English   Danish

2014/2015  KAN-CSCBU1002U  Marketing and Creative Processes

English Title
Marketing and Creative Processes

Course information
Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Mandatory
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Semester
Course period Autumn
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Study board
Study Board for MSc of Social Science
Course coordinator
  • Sebastian Zenker - Department of Marketing (Marketing)
Main academic disciplines
  • Marketing
Last updated on 11-08-2014
Learning objectives
This course aims at giving students an understanding of the complexity of branding strategies within the marketing context. The specific learning objectives of the course are the following
  • Develop an understanding for the various considerations involved in marketing planning, including Product Innovation, Pricing, Promotion and Retail/Distribution Strategy
  • Understand differenses between the profit, non-profit and non-traditional marketing sectors (e.g. tourism, city marketing)
  • Analyze the marketing challenges facing organizations in an environment characterised by high levels of both complexity and competition from the business, non-profit, and the non-traditional marketing sectors
  • Develop an understanding for measuring brands, different branding strategies, brand management, and the influence of brand complexity in this regards
  • Create, describe and evaluate different concepts of branding, marketing communication, competitive positioning and marketing strategy for the business and non-profit, and the non-traditional marketing sectors
Examination
Marketing and Creative Processes:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Oral exam based on written product

In order to participate in the oral exam, the written product must be handed in before the oral exam; by the set deadline. The grade is based on an overall assessment of the written product and the individual oral performance.
Individual or group exam Group exam, max. 5 students in the group
Size of written product Max. 15 pages
If written individually the project must be max. 10 pages.
Assignment type Project
Duration
Written product to be submitted on specified date and time.
20 min. per student, including examiners' discussion of grade, and informing plus explaining the grade
Grading scale 7-step scale
Examiner(s) Internal examiner and second internal examiner
Exam period December/January
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
If a student is ill during the regular oral exam, he/she will be able to re-use the project at the make-up exam. If a student is ill during the writing of the project and did not contribute to the project, the make-up exam can be written individually or in groups (provided that other students are taking the make-up/re-exam). If the student did not pass the regular exam, he/she must make a new revised project (confer advice from the examiner) and hand it in on a new deadline specified by the secretariat.
Description of the exam procedure
You or your group have to choose a brand (from the profit, non-profit, or non-traditional marketing sector)which was once regarded as a failure but which managed a turnaround regarding key indicators like sales, market share, innovation, consumer acceptance or trust. As an example, think of the German car maker Audi. During the 1980s and early 1990s, it suffered from poor brand image, a limited range of models, and uninspiring design. Today, Audi is amongst the most attractive and competitive car makers in the world and its unit sales have actually overtaken that of its rival BMW.
 
In your report, describe briefly why the brand of your choice experienced difficulties, and outline key decisions that helped the brand regain its competitive advantage. You can do this by analyzing how this company/organization repositioned itself and its brand, changed the intangible and tangible features of its product(s) or services, and changed the way it communicated with its target market. In your report, you should also discuss whether this brand employed innovative forms of interactive communication technologies as part of its changed marketing strategy, and whether you can find evidence that this company now co-opts consumers’ competences (co-creation).
Course content and structure
Marketing and Creative processes comprises a set of activities that work in concert with other (business) functions such as logistics, technology, production, customer services, and the secondary value functions of finance, legal services, and accounting. However, marketing and creative processes is much more than a set of functions, managerial strategies, models and techniques which treat the market merely as the end of business strategy and marketing campaigns as instrumental means and not only companies use marketing and branding strategies.
 
In this course, students will therefore be introduced to key processes within a contemporary marketing context that treats consumers as an active part in the value creation process – not only at the traditional business sector, but also for non-profit and non-traditional marketing sectors, such as tourism or city marketing. This course thus acts as an introductory course into marketing and cretaive procesesses in different fields, and will provide students with an understanding of marketing as a philosophy rather than merely as a business function. In particular, the role of consumers and their expactations and interactions with products and services will be discussed. Furthermore, the issue of brands and brand complexity will be a primary part of teaching.
 
The course will take students from the various stages of a marketing campaign, from preliminary research and market analysis, to segmentation, targeting and positioning, and finally to issues of (service) product development, integrated communications, pricing, retail/distribution decisions, and finally brand management.
Teaching methods
Class and lecturers will meet once a week for four hours in total. The course consists of two forms of teaching (two sessions): during the first session of two hours, Sebastian Zenker will present the relevant theoretical topics of the week (models, theories, and research methods) in form of an interactive lecture. After a short break, Sebastian Zenker will meet the class in a second session. This will take place as an intensive and discussion-based seminar in which specific ‘real-life’ cases and literature will be discussed. Please notice that the reading of the given literature is mandatory!

The course will start with an introductory session at which the course co-ordinator will explain the rationale and structure of the course, the course aims, the literature base, the case studies, and the structure of the mini-project.

Please note: since this is a postgraduate course, an undergraduate-level knowledge of the basic principles of marketing is expected of all students. For those students who have not had a marketing course before, the chapters in Kotler et al., ‘Principles of Marketing’, are required readings. For more experienced students, these chapters are recommended readings to refresh their memory. The content of these chapters is part of the course syllabus.
Expected literature
Please note that literature is only guidning.

P. Kotler, G. Armstrong, V. Wong, J. Saunders, Principles of Marketing. 5th European Edition, 2008. Chapter 1, 3, and 4.
P. A. Titus, ‘Applied creativity: the creative marketing breakthrough model’, Journal of Marketing Education, Vol. 29 No. 3 (2007), pp. 262-272.
N. Bendapudi, R. P. Leone,‘Psychological implications of customer participation in co-production’, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 67, No. 1 (2003), pp. 14-28.
Last updated on 11-08-2014