20506 - MARKETING DECISIONS

To feel comfortable in this course students should be familiar with basic statistics.

Marketing Decisions is an advanced course in strategic marketing decision making to grow a company. The course takes the perspective of the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) who focuses on understanding markets and their competitive dynamics. The most effective way to practice marketing decision making is the same way that pilots learn to fly a plane: by computer simulation. Attending students apply the knowledge, concepts and tools from the course by developing and implementing a growth strategy for their own company using the MARKSTRAT business simulation. MARKSTRAT is the world’s leading marketing simulation designed to teach strategic marketing decision making in a “learning-by-doing” approach. Your team represents a company facing several other firms in a highly competitive environment, marketing two types of durable goods to consumers. Marketing strategy is your main area of responsibility, but you are also concerned with financial matters, production planning, and R&D. You have to integrate these various dimensions of business strategy into a long-term perspective in order to gain an edge on competition. Part of your grade is based on your company’s final stock price index in the Markstrat simulation.

• Strategic marketing decision making.
• Market analysis.
• Competitor analysis.
• Analysis of the business environment.
• Design, implement, and evaluate marketing strategies.
• Marketing mix: pricing, products, targeting and positioning, distribution, innovation and launch of new products.
• Understanding and interpretation of market research tools.
• Consumer reports.
• Perceptual maps.
• Multidimensional scaling.
• Conjoint analysis.

• See and sense market changes and forces and anticipate actions and reactions from customers, competitors, and other relevant players (strategic thinking).
• Design, implement, and evaluate marketing strategies through the use of marketing concepts such as pricing, positioning, targeting, and innovating.
• Understand and interpret market research tools such as consumer reports, perceptual maps, multidimensional scaling, and conjoint analysis.

• See and sense market changes and forces and anticipate actions and reactions from customers, competitors, and other relevant players (strategic thinking).
• Design, implement, and evaluate marketing strategies through the use of marketing concepts such as pricing, positioning, targeting, and innovating.
• Understand and interpret market research tools such as consumer reports, perceptual maps, multidimensional scaling, and conjoint analysis.

• Face-to-face lectures
• Exercises (exercises, database, software etc.)
• Individual assignments
• Group assignments
• Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

To enhance the learning experience the Markstrat simulation is used. Markstrat teams are further required to hand in a strategic marketing plan at the beginning of the Markstrat simulation, and a team report/presentation at the end of it, in which they reflect on what they have learned in the Markstrat simulation.

For attending students, grades are determined based on their performance in the following components:

• Markstrat performance (your companies final SPI; team grade).
• Strategic Marketing Plan (team assignment)
• Team report & presentation (every team member needs to present).
• 2 in-class Markstrat exercises (individual assignments).

Exam based on course textbook.

• Markstrat Participant Handbook. The handbook is available on blackboard.

• Chernev, Alexander. Strategic Marketing Management. 9th ed. Cerebellum Press, 2018.