TITLE: Marketing Planning And Application

Content Outline

Grading Procedures

Text & References

Prerequisites

1. CATALOG DESCRIPTION:
   This course is a study of marketing as the firm's strategic link with its customers in a global competitive environment. Major topics include:
   1. the development of marketing strategy,
   2. the formulation of marketing plans,
   3. the selection and implementation of marketing tactics, and
   4. ethical considerations in marketing.
2. PURPOSE:
   This is the marketing core course in the Murray State University MBA program. It is designed to:
   1. reinforce students' understanding of basic marketing concepts and tools,
   2. help students to synthesize the various marketing concepts and tools,
   3. address global issues related to the practice of marketing, and
   4. help students to apply the course material to "real-world" marketing situations.
3. COURSE OBJECTIVES:
   The following objectives are established for this course:
   1. To motivate students to absorb, retain, integrate, and apply the basic knowledge that is fundamental to the course. (This objective will be accomplished through the use of lectures, assigned readings in the text, tests, written assignments, and the use of the Markstrat3 marketing simulation.)
   2. To help students to synthesize various marketing concepts and tools. (This objective will be accomplished through the use of lectures, assigned readings in the text, tests, the development of two written marketing plans, and the use of the Markstrat3 marketing simulation.)
   3. To enhance students' ability to apply various marketing concepts and tools to "real-world" marketing situations. (This objective will be accomplished through class discussion, tests, written assignments, and the use of the Markstrat3 marketing simulation.)
   4. To develop students' ability to engage in market planning. (This objective will be accomplished through the use of the Markstrat3 marketing simulation and the development of two written marketing plans.)
   5. To enhance students' written communication skills. (This objective will be accomplished by requiring that students complete two marketing plans related to the Markstrat3 marketingsimulation.)
4. CONTENT OUTLINE:
   The class requirements, allocation of points, class schedule, or other aspects of the syllabus are subject to change as dictated by the needs of the specific class and any unforeseen circumstances that may arise.
   

   WEEK 1
       -Course overview and introduction
       -Review of MKT 360 materials

   WEEK 2
       -Chapt. 8: Market Segmentation and Market Targeting
       -Chapt. 9: Positioning Decisions
       -Introduction to Markstrat3

   WEEK 3
       -Team leaders interview & select team members
       -Handout of period 0 team reports

   WEEK 4
       -Markstrat3 Decision 1 due
       -Chapt. 2: the Strategic Role of Marketing

   WEEK 5
       -Markstrat3 Decision 2 due
       -Chapt. 4: Industry Dynamics & Strategic Change

   WEEK 6
       -Markstrat3 Decision 3 due
       -Chapt. 10 -- Business Strategies & Marketing Program Decisions

   WEEK 7
       -First one-year marketing plan due
       -Chapt. 17: Strategies for New and Growing Markets

   WEEK 8
       -Markstrat3 Decision 4 due
       -Chapt. 18: Strategies for Mature and Declining Markets
       -Team leaders' evaluation of team members and team members' evaluation of team leaders

   WEEK 9
       -Mid-term exam

   WEEK 10
       -Markstrat3 Decision 5 due
       -Chapt. 1: Promotion Decisions

   WEEK 11
       -Markstrat3 Decision 6 due
       -Chapt. 16: Personal Selling Decisions

   WEEK 12
       -Markstrat3: Decision 7 due
       -Chapt. 5: Consumer Marketing and Buying Behavior

   WEEK 13
       -Markstrat3 Decision 8 due
       -Second one-year marketing plan due.
       -Chapt. 7: Marketing Information and Marketing Research

   WEEK 14
       -Markstrat3 Decision 9 due
       -Exam # 2

   WEEK 15
       -Markstrat3 Decision 10 due
       -Prepare written & oral reports

   WEEK 16
       -Written & oral reports to incoming management

5. INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES:
   The class pedagogy will consist of lectures, class discussion, examinations, written assignments, and team meetings relating to the Markstrat3 marketing simulation.
6. FIELD, CLINICAL, AND/OR LABORATORY EXPERIENCES:
   None
7. GRADING PROCEDURES:
   1. GRADING FACTORS:

      Factor	Final Grading Points
      Exam 1	130 points
      Exam 2	70 points
      Markstrat 3 simulation outcome	200 points
      Markstrat3 assignments:   - Team first-year marketing plan   - Team second-year marketing plan   - Oral & written report to management	100 points 50 points 100 points
      Total Points	650 points

      
      
   2. GRADING SCALE:

      Average		Grade
      90% or above		A
      80 - 89%		B
      70 - 79%		C
      60 - 69%		D
      Below 60%		E

      
      
   3. EXAMINATIONS:
      A total of two examinations will be given during the semester. Examinations may consist of objective questions, problems, essay questions, or mini-cases in any combination. The specific composition of a given examination will be depend on the nature of the material to be covered and the learning objectives established by the instructor.

