SYLLABUS • WINTER 2021

Introduction to Marketing Management

MKTG 201, Recitation

Course Information
Course number: MKTG-201-066
Class time and day: Friday 04:00 pm – 05:50 pm
Location: Online via Zoom: https://drexel.zoom.us/j/84353653048

BlackBoard Learn: The College utilizes BlackBoard Learn (BB Learn) as its Learning
Management System. You can find a copy of the course syllabus and other related materials on
BB Learn for this course. (https://learn.dcollege.net)

Instructor information
Name: Morgan Bale
E-mail address: mab825@drexel.edu
Office hours: By appointment
Office location: Appointments may be arranged by email to take place online via Zoom

Course Description:
This recitation class aims to provide a review of the key marketing concepts covered in the main
lecture. In addition, students will work on a Marketing Simulation individually and apply the
marketing concepts in solving a business case. At the end of the quarter, each person will
complete a final paper.

Course Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:
• Understand basic marketing terms and marketing constructs
• Apply marketing constructs to business cases
• Apply acquired knowledge into virtual simulation analysis

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Required Course Material:

Textbook (Same as Lecture):

No additional books for the recitation, but purchase of the Marketing Simulation is required.

Marketplace Simulation:

The focus of this course is a strategy exercise filled with tactical details. Through computer
simulation, we will place you into a very realistic international business setting where you will
run a marketing division for six quarters in compressed time (six rounds of decision-making).

Simulation Learning Objectives

The Marketplace simulation is a transformational experience. You will learn what it will be like
to compete in the fast-paced, competitive market where customers are demanding and the
competition is working hard to take away your business.

In the Marketplace, you start up and run your own marketing division, struggling with marketing
fundamentals and the interplay between product, price, place, promotion, budgets, and financial
performance. You are given control of a simulated business and must manage its operations
through several decision cycles. Repeatedly, you must analyze the situation, plan a marketing
strategy to improve it, select the tactical options to implement that strategy and then execute the
strategy and tactics out into the future. You face great uncertainty from the outside environment
and from your own decisions. Incrementally, you learn to skillfully adjust your strategy as you
discover the nature of your real-life decisions, including the available options, linkages to other
parts of the business, conflicts, tradeoffs, and potential outcomes.

Here is a list of what Marketplace players do:

• Analyze market research data

• Design brands to appeal to different market segments
• Devise advertising campaigns, sales force plans, and price option
• Plan and roll out a marketing campaign
• Manage cash
• Compete head-to-head with other business teams
• Adjust strategy and tactics in response to financial performance, competitive tactics, and
customer needs

The specific goal of the exercise is to develop your marketing management skills by giving you
an integrated perspective of the entire marketing operation. In terms of specifics, the exercise
can:

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 • Develop strategic planning and execution skills within a rapidly changing environment
• Crystallize the linkages between marketing decisions and financial performance
• Instill a bottom line focus and the simultaneous need to deliver customer value
• Internalize how important it is to use market data and competitive signals to adjust the
strategic
• Plan and more tightly focus marketing tactics
• Promote better decision-making by helping individuals see how their decisions can affect
the performance of marketing activities & the organization as a whole
• Facilitate learning of important marketing concepts, principles and ways of thinking
• Build confidence through knowledge and experience

Organization of the Exercise

Each quarter or decision period has a dominant activity and a set of decisions that are linked to it.
These dominant activities take you through the product and firm life cycle from introduction, to
development, to growth, to near maturity. As you work through your firm’s life cycle, we will
phase in the disciplinary material as it becomes relevant to the current decisions of the team.

Each quarter's activities not only result in new material being introduced, but also build upon the
prior content so that there is considerable repetition. We have found that marketing activities
such as value creation in product design, pricing, distribution and sales force management, ad
copy design, media planning, budgeting, profit analysis, and strategic planning and management
are not easily absorbed. They require repetitive exercise in order to set them into the natural
thinking of the students.

Attendance Policy:

Class attendance and participation is important to ensure students understand how to complete
their assignments. Class time is dedicated to helping students and answering any questions
students have. If students are not able to attend this recitation section, they should sign up for
another recitation time.

Assignments:

1) Marketplace Quarter 1 Decision Due #1 (Due Jan. 29, 6 p.m. sharp)

2) Marketplace Quarter 2 Decision Due #2 (Due Feb. 5, 6 p.m. sharp)
3) Marketplace Quarter 3 Decision Due #3 (Due Feb. 12, 6 p.m. sharp)
4) Marketplace Quarter 4 Decision Due #4 (Due Feb. 19, 6 p.m. sharp)
5) Marketplace Quarter 5 Decision Due #5 (Due Feb. 26, 6 p.m. sharp)
6) Marketplace Quarter 6 Decision Due #6 (Due March 5, 6 p.m. sharp)
7) Marketing Plan Final Paper Due (Due March 12, 11:59 p.m. sharp)

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References and Bibliography

When writing papers that involve the use of materials written or created by others, proper
citation is required. APA style is preferred, other citation formats such as MLA and Chicago are
also acceptable.

Late Work and Makeup Assignments:

Submission of an assignment past its due date will result in a lower grade. Make-up assignments
will not be given unless there is an extenuating circumstance acceptable to the instructor.

Grading Criteria:
Market Place Simulation 50%
Marketing Plan Final Paper 50%
Total 100%

Grading Scale:
The following grading scale will be used in the course:

A+ 98-100 (Drexel considers A+ 4.0)

A 93-97 (Drexel considers A 4.0)
A- 90-92
B+ 87-89
B 83-86
B- 80-82
C+ 77-79
C 73-76
C- 70-72
D+ 67-69
D 60-66
F 59 and lower

Academic Policies
Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, and Cheating Policy:
Please refer to the Student Handbook
(http://www.drexel.edu/studentaffairs/community_standards/studentHandbook/) and in particular
review the sections on Student Conduct & Community Standards.

