Business Administration 106-2
Fall 2007, Ganesh Iyer
Haas School of BusinessInstructor / e-mail/office (we prefer email) / Office Hours:
Ganesh Iyer / , F699 / Thursdays, 10.30 to 12.00 noon.
Bill Fanning
Jordan Holtzman / , F420 / Tuesdays, 10.00 am to 11.00 am.
Steven Huff / TBD
Ravi Shanmugam
Course Web-Site
The course web-site is at http://groups.haas.berkeley.edu/marketing/COURSES/ugba106_2fall07.html
Updated information, announcements, answers to frequently asked questions and lecture notes will be available on the web-site. You should be able to handle most enrollment functions through the Internet.
Please note that this course uses Instructor Drop.
If you do not attend where registered in the first two weeks of class you may be dropped from enrollment
Course Objectives and Structure
This is the core marketing course for the Haas Undergraduate Program. The primary objective is to provide a rigorous and comprehensive introduction to marketing practice. It has been claimed that “the business of business is to make a profit”. Marketing is a process that focuses on “how” short-term and long-term profits are created by organizations through a single-minded focus on the consumer. Marketing is about creating and keeping satisfied customers. The present industrial economy of is characterized by important trends such as the proliferation of products and services, an explosion of information technology, the impact of the Internet. This course will expose you to how the marketing approach helps managers to address these trends. You will learn to how key elements of the marketing process such as product strategy, pricing, promotions, mass media advertising, product distribution and retailing come together in a concerted fashion.
Specific Course Objectives:
1. To expose you to the fundamental concepts and strategies of marketing. What you learn in this course will help you to develop a framework for understanding other marketing-related courses that you may take in the future.
2. Marketing is best understood through linking textbook concepts and ideas to what actually happens in companies and markets. The whole package of lectures, cases and case presentation projects are designed to illustrate how marketing decisions are made in a wide range of important markets.
3. The initial part of the course will discuss the marketing concept, the study of consumer behaviour and decision-making. The next part of the course will focus on the specific elements of marketing strategy commonly called the “marketing mix”.
Topics:
Upon the completion of the course you should gain the following areas:
1. The concepts of modern marketing management
2. Appreciate what goes into the development of Product, Pricing, Promotion, Advertising, and Distribution strategies.
3. Understand Market Segmentation and the use of Product Positioning.
4. Gain a perspective on important trends like the impact of Information Technology, the Internet, and the value of customer databases
5. Analyze complex business situations and opportunities to articulate & defend your analyses.
6. Improve your professional skills of presentation and business writing.
Course Materials
Text: Marketing: An Introduction 8th Edition (blue paper cover), by G. Armstrong and P. Kotler, Prentice-Hall, 2007.
Course Reader: Course Reader: The Haas School of Business uses on-line readers using STUDY.NET. To view the cases and articles assigned for this course, you must register at STUDY.NET and pay their fee. Further instructions for registering for STUDY.NET are posted on the course website. When you are registered, you’ll have permission to print out a copy of a case for your own use. However, you must be careful not to violate © copyright.
àDo not photocopy a case for anyone else or use a copy from someone else as this will be a violation of copyright. Additional readings may be circulated in class or may be posted on the course web-site. Lectures notes and handouts will also be posted on the web-site.
Course Structure: This course is taught in a unique format: A “large lecture” on Thursday and a “case discussion section” on Tuesdays.
· Before the Thursday lecture, you will benefit from reading the assigned chapters in the Armstrong and Kotler text.
· In addition, Wednesday lecture notes are available as a PowerPoint file a few days beforehand from the course web site.
· On Friday, careful preparation of each assigned case (whether you are presenting, writing a brief or not) is absolutely essential before you come to section. Your participation will count towards the class participation grade.
Work Components
Exams: There will be two exams. The purpose of these exams is to encourage you to attend class and to study the basic concepts, definitions and their application to marketing decision-making from the text and case readings, including in-class handouts. The exams will not ask specific questions about the cases but the firms from the cases may be used as examples for broader concepts. (We assess your analytic skills and your ability to apply concepts through class discussion, group presentations and briefs.) The format for the mid-term Exam will be a mix of multiple choice and written medium-length answers and will cover material assigned and taught to date. The final Exam will be multiple-choice only. It will be cumulative on readings and lectures for the whole semester and will be heavily weighted to lecture material including examples discussed in class. There will be no Alternate Final and you must be available to take the Final Exam as scheduled by the University.
Written Case Briefs:
There are four written products: Three individual briefs and one group brief. The group brief should be submitted by the same group you use for your group presentation (see below). We will count your top three scores when computing your final grade.
· Where there is a, b shown next to a number, you may choose which case to write with one exception: You may not write a brief on the case that your group presents—in practice this may mean that you may have no choice for one of the pairs.
· This is a large class and so the planned turn around time for grading briefs is two weeks.
· The expectation is that you will submit four graded written products, and get to drop your lowest score. Do not rely on skipping one of the required written products.
Due date: Briefs are due at the start of your registered Tuesday Class in which the case is called. Late work is not accepted and instructors will not accept work by fax, e-mail or other non-traditional submission.