   4. MARKSTRAT3 ASSIGNMENTS:
      Students will be divided into teams for the simulation game, called Markstrat3.
      
      • Each team will be responsible for turning in decisions on the due dates.
      • Immediately after decision period 3, the team must turn in a detailed one-year plan for period 4. This report should betyped and double-spaced.
        
      • A second one-year plan is due immediately after decision 7.
        
      • At the end of the simulation, the team will be responsible for developing an assessment report which they will provide to the "incoming management" of their simulation company. Each report will address six things: (1) where the team started, (2) what the team did, (3) why the team did it, (4) where the team finished, (5) what the team learned from it, and (6) what the team recommends that incoming management do. The point of this report is that you will be leaving the team management to be promoted to a higher position within the company. Therefore, you will be educating the incoming management about how to put the company in the best position for future competition. You do not want them to make the same mistakes you made.
      • Each team will be asked to present a shortened form of this report to the class at the end of the semester. This presentation should include all members of the team and should be professionally presented using charts and graphs wherever possible. Each team will be given 20 minutes for the presentation, followed by a 5-minute question and answer period. It should be noted that the team will be expected to do detailed quantitative analyses using spreadsheets to have the greatest chance of success.
      • EXTRA WORK:
        Students will not be allowed to perform additional work (beyond the course requirements) for the purpose of improving grades.

8. ATTENDANCE POLICY:
   Regular classroom attendance is required.
9. ACADEMIC HONESTY POLICY:
   Academic dishonesty will not be tolerated in any form. Any student who engages in academic dishonesty will be penalized to the fullest extent allowed by university guidelines. If you have even the slightest doubt about whether a given action constitutes academic dishonesty, consult with your instructor before taking the action.

   Murray State University defines Academic Dishonesty as follows:

   Cheating, plagiarism (submitting another person's work as one's own), or doing work for another person which will receive academic credit are all impermissible (forms of academic dishonesty and constitute unacceptable conduct). This tsmincludes the use of unauthorized books, notebooks, or other sources in order to secure or give help during an examination; the unauthorized copying of examinations, assignments, reports, computer files or term papers; or the presentation of unacknowledged material as if it were the student's own work.

   
   Plagiarism, one of the most serious forms of academic dishonesty, is defined as follows:

   Plagiarism is stealing the words or ideas of another and passing them off as one's own. Whenever a student submits a piece of writing claiming original authorship, it is understood that the student is claiming that all the ideas, opinions, facts, figures, conclusions, revisions, and words are the student's original work, unless the student explicitly indicates otherwise via footnotes, attribution in the text, and/or appropriate quotation marks. Failure to acknowledge the contribution of the original author is an act of dishonest deception for which a student can be disciplined under the University's policy on academic dishonesty.

   
   It is the policy of the College of Business and Public Affairs that (1) all instances of academic dishonesty will receive appropriate punitive action from the faculty member in whose class such dishonesty occurs AND (2) the names of students involved in acts of academic dishonesty will be reported in every instance to the Dean.

   Students involved in "serious" cheating (cheating which offends and attacks the very foundations of an academic community, such as stealing a test, selling or buying a stolen test, writing a term paper for a student who will turn it in as his/her own work, attempting to change or actually changing a grade on a paper, in a professor's gradebook, or on computerized records, taking a class for another student in that student's name, and similar acts of extreme academic dishonesty) will have their cases turned over to Student Affairs and the University Judicial Board for disciplinary action on a first offense, with a recommendation of expulsion by the Dean.

10. TEXT AND REFERENCES:
    1. Boyd, Harper W., Jr, Orville C. Walker, Jr., and Jean-Claude Larreche, Marketing Management: A Strategic Approach with a Global Orientation, Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill (ISBN: 0-256-22632-6)
    2. Larreche, Jean-Claude and Hubert Gatignon (1998), Markstrat3: The Strategic Marketing Simulation, Cincinnati, Ohio: South-Western College Publishing (ISBN: 0-538-88089-9)

11. PREREQUISITES:
    MKT 360 and graduate standing.

12. SPECIAL ASSISTANCE:
    Students requiring special assistance due to a disability should inform the instructor as soon as possible.

13. OBSERVANCE OF RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS:
    All religious holidays will be respected to the greatest extent possible. If class assignment due dates, tests, or other requirements of this class conflict with your observation of a religious holiday, you must notify the instructor a minimum of two weeks in advance so that alternate plans/arrangements may be made. Such advance arrangements will insure that you are afforded equal opportunity and treatment with your fellow students.

14. SYLLABUS CHANGES:
    The class requirements, allocation of points, class schedule, or other aspects of the syllabus are subject to change as dictated by the needs of the specific class and any unforeseen circumstances that may arise.