Syllabus - 12/16/96 version

15.834 Marketing Strategy- Spring 1997

Prof. Barbara Bund
E56-332, Tel.: 258-5095, E-mail: bbund@mit.edu

Course meets TTh 10-11:30 in E51-145.

THERE IS AN ASSIGNMENT FOR THE FIRST CLASS OF THIS COURSE (below).
PLEASE COME TO CLASS PREPARED TO DISCUSS THE CASE.

Who should take the course -- and who should NOT:

Contents:

Course Overview and Objectives

This course considers strategic issues in marketing, building on the foundation of the basic marketing course (15.810, 15.811, 15.812 or 15.814), which is a prerequisite.

The primary course objective is to give you substantial experience in doing explicit, customer-based strategic marketing analysis. In addition, the course will cover concepts that are useful in marketing analysis and also current issues and trends in marketing practice.

Who should take the course -- and who should NOT: This course has a strong case orientation. It works well for students who learn from a case approach. It does not work well for students for whom such an approach does not fit -- or for students whose commitments in the spring term will make it impossible for them to attend class regularly. Please make a conscious decision about whether 15.834 will fit your learning style and your time commitments.

Some Specifics

More specifically, the course will use a combination of case discussions and related lecture material to:

In each of the case discussions, we will address both immediate decisions raised by the case and also the larger, more strategic insights that the case can provide. To achieve both of these purposes, we will use the following general structure for case analysis:

  1. Customer analysis. The customer is the basis of all marketing. Sound marketing analysis should therefore begin with customer analysis that is as rigorous and explicit as possible. Tools such as segmentation can help. It is often important to consider both past/current patterns of customer behavior and also trends or likely future changes in that behavior. (The customer orientation of the course is VERY strong.)
  2. Marketing strategy/ specific case decisions. With the customer analysis as a foundation, we can next analyze the subject companyıs use of the marketing mix (product, price, communication and distribution), relevant competitive considerations, and the specific decision(s) raised by the case. One key requirement for rigorous strategic analysis is that it be tightly linked to the explicit customer analysis from the preceding step.
  3. Strategic implications. Next, we can try to abstract strategic insights from the case examples by asking: What are the key characteristics of this marketing situation? For situations with those key characteristics, what are the critical marketing decisions or variables to manage? Finally, after identifying key characteristics and decisions, we can identify the information that we could collect and analyze, over time, to monitor the implementation of the marketing strategy -- to determine how well it is being implemented and to determine when it should be altered.

Although only the first assignment below lists these three basic questions, the three areas for analysis should provide the assignment for each case (unless contrary instructions are given in the preceding class). Class-by-class case assignments are provided below. In addition to the cases, we will use a number of articles, which are included in the class notes and are required. There is no required text for the course.

Assignments -- Summary

There are five written assignments for the course. Each has a maximum of four pages if double-spaced. The basic objective of the assignments is to take you through the general structure for case analysis, as given in the three numbered paragraphs at the top of this page. The different assignments emphasize different parts of that flow of analysis:

  1. The first emphasizes explicit customer analysis and the need to link any strategic recommendations very explicitly with that customer analysis. (In practice, making customer analysis adequately explicit and linking it clearly and logically to strategic recommendations often turn out to be the most difficult tasks in good strategic marketing analysis.)
  2. The second considers marketing research as a means of getting better understanding (especially customer understanding).
  3. The third emphasizes the importance of being clear and explicit about the objectives to be pursued before deciding on specific decisions for implementing marketing strategy.
  4. The fourth adds the last of the three paragraphs at the top of the previous page. It emphasizes the information that should be collected first to implement and then to monitor and adjust a particular marketing strategy.
  5. The fifth assignment emphasizes the need to plan for future changes in customersı needs and customer behavior, incorporating possible future developments into your strategic thinking.

The written assignments should be prepared by groups of 3 students (2 with permission; not 1 and not 4). The specific assignments, which follow the day-by-day assignments below, include objectives, specific questions, page limits and criteria by which the assignments will be evaluated. The assignments MUST be submitted by the start of class on the due date.

Grading

In the course grade class participation will count 1/3. The written assignments will count 2/3.

ASSIGNMENTS
15.834

Tuesday, February 4

Thursday, February 6

Tuesday, February 11

Thursday, February 13

Thursday, February 20

Tuesday, February 25

Thursday, February 27

Tuesday, March 4

Thursday, March 6

Tuesday, March 11

Thursday, March 13

Tuesday, March 18

Tuesday, April 1

Thursday, April 3

Tuesday, April 8

Thursday, April 10

Tuesday, April 15

Thursday, April 17

Thursday, April 24

Tuesday, April 29

Thursday, May 1

Tuesday, May 6

Thursday, May 8

Tuesday, May 13

Thursday, May 15

Written Assignment Number 1

Purpose of the assignment is to give you practice in:

Specific assignment questions:

For Norton Company (A) 9-570-001

This is a complex case, involving both customers and distributors. This assignment focuses on customers, not distributors.

