International B2B Marketing Fall 2018 [SA18]
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International B2B Marketing Fall 2018 [SA18] Professor Olivier Furrer Office: E428 email: [email protected] Office Hours: by appointment only. Assistant Melanie Boninsegni Office: E432 email: [email protected] Office Hours: by appointment only. Moodle2 Key: B2BMKT18 Registration for the exam is required before October 12, 2018 12:00 am. Business to Business Marketing is marketing products or services to other companies, government bodies, institutions, and other organizations (Dwyer and Tanner, 2009). I. Course Objectives This course provides students with solid experience in creating market-driven and market- driving strategies for the future success of a business to business firm. A focus is on discovering and developing a set of unique competencies for a B2B firm that, through strategic differentiation, leads to sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace. Students are provided ample opportunity to develop and practice creative problem-solving and decision-making skills to simulate the requirements of today’s complex international B2B market environment. The three key distinctive drivers in this B2B course are: (1) A relationship marketing perspective (2) A strategic thinking focus (3) An international context This course takes a marketing leadership/Chief Marketing Office (CMO) perspective in order to enhance your ability to use B2B marketing in an international context to maximize firm performance: 1 Fundamental concepts in B2B marketing development and execution are introduced. Key analytics that lead to the capability to select and execute successful market-driven and market-driving B2B strategies are applied to multiple industries and firms in an international context. Students will learn how to decide which factors in the business landscape are most likely to affect a business, how you can gauge the level of impact of the factors, and what impact the factors are likely to have on a business’ future. The role of creative decision making and innovation for B2B marketing development and execution is exemplified throughout the course. Simple knowledge of the trends that may impact a business is of limited use unless you can “break out of the box” as a marketing leader/CMO and engage in truly creative market analysis and decision making for the future. Students will have opportunities to practice developing B2B marketing strategies and assess key implementation issues/challenges associated with them. At the completion of this course, students should be able to: Use the key elements in developing B2B marketing strategy and planning a B2B marketing program. Enhance problem-solving abilities in operational areas of B2B marketing by providing you with a set of analytical tools (i.e., frameworks, concepts, models, and techniques). Present examples of how firms organize their B2B marketing efforts across a broad range of national settings to develop sales and/or share. Present and defend recommendations, and critically examine others’ recommendations. II. The Relationship of International B2B Marketing with other Courses The course is primarily designed to address international B2B marketing issues, but the view of B2B marketing presented in the course is dynamic, and integrates element from strategic marketing, relationship marketing, and international strategy. While it recognizes that there are areas of distinction between B2B marketing, marketing management and relationship marketing, and between international B2B marketing and international strategy, it also recognizes that there are many important areas of overlap. Therefore, concepts and theories learn in other marketing and strategy courses are used and incorporated in the course. III. Techniques for Learning International B2B Marketing The greatest value from master education is seldom realized immediately upon graduation. Such value is realized over a lifetime, and comes not from having a “bag of tricks” but rather form developing analytical and executive skills. One of the most valuable abilities that you can develop and sharpen in a master course is the ability to think critically and strategically, and to speak and write in a logical and compelling manner. Accordingly, this course will only partially rely on lectures and you will be responsible for a large portion of your own development. You are encouraged not only to attend classes but also to carefully prepare for each class and contribute actively to class discussion of the assignments for each session. 2 To accomplish these objectives, we will use a variety of learning techniques: lectures, reading articles, written reports, presentations, group work, and class discussion of case studies. Two of these are distinctive of the course: case analysis and group work. The emphasis on case analysis and group work make it crucial that you prepare the assigned material for every class. If you fall behind, it will be very difficult to catch up. Class participation plays an integral part in the learning process and is a strong predictor of your grades on the assignments and exam. IV. Course Requirements and Grading General comment: Judgment versus Analysis. As a master course, International B2B Marketing draws on the various frameworks, concepts, and techniques discussed in your entire program and adds several of its own. Remember, however, that these are analytical tools while help in forming judgments about central problems and associated recommendations; they are not ends in themselves. For example, if you think the key issue in the case is market entry timing, and then you do a market segmentation analysis there would be a disconnection between theory and application. In any assignment, emphasize your judgments (usually by using headings or subheadings) and present data/information from the case, along with supporting analysis, in support of these judgments. Your class assignments are shown in the syllabus attached, and while subject to change, this syllabus should guide your work planning for the course. There will be no announcements in class concerning assignments, except those infrequent ones that may alter those described in this syllabus. Check Moodle2 regularly (i.e., at least once a week) for news and supplementary material. Your course grade is a function of the following requirements: Case Study and Case Summaries (Group) 40% Final Written Examination (Individual) 60% The grade obtained in the group work also counts for the summer session. A. Case study – 40% Strategic thinking and analysis is best learned through practice. The cases we will study are about real world situations; they are an opportunity to apply the concepts we discuss in class as well as further develop our ability to think about and analyze marketing strategy. For some of you, this course is your first exposure to managerial problems presented as cases. Cases are unlike most writing. They are not research articles, news articles, or nonfiction books. They do not make an argument or reach a conclusion. That’s your job! The case provides facts and figures—in essence, a stage—on which you can practice international B2B marketing decision making. You must sift through prose and interviews in order to decide what is the major issue facing management. You must identify alternative ways to address the issue. You must choose a course of action and defend it publicly in the classroom. 3 Skimming the case while coming to class is useless. Read the case at least twice—once for facts and once for analysis. Use the questions stated in this syllabus to help you identify the main issue, and the facts to help you decide what to do. The exhibits and tables in the case often contain the most relevant information. Don’t ignore them! See if some data can be mustered to support your ideas. The professor’s job is to encourage discussion and to present and develop key concepts. The professor does not, in general, directly criticize recommendations. That’s your job! Students must argue for their ideas, and sometimes that means arguing against other people’s ideas. Learning to do this seriously but politely is a valuable skill. At its best, a good case discussion keeps students involved while adding to their real-life experiences vicariously. Group Work Discussing cases and preparing analyses in small groups outside of class helps to deepen your knowledge of marketing strategy. Thus, group work is essential to case preparation and text analysis. Developing effective group skills is a critical part of the learning process. I will divide the class into groups of approximately 6–7 students. Your analyses should focus on identifying a central marketing strategic issue in the case and undertaking an analysis of that issue, including recommendations that follow from that analysis. You should take the role of a consultant firm being paid to analyze the strategic marketing problem of the company. Here are some basic tips for successful project management with a group: Set milestones and “inch-pebbles.” Milestones indicate when major deliverables are due. Break them into inch-pebbles—shorter time periods attached to well-defined interim results—so trouble can be spotted early on. Schedule resources evenly. Groups need to plan week-to-week assignments. Communicate. When a particular analysis affects different parts of the paper, make sure everyone can retrieve and update the complete paper accordingly. Use e-mail and meeting minutes to communicate deadlines, to track changes, and to enforce accountability. All of your work must be original. For this assignment, you should analyze the case you are given; this means you should not use material that is beyond the scope or time frame of the case. While you may supplement financial information provided in the case (for example, with financial statements from competitors, etc.), you should be careful that the data pertains to the same years covered by the case. Any external information used must be properly referenced. Failure to properly reference any external source constitutes plagiarism. To avoid any confusion over the originality of your work, your group should work alone, and should not utilize any analysis found on the web, performed for previous classes, or any other source.