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MKT 382 - Fall 2001 Instructor Vijay Mahajan Course Objectives This course deals with concepts, methods, and applications of decision modeling to address such marketing issues as segmentation, targeting and positioning, new product design and development, advertising, sales force and promotion planning, and site selection. The course is designed for MBA students who have some background in or understanding of marketing principles and exposure to spreadsheet programs such as EXCEL. Unlike conventional capstone marketing courses that focus on conceptual material, this course will attempt to provide skills to translate conceptual understanding into specific operational plans -- a skill in increasing demand in organizations today. Using market simulations and related exercises tied to PC-based computer software, students will develop marketing plans in various decision contexts. Specifically, the course objectives are to:
The course will be of particularly value to students planning careers in marketing and management consulting. Required Course Material
Grading
Class Participation / Attendance Class sessions will be devoted to probing, extending and applying the material in the text and the cases. It is your responsibility to be prepared for each session according to the class outline. Each one of you will benefit from belonging to a ‘study group’ that meets and prepares for each session before coming to class. Each of you is expected to contribute to class discussions. To do well, you must actively participate in presentations and class discussions. If you are unable to attend a particular session, please inform us as early as possible. If you attend, but are unprepared to participate in the day’s discussion, notify us prior to the beginning of class to avoid any embarrassment. Group Homework The class will form eight, self-selected, four-member groups during the first week of class. These groups will complete both the weekly homework and the semester project. Group members must prepare jointly for class discussions. The write-up for each group homework should not exceed five double-spaced typed pages. Appendices may be attached as necessary. Each group will be assigned the responsibility for presenting one homework for the class. The presentation assignments are listed in the class schedule. The presentation should not exceed half an hour. Class discussion should reinforce common ideas, critique potential problems, and offer additional insights to the presentation by the presentation group. Groups should try to form such that at least one member of the group has personal access to a computer with the following characteristics:
The course software will also be available in at least one GSB computer lab. Term Project The objective of the term project is to provide you with an opportunity to apply what you learn in class to a real marketing issue of interest to you. As a first step, you have to select a project of interest to your group. Then you must select or develop a model to address a specific marketing problem (segmentation, forecasting, etc.) facing a specific company. It is your responsibility to identify a suitable company for this assignment. One place to start is with your former employer. Other possibilities include contacting Texas alumni, or executives in companies sufficiently close by. You are only limited by your imagination! You must discuss your projects with the course instructor prior to working on the report and presentation, and you must turn in a two-page description of your project plan by the deadline on the class schedule. Some example projects include:
For the term project, you can either build a model of your own, or adapt one (or a few) of the models in the course suite to an actual problem. You may choose to work on a project that involves one of the software tools not covered in class. In either case, your presentation must make clear how the model works and how you have used it to arrive at a marketing decision. The projects will be turned in as follows: During the final sessions of the semester, each group will make a presentation to the entire class on their assigned date, lasting about 30 minutes. At the end of the presentation, you will turn in a copy of all of your slides and two copies of a short report not exceeding 15 pages, double-spaced excluding exhibits. Peer Evaluation To ensure that each group member performs responsibly, 10% of the total grade will be based on a peer evaluation conducted at the end of the semester. Group members will rate each group member, including themselves, on a 10-point scale. The average of these ratings will be the peer evaluation score. For example, if you rate yourself 8, and other members rate you 9, 8 and 9, your peer evaluation will be 8.5. You should be honest and impartial in your evaluations. The instructor reserves the right to correct and/or discard evaluations if they appear to be questionable. Two peer evaluation forms, one each for the project and the homework assignments, are included in your course package. They should be filled out and returned to the instructor after the project presentation. About the Instructor Professor Vijay Mahajan holds the John P. Harbin Centennial Chair in Business. He is a Professor of Marketing at the Graduate School of Business, The University of Texas at Austin. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, and a Ph.D. in Management from The University of Texas at Austin. He has written extensively on product diffusion, marketing strategy and marketing research methodologies. His work has been published in many journals and he has co-authored or co-edited several books. He has been invited for research presentations by more than 90 universities and research institutions worldwide. He served as the Editor of the Journal of Marketing Research from 1995-1997. He also served as the Associate Dean of Research at the Graduate School of Business from 1991-1994. He has been a consultant for both government and industry and conducted numerous executive development programs in Asia, Europe, the USA and South America. Professor Mahajan has been the recipient of many prestigious awards including the Maynard Award (1990), and the Prentice Hall Award (1995). The Graduate School of Business at The University of Texas at Austin recognized him twice with the CBA Foundation Award: in 1991 for Outstanding Research Contributions to the marketing discipline, and for Research Excellence in the 1995-1996 academic year. He received the American Marketing Association (AMA) Parlin Marketing Research Award in 1997 and the AMA Churchill Award in 1999 recognizing lifetime achievement in marketing research. In 2000 the AMA instituted the Vijay Mahajan award for Career Contributions to Marketing Strategy to be presented annually to an educator for sustained contributions to marketing strategy. Class Schedule MKT 382 -- Unique #04550
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McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin. |
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