BU.450.710.XX– Marketing Strategy–Instructor– Page 1 of 10

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Marketing Strategy

2 Credits
BU.450.710.XX
[NOTE: Each section must have a separate syllabus.]
[Day &Time / ex: Monday, 6pm-9pm]
[Start & End Dates / ex: 3/24/17–5/12/17]
[Semester / ex: Spring 2017]
[Location / ex: Washington, DC]

Instructor

[Full Name]

Contact Information

[Email Address]

[Phone Number, ###- ###-#### (Optional)]

Office Hours

[Please specify the day and time of the 2 hours that will be dedicated to office hours each week. For evening classes, faculty may wish to hold their office hours by phone or email. While faculty are permitted to state “and by appointment,” office hours should not be held exclusively by appointment.]

Text(s)Learning Materials

1.Required HBS and INSEAD Cases

Case Title / Reference #
Marketing Strategies in the Competition between Branded and Generic Antibiotics / 503-048-1
Product Team Cialis: Getting Ready to Market / 9-505-038
The Evolution of the Circus Industry / BOS007
Crafting Winning Strategies in a Mature Market: The US Wine Industry in 2001 / BOS018
L’Oréal in China: Marketing Strategies for Turning around Chinese Luxury Cosmetic Brand Yue Sai / INS291
Unilever in Brazil: Marketing Strategies for Low-Income Consumers / 504-009-1
Renova Toilet Paper: Avant-garde Marketing in a Commoditized Category / INS131
Diesel for Successful Living: Strategies for an Up-market Line Extension in the Fashion Industry / 504-007-1
Russian Standard Vodka: Strategies for Global Branding and Expansion into the US Market / 502-080-1
Branding in an Emerging Market: Strategies for Sustaining Market Dominance of the Largest Apparel Brand in India / INS6192

Please acquire your personal copy of the cases (at a student discount) from Harvard Business School Press using the following link:
(If you do not yet have an account with HBSP, please create one following the registration instructions on the page.)

2.Background Reading Materials

This course is case focused. Relevant conceptual frameworks will be discussed in class. However, students are recommended to read the assigned chapters from the following textbook:

Aaker, D. A. (2014).Strategic market management(10th ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Students should also go through the recommended articles to broaden their understanding of marketing strategy. Please refer to the course schedule for details.

Course Description

This course provides students an in-depth understanding of marketing strategy. It is designed to help students experience the role of senior business executives in formulating, implementing, and evaluating marketing strategies for a variety of complex, real-world business scenarios. Students will analyze and learn the key factors underlying the successful and lackluster marketing strategies of both major corporations and smaller firms across different industries, across different tiers of brands and products (luxury versus mass-market), and across the globe. Topics covered include industry and market analyses, dynamics of competition, value creation, branding, segmentation, targeting, positioning, product development, pricing, distribution, and promotion. Through case analyses, in-class discussions, course assignments, and a research project, students will develop skills in devising, executing, and evaluating marketing strategies, as well as working in teams on complex business projects.

Prerequisite(s)

BU.410.620 OR BU.911.610

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, students will:

1.Sharpen critical thinking skills in analyzing complex, real-world business problems, and identifying solutions.

2.Acquirean in-depth, integrative understanding of marketing strategy topics including industry and market analyses, dynamics of competition, value creation, segmentation, targeting, positioning, pricing, branding, distribution, and promotion.

3.Develop skills in devising, executing, and evaluating marketing strategies for current and emerging business situations.

4.Develop a strong international perspective of marketing and understand how social and cultural diversities impact marketing strategy.

5.Improve their ability to work in teams on complex business projects.

6.Improve business communication skills including face-to-face discussion, presentation, and writing.

To view the complete list of Carey Business School’s general learning goals and objectives, visit the Carey website.

