MKTG 503: Marketing Management
Course Syllabus
Fall, 2004

Instructor

Instructors' Mandate

The overall goal for this course is to help you better understand the process of formulating and managing marketing strategy for a given market entry. To this end, specific sub-goals are as follows:

• Expose you to fundamental concepts and basic terminology in marketing strategy.
• Make you more 'market oriented' (i.e., more attuned to customer needs and competitive threats).
• Preview the types of information used to make strategic marketing decisions.
• Explore how firms translate their brand objectives into strategic marketing programs designed to attract customers and to gain a competitive advantage in specific markets.
• Help you to understand the planning processes and the analytical tools and techniques used to make strategic marketing decisions.

Course Materials

• Simulation Manual: Markstrat3: A Marketing Strategy Simulation (1998), by Jean-Claude Larréché and Hubert Gatignon, Cincinnati, OH: South-Western Publishing Company, ISBN 0-538-87744-8.
• Marketing Plan Software and Users Manual: The Marketing Plan: A Handbook (2003), by Marian Burk Wood, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-061317-7.
• Textbook: Marketing Strategy: A Decision-Focused Approach, 4th ed. (2003), by Orville C. Walker, Harper W. Boyd, Jr., John Mullins, and Jean-Claude Larréché. Boston, MA: Irwin McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-07-246670-7. (Supplemental)

Course Mechanics

Other than the four introduction and orientation classes, and the final debriefing class, this course is administered over the Internet. After the class session on February 11th, students interested in meeting with the instructor to discuss Markstrat3, The Marketing Plan software, or the supplemental textbook for this course (Marketing Strategy: A Decision-Focused Approach), may do so during his office hours or the scheduled time for this class. The instructor will wait 10 minutes for students to arrive in the classroom. If no student arrives by 6:10pm, he will return to his office and remain there until at least 7:00pm.

Course Grade

Your course grade will be calculated as follows (weighting scheme in parentheses):

• First written Markstrat3 report, a five-year marketing plan, submitted by 5:00pm on October 27th (25%).
• Second written Markstrat3 report, submitted by 5:00pm on November 17 (15%).
• Third written Markstrat3 report, submitted by 5:00pm on December 8th (25%).
• Performance in the Markstrat3 simulation (35%).
• Optional fourth written Markstrat3 report--a single-student learning log--to replace lowest report grade (15-25%).

The Markstrat3 marketing simulation pits five (or six) firms within a consumer electronics good market against one another. Although your performance in Markstrat3 (i.e., win, hold your own, or lose) influences your course grade (35%), the quality of your three Markstrat3 reports is a far greater determinant (65%). This grading scheme is meant to encourage you to make realistic decisions and to discourage you from using game-beating strategies.

All reports--both the draft and final versions--must be submitted as e-mail attachments. A marketing plan created with The Marketing Plan software (discuss later) can be exported to a Word file; the second and third Markstrat3 reports should be created as either Word (version XP or less) or WordPerfect (version 10 or less) files. These files should be sent to mhyman@nmsu.edu.

Schedule

Notes About Important Deadlines and Penalties for Late Submissions

• Each decision is due by 9:00am on the Wednesday of each decision week (i.e., from October 6th for the first decision until December 8th for the tenth decision). Failure to submit a decision by this deadline may result in a duplication of the previous decision--a substantial penalty.
• Draft versions of the three reports may be submitted for ungraded feedback. Please note that such feedback is unavailable for any Report #1 submitted after 5:00pm on October 12th, any Report #2 submitted after 5:00pm on November 2nd, or any Report #3 submitted after 5:00pm on November 23rd. As The Marketing Plan CD includes over one dozen sample marketing plans, Branson Library contains several books on writing marketing plans, and other marketing courses discuss marketing plans, feedback on drafts of these plans will be limited to comments about completeness.
• Final versions of the three reports must be submitted by 5:00pm on the due date. For each 24 hour period after 5:00pm, one letter grade will be subtracted from your grade.

Markstrat3

The Markstrat3 marketing simulation pits five (or six) firms within a consumer electronics good market against one another. The Markstrat3 simulation will allow you to experience simulated marketing decision making in a 'real time' sense.

