Assume for a moment that your four years of college cost you $15,000 a year in out-of-pocket expenses and you give up another $10,000 a year in what you would have earned had you worked full time. Assume the real interest rate is 3 percent. Since the expenses incurred in the second, third, and fourth years are in the future, you must discount them by using the interest rate, in your case, 3 percent.

This activity is important because as a marketing manager, you must allocate resources to reach your target market. during the strategic marketing process, managers move through three important phases to determine how to optimally allocate resources: a planning phase, an implementation phase, and an evaluation phase. in this interactive exercise, you are asked to review various strategic marketing actions and determine where in the strategic marketing process the action would occur. the goal of this exercise is to demonstrate your understanding of the strategic marketing process and related marketing actions.