Format: Your individual briefs are to be a single page, accompanied by a maximum of three relevant exhibits. The format must be strictly followed: 1 inch margins on all sides; 12-point or greater font size; use a serif font such as Times or Bookman (not a sans-serif like Arial); single-spaced within paragraphs, double-spaced between paragraphs—that is, exactly like this part of the syllabus. Identify your brief with your name (exactly as it shows on the Registrar’s rolls) Section number and the case. Place the identifying information in the top right margin (this facilitates recording and returning your work). Running over the one-page limit for text will lead to a substantial penalty in the grade.
The exhibits can be a spreadsheet, data analysis charts, tables, positioning maps, timeline or advertising storyboard, and they must be “referenced” from the text in the format: (Ex. 1). For example, a brief might say, “At such a low price, XYZ will not be able to achieve breakeven in the first three years (Ex. 3).” They should be relevant, neatly formatted and well-made; they should not contain narrative that should appear in the text itself, nor should they merely restate information from case exhibits. For individual briefs your brief and the exhibits must be individual work—remember, no shared exhibits.
In class, you will be given additional instructions on the structure of briefs. You will find that most companies where you work will have a “house style” for format and structure—be careful to follow the structure for ugba106, including which ideas should go in which paragraph. This is on a separate handout given to you in your section and on the course website. Failure to follow the format is the most frequent cause of very low scores.
For the group briefs the format (font, margins, etc) should be the same, but the page limit is doubled: Two pages of text and up to six pages of exhibits. Please do not put SID’s on group briefs—it allows your team members to look up your grades. Just be careful that the Brief has the Registrar’s form of your name, e.g. Smith, John and not John Smith.
For briefs 3a, 3b and 4a, 4b in general you have a choice of whether to submit either the a or b case. However, you cannot write a brief on the same case that your group presents, so if your group is G-4, then you must write 3b and vice-versa. For the group briefs (4a, 4b) if your group is presenting G-6 or G-7, you may elect to submit either Calyx and Corolla or Hilton HHonors as your group written brief, but you must notify your section instructor of your plan before you present your group case.
Study questions and assistance: An important part of case analysis is figuring out what are the most important questions faced by the managers in the case. But early in your Marketing career, it’s sometimes difficult to know where to start. We use the course e-mail alias to send out questions that direct your reading of a case (with more hints earlier in the semester, and fewer hints later). Some of the cases may have missing or contradictory facts. We will use the e-mail system to send out guidance and specific corrections to the cases. If you are “stuck” on a case, please see your Tuesday Instructor in office hours for guidance on how to analyze the case, work the numbers and present your recommendations.
Grading: Your briefs are graded by Graduate Readers. If there are substantial differences in the grading across graders on the same case, we will smooth the grades. Each brief will be graded on a 20-point scale and will be returned to you with a grading note that explains the basis of your grade and indicating who graded your work. Since you are learning both marketing analysis and to write in a particular, professional style, your early efforts may earn quite low scores. It is important to consult with the grader and your Case Class Instructor to learn what to do in the future. Because this is a learning experience, we plan to drop the lowest of the four recorded written brief grades for students who have submitted all four required briefs.
You can only appeal a grade if there is a clear misreading of what you wrote. The graders will hold office hours announced by e-mail, and can give you suggestions for improving your writing—but they do not respond to emotional appeals for increased grades. If you request a re-grading of a brief your score may go down as well as up.
If more than one grader scores one case brief then we will smooth between the graders to ensure fairness.
Group Presentation:
Within each Thursday section, we will form nine groups of about three to four team members. You choose whom you will work with but the cases (and hence the date of presentation) is assigned by random drawing. Your team will present one of the cases marked G-1 to G-9 in the timetable.
· You are to take the role of a group of consultants presenting to the Board of Directors of the firm in the case. (Correctly taking the role is a key success factor in making a compelling presentation.)
· In a Board, some members will know more about the issue than you, and all will be generally familiar with the firm and it’s situation. But some members will have had only a slight opportunity to read materials before a meeting. Leading them through the situation, your analysis and recommendations requires considerable skill to hit the right level of detail, without endlessly reciting case facts. Of course, the same is true for your classmates—some of them will have had two more finance courses than you and will be ready with tough questions; most will have read the case and know the facts; and a few may have skip-read on the way into class. Try to appeal to all these segments.
· You should make sure that each member of the group gets some “air time.” This is difficult to do in practice, but is very effective if the group is well-rehearsed and the changeovers are seamless. Team members should be able to speak effectively from their slides and should not read from a script.
· The standard of presentation in the course is very high. The level of presentation varies from very good to truly astounding: Some groups make mock ad campaigns, distribute products in class or have substantial multi-media presentations.
· If you are not a Haas major, you will want to come up to speed on PowerPoint and presentation skills.
· You should be prepared for a Question & Answer session at the end of your presentation. Effectively handling the Q&A is part of your grade. Your classmates will be prepared to ask you questions and effective handling of the Q&A is part of your grade.