During each decision period, you will make decisions about:

• the number of brands to produce,
• the quantity of each brand to manufacture,
• the amount of advertising dollars to spend on each brand,
• the suggested retail price of each brand,
• the perceptual positioning of each brand,
• the number and allocation of salespersons across the channels of distribution,
• the number and characteristics of all R&D projects, and
• the number of marketing research studies to purchase.

Markstrat3 Mechanics

Markstrat3 now runs completely online. The URL is http://www.markstratonline.com.  All details about Markstrat3 and how to use it will be explained during the orientation classes.

First Markstrat3 Report

Your first Markstrat3 report is a comprehensive marketing plan for your firm. It is strongly recommended that you use The Marketing Plan software to create this plan. Again, if you use The Marketing Plan software, then you should export your marketing plan to a Word file that you submit, as an e-mail attachment, for a grade.

Your marketing plan should cover the five-year period from Period 3 to Period 7. As your Period 1 decision is meant primarily to familiarize you with the Markstrat3 simulation, Period 2 is the first period in which you might follow a five-year marketing plan. By the end of Period 2, you should be sufficiently familiar with Markstrat3 to write a meaningful marketing plan.

If you use The Marketing Plan software to write your marketing plan, which is strongly recommended, then be certain to include whatever detail is relevant to the Markstrat world. (For example, The Marketing Plan software allows for monthly planning, which is irrelevant to success in Markstrat3. Thus, you only need be concerned about five years of annual forecasts.) If you choose not to use The Marketing Plan software, which is strongly discouraged, then note that a comprehensive marketing plan should require 10 to 15 single-spaced typewritten pages (with 1" margins and either a Times Roman 12 pitch or Arial 11 pitch font), excluding exhibits. In this case, please limit yourself to no more than 20 pages of text. Furthermore, note that the instructor will only provide broad feedback on drafts of marketing plans not created with The Marketing Plan software.

Second Markstrat3 Report

The following questions about the mechanics of decision making must be addressed. Be certain that you provide specific answers to each question. Your answers should include both the way in which you used the Markstrat3 information (i.e., what information was used to make what decisions). Specifically, this report allows you to indicate the data you gathered from the Markstrat simulation, how you analyzed that data, and how you converted that analysis into the numbers you entered into the decision module. Do not merely indicate a vague, general approach to decision making. Although it is necessary to mention the research reports that you considered and your general approach to evaluating those reports, you must also indicate how you moved from a general approach to the numbers that you entered into the decision module. If helpful, you may use examples to illustrate your approach. Do not just say that you slightly increased the original values provided in Period 0 without any justification for that procedure. Finally, MECHANICS DOES NOT MEAN STRATEGY AND TACTICS; RATHER, IT MEANS HOW YOU SYSTEMATICALLY USED THE INFORMATION REPORTED ON YOUR Markstrat3 REPORTS TO MAKE DECISIONS.

If Vodite decision mechanics differed from Sonite decision mechanics, that too should be addressed.

A comprehensive second report requires roughly 7 to 10 single-spaced typewritten pages (with 1" margins and either a Times Roman 12 pitch or Arial 11 pitch font), excluding exhibits. Please limit yourself to no more than 12 pages of text.

One format request: Please retype the question prior to typing your answer. This will make it easier to read your report.

Questions:

1. How did you set the number of units produced of each brand?
2. How did you set the advertising budget for each brand?
   • How did advertising expenditures in previous periods affect current period advertising expenditures?
   • How did advertising expenditures by competitors affect your advertising expenditures?
   • How did you set the percent spent on advertising research for each brand?
3. How did you set the perceptual objectives for each brand?
4. How did you set the price of each brand?
   • How did competitive pricing decisions influence your pricing decisions?
5. How did you set sales force size?
   • How was your sales force allocated across channels?
   • How did competitive sales force size influence your decisions?
6. How did you decide to conduct an R&D project.
7. How did you design R&D projects?
8. What additional analytical tools or models (either computer based or paper and pencil) did you use to make the above decisions?

Third Markstrat3 Report

Your third Markstrat3 report should discuss the strategies and tactics you used throughout the simulation. You should, when appropriate, indicate the marketing-based reasoning you used to make your decisions.

A comprehensive third report requires 10 to 15, single-spaced, typewritten pages (with 1" margins and either a Times Roman 12 pitch or Arial 11 pitch font), excluding exhibits. Please limit yourself to no more than 20 pages of text.

