| To: | All newly assigned Music Synthesizer Division engineers |
| From: | Alan Turing, Vice President for Musical Synthesizer Development |
| Subject: | Music synthesizer project research report |
| Date: | 14 January 2009 |
Congratulations! You have been assigned to the Musical Synthesizer Division and will be working with our teams that are developing musical toys to tie-in with forthcoming animated movies from Pixilated Studios.
Little Toy Blue is proposing that Pixilated Studios incorporate music synthesizers in their new movies, because we believe our company will be able to develop an inexpensive microprocessor with this functionality. If Pixilated Studios movies feature music synthesizers, this will create a large consumer demand for musical toys, and this in turn will generate additional sales and profits for our company.
We are aware that some musical capabilities are available in toys already on the market, but we need more information about just what is out there, who is the target audience, and what features are being offered. This research will help us target our new product to the best possible market segments. We also need input into what other features not yet commercially available we might offer Pixilated Studios.
Your assignment is twofold: first, we want you to visit a toy store and find out what kind of musical synthesizers are being sold, either as stand-alone products or incorporated into other toys. We also want to know their musical range and other features: price points, packaging (i.e., do they look like pianos or computers or toy frogs or...?), and age-appropriateness. You should make note if any of these toys are already linked to movie, cartoon, or television stories.
The second part of your assignment, after you have completed your research, is to come up with suggestions for how Little Toy Blue might differentiate our product or products from those already being sold. Are there other features you can imagine adding that will enhance the toy's appeal? Do you have any suggestions about product size, appearance, cost, and features?
This is an excellent opportunity for you to have a real impact on popular culture. As you know, movies today are written by committees whose main concern is how many toys the movies will sell. DVD sales make up part of their profit picture, but the real money is in product tie-in. Therefore, if we can come up with some innovative ideas, Pixilated Studios will create or rewrite movies to highlight our product, and you will see your invention on the shelves of every toy store in the world!
Describe your findings and suggestions in a memo to me. This memo will be read by me and by our marketing team, so feel free to be as imaginative as possible. Once we settle on a final design we'll have to limit features, but at this stage of the design process anything goes.
There are 20 points possible for this assignment, and they are given for content and development. The numbers below indicate the percentage breakdown of the score.
Background: where you went, what you did
Clear description of what you found
| 13 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 25 |
Ideas for new products clearly described
| 11 | 14 | 17 | 20 |
Developed foreword and summary
Clear separation of topics into sections
| 13 | 16 | 19 | 22 | 25 |
Memo format: single-spaced, block paragraphs, bold section headings, page numbers
Memo header in correct format
Legibly printed in readable typeface
| 18 | 21 | 24 | 27 | 30 |