Lahore School of Economics

All MBA Marketing Strategy Participants MUST read this Outline

Please print and bring this OUTLINE to class
Please bring your NAME PLATE with you
Please be ready for the First Quiz in your First Session
And then in EVERY session
Please read the NOTE on Attendance in this OUTLINE

Course Title
Marketing Strategy
Spring 2015
Class Details
MBA
Two Sections
Course Duration
28 sessions
Course Instructor
Dr Aamir Khan
Associate Professor of Marketing and General Management,
Associate Dean (Executive Education)
Lahore School of Economics
Email: aamir3123@gmail.com

Class Room
Aud 10

Students: Please bring this Outline to your first two classes. Also please
remember to always carry your NAME CARDS for my class. You will not get
the chance to speak if you do not have one.

Also note that attendance is compulsory. Only if you

have a valid excuse (marriage does not count as one,
nor does mild fever) will you get a class off and that
too in a very limited number. You will get a penalty
from your third absence and you will have to repeat
the course if you miss five classes.

Course Rationale
Among all business functions and processes within both for-profit and almost all
not-for-profit organizations, marketing comes closest to knowing, or should come
closest to knowing, what the customer needs, wants, and desires, and how they
can be persuaded to repeatedly exchange value with the organization. As such,
the marketing function and the marketing processes embedded in the company
provide the primary and first interface between the customer and the company.
Consequently, any business plan will ideally begin with an input from the
marketing side (whether functional or processual) of the company. Without
this input, the company is basing its decisions on intuition, gut feeling and past
experiences.

This is because it is the marketing department (or the marketing process) which
will inform all other functions about the customer need and demand, so that the
latter functions are in a position to decide how much budget is needed, how
many employees are required, what kind of products and services will fulfill
unmet customer needs and demands, even what kind of IT system is required
and so on. Not surprisingly, empirical research has repeatedly established that
more market-oriented companies perform better. Perhaps this explains why
marketing courses have remained, over the years, the core courses offered in
the MBA, EMBA, and executive programs all over the world.

Very soon, you will be interviewed by potential employers. You will have taken
by now at least one course in Marketing, and possibly more. It is important that
you realize and understand the ethos and positioning of this course that LSE is
offering. The positioning of this course is to prepare you for the job market
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interview, in addition to giving you an overall view of both marketing strategy

and planning.

As such, while this course is in keeping with the case method, using multiple
cases as a platform for discussions, it will also focus on a range of ideas, concepts,
constructs, theories, definitions, frameworks, matrices, techniques and tools, as
well as a host of real-life examples, relating to the domain and practice of
marketing. Why? Because I would like to give you an overall, integrated
picture of marketing so that you are anchored in the broad view of marketing
itself.
This course will also discuss Marketing Planning, a key activity that many
companies undertake to provide the above-mentioned input in a structured way
to the company itself (i.e., the marketing plan is an input not only to the
marketing department but also to the entire company). Marketing planning is an
activity designed to provide a direction to the company. It is also a benchmark
that allows the company to measure its progress. Even more importantly, it
provides the management of an organization, particularly at the top level, with a
platform to rationally discuss, debate, reformulate, and solve some of the key
issues faced by the organization. Thus, marketing planning is a necessary skill
not only for the marketer who is moving up the managerial ladder, but also for
any manager who is concerned with business planning for the entire
organization, or even with planning for his or her own functional department.
This course will also have a module on Digital Marketing and CRM. A lot of
confusion still surrounds the two terms. At the heart of both lie the idea that the
traditional marketing (segmenting broadly the market and then reaching it
mainly through the ad, but also through other means) needs to buttressed (some
have argued that it should be replaced and I will leave the discussion to you) by
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newer technologies such as the internet, facebook, twitter, and so on. Also, with
the availability of data at the individual level now (e.g. in banking but also in
telecom, and surprisingly in the retail sector) it is possible to target a valueadding proposition at the individual customer (e.g. TESCO in UK). We will do a
module on Digital Marketing and CRM which will include a long exercise, some
cases and even discussions with experts in these areas.

