the use of instructor-optional switches, please contact Randy Chapman ().

LINKS Schedule / Date / Time
(your local time) / Special Instructions and Instructor-Optional Switches
Initialization(and advancement to M#3 and passcode e-mailing to you and your students) / February 22 / Anytime
M#4 / [round 1] / March 1 / 13:00
M#5 / [round 2] / March 8 / 13:00
M#6 / [round 3] / March 15 / 13:00
M#7 / [round 4] / March 29 / 17:00 / Last LINKS round is a double-run.
M#8 / [round 5]

Notes: This sample schedule shows regular weekly decision inputson the same week days. Such “regularity” is not a requirement, but it’s a typical scheduling pattern in academic degree-granting programs to help LINKS students in their time management and work-life scheduling.

Please send the completed “LINKS Sign-Up Form” as an e-mail attachment to LINKS Simulations (). / Please communicate any necessary scheduling changes after your LINKS event begins via e-mail to LINKS Simulations ().

About the LINKS MarketingTactics Simulation

The LINKS Marketing Tactics Simulation focuses on tactical, “go-to-market” decisions: pricing and marketing communications (marketing spending, marketing mix allocation, marketing communications positioning, and promotional programs). LINKS firms market existing low-end and mid-range products through a retail channel in multiple regional markets.

The LINKS Marketing Tactics Simulation is a sophisticated team-based, competitive, marketing simulation designed for introductory marketing courses in undergraduate, MBA, and EMBA programs and for executive education programs where a small tactical marketing simulation experience is desired as part of a larger set of course activities.

Starting Conditions

Two products (low-end and mid-range) actively distributed in one channel (retail) in three regions.
M#3 average per-firm profitability is approximately $3,000,000 on revenues of about $46,000,000.

Average per-firm M#3 demand in the three markets for the two products is about 34,000 (“Europe”), 48,000 (“U.S.A.”), and 54,000 (“Pacific”) units, respectively.

Some Initial Firm Decisions (For M#4 and Beyond)

Since the firms have been on “auto-pilot” for the initial three months, forecasts must be updated immediately, presumably with reference to the sales history provided in the Forecasting Accuracy Report (included near the end of each firm’s standard financial and operating reports).
No research studies are provided with the initial M#3 results, so initial firm decisions must include consideration of which research studies would be useful in the future. This point/recommendation must be made quite forcefully by the LINKS instructor, to get the students’ attention in the “blitz” of the overwhelming initial activity set in LINKS as students assume managerial control of their firms.

Advanced Options

Advanced options aren’t normally a part of a standard 4-round event for the LINKS Marketing Tactics Simulation. However, this possibility exists for instructors, especially if a longer than 4-round event is of interest:

Activate product 3, a high-end product, early in the event schedule (e.g., as part of the game run for Month #4, for use by your students in their Month #5 and beyond inputs). See the following page of these overview notes for the handout that you’d distribute to your students at the time product 3 is activated. Some in-class discussion is presumably also appropriate when product 3 is activated.

About Product 3

Exhibit 1 (updated): Set-Top Box Configurations, Costs, and Perceived Product Quality / “Low End”
Product 1
[H551010] / “Mid-Range”
Product 2 [H555022] / “High-End”
Product 3 [H556033]
Configuration Elements / 1. Category
2. Alpha
3. Beta
4. Bandwidth
5. Warranty
6. Packaging
7. Memory Capacity / H
5
5
1
0
1
0 / $15.00
$20.00
$10.50
$0.00
$10.00
$0.00 / H
5
5
5
0
2
2 / $15.00
$20.00
$72.50
$0.00
$14.00
$25.00 / H
5
5
6
0
3
3 / $15.00
$20.00
$118.00
$0.00
$28.00
$45.00
Other Cost Elements / Gamma SAC
Epsilon SAC
Labor and Production / $17.00
$24.00
$50.00 / $17.00
$24.00
$50.00 / $17.00
$24.00
$50.00
Total Per-Unit Product Costs / $146.50 / $237.50 / $317.00
Perceived Product Quality / Region 1
Region 2
Region 3 / 1%
2%
2% / 14%
21%
31% / 44%
93%
96%
Definition: Perceived Quality (PQ) is the percentage of end-user consumers who rate the product/configuration as “Excellent” on a 4-point “Poor”-”Fair”-”Good”-”Excellent” end-user consumer survey questionnaire rating scale.
Source: Estimates of perceived product quality are based on Research Study #14 (“Regional Summary Analysis”) and comparable research for new (“hypothetical”) product configurations. Perceived product quality is influenced directly by a product’s configuration but also, to an extent, by a product’s marketing communications program.

Product Launch Reminders:

Your LINKS firm is limited to a maximum of one product launch per month. A “product launch” is the activation of one product in one market region.
As part of a product launch, you’ll need to include marketing spending to support the newly-launched product. Your LINKS firm is not constrained in total marketing spending (across all products in all regions), so you don’t necessarily have to reduce marketing spending for other products/regions to launch product 3. Of course, long-run profitability and ROI are key to your firm’s performance.
Product introduction costs accrue with launches. See the LINKS manual for details.
Research Study #24 (“Price Sensitivity Analysis”) is only possible when a product is already actively distributed in a market region.