GRA 6409 Strategic Marketing Issues
GRA 6409 Strategic Marketing Issues
The purpose of marketing strategy is to transform company resources to satisfy customers' current and future needs more effectively and efficiently than competing alternatives. The requirements to become a successful marketing manager have surged in recent decades, demanding new critical understanding of consumer reality and new competences in management. To address these challenges and secure their seat at the boardroom table, marketers are required to develop deep insights of strategic marketing issues and demonstrate the value of marketing investments. This course is centered on the notion of building managerial skills that increase such relevance for business through a combination of action-based, hands-on learning through marketing simulation and in-class discussion of examples with empirical evidence from practice
Strategic marketing focuses on developing the critical insights and analytical skills required to identify the key strategic issues companies are facing in the market they compete in. As we progress through the course, students will gain deeper understanding of the impact and trade-offs between different marketing elements and marketing’s impact on bottom-line performance, as well as the need to quantify the return on marketing investments.
In particular, we aim to teach students to address the following questions:
- What are the crucial marketing capabilities in modern environment?
- How diverse marketing drivers affect firm performance?
- How companies create value for customers and develop sustainable competitive market positions?
- How to prove marketing’s return on investment and link marketing outcomes to the financial return of the company?
The topics in this course are grouped around the most important business goals and skills that we want students to master in this course. To reflect the fact that students need to acquire skills from multiple complementary sources, this course integrates diverse types of learning. The basic skills of developing and applying strategic marketing decisions through teamwork the students will practice in a marketing simulation. In the marketplace simulation (e.g. Markstrat) student teams compete against each other in running their companies in a fictional marketing environment. Lectures are structured around different drivers and trends in strategic marketing related to the marketplace simulation and that directly or indirectly affect firm performance.
After this course the students should be able to:
- Identify key strategic marketing issues in the contemporary market environment
- Analyze customers, markets, brands, competition and marketing effectiveness
- Apply analytical skills to formulate objectives and strategic initiatives using market insights
- Develop competitive strategies through implementation of strategic initiatives
Critical reflection and thinking, developing deep customer and strategic insights
- Appreciation for the complexity of marketing decisions and business in general
- Presentation of ideas and solutions in a clear and concise manner
The topics selected in this course aim to deepen students understanding of the complex strategic marketing issues that affect firm performance. In particular, the course addresses the role of marketing strategy and diverse marketing elements in driving business performance. As we progress through the course, students will gain deeper understanding of the impact and trade-offs between different marketing elements and marketing’s impact on bottom-line performance, as well as the need to quantify the return on marketing investments. Besides highlighting burning issues for marketing managers, this course aims to develop student’s appreciation of the need for a marketer to quantify the impact of selected marketing solutions.
Topics covered in the course include:
- The role of marketing in driving business performance
- Growth, market share and market conditions
- Understanding competition and how economic conditions impact firm performance
- Order of entry and whether pioneer advantage exists
- Short- and long-term marketing mix trade-offs
- Return on investment for marketing activities
The course workload is divided (70 %) between students’ marketplace simulation group-work and an individual exam (30%).
The group-work component consists of the team performance (4-6 students, depending on the total number of students in the class) in the simulation and two related assignments. The exam component of the grade relates to a student’s individual performance, with questions linked to the lectures, readings and/or examples discussed in the class.
The lectures will be organized around discussing selected topics based on assigned readings related to the progress in the marketplace simulation. Students are expected to be prepared for the discussions in class.
In the two assignments related to the simulation performance student groups should discuss marketing strategy concepts they applied in the simulation, with an intention to justify their strategic choices.
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 that is not included on itslearning or text book.
This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded by using points on a scale from 0-100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the examination code (course). Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam elements will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades when the course starts.
At resit, all exam components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course.
In order to achieve the learnings goals of this course additional resources in terms of a teaching assistance would be necessary as the market place simulation requires the instructor(s) to analyze the decisions that the students have made and provide feedback and coaching.
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.
| Assessments |
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Exam category: Activity Form of assessment: Presentation and discussion Weight: 20 Grouping: Group (4 - 6) Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: Markstrat performance. Achieved scores in the marketplace simulation. Exam code: GRA 64091 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 50 Grouping: Group (4 - 6) Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: Markstrat assignment Exam code: GRA 64091 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Structured test Invigilation Weight: 30 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 2 Hour(s) Comment: Written examination under supervision. Exam code: GRA 64091 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
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.