The case contains lots of information about customers. It's often tempting to select a few case facts to support an argument and to ignore the rest. The idea in this assignment is to resist that temptation.

The essence of your assignment is to combine all the case information about customers, together with any additional assumptions you need, to create as complete and logical a picture of customers as you can. You are then asked to use that picture in further marketing analysis.

  1. Analyze customers. Give as complete a picture as you can, using (rather than restating) all the customer information from the case and making any other assumptions explicit.
  2. Use your customer analysis to explain briefly why Norton is losing share among large volume users.
  3. Explain how the Norton Plan does and does not fit with you customer analysis. (You won't have space for a lot of detail, but do explain a few key points.)

Page limit:

Due date: Thursday February 20, 1996 BEFORE CLASS

Criteria by which assignment will be evaluated:

Written Assignment Number 2

Purpose of the assignment is to give you practice in:

Specific assignment questions:

For EXERCISE: Marketing a New Reflective Ink

Answer the questions raised in the exercise (what market research your clients should do). Be sure to explain your logic (the analysis that led you to your recommendations. Also, be as explicit as you can in answering. (And please assume that your clients have very limited money to spend on research.)

Page limit:

Due date: Thursday March 13, 1996 BEFORE CLASS

Criteria by which assignment will be evaluated:

Written Assignment Number 3

Purpose of the assignment is to give you practice in:

Moving from strategic objectives to specifics of marketing strategy and (a few) specifics of implementation -- all based firmly (of course!) on customer analysis.

Specific assignment questions:

For Cumberland Metal Industries (A): Model Year 1978 Negotiations with Beta Motors 9-578-170 (Be sure you have the right case; there are two Cumberland Metal cases in the course materials.)

  1. Start with your foundation of customer analysis. What is it important to understand about Beta Motors at the time of the case? (It's not necessary or useful to relate the entire history of the relationship between Beta and CMI. What's needed is a picture of Beta in October 1976; therefore, you'll want to use history to explain Beta at the time of the case rather than simply to tell the story of the history.)
  2. Identify (and explain very briefly) two possible objectives for CMI with regard to its relationship with Beta Motors. Try to make your objectives significantly different from one another. At the same time, try to choose objectives that CMI could plausibly adopt.
  3. For each of the two possible objectives:

Page limit:

Due date: Thursday April 10, 1996 BEFORE CLASS

Criteria by which assignment will be evaluated:

Written Assignment Number 4

Purpose of the assignment is to give you practice in:

Planning, in advance, what information you would collect as you follow a particular strategy to 1) implement the strategy initially and 2) monitor the strategy over time, fine-tuning it or fundamentally changing it, as appropriate.

Specific assignment questions:

For The Black & Decker Corporation (A) 9-595-057

Assume that Black & Decker has selected option 3 (see page 12) for its Professional-Tradesmen line. The tools will be industrial yellow; they will be serviced by Black & Decker service outlets. Your main task on this assignment is to identify the information needed to implement this strategy. To choose the information (and to explain your choices) you will need to explain briefly the logic behind the strategy and also the key tasks in implementation.

  1. Give a brief, customer-based (of course!) explanation for option 3.
  2. What would be the main actions you would recommend to implement this strategy?
  3. What information should be collected and used to implement the strategy? What information should be collected to monitor and adjust the strategy after initial implementation? What information should be "red flags" -- signs that Black & Decker should seriously reexamine and perhaps fundamentally change the strategy?

Page limit:

Due date: Tuesday April 29, 1996 BEFORE CLASS

Criteria by which assignment will be evaluated:

Written Assignment Number 5

Purpose of the assignment is to give you practice in:

Thinking explicitly about trends in customers' needs and customer behavior and then exploring strategic impacts of the possible changes in customers.

Specific assignment questions:

For Li & Fung (Trading) Ltd. 9-396-075

The case raises a range of questions for the managers of Li & Fung. This assignment asks you to focus on customers, changes in customers, and a few implications of those customer changes -- not on the full range of internal issues raised in the case. You may either define and explain one scenario for customers (in questions 3 and 4) or you may find it easier to define and explain more than one scenario (so that you can contrast the different implications of two scenarios). It is important, however, that you explain a few key action implications for each scenario.

  1. Analyze Li & Fung's customers to the time of the case.
  2. (Briefly) How has Li & Fung's marketing strategy fit with customer needs?
  3. Based on the case, what future changes in customers do you think are likely? Why?
  4. What are a few key action implications for Li & Fung of your scenario(s) for future customer behavior?

Page limit:

Due date: Tuesday May 13, 1996 BEFORE CLASS

Criteria by which assignment will be evaluated: