MCM 724 Marketing Management Master of Communication Management Degree Program Fall 2012 Course Outline COURSE OBJECTIVE The goal of this course is to help you make better business decisions from high level strategic choices to tactical decisions on pricing, distribution, product policy and promotion as a result of your understanding of marketing. Effective marketing results from systematic critical thinking and the reasoned application of several general, underlying principles; it is not merely from internalizing marketing facts and institutional details. These principles will be applied to a variety of settings which include the business-to-consumer market (B2C), the business-to-business market (B2B), and the services market. INSTRUCTOR AND CONTACT INFORMATION Professor Rita Cossa Instructor cossar@mcmaster.ca Office: DSB 223 (905) 525-9140 x26197 Contact for appointment Janice Peltier Graduate Admin. Assistant 1:30 peltier@mcmaster.ca Office: TSH 316 (905) 525-9140 x27534 Course Website: http://avenue.mcmaster.ca COURSE ELEMENTS Credit Value: 3 Leadership: Yes IT skills: Yes Global view: Yes Avenue: Yes Ethics: Yes Numeracy: Yes Written skills: Yes Participation: Yes Innovation: Yes Group work: No Oral skills: Yes Evidence-based: Yes Experiential: Yes Final Exam: No Guest speaker: No
MCM 724 Fall 2012 - Page 2 of 11 LEARNING OUTCOMES In this course, you will learn about the fundamentals of marketing and the management decision- making skills related to the design of marketing strategy. By the end of this course, students should be able to complete the following key tasks: Understand the role that marketing plays in an organization; Analyze how the environment affects marketing strategy; Analyze how consumers make a purchase decision; and Design a marketing strategy for a product or service. REQUIRED COURSE MATERIAL Kotler, Philip, Kevin Lane Keller, Subramanian Sivaramakrishnan, and Peggy Cunningham. Marketing Management. 14th Canadian ed. Toronto: Pearson, 2013. EVALUATION Please complete the assigned readings before class as lectures will support this preparation. Content will be covered quickly, allowing time for examples, discussions, and videos. Your final grade calculation will be based on the components and weights noted below. Components and Weights Participation Residency and Web-based 10% Marketing Plan Part 1 Part 2 30%¹ 30%¹ Essay Questions Three Assignments - Each Worth 10% 30%¹ Wrap Up Presentation In-Class 0% Total 100% Review the Course Schedule for deadlines. Contact the Instructor in advance if there is a need for an extension. ¹A deduction of five marks per day will be applied to any late submissions. Any submissions that are late by more than seven days will receive a grade of zero. Be aware that students must complete all of the assignments in order to pass the course.
MCM 724 Fall 2012 - Page 3 of 11 Conversion At the end of the course, your overall percentage grade will be converted to your letter grade in accordance with the following conversion scheme: LETTER GRADE PERCENT LETTER GRADE PERCENT A+ 90-100 B+ 77-79 A 85-89 B 73-76 A- 80-84 B- 70-72 F 00 69 Course incompletes are a matter of contract between the student and the University. Incompletes may only be granted in case of accident or serious illness. The student and the Instructor must sign an official McMaster University Incomplete form BEFORE the end of the grading period. Communication and Feedback Students who are uncomfortable in directly approaching the Instructor regarding a course concern may send a confidential e-mail, outlining the concern, to the Director of the Master of Communications Management Program, Dr. Alex Sévigny (sevigny@mcmaster.ca). If you wish to correspond with your Instructor directly via e-mail, you must send messages that originate from your official McMaster University e-mail account. This protects the confidentiality and sensitivity of information as well as confirms the identity of the student. Your Instructor will conduct an informal course review with students at the end of the second residency class to allow time for modifications in curriculum delivery. Students who wish to have a course component re-evaluated must complete the following form: http://www.mcmaster.ca/policy/students-academicstudies/form_a.pdf. In order for the component to be re-read, the following steps will be followed: The component must be worth 10% or more of the final grade in the course. Students must pay a fee of $50 in Gilmour Hall, Room 209. The receipt is then brought to the Academic Programs Office (DSB 104). The Program Director will seek out an independent adjudicator to re-grade the component. An adjustment to the grade for the component will be made if a grade change of three points or greater on the 12 point scale (equivalent to 10 marks out of 100) has been suggested by the adjudicator that is assigned by the Program Director. If a grade change is made, the student fee will be refunded.
