Course Title: Retention Marketing

PGPCM 2021-2023
Term V
(October-December, 2022)

Anchor Faculty: Mayank Kumar

Faculty: Tanya Gurwara (VF)
Research Associate: TBD
Unit Reference
Unit Title Retention Marketing

Credits 1

Sessions 8

Session Duration 75 (In-class)

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Growth marketing, the process of attracting, engaging, and retaining customers through
identifying their preferred mode of interaction with the brand, has become a key tool for every
marketer in the ever-expanding digital world. They are spending millions of dollars to connect,
engage and acquire the same customer from their competitors. Although the new customer
acquisition spend is increasing, there are always some winners and losers in this race.

However, as the ecosystem is getting more mature, many brands are beginning to realize that
long-term customer loyalty is no longer assured in the digital era. They are forced to think
beyond customer acquisition and focus equally on product-market fit, retention, cohorts, and
customer lifetime value.

Retention marketing is the art & science of driving repeats, cross-sells, up-sells, and getting
customers to keep coming. It also allows the brands to set themselves apart from their
competitors and spot new opportunities for growth.

What are the course components?

1. How to think about Retention Marketing in a digitally enabled world: retention marketing
strategies that work in this new eco-system.
2. Core components of retention marketing in the digitally enabled world: Community,
Content and Communications and how these are transforming business initiatives
3. Retention marketing concepts and how they fit in within the discipline of marketing
communications.
4. Applications of retention marketing concepts in the real world through the concepts of
paid, owned & earned media.
 Why is this course necessary for the post graduate students at MICA?

1. Lays the foundations for where the world is going in the new age of digital marketing
2. Participants will be able to understand a high level view of marketing concepts in a
digitally enabled world enabling them to devise digital marketing strategies for brands
3. Participants will be able to appreciate the criticality of digital marketing strategies,
concepts, tools and applications in today’s organisations
4. Gives the participants an understanding of how digital media channels can be used to
transform businesses via marketing promotions

How: How will the course help me to use, apply, or take forward the learning from this
course?

1. Participants will be able to approach any digital transformation process of their

organisations’ marketing efforts in a strategic manner and contribute both at a strategic
and tactical levels
2. Exposure to digital marketing concepts such as paid, owned & earned media will help
them take better marketing decisions and extract the full potential of digital marketing
for the organisations.
PRE-REQUISITES:
This is a core course hence it has no pre-requisite. But an exposure to courses in Product
Management, Basics of Marketing & Search/Display/Social Media Marketing is required for
participants to grasp the content of the course.

PEDAGOGY:

The course will be conducted through a combination of:

1. Interactive, participatory lectures
2. Case-studies & simulation exercises

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1. Students will learn key strategies listed above and how to use them in business contexts
2. Students will learn to appreciate the importance of the marketing pillars of community,
content and communication
3. Students will learn digital marketing channels and their applications in businesses
4. Students will learn the measurement KPIs and parameters used to measure ROI in digital
marketing
ASSESSMENT:

Group Assignment 40%

Quiz 1 30%

Quiz 2 30%

Total 100%

ASSESSMENT STRATEGY:
While lectures and case studies will be used to deliver the sessions, projects also form an equally
important component of pedagogy. Participants are expected to go through the readings
relevant for each lecture for class discussions.
Participants will be required to undertake one quiz as an individual assignment during the term.
Other than the individual assignment, the class will be divided into groups (6 in each group) with
each group completing one group assignment at the end of the course. Student groups have to
submit the solution for the given case study as per their comprehension of the problem. There
will also be an evaluation component for class participation.
Plagiarism Note (For Take Home Assignments): All work you submit for this course must be
original and cannot be fabricated. If you do borrow from another source for any purpose, please
follow APA guidelines. If you are not sure what plagiarism means, consult your Student Manual
or your faculty. Any offence found on account of plagiarism or fabrication will be subject to a
failing grade (F).

Quizzes, Mid Term and End Term Exams: You are required to strictly adhere to the Examination
Protocols & Discipline specified in the Student Manual. Any violation will attract Zero Mark for
the Subject component.
SESSION PLAN:
Sessions Reading Session Topic / Content Faculty

1 ● Customer Retention - Why this should be the

focus
● Customer Lifecycle - First Purchase

2 ● Introduction to Retention Channels - Email,

SMS, Push Notification, Whatsapp

● Philosophy of Customer Communication

● Segmentation & Targeting

3-4 ● Understand Customer Lifecycle

● Customer Preference Management

5 ● Marketing Automation
● Case Study of a Channel - Anatomy of an Email

● Case Study of a Channel - Email Metrics

● Case Study of a Channel - Deliverability

6 ● Retention KPI
● Cohort Analysis

7-8 Pre-read ● Customer Loyalty

handout
● Store Study - Amazon | Netflix

Recommended web resources

1. eConsultancy.com
2. SearchEngineLand.com
3. SocialMediaExplorer.com
4. Avinash Kaushik – www.kaushik.net

Reference Book:
1. Digital marketing fundamentals: from Strategy to ROI by Marjolein Visser, Berend
Sikkenga and Mike Berry; published by Noordhoff Uitgevers