30015 - MARKETING
Department of Marketing
Course taught in English
LIYANG ZHOU
Mission & Content Summary
MISSION
CONTENT SUMMARY
1. The first part of the course is dedicated to the diagnostic nature of marketing activity. Here, the course is a walk through the main strategic decisions falling under the marketing domain: developing marketing strategies and plans, capturing marketing insights, understanding consumer and business markets, and identifying targets and segments.
2. The second part of the course is focused on the implementation side of the marketing, where main strategic policies are concretely realized and oriented to the market: it mainly regards product, pricing, distribution, and communication decisions.
In summary, the main topics covered during the course are the following:
- Developing marketing strategies and plans.
- Gathering information and scanning the environment.
- Gaining Customer Insights.
- Understanding Consumer markets and consumer buying behavior.
- Business markets and business buying behavior.
- Identifying targets and segments.
- Setting product strategy.
- Branding.
- Pricing.
- Managing channel, wholesale and retail.
- Designing and managing integrated marketing communications.
Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
- Understand how marketing creates value for customers, firms and society as a whole
- Learn how to conduct marketing research.
- Identify market segments and target appropriate market segments.
- Explain how companies can reach their desired positioning within the market
- Discuss the role and evolution of branding strategies
- Learn how to make decisions related to distribution, products, communications and pricing.
APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
- Apply the appropriate methods and tools to create value for customers and firms
- Perform a marketing environment analysis.
- Design marketing research activities
- Segment the market and target appropriate market segments.
- Develop a branding strategy
- Make relevant decisions related to marketing mix (i.e., product decisions, pricing decisions, promotion decisions, and distribution decisions)
Teaching methods
- Lectures
- Collaborative Works / Assignments
DETAILS
The course involves interactive class activities, in-class exercises and case study discussions for the students to be able to apply frameworks and tools learned during the course. These tools help participants to develop specific recommendations and action plans related to companies’ marketing activities.
Lectures: The course consists of lectures. These lectures focus on theoretical aspects of marketing but also on business cases that identify and illustrate practical managerial problems to be analyzed and discussed.
Group Assignment: During the term, attending students only will complete one written group assignment, accompanied by an in-class presentation. This assignment is designed to help students demonstrate their ability to: (1) identify the appropriate methodology for solving business and management problems, and (2) apply these methodologies to real-world decisions. The assignment also aims to develop students’ ability to work effectively in a team environment, an essential skill for any successful businessperson or entrepreneur.
Assessment methods
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ATTENDING STUDENTS
Assessment is based on two components:
1. Written group assignment (50% of the final grade): Attending students will complete a written marketing plan and presentation in groups. During the first two weeks of the course, during class, your instructor will provide details about the group marketing-plan assignment and groups will be formed. It is therefore extremely important to attend these sessions.
2. Final individual exam (50% of the final grade): There will be one written final exam. The exam may contain concepts, models, cases, and other materials from some combination of lectures, classroom discussions, and supplementary material provided by the instructor. The instructor will provide concrete information about the content of the final exam in the first class.
ATTENDING STUDENTS can take the exam as an attending student ONLY in the first two exam sessions that are announced. The other exam sessions are for NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS only.
NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS
Assessment is based solely on a final, individual closed-book written exam, which accounts for 100% of the final grade.
The exam covers the textbook in its entirety, iand may consist of a combination of multiple-choice questions and short-answer questions. Multiple-choice questions are designed to assess students’ knowledge and understanding of the core concepts, models, and terminology covered in the textbook and to verify whether students have acquired the foundational knowledge required to recognize and distinguish among different analytical frameworks and managerial approaches.
Short-answer questions are designed to assess students’ ability to explain concepts, apply models, and interpret cases or business situations using the tools and frameworks studied in the course. These questions contribute to verifying students’ skills and abilities in connecting theoretical knowledge to concrete managerial problems, formulating well-reasoned answers, and demonstrating critical understanding rather than simple memorization.
Teaching materials
ATTENDING STUDENTS
- Lecture slides
- Notes taken during lecture
- Classroom discussion
- Cases discussed during lecture
- Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Sridhar Balasubramanian - Principles of Marketing, 19th Global Edition, Pearson Education, 2023 (selected chapters)
NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS
Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Sridhar Balasubramanian - Principles of Marketing, 19th Global Edition, Pearson Education, 2023 (all chapters)