Marketing and Society Prof. Yun-Oh Whang, University of Pittsburgh

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1 Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU) International Summer Semester (ISS) 2015 New Paradigms of Sustainability: Equality & Collaboration Course Syllabus Marketing and Society Prof. Yun-Oh Whang, University of Pittsburgh SHORT COURSE DESCRIPTION The purpose of running a business used to be stated as generating profits in the old textbooks. It was a firm-oriented perspective of marketing that focused on what to do as a firm to maximize its bottom line. As business administration evolves as a well established discipline, the official goal of business operation in the marketplace has changed to providing value to customers. In other words, the focus has shifted from firms to customers who are on the receiving side of the goods and services exchanged in the transaction. Obviously the importance of marketing has considerably grown in business practice because of the function s direct relationship with customers. As the focus of marketing shifted from profits to values, a new function of marketing has emerged. Social marketing is a new trend that focuses on promoting greater common good through marketing. Companies achieve this goal either by promoting a socially beneficial products or service (e.g., environmentally friendly detergent), or linking its marketing effort to a cause that helps the society (e.g., donating part of sales to a charity). With the cluttered environment of products/services and marketing products that can potentially harm the people and society (e.g., drugs, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, etc.), it is critical for students to understand the role of marketing in a broader context instead of a simple profit-driven perspective and become capable of analyzing the social impact of marketing practices. This course challenges the students to identify the social components of various marketing campaigns and design a socially responsible marketing program throughout the semester. READING MATERIALS Social Marketing: Influencing Behaviors for Good, 5th ed. by Nance R. Lee and Philip Kotler (2015) Sage Publications, ISBN The lectures do not necessarily cover the content of the textbook. The students are expected to read the book chapter before coming to the class, and the class time will be spent mostly on the applications and cases relevant to the covered chapter. It is also strongly recommended to have a basic intro level marketing principles textbook with you throughout the course. Since we focus on expanding the principles, it is extremely important to refresh your memory on marketing principles before every class. COURSE REQUIREMENTS AND GRADING This is a course you should take after completing an introductory marketing course. It is assumed that you already possess the basic knowledge of marketing. Instead of reiterating the content that is covered in the introductory course, we will focus on the social aspects of marketing practices. There are two exams, one individual assignment, one group term project, and five group exercises throughout the semester. This is not a course in which you can do all the assignments and projects in a couple of days before the due dates. Please plan ahead and allocate your time to maximize the learning experience. 1

2 1. Attendance Your presence in class is essential to your ability to understand and apply the material covered in this course. Treat this class as a professional obligation. By accepting a job you are making an implicit commitment to attend work regularly. By registering for this class you make a similar commitment. Also, try to avoid being consistently late for class. This tends to be quite distracting and disruptive for the rest of the students. Absence from class does not exempt you from being responsible for all the material covered in class and being aware of any announcements made in class. If you miss class, it is your responsibility to obtain the lecture or discussion notes and handouts, if any, from your classmates. 2. Class Participation As in your forthcoming career, you are expected to regularly participate in class, which will be led by the instructor. The following guidelines will help you be an effective participant. (1) Make sure to read the assigned readings, and think about them in depth before coming to class or posting a message online. (2) Provide inspiration by, - applying conceptual materials from the book chapters, lectures, and past marketing classes to the issue being discussed, - applying external business world knowledge to the issue being discussed, - integrating comments made by other students, - reaching back to something said previously in the discussion that is pertinent at the present moment, - challenging classmate s analysis (civilly!), - pulling together material from several places in the text and readings, - drawing parallels from previous lectures and chapters read earlier, - tying in briefly an experience you have had that is relevant to the discussion, - demonstrating that you have read and given careful thought to the readings for the day. (3) While implementing the above guidelines, always try to be logical and structured. (4) Finally, I will cold-call students to assess the level of preparation and involvement. So, please be prepared to participate in every class. Please note that class participation also takes into account student activities that disrupt and/or hamper good class discussions. These include engaging in private conversations with fellow students, making discourteous remarks about other students, reading outside materials during class, using cell phone/laptop for activities irrelevant to the class, and arriving late for class. 3. Individual Assignment There will be an individual assignments dealing with a contemporary social marketing issue. Students are asked to provide their own analysis and recommendations on the specific marketing issue/problem given by the instructor and turn in a hardcopy of the assignment before the class on the date it is due. Please note that the depth of your own thoughts instead of a list of facts is more valuable in this assignment. Use facts only when it is necessary to support your argument/opinion. 4. Group Exercises The class will be divided into groups and perform a specific task in class. After the task, each group 2

