All sections meet MWF.
Secretaries:
TAs:
12:00-1:00 in room E53-307:
The objective of the course is to teach you "what you need to know about marketing even if you are not a marketing manager". We will spend some time on tactical marketing decisions, but much of the course will focus on developing a marketing perspective on more strategic issues.
The course is organized in four sections, reflecting the hierarchy of decision making from functional marketing management to strategic design of a development organization.
The first section of the course takes as given the organization, the physical product, and the selling format (be it mailorder, door-to-door sales, or whatever). In this context we look at tools and frameworks which help us find the optimal price, position the product, select the best advertising, and manage the salesforce. This serves as a very brief introduction to basic functional marketing.
In the second section, we go one level up and take as given only the organization and the product. We then compare alternative selling formats for the product. For example, we will compare mailorder and retail stores, understand the workings of database marketing, and discuss the potential of marketing on the internet. We will introduce concepts and theories which help you organize your thinking about optimal selling formats. This is a difficult question and answering it better than competition could give your firm a significant competitive advantage.
We then go up one more level and ask which products a given organization should offer. New product design is of interest to both marketing and strategy. We will look at several tools and techniques for discovering what customers want and matching it with the resources of the firm.
In the final section of the course we will ask the basic strategic question of how one can design a development organization. We will look at three examples of firms in which top management have tried to bring customer information into the service and product development process. We will discuss the possibility of and limits to such organizational designs.
Most sessions will be divided into three parts: the brain teaser, the case, and the lecture. The typical brain teaser is a statement of fact which you are asked to explain. There are typically several possible explanations. However, discussion of them will lead the class to articulate arguments which later will be seen as having parallels in the case. The hope is that this will add depth and perspective to the understanding of the case.
Because each session is so packed, the case analysis cannot get 80 minutes. In order to get some depth, it is essential that students be well-prepared. We need to minimize the time used on rehashing of case facts. Each case has many facets and I would like us to have time to do more than just use the case to illustrate the topic of the day.
The lecture will be used to take you beyond the case and introduce some more general concepts, frameworks, and tools. The transparencies are in your course packet. The lectures are not intended as a summary of what you should have learned from the cases or the course. They are complementary to the case discussions and the readings. Another complement is the textbook: The Marketing Paradigm by P. Messenger. This book will not be discussed in class and is not required. However, it is recommended and most students will find it a worthwhile investment.
Before each class, you will receive the brain teaser and case discussion questions by e-mail. To facilitate this process, please add yourself to the distribution list for the correct section by sending an e-mail message to
kpierce@mit.edu
with the line
subscribe 15.810-(a,b, or c) userid@host your name
in the body of the message. Replace "(a,b, or c)" with the letter of the section you are attending. For example, student Jane Smith in section A with e-mail address jsmith@mit.edu would send the message
subscribe 15.810-a jsmith@mit.edu Jane Smith
Make sure that the word "subscribe" is at the beginning of the line. You will be added to the list for your section. (If you do not use e-mail, don't panic: you can -- and should -- get the questions from another student in your section.)
As part of the course, you will be required to submit written analyses of two cases: "Aravind Eye Hospital" and "Clark Material." The written analyses, which should not exceed 1500 words (~ 5 pages) plus five pages of exhibits, are due at class time (February 19, and March 3, respectively). The written-analysis assignments are team projects, and I encourage you to form teams of three or four as soon as possible to facilitate this task (please try to avoid more than two non-U.S. citizens on any one team.)
There will be a final examination on Monday, March 17, 7:00 PM-9:00 PM. The examination will be open book and will consist of two questions. One question will be, "What are the three most important lessons you learned about marketing in this course that will help you as a manager?" The other question ... well, you have to wait for the examination.
In grading the course, I will weigh class discussion 30%, the two written analyses 15% each, and the two questions on the final examination 20% each. I expect roughly half of the students to get A's.
The course material is available in a packet from Graphic Arts.
1. W 2/5
Level I: Functional Marketing
2. F 2/7
3. M 2/10
4. W 2/12
5. F 2/14
6. T 2/18
Level II: Choice of Selling Format
7. W 2/19
8. F 2/21
9. M 2/24
10. W 2/26
11. F 2/28
12. M 3/3
13. W 3/5
14. F 3/7
Level IV: Development Organizations
15. M 3/10
16. W 3/12
17. F 3/14
18. M 3/17
(* = distributed in class):
RECOMMENDED TEXTBOOK