MCM 724 Fall 2012 - Page 4 of 11 PARTICIPATION: RESIDENCY AND WEB-BASED Students are expected to attend each session on time. Professional courtesy and demeanour are expected at all times. This class will be conducted in a professional climate of interaction, discussion, dialogue and respect for a diversity of viewpoints and values. It is suggested that you turn off cell phones and pagers once you enter the room so that distractions are minimized. Students with special needs should contact the Instructor at the beginning of the term. Name cards and possibly class photos are used to help give credit for your participation. You must have a name card with your name clearly written and displayed in front of you for every class. A photograph of the class may be taken. This photograph will be used by the Instructor to help evaluate participation. Your Instructor may cold-call on anyone at any time. Hence, it is imperative that you prepare for each session (i.e., residency and online). In general, contributions are evaluated in an ascending order from physically but not mentally present, to good chip shots, to quite substantial comments. Participation will not be graded by counting each contribution a student makes. Participation will be graded by examining the quality of contributions in each session. Participation will extend to our Web-based discussions. Where applicable, your input will be evaluated based on the depth of discussion and your ability to relate this back to class and text concepts. ESSAY QUESTIONS Consider the seven essay topics noted below. These questions relate to the concepts covered in the lecture and/or relating to the readings. Most ask you to relate marketing concepts to your business or to you as a consumer. Answer three out of the seven questions. Each question is worth 10% of your final grade. Answers will be anywhere from 3-4 pages per topic. Be sure to cover the theory and then relate that to the application to demonstrate that you understand the concepts and their usage. Formatting guidelines will be noted later on in this Course Outline. 1. Discuss and relate the concepts of market segmentation and product positioning. Give an example for your organization demonstrating this relationship. What decisions must be made in implementing a segmentation and positioning strategy? 2. Select a recent purchase you made and relate it to the standard consumer decision-making process. Walk me through the steps. How did the marketing strategy of the product you bought facilitate your movement through this process? Discuss the marketing influences in each stage. 3. Select a product/service that is now in the maturity or decline stage. Walk me through its product life cycle discussing how its environment and marketing strategy changed over time. Discuss the target markets, specific changes in environmental factors and the resultant changes in the 4 Ps (including Service) for each stage.
MCM 724 Fall 2012 - Page 5 of 11 4. Discuss the elements in a physical distribution system. How are your offerings distributed to your customers? Could this process be improved to offer greater value to your customers? 5. How does your customer define quality and value? How is this operationalized in your organization? How does your marketing strategy support your operational definition? 6. Conduct an environmental analysis for your organization, forecasting trends in each of the environmental factors. What are the major threats to the organization and how will you need to modify your marketing strategy in the future to compensate for these? 7. What marketing performance measures are used in your organization? Why these and how are they used? Do you have any suggestions for improving the measuring of marketing performance in your organization? MARKETING PLAN: TWO PARTS Choose one of the following three project options: 1. You can select a product or service that you believe is either miss-marketed or should be developed and design a marketing strategy for it. The paper will consist of two major sections: a situational analysis and the marketing strategy. An outline of what is expected will be shared shortly. 2. Select a product or service, marketed in Canada or the U.S., and design a strategy for marketing it overseas. Use the outline mentioned in Option 1 as a guide. 3. Choose an individual idea, as discussed and approved by the Instructor. If you choose this option, you should have an expanded outline of the paper submitted by the deadline for Part 1. The entire Project (both Parts 1 and 2 [where there may have been some changes to Part 1]) is due by deadline for Part 2. The important part of the paper is your rationale for your strategy. Your plan should make sense. Make sure that Part 2 ties back to Part 1. Include the required components and your rationale for the different decisions you made in each section. Marketing Plan Part 1 (Situational Analysis) You will need to incorporate answers to the following in this 8-10 page submission: Are there any trends in the environment that can have an effect on your product/service or the way it is marketed? Are there any trends that will affect the need for your offering? Discuss how these trends will impact your strategy. Describe your target markets. Why did you select these groups (i.e., from what segments)? How does your offering meet their needs? How big is this market? (I need an actual estimate of market size.) What criteria will the markets use in evaluating and selecting what to buy? How
MCM 724 Fall 2012 - Page 6 of 11 will they determine quality? Describe their purchase behaviour. (Talk to some consumers if possible.) Describe the competition. How many are there? What are their sizes (i.e., sales, market share, etc.)? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How do they provide value to the consumer? What are they emphasizing as a competitive advantage? What are your customers looking for and how does your offering compare to the competitive choices? Marketing Plan Part 2 (Marketing Strategy Recommendations) Plan 2 is to be submitted with Plan 1 (which may have been modified given your Instructor s feedback). You will need to incorporate answers to the following in this 8-10 page submission. Product: What's your positioning strategy? How do you want to be perceived by the market and why? Where is it in the life cycle? Describe the core and related features (e.g., brand name, packaging, warranty, etc.). How do these relate to the customer's purchase criteria and your positioning strategy? Do they give you a competitive advantage? Price: What are your pricing objectives? What price will you charge? What are the major factors affecting your price? How does your price compare to the competition? How does your value compare? Conduct a break-even analysis showing, at this price, how many you need to sell to make a profit. Place: Describe your channel of distribution. What outlets will you use? How will a customer obtain your product/service? How is your demand distributed over time? Discuss your physical distribution system (e.g., ordering, inventory and customer service) and how it is designed to handle this demand. Promotion: What are your promotional objectives? What are the roles of the various promotional elements (e.g., advertising, sales promotion, public relations, etc.)? What are your media strategies and how do they relate to your positioning strategy? WRAP UP PRESENTATION Prepare a ten-minute presentation that is based on your marketing plan. The choice for the presentation content and format is up you. The presentation should be informative, interesting, and incorporate business terminology. FORMATTING All work must meet professional standard. Reading your paper aloud really helps! Spell check is just a part of this process. Your assignments will be electronically submitted to your Instructor by the deadline. When you submit your electronic copy, please follow this protocol for naming your document - e.g., Jones MCM 724 Fall 2012 Assignment One.