Assignments

Requirements / Learning Objectives / Weight (%)
Attendance and ContributiontoClass Discussions / 1–6 / 21%
Case Opinion Polls / 1–4 / 20%(2% per case)
Final Exam / 1–4 / 15%
Marketing Strategy Research Project
(1) Project Proposal
(2) Research Progress Presentation
(3) Research Project Report
(4)Research Project Presentation
(5) Teamwork Evaluation and Reflection / 1–6 / 6%
8%
15%
10%
5%
TOTAL / 100%

Attendance and In-class Discussion Policies

  1. Full attendance and active participation are required to successfully complete this course. Attendance and class participation are an important part of each student’s course grade. You are expected to attend every session and make meaningful contributions to in-class discussions.
  1. Absence can be excused only in the case of jury duty, medical emergency, or other uncontrollablecircumstances (e.g., extreme weather conditions). Any absence must be validated with official documentation. If you are absent at a class, it is your responsibility to consult with your peers and make up whatever you may have missed in the session.
  1. You are expected to attend each session on time. Being late or leaving early will disrupt the lecture, negatively affect other students’ learning, and reduce your attendance and participation points.
  1. You are expected tothoroughly prepare for each session.You will be cold-called to answer questions in class. Inability to respond to cold-call questions can negatively affect your participation points.
  1. You are expected to pay attention to other students / the professor when they are presenting / lecturing. Behaviors that disrupt other students’ learning (e.g., mobile phone usage, texting, eating) will negatively affect your attendance and participation points.

Case Opinion Polls

You need to answer all the opinion polls, which will be posted on Blackboard one week before each session. You will be asked to indicate your opinions on a variety of marketing strategy issues pertaining to the cases of the coming session. Please submit your answers by 6PM on the day BEFORE the session. Late submission will not receive credit.

Final Exam

You will take a final exam at the 8thsession. You will be asked to analyze local and/or global business scenarios and respond to a set of marketing strategy questions pertaining to those scenarios.

Marketing Strategy Research Project

  1. This is a group project. You need form a research team with 5–6 members. Each team should appoint a team representative who will submit the composition of her/his team to the professor by midnight on the day of the 1st session. Each member is expected to contribute equally to the project, and will be evaluated by her/his peers at the end of the semester.
  1. Each team needs to identify a firm (or an organization) and conduct in-depth analyses of its marketing strategy. The firm you select can be a local company or a major U.S. or foreign corporation. However, you must be able to collect sufficient information about the firm’s industry, competitors, consumers, products/services, brands, segmentation, targeting, pricing, distribution, promotion, sales/profits, and other aspects of its business pertinent to the analyses of the firm’s marketing strategy. You might want to consider choosing the firm you or your team members are currently working for or have worked for.
  1. To truly benefit from this project, you should avoid choosing firms whose marketing strategies are very well known (e.g., Apple). Successful research projects have focused on such topics as how a firm in a dire situation strategized to turn around its business; how an ‘underdog’ firm successfully challenged the dominant players in the market; how a firm fundamentally changed or reinvented an industry; how a firm achieved success in a brand-new or shrinking market; or how a firm sustained success or achieved exceptional growth over extended periods of time. While you are not required to use one of these themes, please keep in mind that projects that illustrate interesting marketing strategy problems (such as these) and reveal novel new insights tend to receive higher scores.
  1. Your team representative should submit a one-page research project proposalby midnighton the day of the 2nd session. Late submission will not receive credit.In addition to providing basic information about the firm your team plans to research on, this proposal needs to answer the following questions:
  • Why do you think this firm or this business situation is interesting to research on? Why do you want to study it?
  • How will you collect information about the firm and its marketing strategy (e.g., industry, competition, consumers, marketing mix, etc.)?
  • How do you know whether the firm’s marketing strategy is effective or ineffective? How will you evaluate it?
  • How will you function as a team? Who will be responsible for what? How will you collaborate throughout the project?

The proposal should be a Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, single spacing, and 1-inch page margins. The file should be named using the following format: CourseSectionNumber_ProjectTitle_Proposal

  1. After your proposal is approved, your team should immediately start working on theresearchproject report. This report will be scored based on your ability to dissect the situation the firm was facing, think systematically and critically about the strategic decisions the firm made, evaluate the outcome objectively and accurately, and articulate your line of reasoningclearly and concisely. The quality of the writing will also affect the points you receive.

