MASTSIM
A competitive simulation where teams run the marketing of Premier Print Co., a maker of household 3D printers: deciding product, brands, pricing, advertising and sales force, quarter after quarter, against rival teams.
Marketing strategy facing competitive pressure
MastSim puts each team in charge of the marketing of a 3D-printer company. Every quarter, teams set product, brands, price, advertising, sales force and research — all at once — and a single engine resolves them against the moves of every rival in a shared, competitive market.
Real CMO decisions
Teams make simultaneous calls on pricing, advertising, R&D, distribution and sales force: exactly the levers a marketing director pulls.
Truly competitive
Four to five rival companies share one market. Your results depend on your decisions and on theirs; outcomes are never decided in a vacuum.
Multi-brand portfolio
Manage up to five brands at once, positioning each against five customer segments with very different needs.
Decide under uncertainty
Incomplete information, a fixed budget and rivals reacting every quarter. Teams own the consequences of each marketing plan.
Welcome to Premier Print Co.
A young company founded by inventor Sara Wilkinson around PremierPrint, an innovative household 3D printer unprecedented in the market. After a first year of operations, a new management team takes over the marketing: your team.
The mandate
Participants are the newly hired marketing team, taking the helm at the start of the company second year. The brief is strategic: long-term decisions on product design, distribution, pricing, advertising and sales force form the plan, all made under uncertainty and competitor moves.
The goal: grow market share and profitability faster than rivals selling the very same kind of product.
Can you grow Premier Print Co. market share while your competitors do the same?
Starting position
| Competing companies | 4–5 |
| Starting brands per company | 2 |
| Maximum brands per company | 5 |
| Starting market share | Equal for all |
| Decision cadence | Quarterly |
| Primary goal | Share and profit |
Every company starts identical: same product category, the same two brands, the same market share. From then on, only the marketing decisions tell them apart.
One market, five segments, four channels
All teams compete in a single market whose total demand is the sum of what every company creates. Inside it live five customer segments with very different priorities, reached through four distribution channels.
Five customer segments
Four distribution channels
Specialty stores
~3,000 outlets · specialised service, printers are a core line
Appliance stores
~35,000 outlets · printers as an add-on to other lines
Department stores
~4,000 outlets · wide assortment, with a possible specialised department
Digital
~200 channels · online retailers delivering to the buyer home
Each channel differs in brand penetration and in how attractive it is to each customer type. Coverage is driven by the sales force: choosing where to push is half the strategy.
What participants take away
MastSim turns marketing theory into lived decisions: every framework has to survive contact with a competitive market and a finite budget, quarter after quarter.
- Advanced Marketing Strategy: Design and execute marketing plans under uncertain market conditions, including competitors actions, with the aim of increasing market share and profitability.
- Brand Management: Oversee the development and positioning of up to five brands, understanding the market need for varied product offerings.
- Customer Understanding: Gain a deep understanding of different customer segments and adapt strategies to meet their specific needs and preferences.
- Resource Allocation: Efficiently manage the marketing budget across different initiatives to maximize return on investment.
- Competitive Analysis: Constantly analyze competitors strategies and market dynamics to stay ahead in the market.
Pedagogical backbone: the Kolb experiential cycle —concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation— one full turn per quarter.
The marketing mix, decided at once
Every quarter, teams enter all of their marketing decisions before the engine runs. Each lever interacts with the others, and with whatever the rivals do at the same time.
Product and brands
Modify, withdraw or launch brands (up to five). Each is defined by six physical characteristics and powered by R&D projects.
Pricing
Set a recommended retail price per brand. Price far above cost, or move it too abruptly, and customers react badly. Inflation runs at ~3%.
Advertising
Each brand advertises on its own. Awareness rises with spend and decays when neglected; advertising also positions the offer.
Sales force
Size the sales team and allocate it across channels. More reps mean wider distribution coverage; but resizing costs money.
Distribution and channels
Choose which of the four channels to push. Each reaches different segments with different penetration, attractiveness and retail margins.
Market research
Buy information. Research reports cut uncertainty about segments, competitors and perception, at the cost of budget you could spend on another lever.
It all comes out of one budget
R&D, advertising, sales force and market research are all funded from a single quarterly marketing budget. Allocating it well is half the game.
A printer defined by six dimensions
PremierPrint is a sophisticated household 3D printer. Brands differ in six physical characteristics, and R&D is how teams move them to win over each segment.