Your third Markstrat3 report should be organized as follows:

1. A brief summary of your initial marketing plan. Include a brief summary of your overall strategic and tactical goals for the first several decision periods.
2. If they changed over time, your overall strategic and tactical goals for the last several decision periods. If they changed, explain why they changed.
3. The specifics of the basic product decisions that you made. This is the heart of your report. This section may be organized in one of three ways:
   • by product,
   • by market segment, or
   • by decision period. (Note: I recommend that you select either (a) or (b) to organize your presentation.) Also, you should include your response to anticipated or actual decisions by your competitors. In other words, do not limit your discussion to what you did.
4. A closing discussion about what you learned and what you would, if you had it to do over again, do differently. Include anything that you learned about the response to changes in the level of marketing mix expenditures (i.e., the sale response function). Also, discuss any synergistic effects of marketing mix expenditures.

Recommendations for the Third Report

In no particular order, here are some recommendations for your third Markstrat3 report. You are not required to take any but the first one. However, the more of these recommendations you follow, the more likely your report will be well-regarded.

1. Again, remember to write your name on the title page of your report.
2. Do not just 'dump the facts'; explain their implications. If you state an obvious fact, explain why it should be noted.
3. Do not state your strategic and tactical goals either too broadly (e.g., maximize net marketing contribution) or too narrowly (i.e., increase sales force by ten percent per year).
4. Indicate the strategic and tactical decisions associated with your goals.
5. Indicate your 'competitive' thinking.
6. Indicate the relationship between basic marketing concepts and the decisions you made.
7. Profile the dynamics of the competitive environment associated with each of the five market segments in the Markstrat3 world.
8. Indicate what 'went into your thinking' when you designed any R & D project.
9. Indicate how your new or repositioned products meshed with your strategy and tactics.
10. Do not limit your report to 'what you did'. Do indicate why/how did you decided not to pursue certain strategies and/or tactics.
11. Indicate any interesting/unusual data analyses and their impact upon decision making.
12. Do not include exhibits that only indicate the obvious. Your report should not be used as an excuse to experiment with computer generated graphics.

Learning Log

The learning log is an optional assignment for a student who wants to improve on the lowest grade received for one of the three group reports.  Your learning log should discuss your period-by-period insights about the Markstrat3 world.  These insights would involve customers, competitors, and the underlying Markstrat3 environment.  The only requirement for your learning log: it must be submitted electronically as a Word (version 2003 or less) or WordPerfect (version 11 or less) document by 5:00pm on December 6th.  Feedback is available on drafts submitted at least one week before this deadline.

Final Notes

Withdrawals. The deadline for withdrawing from a course in the fall is October 15th. No faculty or department head signatures are required to drop a class.  You may drop a class on the web only until the last day to drop (September 10th). Courses dropped by September 10th do not appear on your transcript.

Incomplete Grades. Under university policy, you may only receive a grade of 'I' if you have a passing grade at mid-semester (the last day to withdraw from a class) and are precluded from successful completion of the second half of the course by a documented illness, documented death, family crisis or other similar circumstances beyond your control. An incomplete cannot be given to avoid assigning a grade for marginal or failing work. Requirements for removal of the I grade will be clearly stated on the I grade form and you will receive a copy of that form. Incompletes do not automatically convert to F's if the course is not completed.

Cheating. The instructor defines cheating as (1) submitting another person's work as your own work, or (2) using assistance--another person or any written material--to help answer examination questions. Any student caught cheating on an assignment or examination will receive a permanent 0 (zero) for that assignment or examination.

Students with Disabilities.  If you have or believe you have a disability and would benefit from any accommodations, you may wish to self-identify by contacting the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) Office located in Garcia Annex (phone: 646-6840). If you have already registered, please ensure that your instructor receives a copy of the accommodation memorandum from SSD within the first two weeks of classes. It is your responsibility to inform either your instructor or SSD representative in a timely manner if services/accommodations provided are not meeting your needs.

If you have a condition which may affect your ability to exit safely from the premises in an emergency or which may cause an emergency during class, you are encouraged to discuss any concerns with the instructor and/or Michael Armendariz, SSD Coordinator. Feel free to call Ms. Angela Velasco, Interim EEO/ADA and Employee Relations Director at 646-3333 with any questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. All medical information will be treated confidentially.