MARKETING 1 COURSE OUTLINE

Praxis Business School Objectives Marketing 1 is the introductory course for the area and aims at: Introducing the concept of Marketing and Understanding how it integrates with other functional areas of Management. Prof. S Govindrajan

Marketing 1 is a course which is based on perspectives. At the end of the course, a student does not acquire a bag of techniques. Instead, the student should be able to think and react differently - based on the three pillars of logic, common sense and understanding of human beings. A popular misconception is that the essential pre-requisites for this course are creativity and slick communication. Essential pre-requisites for this course are: capacity to construct logical arguments, data discipline, strong listening and observation skills, a keen awareness of the environment, the capacity to integrate concepts from other functional areas and the capacity to articulate sensibly. In short, to think straight. And speak sense. Once this has been taken care of, we shall try to be creative. Ground Rules of the Course There will be 20 sessions in all and this will include 4 Case Discussions. As a matter of enlightened self interest, students are advised to come well prepared with their analyses of the case to the class. No student will be allowed to enter the class after the faculty has commenced taking attendance. The lecture sessions will encourage high levels of discussion between the students and the instructor so students are encouraged to participate in the class discussions during lecture sessions. Provided they speak sense. A prescribed text will be given to the students. Please note that class time will not be used for covering the text. The student is expected to go through the text on his/her own. You are required to completely grasp the contents of this text by the time this course ends. Discussing this with others will aid understanding immensely. Data discipline is a key operating variable in this course. Candidates will be always asked to back their statements with facts and inferences from data. Two questions which you can always expect from the instructor are Why? and Therefore? Course Evaluation The Project Component will carry a weightage of 25%. Details regarding the Project are given in the handout Project Component." The Quiz Component will carry a weightage of 25%. There will be six quizzes in all, with the best five being considered for evaluation. Each Quiz will carry a weightage of 5%. Eight hours notice will be given for the quizzes.

Class participation will carry a weightage of 10%. Grading for this component will be from Plus A+ (Plus Eight Points) to Minus A+ (Minus Eight Points). The grading will judge the quality of the students contribution to the class and level of preparedness. Quantity sans quality attracts punitive measures. Bear in mind that lack of preparedness and/or meaningless CP could lead to a maximum of 0.8 points being deducted from the total grade (if you do contrive to get Minus A+) The Mid Term and End Term will each carry a weightage of 20% and will test the capacity of the candidate to internalise whatever has been taught till the time of the examination. All the evaluation components will test the capacity of the student to think rather than capacity to memorise. Consequently, all examinations in this course will be open book and open notes examinations. Marketing never operates in a vacuum and hence, all evaluation components will test the capacity of the student to apply concepts learnt in the course to real life situations. Consequently, it is imperative that students are completely abreast of the latest happenings in the world of business. This will enable them to integrate this with the learnings from the course. Lastly and this is a trademark hope from all my courses enjoy yourselves! Prescribed Text and Relevant Portions The prescribed text is Marketing Management, 14 th Edition by Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller, Abraham Koshy and Mithileshwar Jha. SESSION DETAILS Sessions 1 to 5 An introduction to Marketing and understanding the key variables to be managed by the Marketing Manager. Understanding what the Marketing Mix is and how it changes for different product market situations. Analysing competition, understanding how it affects decision making and looking at a framework to tackle competition. This module will include 1 Case Discussion. You will be required to cover Chapters 1, 2, 3 and 9 during these sessions.

Sessions 6 to 10 Understanding the concepts of STP, Product Life Cycle and how these are applied in different product market situations. This module will include 1 Case Discussion and a look at how the retail landscape has changed in India. You will be required to cover Chapters 5, 7, 8, 10 and 15 during these sessions. Sessions 11 to 16

A brief introduction to the elements of the marketing mix (product, price, promotion and place) and understanding the deployment of each element of the mix. This module will include 2 case discussions. You will be required to cover Chapters 6, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17 and 18 during these sessions. Sessions 17 to 19 An understanding of how the advent of IT has affected marketing and the changes it has enabled (prime examples being CRM, data analytics, e-commerce and digital marketing). You will be required to cover Chapters 4, 12 and 19 during these sessions.

Session 20 An understanding of Bottom of the Pyramid Marketing and Social Marketing. You will be required to cover Chapters 20 and 21 during these sessions.

PROJECT COMPONENT Each group of four students will undertake a project on the development of a Brand Dossier. After choosing a brand, the group will develop a Dossier on the brand. The project will have four parts, as outlined below. Please go through Chapter 4 of the text to familiarize yourself. The Groups will be formed by the instructor. Part 1: Literature Review for the Brand (4% Weightage) The Literature Review should contain the following aspects regarding the brand: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Early history of the brand and its evolution over time. Initial positioning and subsequent repositioning, if any. Advertising, sales promotion and segmentation strategy followed by the brand. Analysis of product and generic competition to the brand. Strategies adopted over time by the brand to tackle competition or prime market expansion. 6. Distribution strategy followed by the brand. 7. Summary regarding the future directions for the brand. The above dossier is to be compiled using secondary data supplemented by primary level data from stockists, retailers and wholesalers. The source of every piece of information has to be indicated. Deadline for Submission of Part 1: 1159 PM, 27th July 2013 Part 2: Proposal for Primary Research on the Brand in Kolkata (6% Weightage)

Based on the findings of the literature survey, the group is to formulate a Research Proposal for the brand to be carried out in Kolkata. The Proposal is to contain the following: 1. What the group wishes to establish in the project (list of hypotheses to be tested). 2. Why the group chose this aspect (justification to be provided by findings of the Literature Review). 3. The list of information requirements to be collated from the research. 4. The instrument(s) of data collection (including questionnaire design). 5. Sampling Plan and Sample Size (with justification). 6. Methods of Data Analysis to be used (with justification). Deadline for Submission of Part 2: 1159 PM, 3rd August 2013 Part 3: Report on the Findings of Primary Research on the Brand (7% Weightage) Once the faculty has cleared the proposal, the group conducts the research in Kolkata and submits the Report on the findings of the Survey. This Report is to contain the following: 1. Analysis of data and inferences drawn. 2. Summary of findings and the net take away. 3. Submission of Final report covering Parts 1 to 3. Deadline for Submission of Part 3: 1159 PM, 31 st August 2013 onwards Part 4: Presentation of Findings (8%) Here, the group makes a 20-minute presentation of the entire project. All three members have to present with no speaker being allowed more than 7 minutes of presentation time (there will be penalties for violating this criteria). The presentation will be graded for content, structure and style for the group ( 3% Weightage) and for presentation style for the individual (3 % Weightage). In addition, the group is to submit a Three Page Executive Summary detailing the entire Project at the end of the presentation. ( 2% Weightage). The evaluation will be test the quality of: 1. Analysis of data and inferences drawn. 2. Summary of findings. Date for Presentations: 15th September 2013. *****