Marketing Project
As my previous students will testify, I attach no higher importance to any part of
the course than the Marketing Project this is where you will shine on your own
and will bring to class the fruit of your research and hard work as a team. By
team I mean no less than four and no more than five persons working on a topic
from DAY 1 of the course. So please immediately send your names to Ms. Aqsa
the TA for this course.
You will select a topic of your choice basically you will select a company and a
brand and a product (discuss with me what this means) and then carry out
ORIGINAL research by going to the customers themselves AND also the
company and come back to class at the end of the course and make an 8 minute
PRESENTATION summarizing your conclusions about how successful this
product is and what else can be done.

Course Objectives

To prepare participants for the job market interview (building on other

marketing courses, which are also aimed at the same but this course is
perhaps the finishing touch on all those preparations)

To provide an overall view of what marketing is, what marketing strategy

is, and how marketing works

To develop the participants decision-making skills by the use of the case

method i.e., to take decisions, in this case marketing decisions, based on
data which may be sketchy or detailed, and to be able to argue ones view
point when faced with heavy grilling (as may happen in a company)
with logic, lucidity, and composure

To be able to read, digest, and present managerial articles related to your

managerial responsibilities

To discuss elements of a marketing plan and to construct a Directional

Policy Matrix (DPM)

To review, consolidate, and deepen the marketing knowledge (theories,

concepts, frameworks, tools, variables) that the students have learnt in the
MBA program by using them in developing an actual marketing plan

To further improve the presentational skills of participants through the

Marketing project

Course Requirements and Attendance Policy

Preparation for regular attendance, and full participation and involvement

in the 28 class sessions;

Marketing project: as discussed above;

Your section is ethically and morally bound not to ask any person outside
of the class, or to solicit the solution of any case from any person or
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medium whatsoever. You are honor bound to abide by this requirement.

Any breech of this code will be considered as cheating by me.

Punctuality and regularity are the most important inputs required by me.
If you are late even by one minute you get a penalty. If you are absent
without a genuine reason (we will define a genuine reason) you get a
more serious penalty. You will lose one percent for missing one class after
you have missed two (and those two only if you have a genuine reason
which means there is no way you can come to class), and a half percent for
coming late. Please be in the class room five minutes before the class
starts.

No quiz will be re-taken. My quizzes are held in the very first minute of
the class so please be early. You should be seated FIVE minutes before the
class starts.

Course Text
PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING
By
Kotler, Armstrong, Agnihotri and Ehsan ul Haque.

Please try to buy a non-pirated edition. Please note that we will use this book selectively
and as a background text we will focus more on papers and cases. Therefore if you have
read it earlier, it does not matter.

Grade Distribution
Final Term

30%

Mid Term

20%
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Project Presentations

20%

Quizzes

10%

Class Participation

20%

Attendance

Negative Marketing of 1% per absence after

two missed classes and that too if you have a GENUINE reason (your own
marriage, walima, mild fever, heartbreak, etc. do not count as genuine
reasons).

Examinations
There will be two examinations: mid-term and a final.

Quizzes
In order to make sure that students keep up with the course, several
unannounced quizzes will be given during the semester. No make-up quiz
will be given.
Attendance: All sessions are compulsory. You may miss a class only in a
serious emergency, and only after informing the instructor. There is a penalty
for missing even a single session unless you have informed the instructor and
he has agreed. I have repeated this multiple times in this OUTLINE because in
the last term we had some problems with a student who had missed a large
number of classes.
The onus for knowing what transpired in the class is on the student. However,
attendance shall be taken at the beginning of the class. If you are not present at
the time of attendance you will be marked absent. Keeping abreast with the class
timings, makeup classes, assignments, due dates and any deadlines with respect
to this subject will be the responsibility of the student.
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Course Outline
NOTE
I will be teaching two sections. This means the content of every
session can change as I will try to keep it different. In any case you
are not allowed to discuss your sections content, teaching, cases,
projects, anything with the other section.
Sessions 1-2
Title: What is Marketing Strategy? Value Generation
Case: Unilever in Brazil
Note: Harvard Note on Marketing Strategy
Questions to Prepare:
1.