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Students with Disabilities Statement:
Student with disabilities requesting accommodations and services at Drexel University need to
present a current Accommodation Verification Letter (AVL) to faculty before accommodations
can be made. AVL's are issued by the Office of Disability Resources (ODR). For additional
information, contact ODR at www.drexel.edu/odr, 3201 Arch St., Street, Suite 210, Philadelphia,
PA 19104, 215.895.1401 (V), or 215.895.2299 (TTY).

Course Add/Drop/Withdrawal Policies:

Please refer to the following University policies regarding adding, dropping, and withdrawing
from courses:
http://drexel.edu/drexelcentral/courses/adjustments/Adding%20and%20Dropping%20Courses/
http://drexel.edu/drexelcentral/courses/adjustments/course-withdraw/

Communicating Revisions to the Course:

If any changes are required to the course schedule, students will be notified as soon as possible.
Potential changes may result from class cancelation due to weather, or other unforeseen
circumstances. In the event class is cancelled or a change to the schedule is necessary, students
can expect revisions to their assignments.

Time Zones and Assignment Due Dates

Drexel’s Blackboard servers are located in the Eastern Time Zone (currently observing EST
which is UTC-5). All due dates and times should be understood as being displayed in Eastern
Time. For example, an assignment that is due at 11:59 PM (Eastern) on a Wednesday would be
due on Wednesday at 8:59 PM Pacific and due on Thursday at 4:59 AM UTC. Students should
adjust any deadlines to their own time zone. No changes to due dates/times (or how they display
in Blackboard) are made for students in other time zones.

Email Correspondence
It is important for students to check their Drexel email at least three (3) times per week for
important course-related information. Students should only send instructor questions from
their Drexel email account and not from an external account (e.g. gmail, etc.). For security
purposes, Drexel instructors are directed not to reply to student emails that come from non-
Drexel email addresses, and instructors will only use their own official Drexel email accounts to
communicate with students.

Faculty Feedback and Grades

Using the preferred method of communication for student questions (email, phone, etc. as
indicated in the syllabus) may shorten instructor response times. In general, faculty check their
email at least once per weekday and once on the weekend, but given the current emergency,

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these frequencies may vary. Grades and feedback for assignments and tests will normally be
posted to Blackboard Learn within two weeks of the due date.

General Technical Support

Students who need technical support can use the following contacts. When emailing, consider
including a phone number for tech representatives to call back if needed.
• Drexel Accounts (can’t log in, multi-factor authentication, Office365)
Email: consult@drexel.edu
• Zoom Support (logging in, using Zoom, etc.)
1) Help option within the Zoom app (general Zoom support not related to logging in)
2) LeBow Tech: lcbtech@drexel.edu (questions during business hours)
3) Drexel 24/7 support: 215-895-1224 (high urgency or issues after business hours)
• Blackboard Support (Course materials, videos, assignments, tests, etc.)
1) Drexel 24/7 support: 215-895-1224
2) LeBow Instructional Tech: lebowintech@drexel.edu
• Business Software/vApps (SAS, JMP, MATLAB, Minitab, Stata, etc.)
LeBow Tech: lcbtech@drexel.edu

Remote Class Facilitation Expectations

During the activation of Drexel’s emergency response plan, courses which were to take place in
a classroom will now be facilitated remotely using webinar technologies (e.g. Zoom) and
through supplemental uses of Drexel’s Blackboard Learn LMS. Any synchronous class sessions
will take place during the originally scheduled class time but will be recorded and can be made
available to students who, due to substantial time zone shift or illness, are not able to attend the
live event (students should contact their instructor as soon as possible if they anticipate this
need). Faculty office hours will also take place via Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc. and can be
scheduled at various times to best meet student needs. Meeting links will be placed in
Blackboard (aka Drexel Learn) for easy student access.

Appropriate Use of Course Materials

It is important to recognize that some or all of the course materials provided to you may be the
intellectual property of Drexel University, the course instructor, or others. Use of this
intellectual property is governed by Drexel University policies, including the IT-1 policy found
at: https://drexel.edu/it/about/policies/policies/01-Acceptable-Use/

Briefly, this policy states that all course materials including recordings provided by the course
instructor may not be copied, reproduced, distributed or re-posted. Doing so may be considered a
breach of this policy and will be investigated and addressed as possible academic dishonesty,
among other potential violations. Improper use of such materials may also constitute a violation

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of the University’s Code of Conduct found at: https://drexel.edu/cpo/policies/cpo-1/ and will be
investigated as such.

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Important Dates:

Monday, January 11, Classes Begin

2021

Friday, January 15, 2021 Last day to Add/Drop a course with Academic Advisor assistance

Sunday, January 17, Last day to Add/Drop a course via DrexelOne by 11:59 p.m.
2021

Friday, February 26, Last day to Withdraw from a Full Term course with Academic
2021 Advisor assistance

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 Marketing Plan Final Paper Guidelines:
The Final Paper will be submitted via Turnitin.com (link will be provided on BB Learn). It
should be 3-5 pages, double-spaced. Follow the MLA or APA stylistic guidelines.
1. Review your financial and market performance during the first and second year.
Remember, 6 quarters=1.5 years (showing the trend is important) 20%
2. Highlight the key features of the firm’s marketing plan throughout the exercise 32%
a. Brand Strategy (8 pts)
b. Pricing Strategy (8 pts)
c. Advertising Strategy (8 pts)
d. Sales Channel (8 pts)
3. Assess your current situation and the market (What are your firm’s strengths and
weaknesses?) 20%
4. Summarize how you have prepared your firm to compete in the future. 20%
5. What were the lessons learned? 8%