APPLIES TO ACADEMIC YEAR 2013/2014

GRA 8158 Marketing

Responsible for the course
Reidar John Gjerde

Department
Department of Marketing

Term
According to study plan

ECTS Credits
4

Language of instruction
English

Introduction
Business is not a business if it can't stay in business. It can't stay in business if it doesn't attract and hold enough solvent customers – no matter how efficiently it operates. Marketing is about getting and keeping the right customers.”

Professor Ted Levitt, Harvard Business School Emeritus

Marketing is no longer a department in the organization charged with a limited number of tasks. It is a company-wide undertaking. It drives the company’s vision, mission and strategic planning. Marketing includes decisions like who the company wants as its customers and how to interact; which of their needs to satisfy; what products and services to offer; what prices to set; what communications to send and receive; what channels of distribution to use; and what partnerships to develop.

Learning outcome
This EMBA course in marketing aims at giving the participant a comprehensive introduction to the field of marketing management and decision-making. Emphasis is placed on analytical tools and a pragmatic approach for making marketing decisions that maximize long term value for the company. The course integrates all main areas of marketing management, and relates marketing activities to other functional areas of the organization.

Acquired knowledge

· Understanding the role of Marketing Management and the company’s interaction with the market place

· Methods for uncovering and analyzing important issues and estimating future development

· Evaluating competitors and their competitive position.

· The importance of customer analysis understanding the marketplace from the customer's perspective

· Setting objectives and goals

· Deciding and implementing the marketing mix to ensure desired market position and profitability

Acquired skills

The course will give you the understanding and ability to evaluate and uncover market potential for a product or service and supply you with the knowledge, tools and insights in order to develop and present a comprehensive market/product plan for executive approval.

Reflection
The student should be able to reflect on social and ethical issues about an organization's or a company's role in society and how they chose to market themselves.  

Prerequisites
Granted admission to the EMBA programme.

Compulsory reading
Books:
Kotler, Philip, Kevin Lane Keller. 2011. 14th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall

Articles:
Articles to be presented throughout the course

Recommended reading

Course outline
This course will introduce you to basic marketing problems and perspectives and the contexts in which they arise. It will help you to develop an ability to structure and analyze such problems, and provide the appropriate tools and concepts for solving them.The course will concentrate on marketing topics which will help the marketing manager to attract and keep the right profitable customers as a means to enhance the firm's share holder value.

Computer-based tools
Powerpoint, excel and word or equivalent.

Learning process and workload
1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours.

This course will involve a combination of lectures, discussions, short case analyses and presentations. The students will work extensively in small groups in order to better draw on the experience and backgrounds of each individual.

Students are expected to have read the text prior to each lecture and prepare for discussions in class where emphasis will be on comprehending, reflecting and applying the knowledge The studenst will be exposed to short cases and exercises that are intended to solidify the underlying marketing theory. They will be expected to present their conclusions to the rest of the class for discussion.

Each class session will be conducted in a highly interactive mode, where students are expected to actively participate and contribute with questions and examples from their own work experience.

Each group will be required to define a real marketing challenge with regards to introduction of a new product/service or repositioning of an existing product/service facing their own company. The team members are expected to prepare a market/product plan which they will present to executive management (the rest of the class). This will take place during the two last sessions of the course in the second module.

Attendance to all sessions in the course is compulsory. If you have to miss part(s) of the course you must ask in advance for leave of absence. More than 20% absence in a course will require retaking the entire course. It's the student's own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class that is not included on the course homepage/ It's learning or other course materials

Examination
The student’s final grade is a composition of the following evaluation forms:
40% - classroom contribution (individual)
10% - group presentation (team)
50% - one written case report/market plan (team)

This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam elements) and one final exam code. Each exam element will be graded using points on a scale (e.g. 0-100). The elements will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the course.

Specific information regarding student evaluation beyond the information given in the course description will be provided in class. This information may be relevant for requirements for term papers or other hand-ins, and/or where class participation can be one of several elements of the overall evaluation

Examination code(s)
GRA 81581 - Continuous assessment; accounts for 100 % to pass the course GRA 8158x, 4 ECTS credits

The course is a part of a full Executive Master of Business Administration Program and all evaluations must be passed to obtain a certificate for the degree.

Examination support materials


Re-sit examination
Re-takes are only possible at the next time a course will be held. When course evaluation consists of class participation or continuous assessment, the whole course must be re-evaluated when a student wants to retake a exam. Retake examinations entail an extra examination fee.

Additional information