Learning objectives
Upon completion of the course students will have acquired advanced knowledge of marketing topics both at theoretical and application levels.
The course aims to provide a complete knowledge of the fundamental issues of strategic, operational and international marketing.
The student will transfer the necessary knowledge to understand the issues related to the management of marketing strategies as well as the necessary knowledge about the tools of the levers of marketing mix used by companies to increase the degree of final customer satisfaction.
Specifically, acquired knowledge will be:
- marketing definition and related issues
- concept of Strategic Business Unit
- portfolio management approaches (BCG and General Electric)
- choice of development strategies (Ansoff’s matrix)
- assessment of information needs and information requests to marketing information systems
- understanding B2B and B2C markets
-segmentation, targeting and positioning
- branding
- classification of products (consumer and industrial)
- managing products and product lines: stretching, filling and cannibalization - setting prices with demand, competitive and cost approaches
- analyzing and classifying channels
- channel organization and management decisions
- promotion analysis and classification
-communication and digital marketing
The above results in terms of knowledge and understanding will be attained by means of lectures, assigned readings and discussion of readings in class and managerial lectures. Case studies, academic papers and video cases are part of the exam.
Students will be able to apply learned concepts and methods to various situations and marketing problems. Students will more specifically be able to develop skills for thorough understanding, analysis and problem solving in marketing situations ranging from growth strategies to product, price, channel and promotion decisions. They will be able to interpret marketing developments and marketing impact of environmental changes. The above results in terms of knowledge application will be attained by means of lectures, assigned readings and discussion of readings in class, presentations on assigned readings and managerial lectures.
Upon completion of the course students will be able to apply analytical tools to marketing phenomena and situations in order to make autonomous and independent judgments. The ability to make judgments is expressed by a personal reflection on collected data and information and its processing. The achieved skills will enable students to take strategic and tactical marketing decisions. The specific goal of training students to make judgments is pursued by means of Q&A sessions at the beginning and during each lecture.
Students will learn to expand, update and upgrade the level and variety of knowledge acquired by means of lectures and individual study with textbooks. Such development will lead students to adopt an attitude of curiosity and research for novelty and updates to better deal with marketing decisions. The final examination will stimulate students’ appraisal of their learning skills by means of an oral examination
Prerequisites
Course unit content
Please note that the International Branding and Retailing course, for the academic year 2023-24, consists of 10 Credits (CFU) equivalent to 70 hours of teaching in class.
for technical reasons it may show up on student's online system as two separate exams of 8 + 2 credits, for a total of 10 but in reality it is one single course, with a single exam but divided into two blocks of 35 hours each and two different teachers for the first and second module.
The first module will cover issues related to strategic marketing while the second module will cover the operational levers of marketing and the implementation of a marketing plan.
Full programme
- The marketing of the modern era (definition of marketing, marketing evolution)
- Marketing Strategy, Planning and Competition (concept of value, strategies and marketing planning)
- Assessment of information needs and information requests to marketing information systems
- phases in the marketing research process and approaches
-Understand Consumer and Business Markets
- Segmentation, Target Marketing, and Positioning: the triade of marketing
- Brand and branding strategies
- augmented product model
- classification of products (consumer and industrial)
- collaborative consumption approaches and new product service systems
- managing products and product lines: stretching, filling and cannibalization
- setting prices with demand, competitive and cost approaches
- analyzing and classifying channels
- channel organization and management decisions
- promotion analysis and classification
- creating a relationship building promotion
Bibliography
Classes are "in presence" only, with no streaming nor videorecording.
We classify students in "attending" and "non attending": the former come to classes "physically" and regularly and participate in a group project in the second part of the course. The latter do not come to classes phyisically or do it only occasionally and do not participate in the group project.
Attending students (project work participation) will prepare for the exam by studying the notes they take during class, prepare the readings that are assigned and discussed in class (also managerial lectures), and may use the slides that are available on the Elly platform coursepage.
Non attending students must prepare for the exam by studying two texbooks: Specifically:
1) Kotler P., Armstrong G., Wong V., Saunders J. Principles of Marketing/MyMarketingLab European Edition - 5th Edition (or any later edition), Financial Times/ Prentice Hall: UK ISBN13: 9780273720645
ISBN10: 0273720643. Chapters: 1-3-4-5-6-7-9-10-11-14-15-16-17-18-19 and
2) Magnani, G. (2022). Marketing in culturally distant countries : managing the 4Ps in cross-cultural contexts
Please note that the two textbooks are not alternative to each other. Both must be studied as preparation for the exam.
Teaching methods
The above results in terms of knowledge and understanding will be attained by means of lectures, assigned readings and discussion of readings in class, managerial lectures and case studies. The specific goal of training students to make judgments is pursued by means of Q&A sessions at the beginning and during each lecture.
During second part of the course, a Marketing case will be developed in collaboration with the ‘Società italiana di marketing’ (Coreve) in order to put into practice the concepts acquired during the lessons.
Students will learn to expand, update and upgrade the level and variety of knowledge acquired by means of lectures and individual study with textbooks. Such development will lead students to adopt an attitude of curiosity and research for novelty and updates to better deal with marketing decisions. These learning skills are strongly reinforced all through the course through the use of readings to be prepared autonomously at home and later presented and discussed in class, managerial lectures and case studies. The final examination will stimulate students’ appraisal of their learning skills by means of a written examination
Assessment methods and criteria
Written examination. Different sets of questions are prepared for students who regularly attended classes and all others (so called Attending or Non Attending), as the materials to prepare are different (see above).
For attending students who took part in the project work, the knowledge and understanding achieved will be assessed with n. 4 open-ended questions (chosen from 6 questions – 3 for each of the two parts of the course) + the extra points gained from the development of a marketing plan (project work that gives maximum 3 points). For non-attending students, the knowledge and understanding achieved will be assessed with n. 4 open-ended questions. The exam lasts 60 minutes for all.
Through the students' answers knowledge and understanding of the issues proposed (point a of the course goals) and the ability of the student to apply the knowledge to specific questions (point b) are assessed.
Furthermore, since the questions are open, students are able to exercise significant independent judgment (point c) with respect to what is required and we can check the communication skills of the student (point d).
Finally, the need for handling categories and qualitative information acquired during the course, during the specific cases studies, requires the students to apply knowledge already possessed, and to learn and to evaluate new information (point e).
Other information
Please check professor's webpage for updates on course, exams, dates and times, office hours and so on
