Learning objectives
Know and understand the marketing management process
Be able to describe key evolutionary trends in the commodity marketing environment
Understand customer relationship management and customer value creation
Know how to analyze the elements of marketing strategy and conversion into marketing mix policies
Know how to identify and assess major trends in the natural and technological environment in which the agribusiness operates
Know how to analyze the main changes in the political and cultural environment, in agribusiness issues
Ability to correctly direct the search for information and data to improve the planning of marketing activities
Know and understand the steps that make up the marketing research process
Understand the main types of buying behavior and stages in the purchasing process of agricultural commodities
Know how to examine the main stages of designing a marketing strategy (segmentation, targeting and positioning of agricultural commodities)
Recall and understand the life cycle stages of products, particularly with reference to agricultural commodities
Recall and understand the main pricing strategies and explain the importance of customer value perceptions, company costs, and competitor behavior
Understand and know how to communicate in oral and/or written form the contents of a marketing plan
Prerequisites
Basic knowledge of microeconomics, supply and demand theory
Course unit content
The purpose of the teaching is to provide adequate basic knowledge about the principles and tools of marketing management, enabling their application and adaptation to the agri-food sector, with particular focus on the agricultural commodity market. Theoretical content will be supplemented with content on the practical application of strategic and operational marketing tools (product innovation, pricing and promotion policies, distribution strategies, communication activities), with specific reference to quality food chains with territorial connotation.
Full programme
Frontal teaching and group activities
- What is marketing: Understanding the market and consumer needs
- Designing strategy and customer relationship: Marketing strategy and the marketing mix
- Analyzing the firm's marketing environment: micro and macroenvironment
- Marketing research: qualitative and quantitative survey methods
- Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning
- Products, services, brands: what is a product, product life cycle strategies
- Setting and managing sales price
- SWOT analysis
Exercises
Analysis of data sources and information for describing the evolution of the competitive environment
Analysis of case studies related to the enhancement of agricultural raw materials and typical, quality food products with territorial connotations
Bibliography
Reading Materials: Chapters 1-8, and Appendix 1. Da “Principi di marketing” di Philip Kotler, Gary Armstrong, Fabio Ancarani. 2019 Pearson Italia
Lecturer presentations presented in the classroom and available on the Elly platform
Teaching methods
Lessons will be organized face-to-face.
The course alternates a set of lectures covering theoretical concepts to in-class presentations and discussions of case studies. During the lesson, the instructor will dedicate some time, when possible, to activities aimed at increasing critical and reflective thinking, discussion, and problem-solving skills.
The teaching activities will be conducted favoring active learning modalities (e.g., discussion of case studies and individual/group work). In general, during the first part of the lesson the teacher will explain the theoretical part of the concepts favoring the dialogical comparison with the classroom. Instead in the second part of the lesson, room will be given, when possible, to activities aimed at increasing critical and reflective thinking, the ability to argue, and to solve problems. In this way the students will be asked to apply the theory to project work activities individually, in pairs or in small groups.
Assessment methods and criteria
The exam can be carried out in two ways:
a) written exam on the entire program
The final exam will consist of a written test (1,30h time) with three open-ended questions.
The criteria with which the open questions will be evaluated will be:
a) ability to process the knowledge transmitted during the course, applying them to the concrete case of the question (for example, designing empirical research given a defined context proposed by the teacher on the day of the exam),
b) ability to argue their choices with references to the theory of behavioral sciences to investigate the proposed case study,
c) methods of linguistic exposure and use of specific terminology.
For the questions these three indicators will be weighted as follows: a) 50%, b) 30%, c) 20%. Each open question will be assigned a score from 0 to 10 using the weights for the three criteria.
Other information
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