The report should have a structure similar to the following:

  1. Cover Page (Course Section Number, Project Title, and Members)
  2. Executive Summary (300–500 words)
  3. Current Business Situation
  4. Firm’s Objectives
  5. Marketing Strategy and Implementation
  6. Analysis and Evaluation of the Marketing Strategy
  7. The Future
  8. Appendix

In Section II, you should provide a concise summary of your project, highlighting the key findings of your research. Section III of the report should have a structure like one of the cases you studied in this course (e.g., L'Oréal, Renova); you need to describe the market, industry, competition, target firm, its products/brands, consumers, and all other aspects of the firm pertinent to formulating the marketing strategy. In Section IV, you need to lay out the objectives of the firm—what the firm aimed to achieve through the marketing strategy.

In Section V, you should explain in detail the marketing strategy the firm decided to pursue (e.g., STP, 4P’s), how the firm made the decisions, and what were the rationales behind these decisions. You will then explain, in Section VI, how and why the strategy is effective or ineffective (what worked and what didn’t), and, if appropriate, how and why the firm should have done it differently. In Section VII, you should discuss what might be the future challenges and opportunities for the firm, as well as what you think the firm should do next. You can provide charts, diagrams, photos, tables, and other supplementary materials in Section VIII.

  1. Your team needs to prepare a 3-to5-minuteresearch progress presentationshowcasing your research project idea and the progress your team has made to other teams and the professor. You need to send the PowerPoint slides to me by 6PM on the day BEFORE the 4th session. The PowerPoint file should be named using the following format:CourseSectionNumber_ProjectTitle_Midterm

Late submission will not receive credit. The presentation should include the following information:

  • An overview of your marketing strategy research idea
  • What have you done thus far for the project?
  • What else is needed to complete the project?
  • How you have functioned as a team? How have you collaborated on the project thus far?

After your presentation, the audience (including the professor) will be given time to ask questions and offer suggestions.

  1. The final research report must be submitted in a Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, single spacing, and 1-inch page margins, and should be within 15 pages (excluding cover page, executive summary, appendixes, references). The report should be named using the following format:CourseSectionNumber_ProjectTitle_Report

The research report must be submitted by 6PM on the day BEFORE the 8th session. Late submission will not receive credit.

  1. Each of you will be asked to evaluate other team members’ contributions at the end of the course. You will also be asked to report how you have contributed to the project and what you have learned from the teamwork experience. See the end of this syllabus for a sample evaluation form.

Final Research Project Presentation

  1. Each research team needs to deliver a 15-to20-minute presentation in the last session of the course. Team representatives should submit their team’s slides to me by 6PM on the day BEFORE the 7th session. The slides should be named using the following format:CourseSectionNumber_ProjectTitle_Final
  1. Your presentation should have a ‘flow’ similar to the way your report is structured.You can, for example, first present the business situation the firm was facing, then describe the firm’s objectives, explain the formulation and implementation of the firm’s marketing strategy, and discuss the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of the strategy as well as future opportunities and challenges. After each presentation, the audience (including me) will be given a few minutes to ask you questions about your research.
  1. Your presentation will be evaluated based on the extent to which it helps the audience understand the content and insights of your research, and the extent to which you are able to address the audience’s questions and concerns.

Grading

Effective Fall 2017: The grade of A is reserved for those who demonstrate extraordinarily excellent performance as determined by the instructor. The grade of A- is awarded only for excellent performance. The grades of B+, B, and B- are awarded for good performance. The grades of C+, C, and C- are awarded for adequate but substandard performance.The grades of D+, D, and D- are not awarded at the graduate level (undergraduate only). The grade of F indicates the student’s failure to satisfactorily complete the course work.

Please note that for Core and Foundation courses, a maximum of 25% of students may be awarded an A or A-; the grade point average of the class should not exceed 3.3. For Elective courses, a maximum of 35% of students may be awarded an A or A-; the grade point average of the class should not exceed 3.4. (For classes with 15 students or fewer, the class GPA cap is waived.)