MCM 724 Fall 2012 - Page 7 of 11 All work must be typed and include a Title Page that communicates: your Instructor s name (Professor Rita Cossa) the course name and code (MCM 724 Marketing Management) the document title (e.g., Essay Assignment #1) the term (Fall 2012) the due date of the document your registered name and student number Each submission must incorporate these criteria throughout: meet professional standards be typewritten on 8 ½ by 11-inch pages have one inch margins double-line spacing (except for citations, where applicable) use size 12 Arial font for all pages (including the Title Page) include numbered pages EXCEPT for the Title Page include bolded subheadings to divide your work (e.g., Product) full justification for the body only the body is not to exceed four pages (for each Essay Assignment) the body is not to exceed ten pages (for each Marketing Plan submission) follow grammar rules (e.g., full sentences in paragraph form) be free of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and citation style errors NOTE: The absence of the required citation is not an editing error; it is considered academic dishonesty Referencing References are required when you incorporate work that is not your own. You can use one of two citation styles: the American Psychological Association (APA), 5 th edition or the Chicago Manual of Style, 16 th edition. Links to these styles are provided on Avenue. Alternatively, you can refer to The Pocket Wadsworth Handbook (for APA information). ACADEMIC DISHONESTY It is the student s responsibility to understand what constitutes academic dishonesty. Please refer to the University Senate Academic Integrity Policy at the following URL: http://www.mcmaster.ca/academicintegrity. This policy describes the responsibilities, procedures, and guidelines for students and faculty should a case of academic dishonesty arise. Academic dishonesty is defined as to knowingly act or fail to act in a way that will (or could) result in unearned academic credit or advantage. Please refer to the policy for a list of examples. The policy also provides faculty with procedures to follow in cases of academic
MCM 724 Fall 2012 - Page 8 of 11 dishonesty as well as general guidelines for penalties. For further information related to the policy, please refer to the Office of Academic Integrity at http://www.mcmaster.ca/academicintegrity. In this course, your Instructor will be using Turnitin.com which is a plagiarism detection service. Students will be expected to submit their work electronically to Turnitin.com so that it can be checked against the Internet, published works and Turnitin s database for similar or identical work. If a student refuses to submit his or her work to Turnitin.com, he or she cannot be compelled to do so and should not be penalized. Instructors are advised to accept a hard copy of the assignment and grade it as per normal methods. The assignment can be subjected to a Google search or some other kind of search engine if the Instructor wishes. To see guidelines for the use of Turnitin.com, please go to: http://www.mcmaster.ca/academicintegrity/turnitin/students/index.html. COPYRIGHT McMaster University has signed a license with the Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright) which allows professors, students, and staff to make copies allowed under fair dealing. Fair dealing with a work does not require the permission of the copyright owner or the payment of royalties as long as the purpose for the material is private study, and that the total amount copied equals NO MORE THAN 10 percent of a work or an entire chapter which is less than 20 percent of a work. In other words, it is illegal to: i) copy an entire book, or ii) repeatedly copy smaller sections of a publication that cumulatively cover over 10 percent of the total work s content. Please refer to the following copyright guide for further information: STUDENT ACCESSIBILITY SERVICES http://library.mcmaster.ca/about/copying.pdf. Student Accessibility Services (SAS) offers various support services for students with disabilities. Students are required to inform SAS of accommodation needs for course work at the outset of term. Students must forward a copy of such SAS accommodation to the Instructor normally, within the first three (3) weeks of classes by setting up an appointment with the Instructor. If a student with a disability chooses NOT to take advantage of an SAS accommodation and chooses to sit for a regular exam, a petition for relief may not be filed after the examination is complete. The SAS Website is http://sas.mcmaster.ca. POTENTIAL MODIFICATIONS TO THE COURSE The Instructor and University reserve the right to modify elements of the course during the term. The University may change the dates and deadlines for any or all courses in extreme circumstances. If either type of modification becomes necessary, reasonable notice and communication with the students will be given with explanation and the opportunity to comment on changes. It is the responsibility of students to check their McMaster e-mail accounts and course Websites weekly during the term and to note any changes.
