GRA 6440 Marketing Innovation Management

GRA 6440 Marketing Innovation Management

Course code: 
GRA 6440
Department: 
Marketing
Credits: 
6
Course coordinator: 
Tuba Yilmaz
Course name in Norwegian: 
Marketing Innovation Management
Product category: 
Master
Portfolio: 
MSc in Strategic Marketing Management
Semester: 
2024 Autumn
Active status: 
Active
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching language: 
English
Course type: 
One semester
Introduction

Every year companies across the globe spend billions of dollars developing and marketing innovations to improve the way we work, live, and play. The vast majority of these innovations fail when introduced to the market. This course is about learning how to create innovative solutions that are likely to succeed in the market. 

Marketing innovation is defined as the implementation of new marketing practices involving significant changes in the design, packaging, distribution, promotion or pricing of a product or service. This course will focus on the product-related marketing activities involved in the marketing innovation process, and cover topics such as understanding customer needs, creative idea generation, concept testing, and effect estimation.

This course will focus on the logic and structure of an innovation process, the way it typically takes place in organizations. It starts with an identification of unmet customer needs. The next stage is creative idea generation, wherein a number of ideas are identified, and a sub-selection of them selected for further concept development. The selected concepts (prototypes) are then shown to potential customers for estimating the market potential involved with the concept/s. The course culminates in a business case where the financial potential of the new concept is estimated based on estimated costs and revenue.

Learning outcomes - Knowledge

The course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the marketing innovation activities involved in launching a new product and achieve familiarity with key concepts and theories related to marketing innovation.

More in detail, the course will provide students with:

  • An overview of the marketing innovation funnel
  • In-depth understanding of creativity and exposure to different idea generation techniques for new products
  • Knowledge concerning concept development and concept testing
  • The ability to estimate the potential effects of new products using financial data
  • Insights into how to create a marketing innovation strategy for a new product
Learning outcomes - Skills

Upon successful completion of the course students will be able to:

  • Critically analyze and interpret various sources of information (e.g., customer data, company information, trends, existing literature) and use them to structure and formulate a business case for a new product concept
  • Link key concepts, theories, and methods to collect and analyze data to see if the new product concept is worth investing in
  • Become aware of their creative capabilities and how they can apply them to business problems
  • Develop communication, critical thinking, and collaboration/teamwork skills through group work and peer reviews
General Competence

The general competence fostered by this course is reflecting on what separates a successful innovation from others and how to carry out a successful marketing innovation project.

Course content

The course will cover different stages of the innovation process such as understanding customer needs, creative idea generation, concept development and testing, and developing a business case for a new product.

Teaching and learning activities

The course will include lectures, workshops, practical exercises, student participation, and presentations.

Software tools
No specified computer-based tools are required.
Additional information

Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class.

This course and GRA 6428 New Product Development and Service Innovation both address various aspects of new product development and innovation management. Although learning goals and course substances intersect, the two courses offer differing theoretical approaches and practical applications, as well as teaching methods and assessments. Students are only able to select one of these courses and are advised to consult the entirety of the course descriptions before doing so.

The examination for this course has been changed starting academic year 23/24. It is not possible to resit the old version of the examination.

Qualifications

All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have specific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.

Disclaimer

Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this.

Assessments
Assessments
Exam category: 
Submission
Form of assessment: 
Submission PDF
Exam/hand-in semester: 
First Semester
Weight: 
100
Grouping: 
Group (3 - 5)
Duration: 
1 Semester(s)
Comment: 
Development of a marketing innovation concept and a plan for implementation. Please note: Group sizes might change based on the class size.
Exam code: 
GRA 64401
Grading scale: 
ECTS
Resit: 
Examination when next scheduled course
Type of Assessment: 
Ordinary examination
Total weight: 
100
Reduction description

GRA 6440 has overlapping content with the following course: GRA 6428 New Product Development and Service Innovation. Students can only choose one of these specialisation electives.

Student workload
ActivityDurationComment
Teaching
36 Hour(s)
Synchronous and asynchronous
Student's own work with learning resources
50 Hour(s)
Group work / Assignments
80 Hour(s)
Sum workload: 
166

A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.