MKT 440 - Marketing Analysis and Strategy (4 Units, Fa, Sp, Sm)

Loyola Marymount University College of Business Administration MBAC 660: Marketing Strategy Fall 2004, M 7:15 – 10:00 pm HIL 063

Instructor: Yongchuan (Kevin) Bao Office: Hilton Building 307 Telephone: (310) 338-7453 E-mail: [email protected] Office hours: Friday 2:00 – 3:00 pm / By appointment Web: Blackboard (MBAC 660)

Course Objectives The primary objective of this course is to help you develop skills and gain experience in formulating and implementing marketing strategy. While the focus of this course will be more on formulating strategy than on implementation, some time will be devoted to the discussion of specific marketing tactics that would support a designated strategy. In addition, we will spend a significant amount of time on case analysis.

Required Materials 1) Steven P. Schnaars, Marketing Strategy: Customers and Competition, The Free Press: New York 2) Articles and cases

Course Evaluation: Your grades will be assigned as follows: Class Participation 10% Case Analysis 10% Midterm Exam 20% Final Exam 30% Group Project 30% Total 100%

A. Class Participation: Part of your grade (10%) is based on your class participation. Participation grades are designed to encourage involvement in the class and to reward students who master readings, cases and so on.

1 In order to recognize easily which course you are from please precedes the subject line in your email with “MBAC 660”.

Evaluation: The class participation grade is based on my personal impression of the quality and quantity of the individual’s contribution to class discussion. You may earn a total of up to 10 points, with the range being between 0 and 10, where:

10= Outstanding contributions – only a few students are likely to make frequent, exceptionally insightful comments that show mastery of the text and lecture. 0= Minimal contributions. If you do not speak at all, or if you participate very little, a grade of ‘0’ is likely. Because of the commitment to class discussion, learning hinges on your constructive in-class participation. Specifically, among the elements I will consider in grading class participation are: Do your comments indicate that you prepare the materials for the day? Do your comments show evidence of assimilating and integrating what has been covered in the course so far? Are you a good listener – do you listen to what others are saying and contribute constructively to enhancing the discussion? Do you make insightful comments or ask thought-provoking questions? Class participation also takes into account student activities that disrupt class discussions (e.g. private conversations in class, arriving late to class, cell phones going off…). Engaging in these kinds of activities will greatly lower one’s participation grade, regardless of how valuable a student’s other contributions are. To help yourselves contribute to the class discussion, you must attend and be prepared to participate in all class sessions. Absence would affect your class participation scores in a negative way, especially if you miss any of the presentations at the end of the semester. If you plan to miss a class, please let me know ahead of time if you can (email is best). Late arrivals and early departures from class sessions are distracting and disrespectful to your classmates, so please arrive on time and stay for the duration of class. Should this not be possible, please notify me in advance. During the class, be prepared that I will cold call!

B. Case Analysis An effective way to enhance your learning is through analyzing business cases which took place in real life. We will discuss a set of cases from Harvard Business School. These cases serve to supplement your understanding of the different aspects of marketing strategy, in addition to the textbook readings. You are expected to apply knowledge and skills learned in this class to analyzing both the success and failure of marketing practices in the real world and thereby obtain educated insights about the rationales underlying the marketing phenomenon. You are required to submit an analysis report for each case. The report should include the following: 1) identification of the main problems; 2) evaluation of the soundness of strategies formulated to address the problems; and 3) recommendation of alternative solutions to the problems. You are encouraged to discuss in groups. However, you MUST do the analysis on your own. Each case analysis should be five pages in maximum, double-spaced, in standard format (Times New Roman, 12 font size). At the beginning of discussion for each case, I will select at random students to present their report. Your performance in the presentation would affect your score of class participation.

C. Exams: There will be two exams – a midterm and a final exam. The final exam is comprehensive in nature, covering materials both before and after the mid-term exam. You will know in advance of both exams whether a certain section will be asked specifically. Please note that NO MAKE- UP EXAMS will be given! Missing a scheduled exam will result in a zero score for that exam.

