Objectives

Course Description

The Strategic Marketing course introduces a systematic approach to understand a business problem and develop a marketing strategy to address it, taking into account the objectives of the business. Unlike the Marketing Science course, which takes a more academic view of marketing, this course focuses on the purpose and the function of marketing strategy, as well as its relationship to competitive advantage, within the context of an organization. The course partially revisits important basic concepts from an introductory marketing course but also challenges and extends them to focuses on how organizations can create superior value for customers and achieve their objectives using an ‘integrated combination’ of marketing actions in a dynamic and competitive market.

The first part of the course, with Prof. Rege, focuses on the core principles of a marketing strategy: (1) customer focus to create and capture value; (2) segmentation to address customer heterogeneity and target actions; (3) positioning to shape customer minds and integrate actions; and (4) branding to build relationships and sustainable advantage. The second part of the course, with Prof. Christen, focuses on applications of these core principles in different market and customer situations over the product life cycle.

Course Objectives

We want students to develop their strategic thinking skills by applying theoretical concepts to analyze real-world scenarios in different contexts. Practical and critical thinking will thus be necessary to succeed this class. Concretely, students will learn to:

• Analyze the environment and its impact on firm marketing strategies.
• Analyze the consumer/customer behavior.
• Analyze the factors (market/customer orientation) that make marketing a key strategic element in organizational performance.
• Make coherent choices about market segmentation and product positioning and to integrate the different variables in a strategic approach.
• Understand how to make strategic and coherent brand management decisions.
• Evaluate the linkages with channel and sales force management.
• Understand how to develop a pricing strategy to capture value.

Course Format

We expect students in a master’s program to be familiar with and continuously improve academic thinking and problem-solving skills, including proper argumentation and an academically correct treatment of used sources, as well as critical thinking. Marketing is a fascinating field whose challenge lies in making choices and proposing actions based on understanding of human behavior in different contexts. In practice, this knowledge is based on imperfect information about markets, customers, and competitors. Limitations in options and resources add further complications. Marketing hence requires not only analytical skills but also creativity and strategic thinking.

The course gives much emphasis on ‘learning-by-doing’ in the form of in-class presentations and discussions. The goal of working with cases is not to find the solution (there hardly ever exists only one). The goal is to learn and refine the strategic marketing thinking process by use of real-world case scenarios to which theoretical knowledge will be applied to understand and address the challenges behind designing and implementing a marketing strategy for a brand or business unit.

Contents

1. 23.09.2021: Strategic Thinking in Marketing
2. 30.09.2021: Segmentation: Identifying Opportunities
3. 07.10.2021: Targeting: Evaluating Opportunities
4. 14.10.2021: Positioning: Creating Value
5. 21.10.2021: Positioning: Mapping Customer Mind
6. 28.10.2021: Branding and Brand Management: Introduction
7. 04.11.2021: Branding and Brand Management: The Dynamics Involved
8. 12.11.2021 Innovation: Creating a New Market
9. 19.11.2021: Innovation: Creating Value in B2B Markets
10. 26.11.2021: Growth: Expanding a Business
11. 03.12.2021: Competing: Gaining & Defending Market Leadership
12. 10.12.2021: Connecting: Distribution Channels
13. 17.12.2021: Connecting: Platform Businesses
14. 24.12.2021: Pricing: Capturing Value

Class Time and Place

• Sessions 1 to 7 Thursday, 08h15 to 11h45 in Amphimax 410
• Sessions 8 to 14 Friday, 08h15 to 11:45 in Amphimax 415

References

Required Course Material

Moodle will be the main communication channel for this course; kindly make sure you register on Moodle before the course starts.

• Cases: Coursepack (see link on Moodle).
• Articles: To be posted on Moodle.

Pre-requisites

Fundamentals of marketing

Evaluation

First attempt

Exam:

Written 2h00 hours

Documentation:

Allowed

Calculator:

Allowed

Evaluation:

The required course work comprises group and individual components:

1. Two Case Reports (15% each)
2. Individual Exercise (10%)
3. Written Exam (60%)

The case reports are to be done in groups. Details will be provided in class.

Retake

Exam:

Written 2h00 hours

Documentation:

Allowed

Calculator:

Allowed

Evaluation:

Retake Exam

• Insufficient individual components: Will be replaced with a written exam; the group component scores remain the same.
• Insufficient group components: Will be replaced with a 20-minute oral exam; the individual compoent scores, including the written exam, remain the same.