What are the decisions Laercio Cardoso faces in the case?

What is the dilemma he faces?

2.

How would you position the product?

3.

Assume that the top management and Laercio decide to go

for the low-income market in the Northeast of Brazil. Also
assume the price (i.e. WP see case) has been decided by the
top management and Laercio to be 50% of OMO.
a) What is the product?
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b) What is its name? (i.e. choose a brand name/brand

extension etc. for it)
c) What promotion policy will you adopt?
d) Calculate: i) the cost of the product ii) the margin (for the
price mentioned above) based on the cost calculated by you.
4.

Should Laercio and the top management be worried about

cannibalization? What measurable guidelines should Laercio
have in mind in deciding whether or not he has not
cannibalized other brands by launching his product for the
low-income market?

Sessions 3-4
Title: Data Interpretation and Marketing Positioning
Case: Vicks (A)
Questions to Prepare:
1.

What are the decisions Chuck faces?

2.

What is the consumer demand for the product in question?

3.

Please construct a table of all brands versus ingredients Any

conclusions you can draw from the table?

4.

Construct a positioning map for the brands and find space/spot

for the product/brand in question

5.

Which research option mentioned on pp 9-10 will you choose?

Why?

6.

Give the product a name

Sessions 5-6
Title: Market Research Data Interpretation and Decision Making
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Vicks (B)
Questions to Prepare
1. What do you think about the name chosen, and how would you
compare it with the names that your class chose last week?
2. What decisions does the Scorpio team face now at the end of the
B case?
3. Are the results good? Bad? So so?
4. How would you evaluate the Test Design?
5. How would you evaluate the Test implementation? Please be
careful to divide the issues related to research in the case into
Design and Implementation ones.

Sessions 7-8
Title: What is Marketing Strategy? Value Generation and Value Communication
Case: FAMVIC
Questions to Prepare

Sessions 9-10
Papers and Book Chapters 1-5
Porter Five Forces
Revision before Mid-Terms

Sessions 11-12
Title: Pricing
Case: Springfield Noreasters
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Questions to Prepare:
1.

Evaluate the Larry Buckingham survey in terms of survey

objectives, questions, pre-testing, sample design, response rate,
non response bias, response bias and any other issues that you
deem relevant.

2.

What are the key findings of the two surveys?

3.

Establish a pricing policy to maximize total revenues (but keep

in mind you do not want too many no shows)

4.

Do a break-even analysis Will they break-even in the first year?

5.

Is there excess capacity left in the stadium for group sales,

special promotions etc.?

Note: This is not an easy case and there are a lot of calculations. I suggest
you work in groups ahead of the case.

Please note that I may add or subtract a few cases or papers depending on class
progress. I will send you more cases later.

Session 13
Readings:
Note on Pricing (Harvard)
Note on Behavioral Pricing (Harvard)
Zero Defections by Reichheld and Sasser (HBR)
Mismanagement of Customer Loyalty by Reinartz and Kumar (HBR)

Session 14
Case: Mobilink Pricing Under Competition

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Sessions 15-16
Title: Marketing and Sales
Case: Milford (A)
Readings:
Note on Sales Management
Questions to Prepare:
Mentioned in the case

Session 17-18
Title: Designing a Matrix (DPM) for Competitive Analysis

Sessions 19-20
Title: Communication and Advertising
Case: Suave (A)

Sessions 21-22
Title: Forecasting
Case: Metabical

Sessions 23-26
Digital Marketing and CRM
Exercise: TESCO
Cases: HubSpot, Harrahs Entertainment,
Expert Sessions
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Sessions 27-28
Team Presentations on Marketing Projects

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