D. Group Project In general, the project should focus on the marketing strategy formulated for a brand (e.g. Tide) in a product category (e.g. detergents) by a firm (e.g P&G) in competition. The task is three-fold. First, the project should demonstrate in-depth understanding of the marketing strategy adopted for the subject you choose. Second, the project should evaluate the effectiveness of the marketing strategy using the knowledge and skills learned in class. Third, the project should propose recommendations for a firm to improve the market performance of a branded product. Alternatively, the project can focus on marketing strategy for a new product ready to be launched into a market. Then you assume the role of a marketing manager who is responsible for introducing the new product. For the group project, there should be either 3 or 4 people per group. At the end of the semester, I will ask each group to independently evaluate the contribution of each member to the project, which I will incorporate into each student’s grade on the project. The group project will culminate in each team making a presentation to the entire class at the end of the semester. The presentation should not exceed 25 minutes. Before the presentation starts, each teach is required to submit a hard copy of their presentation slides. After finishing the project, each team should prepare a report, the length of which should not exceed 10 double- spaced pages with standard font (Times New Roman) and font size (12). A hard copy of the report is due on the final exam date. When you have chosen a topic, please see me for discussion and approval. Remember, this is a marketing strategy course – you must make use of what you have learned in this class, relating your topic to the class and applying the knowledge and skills that we have covered.

Group Project Grades: Final Presentation to class = 10% Group Project Report = 10% Group Evaluation form = 10% Total = 30%

Return of Paperwork: Please be aware that if you want your final exam, case analysis, and the group project report back, you need to come to my office and pick them up. Any document, unclaimed by a student, will be discarded 4 weeks after the last day of this semester.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Please ensure that all of your work is done with the utmost integrity. The following represent behavior that would be judged academically dishonest. This list is not intended to be exclusive or exhaustive.

1. Examination Behavior – Any use of external assistance during an examination, including, but not limited to the following:  Communicating with another student.  Copying material from another student’s examination.  Allowing another student to copy from your examination.  Using unauthorized notes or aids. 2. Fabrication - Any intentional falsification or invention of data or other information 3. Plagiarism – is the appropriation and subsequent use of another’s ideas or words as your own. If another’s ideas or words are used, acknowledgement of the original source must be made. 4. Other Types of Academic Dishonesty include the following  Submitting a paper written by or obtained from another.  Using a paper or essay in more than one class, without the teacher’s express permission.  Obtaining a copy of an examination in advance, without the knowledge or consent of the teacher.  Using another person to complete class assignments, without the knowledge or consent of the teacher.

COURSE OUTLINE AND ASSIGNED READINGS

WEEK 1 (8/30): Introduction of Marketing Strategy

Introduction to class; syllabus - Schnaars, Chapter 1, 2, 3

WEEK 2 (9/6)

Labor Day (No Class)

WEEK 3 (9/13): Product Life Cycle and Market Share - Due: List of Group Members - Schnaars, Chapter 10, 11 (pp. 144 - 155)

WEEK 4 (9/20): Generic Strategies and Competition - Due: Group Presentations of Research Topics (Each group: 5 minutes) - Schnaars, Chapter 5, 9

WEEK 5 (9/27): Product Differentiation, Segmentation and Positioning - Schnaars, Chapter 7, 8

WEEK 6 (10/4): Pricing Theory - Case: Microsoft: Positioning the Tablet PC, Harvard Business School (report due) - Schnaars, Chapter 6 - Gerard Tellis (1986), “Beyond the Many Faces of Price”, Journal of Marketing, October (50), 4, pp. 146 – 160

WEEK 7 (10/11): Pricing Tactics - Lecture notes - In class exercise

WEEK 8 (10/18): Market Forecasting - Case: DHL Worldwide Express, Harvard Business School (report due) - Recap for Mid-term

WEEK 9 (10/25): Mid-term exam (7:15 – 10:00 pm HIL 063)

WEEK 10 (11/01): Group Presentations - Report of project progress

WEEK 11 (11/08): Market Entry and Innovator’s Dilemma - Schnaars, Chapter 11 (pp. 156 - 166), 12

WEEK 12 (11/15): Advertising - Demetrios Vakratsas and Tim Ambler (1999), “How Advertising Works: What Do We Really Know?”, Journal of Marketing, January (63), 1. pp. 26-43.

WEEK 13 (11/22): Branding - Case: Launching the BMW Z3 Roadster, Harvard Business School, (report due) - David Aaker (1990), “Brand Extensions: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, Sloan Management Review, Summer (31), 4, pp. 47 – 56.

WEEK 14 (11/29): Case Discussion and Review - Case: Inside Intel Inside, Harvard Business School (report due) - Review for final

WEEK 15 (12/06): Group Presentations

WEEK 16 (12/13): Final Exam (7:15 – 10:00 pm HIL 063)