MCM 724 Fall 2012 - Page 9 of 11 COURSE WEBSITE: AVENUE Avenue will be used to communicate course information (e.g., announcements, lectures, and grades). Bring the posted notes to the appropriate class. These notes will add value to the discussion. RESEARCH USING HUMAN SUBJECTS Research involving human participants is premised on a fundamental moral commitment to advancing human welfare, knowledge and understanding. As a research intensive institution, McMaster University shares this commitment in its promotion of responsible research. The fundamental imperative of research involving human participation is respect for human dignity and well-being. To this end, the University endorses the ethical principles cited in the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans: http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/english/policystatement/policystatement.cfm. McMaster University has mandated its Research Ethics Boards to ensure that all research investigations involving human participants are in compliance with the Tri-Council Policy Statement. The University is committed, through its Research Ethics Boards, to assisting the research community in identifying and addressing ethical issues inherent in research, recognizing that all members of the University share a commitment to maintaining the highest possible standards in research involving humans. If you are conducting original research, it is vital that you behave in an ethical manner. For example, everyone you speak to must be made aware of your reasons for eliciting their responses and consent to providing information. Furthermore, you must ensure everyone understands that participation is entirely voluntary. Please refer to the following website for more information about McMaster University s research ethics guidelines: http://www.mcmaster.ca/ors/ethics. Organizations that you are working with are likely to prefer that some information be treated as confidential. Ensure that you clarify the status of all information that you receive. You MUST respect this request and cannot communicate it in any form (e.g., in class), nor can you discuss it outside your group. Furthermore, you must continue to respect this confidentiality even after the course is over. COURSE SCHEDULE Week No. Class # / Date 1 1 (Oct. 14) Topics and Activities Course Introduction Defining Marketing for the 21st Century Creating Long-term Loyalty Relationships Developing Marketing Strategies and Plans Collecting Information and Forecasting Demand Conducting Marketing Research Chapter / Document 1 5 2 3 4
MCM 724 Fall 2012 - Page 10 of 11 Week No. Class # / Date 2 (Oct. 15) Topics and Activities Analyzing Consumer Markets Analyzing Business Markets Identifying Market Segments and Targets Crafting the Brand Positioning Competitive Dynamics Informal Course Review Chapter / Document 6 7 8 10 11 3 (Oct. 16) Setting Product Strategy Designing and Managing Services Introducing New Market Offerings Creating Brand Equity 12 13 20 9 4 (Oct. 17) Developing Pricing Strategies and Programs Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Channels Managing Retailing, Wholesaling, and Logistics Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Communications 14 15 16 17 5 (Oct. 18) Managing Mass Communications Managing Personal Communications Tapping into Global Markets 18 19 21 2 Oct. 22 3 Oct. 29 Adobe Web-based Session: Date and Time to Follow 4 Nov. 5 5 Nov. 12 Assignment One due by noon on Wednesday, Nov. 13 6 Nov. 19 Adobe Web-based Session: Date and Time to Follow 7 8 Nov. 26 Assignment Two due by noon on Wednesday, Nov. 28 Dec. 3
MCM 724 Fall 2012 - Page 11 of 11 Week No. 9 10 11 12 13 Class # / Topics and Activities Date Dec.10 Assignment Three due by noon on Wednesday, Dec. 12 Dec. 17 Dec. 24 Dec. 31 Jan. 7 Chapter / Document 14 15 16 17 18 Jan. 14 Jan. 21 Jan. 28 Feb. 4 Feb. 11 Marketing Plan Part 1 due by noon on Wednesday, Jan. 16 Adobe Web-based Session: Date and Time to Follow Marketing Plan Part 1 and 2 due by noon on Wed., Feb. 6 19 February 16 In-Class Presentations Managing a Holistic Marketing Organization for the Long Run 22