Illustrative brand profile · R&D shifts these axes to match what the target segment values most
Speed
Print speed · range 100–1,500 mm/h
Size
Build volume · 5–15 dm³
Accuracy
Resolution · 10–70 microns
Durability
Reliability index · 10–100
Materials
Compatible materials · 10–50 units
Cost
Unit cost · the trade-off behind every upgrade
How R&D works
Marketing commissions R&D projects to improve a brand or create a new one: a budget plus the target values for the physical characteristics. The project completes the following quarter, ready to hit the market.
One budget, four hungry levers
Each quarter the board grants a marketing budget that must cover R&D, advertising, sales force and research. Overspending is penalised. Try the trade-off below.
Marketing Mix Simulator
Allocate the quarterly budget across the three big levers and watch the estimated share, and the budget bar.
Whatever you leave unspent is your market research and your reserve. Illustrative model: diminishing returns, with a penalty if you blow the budget.
Available quarterly budget: 1,000k
Simulation dynamics
This simulation is multiplayer and multi-module, with the ability to add additional modules beyond marketing strategy.
Executive Roles
Participants take on key marketing roles within Premier Print Co., strategizing on product design, distribution, pricing, advertising and sales strategies.
Quarterly Decision-Making
Decisions on marketing strategies are made at the beginning of each quarter, significantly influencing the entire period.
Interactive Results
Results are a combination of your decisions and your competitors decisions, requiring continuous adaptation and strategic forecasting.
Market Dynamics
Engage with various market segments and channels, adapting your strategy to changing consumer preferences and competitive actions.
Share is sticky
Everyone starts with equal share, and it then shifts only gradually, unless a team makes a drastic move —a steep price, going dark on ads— which can cost share that is hard to win back.
Results are relative
Total demand is created by all companies combined. Your slice is decided by how your mix compares to the rivals, never in isolation.
A living economy
Inflation lifts costs each year, the government can impose price controls, and market-news bulletins flag events that may —or may not— affect performance.
Two numbers decide it: share and profit
After each quarter, teams get a full reporting suite and are judged on market share and profitability. The dashboard leads with a head-to-head share benchmark against every rival.
Illustrative market-share ranking · all teams start equal and diverge from there
Financials and cash flow
Revenues, cost of goods, gross margin contribution and the quarter-by-quarter cash position, benchmarked against rivals.
Market and brand report
Brand awareness and perception, price versus the average price, sales and share broken down by segment and by channel.
Closing KPIs
Market share, profit, cash flow, brand awareness and perception, plus the marketing-spend efficiency behind each one, round after round.
The instructor runs the market
A no-code control panel lets faculty shape the scenario, run each round, monitor every team in real time, and lean on an AI summary to prepare the debrief.
Configure
Market size, segments and channels, quarterly budget limits, number of rounds and team count: all without any technical knowledge.
Run the rounds
Run the engine after each quarter, revert a round if needed, reset the game, and control when each report becomes visible to teams.
Monitor everything
See which teams have submitted, read every company data, benchmark across teams and give any team live support.
AI debrief summary
A built-in AI summary gathers brand performance, segment data and every team decisions, then drafts an analysis to anchor the debrief.
Participants see only their own company: they cannot view rival decisions, cannot edit past quarters and never run the engine. The instructor sees, and controls, it all.
Who benefits from MastSim?
Graduate students
MBA and business school students learning to design and execute competitive marketing strategies through experiential team-based play.
Executive education
Marketing managers and executives who need to sharpen their strategic thinking and decision-making ability in a dynamic multi-brand market environment.
Instructors
Marketing faculty benefit from a highly configurable simulation with rich analytics, making in-class debriefing efficient and data-driven.
MastSim at a glance
The essentials, in one place: to decide whether it fits your program and propose it in five minutes.
Answers to the most frequently asked questions
MastSim is a marketing strategy simulation where participants manage the marketing operations of Premier Print Co., a 3D printer manufacturer, competing against other teams for market share across multiple brands and segments.
A full simulation typically lasts between 3 and 8 hours, depending on the number of quarters and whether it is run in a single session or spread across several classes.
MastSim is typically played in teams of 3 to 5 participants. Any number of teams can compete simultaneously; the more teams, the more dynamic the competitive environment.
Instructors can configure market size, number of customer segments, available distribution channels, quarterly budget limits and many other parameters directly from the instructor dashboard.
After the simulation, instructors access a unified results dashboard showing all teams decisions and results quarter by quarter, enabling structured debriefing on strategy, resource allocation and competitive response.
Let us talk about your implementation
Write to us about how we can help you achieve your learning objectives.
General inquiries
info@eurekasimulations.comPhone
(+34) 688 953 242Technical support
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