MAN 5160 Market Oriented Business Strategy
MAN 5160 Market Oriented Business Strategy
| MAN 5161 - første semester | |
| MAN 5162 - andre semester |
An excellent strategy for how a company will achieve its revenues is a critical condition for market success. In the program students learn a methodology for developing a market oriented business strategy. A good business strategy is about developing attractive value propositions to main segments, and communicating and delivering these propositions so that customers have positive experiences and remain customers.
An overall business strategy is about developing a consistent plan for three main management areas. First, companies need an overall customer strategy for how the company will acquire, develop and keep their customer portfolio. Next, the company needs an overall strategy for developing an attractive, competitive and profitable portfolio of products. Third, the company needs an overall strategy for their brand(s) with a clear promise that strengthens the customer relationships and their product portfolio attractiveness. As these areas are closely interdependent, the business strategy plan needs to address how these areas will be coordinated and managed.
There are five stages in the development of a business strategy:
- Situation analysis and the overall strategic problems to be solved.
- Defining strategic goals.
- Developing the strategic initiatives.
- Allocating resources.
- Measurement and control.
- Fundamental knowledge about customer behavior in a digital world, segmentation, and the main tools in sales and marketing.
- Understanding market change and its effect on competitive performance and profitability
- Organizing marketing
- Main differences between B2B and B2C
- Identifying the most important stratgic problems that need to be solved in order to achieve growth and profitability
- Developing an overall and market oriented business strategy plan.
- Tools for analyzing customers, products, brand, market and competition from various data sources.
- Ability to make strategic choices
- Critical reflection on market and marketing
Strategy and planning
- Document
- Process
Analysis
- Buying process
- Customer portfolio
- Segmentation
- Product portfolio
- Market and competition
- Effectiveness in marketing
Customer strategy
- Customer lifetime value (CLV)
- Segmentation
- CRM
- Loyalty programs
- Sales
- Customer service
Product strategy
- Growth and profitability
- Distribution
- Pricing
- Product development
Brand and advertising
- Brand strength
- Creative branding concepts
- Advertising in different channels
Program is organized in five modules, total of 150 teaching hours.
Evaluation based on a group based term project (60%) and a 72 hours individual home exam (40%). The term project is to develop a market oriented business strategy for a specific company.
Students will use Excel and SPSS.
Bachelor degree, corresponding to 180 credits from an accredited university, university college or similar educational institution
The applicant must be at least 25 years of age and at least four years of work experience. For applicants who have already completed a master’s degree, three years of work experience are required.
Covid-19
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be deviations in teaching and learning activities as well as exams, compared with what is described in this course description.
Participants should have knowledge about business economics and statistical analysis.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 60 Grouping: Group/Individual (1 - 3) Duration: 2 Semester(s) Comment: Term paper, counting 60% of the total grade. Exam code: MAN 51601 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 40 Grouping: Individual Duration: 72 Hour(s) Comment: Individual 72 hours home exam, counting 40% of the total grade. Exam code: MAN 51602 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 150 Hour(s) | |
Prepare for teaching | 150 Hour(s) | |
Student's own work with learning resources | 500 Hour(s) | Self study, term paper and exam |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 30 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 800 hours.