Tentative Course Calendar

Instructors reserve the right to alter course content and/or adjust the pace to accommodate class progress. Students are responsible for keeping up with all adjustments to the course calendar.

Session / Focus / Background Readings / Due
(Unless otherwise noted, assignments are due at 6PM on the day BEFORE each session)
1 / Introduction to the Course
Fundamentals of Marketing Strategy / Strategic market management, Chapters 1–6
Christensen, C. M., Cook, S., & Hall, T. (2004). Marketing malpractice.Harvard Business Review, 83(12), 74–83.
Levitt, T. (2004).Marketing myopia. Harvard Business Review, 82, 138–149.
Porter, M. E. (1996). What is strategy? Harvard Business Review,74(6), 61–78. / Group Composition
(due at midnight on the day of this session)
2 / Dynamics of Competition / Strategic market management, Chapters 7–9
Boulding, W., & Christen, M. (2001). First-mover disadvantage.Harvard Business Review, 79(9), 20–21.
Suarez, F., Lanzollo, G.(2005). The half-truth of first-mover advantage.Harvard Business Review, 83(4) 121–127.
Hoch, S. J. (1996). How should national brands think about private labels?Sloan Management Review, Winter, 89–102.
Quelch, J. A., & Harding, D. (1996). Brands Versus Private Labels: Fighting to Win.Harvard Business Review, 74(1), 99–109. / Case Opinion Poll (Generic Antibiotics)
Case Opinion Poll(Cialis)
Research Project
Proposal
(due at midnight on the day of the session)
3 / Market Driven vs. Market Driving / Strategic market management, Chapters 10–15
Porter, M. E. (2008).The five competitive forces that shape strategy.Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 78–93. / Case Opinion Poll(Wine Industry)
Case Opinion Poll(Circus Industry)
4 / Globalization and Localization / Day, G. S., Reibstein, D. J. (2004). Managing brands in global markets.The INSEAD-Wharton Alliance on Globalizing: Strategies for Building Successful Global Businesses. Cambridge University Press.
Gatignon, H., & Van den Bulte, C. (2004). Global marketing of new products.The INSEAD-Wharton Alliance on Globalizing: Strategies for Building Successful Global Businesses. Cambridge University Press. / Case Opinion Poll (L’Oréal’s Luxury Chinese Brand)
Case Opinion Poll(India’s Largest Apparel Brand)
Research Project Progress Presentation / Presentation on your research idea and the progress you have made
Q&A / Slides for Research
Project Progress
Presentation
5 / The Tip vs. Bottom of the Pyramid / Prahalad, C. K., Hammond, A. (2002). Serving the world's poor, profitably.Harvard Business Review,80(9), 48–59.
Karamchandani, A.,Kubzansky, M., &Lalwani, N. (2011). Is the bottom of the pyramid really for you? Harvard Business Review, 89(3), 107–111. / Case Opinion Poll(Renova)
Case Opinion Poll(Unilever)
6 / Product and Brand Portfolios / Aaker, D. A., &Joachimsthaler, E. (2000). The brand relationship spectrum: The key to the brand architecture challenge.California Management Review, 42(4), 8–23.
Tybout, A. M., & Carpenter, G. S. (2000). Creating and managing brands.Kellogg on Marketing,John Wiley & Sons. / Case Opinion Poll(Russian Standard for theU.S. Market)
Case Opinion Poll(Diesel)
7 / Research Project Presentation / Research Project Presentation
Q&A / Slides for Research
Project Presentation
8 / Final Exam / A case analysis exam that assesses your ability to dissect different aspects of local and/or global business scenarios and make strategic marketing decisions. / Research Report
Peer Evaluation

Sample Teammate Evaluation Form

Name: ______

Project: ______

Please evaluate each of your teammates in three areas:

  • Amount of effort put into the marketing strategy research project
  • Quality of contribution
  • Interpersonal skills in working with others

For each of the three areas, please provide a number (between 1 and 5) that most appropriately describes the individual’s contribution: