Marketing Strategy

Building upon Marketing ADMN 960, the goal of this course is to develop skills in formulating and implementing marketing strategies for brands and businesses. The course will focus on issues such as the selection of which businesses and segments to compete in, how to allocate resources across businesses, segments, and elements of the marketing mix, as well as other significant strategic issues facing today's managers in a dynamic competitive environment. Unlike conventional marketing courses that focus solely on conceptual material, this course will attempt to help students develop skills to translate conceptual understanding of marketing concepts into specific operational plans -- a skill in increasing demand in organizations today. The central activity will be participation in a realistic integrative product management simulation named MarkStrat. In MarkStrat, students will form management teams that oversee all critical aspects of modern marketing planning and execution: the design and marketing of new products, advertising budgeting and design, sales force sizing and allocation, and production planning. As in the real world, teams will compete for profitability, and the success that each team has in achieving this goal will be a major driver of the class assessment.