3 will be asked to share the conclusion to the class. The task involves identifying, analyzing, and improving the social aspect of a real-world marketing campaign. The tasks cover issues related to tobacco, gambling, alcohol, sweatshop labor, and deceptive advertising. 5. Exams Two exams will assess knowledge of key concepts and the ability to apply these concepts to marketing problems. Both exams will be multiple-choice format. The final exam will be a comprehensive exam covering all the materials including the lectures and class discussions. All exams are open-book and open-notes. Please be cautious that open-book/open-note format does not make the exam easier. The exam questions focus on the ability to apply the principles and theories covered in the class to a real-world marketing problem. In other words, without thorough understanding of the key concepts, it would be impossible to identify the appropriate concept relevant to the question and find the correct answer. A set of sample exam questions will be provided early in the semester to give you an idea what to expect. Consistent with University Policy, no make-up exams will be offered except for documented medical emergencies. In such case the instructor reserves the right to change the content and format of the make-up exam. 5. Group Project Social Marketing Plan Development Each student will be assigned to a group to work on a semester-long project. Students will be asked to evaluate their group members for their contribution to the project at the end of the semester. The project report grades will be equally distributed among the group members unless there is a dispute regarding the amount of individual contributions. The project presentation grade will be assigned individually based on the presentation performance. Further details of the project will be presented in the class. Note: There is NO PROVISION for late work on any assignments. Only the work that is submitted on time will be graded. Partial credit will NOT be given for late work. There are so many things that can go wrong (e.g., traffic, computer or printer problems, illness, etc.), so I strongly recommend having backup systems in place so that you can have all work completed on schedule. Grading Category Item Individual Points Total Points Individual Assignment 100 points Group Exercises 5 x 40 points 200 points Exams Midterm Final 150 points 250 points 400 points Group Project Topic Memo Interim Report Final Report Presentation 25 points 25 points 150 points 100 points 300 points Grand Total 1,000 points 3

4 Academic Integrity The concept of ethics and personal integrity have become important issues in business today because of the discretions of several companies that resulted in severe financial harm to all stakeholders. The confidence of customers in the marketplace is based on being able to trust business institutions to do the right thing. Such is also true in the classroom. Academic honesty in your class work is expected. Dishonesty will not be tolerated. Any academic integrity violations in this course on any assignments (this includes exams) will result in an automatic course grade of F. There are no exceptions to this rule. This course includes a team project. It violates the University s academic integrity standards to allow your name to be associated with a team project to which you did not significantly contribute. It is the student s responsibility to know the University s policies regarding academic integrity and to avoid violating these policies. I use Turnitin.com plagiarism prevention software in this class. Turnitin.com is a web-based system designed to deter plagiarism, hold students accountable, determine the congruence of text to sources, and enhance teaching and student learning. The instructor receives a report showing exactly how a student's paper was plagiarized. Your written work, both individual and group work, WILL be submitted to Turnitin.com. I may ask you to submit your work or I may submit it myself. For more information, go to Please just write your own work (no copy and pasting of paragraphs) and you will be fine. It is also my responsibility to provide a safe and effective learning environment for all students. Therefore, I reserve the right to sanction any student whose conduct in the classroom makes it difficult to maintain the ideal learning environment. Students who engage in behavior that disrupts the learning environment may be asked to leave the class. COURSE SCHEDULE Legends: Individual Assignment, Exam, Group Exercise, Group Project Week Date Topic Tasks 1 2 6/29 Course Introduction Student Information Form What is social marketing??? Read Chapter 1 6/30 Strategic Marketing Process 7/1 Social Marketing Environment Read Chapters 2 & 3 Group Announcement Read Chapters 4 & 5 Group Project Topic Memo 7/2 The Target Audience, Objectives, and Goals Read Chapter 6 & 7 Group Exercise 1: Tobacco 7/3 Project Field Day 7/6 External Forces Read Chapter 8 & 9 Social Marketing Strategy I: Positioning Group Exercise 2: Gambling 7/7 Midterm Exam 7/8 Social Marketing Strategy II: Product Read Chapter 10 Group Project Interim Memo 7/9 Social Marketing Strategy III: Price Read Chapter 11 Group Exercise 3: Alcohol 7/10 Project Final Report Preparation Individual Assignment 4

5 3 7/13 Social Marketing Strategy IV: Place 7/14 Social Marketing Strategy V: Promotion Read Chapter 12 Group Exercise 4: Sweatshop Read Chapters 13 & 14 Group Exercise 5: Deception 7/15 Social Marketing Plan and Implementation Read Chapters 15, 16 & 17 7/16 Group Project Presentation Group Project Final Paper 7/17 Final Exam 5