GRA 8277 Marketing
GRA 8277 Marketing
In today’s competitive and rapidly changing marketplace, successful leaders must integrate cutting-edge marketing insights with broader organizational objectives to drive sustainable growth. This Executive Course in Marketing is designed to equip business leaders with the tools and insights necessary to create and sustain a competitive advantage by understanding customer needs, future contributions from different customer groups, and the trade-offs between investments in products, brands, promotions, and customer relationships.
Our comprehensive curriculum teaches participants how to develop, implement, and analyze marketing strategies that meet and exceed customer expectations, while navigating the complexities of dynamic markets. You will learn how to evaluate the potential of different customer segments, maximize the value of your product portfolio, and allocate resources effectively to build lasting customer relationships.
Key Takeaways from the Course:
- In-depth understanding of both business-to-consumer and business-to-business marketing challenges for mastering market dynamics for competitive advantage.
- Action-oriented strategies for improving marketing decision-making.
- Practical exercises that provide a deeper analysis of real-world trade-offs and performance metrics.
- Insights into advanced marketing frameworks to enhance your firm’s strategic positioning.
Whether you are new to marketing strategy or a seasoned professional, this course offers a tailored learning experience. For newcomers, it provides a strong foundation in key concepts to improve strategic decision-making. For experienced managers, it delivers cutting-edge insights into overcoming modern marketing challenges.
This course is designed for managers across various business functions who are looking to enhance their strategic marketing skills and lead their companies to greater success in an increasingly competitive landscape.
This course aims to equip students with the following knowledge and learning outcomes:
- Gain an in-depth understanding of the benefits and trade-offs associated with alternative strategic marketing decisions.
- Critically evaluate the impact of key drivers—such as customer segments, brand investments, and relationship-building—on firm performance and customer behavior.
- Understand the trade-offs involved in optimizing resource allocation across marketing investments, customer segments, products, and channels.
- Develop an understanding of the unique challenges in strategic marketing decision-making within a business-to-business context, compared to business-to-consumer strategies.
By successfully completing the learning activities of the course, students are expected to acquire the following skills:
- Gain insights into customer behavior, market segmentation, and brand positioning to maximize ROI and competitive advantage.
- Ability to assess supplier selection processes and analyze industrial purchasing behavior in business markets.
- Capability to evaluate the business value and profitability potential of different customer groups based on both their past and projected future contributions.
In addition to the learning outcomes related to the marketing strategy curriculum, this course fosters collaborative learning through in-group discussions and action-based applications of real-world business cases.
As a result, the course aims to develop the following general competences:
- Enhance collaborative thinking and teamwork skills through tasks and discussions that emphasize group problem-solving and cooperative decision-making.
- Provide a deeper understanding of the current data environment, emphasizing the importance of sustainable and ethical approaches to data capture, evaluation, and exploration.
- Develop collaborative leadership skills to bridge marketing with other functions such as finance, operations, and technology.
This course is delivered in a hybrid format, combining in-class sessions with online teaching and discussion seminars (as scheduled in the student calendar). The course structure covers foundational aspects of marketing strategy formulation, along with an in-depth exploration of creating value in business-to-business (B2B) relationships.
The course content is aligned with the learning objectives and outcomes defined earlier, and the main themes are organized as follows (with more detailed topics provided in the final syllabus for each cohort):
- Understanding Customer Needs, Current and Future Value: Market segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies for both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) contexts.
- Exploring Trade-offs in Marketing Investments: Evaluating strategic choices in product development, pricing, multi-channel distribution, communication, and brand management.
- Creating Value in Business-to-Business Relationships: Analyzing how to build and sustain value through supplier selection, industrial purchasing behavior, and long-term partnerships.
The course syllabus and reading materials may be customized based on the specific needs of each cohort, taking into consideration their backgrounds, executive roles, and strategic priorities. In previous cohorts, students have benefited from tailored reading recommendations provided by instructors based on individual interests. These additional resources depend on student preferences and instructor availability in the academic year.
The teaching format combines in-class and online lectures, discussions, and teamwork exercises, which may include case studies or practical exercises depending on the cohort. Both the teaching and exam approaches are designed to provide actionable insights enriched by state-of-the-art frameworks and models from marketing research and practice.
This approach requires students to prepare in advance by reading the assigned literature, which will be outlined in the syllabus for each session. During class sessions, we will focus on applying these readings in practice, gaining a deeper understanding of both the potential benefits and challenges in implementing such strategies.
The course is part of a comprehensive Executive MBA program, and passing examinations in all courses is required to obtain certification.
At BI Executive, both students and course leaders share a responsibility to integrate the students' professional experience into the planning and delivery of the courses, modules, and programs. This means that students are expected to actively engage, contributing their knowledge and practical experience to enrich the learning environment for themselves and their peers.
Granted admission to the EMBA programme. Please consult our student regulations.
Disclaimer
Deviations in teaching and exams may occur if external conditions or unforeseen events call for this.
This course would be suited for managers who have basic skills and knowledge in business administration. No advanced understanding of marketing methods is required. The basic understanding of strategic and business adminstration concepts may facilitate the learning.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Submission PDF Exam/hand-in semester: Second Semester Weight: 40 Grouping: Group (2 - 5) Duration: 1 Semester(s) Exam code: GRA 82771 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Submission PDF Exam/hand-in semester: Second Semester Weight: 60 Grouping: Individual Duration: 1 Semester(s) Comment: Individual component of the exam counts for 60% of the final exam. In this component, each student should pick one relationship with B2B customer or a supplier of their choice and use the tools (indicated in the class) to analyze how the value in this relationship is created and how the future improvements could be addressed. The assessment of the relationship for this exercise should use the concepts, theories and tools indicated in the business-to-business sessions, but it is not limited to those concepts only. The firms (a supplier or business customer of the firm) may, but it is not required to, be the same as the firm used for the group assessment. The recommended word-limit is 2500 words, the standard BI formatting policy applies (Times New Roman font 12, 1.5 spacing, 2,5 margins). Exam code: GRA 82772 Grading scale: ECTS Resit: Examination when next scheduled course |
All exams must be passed to get a grade in this course.
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Prepare for teaching | 30 Hour(s) | |
Teaching | 32 Hour(s) | |
Student's own work with learning resources | 23 Hour(s) | |
Examination | 25 Hour(s) |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 4 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of at least 110 hours.
Students are encouraged to use their data and other insights from the firm to make the analysis and solutions more efficient and relevant. The submission of the written report of this analysis should be completed by the deadline indicated in the exam platform (Wiseflow) and according to the formatting guidelines. The submission should be written in English, using Times New Roman font 12, 1.5 spacing, normal margins, and it should not be longer than 20 pages (including all the materials and references).