Strategic and Operational Marketing

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 5. Gender equality
• 8. Decend work and economic growth

Objectives

The objective of this course is to understand, apply, and integrate strategic and operational marketing concepts and techniques for businesses and organizations. These marketing fundamentals are necessary in various professions related to business management: managers, entrepreneurs, technicians, consultants, teachers, and researchers.

Furthermore, the student is also expected to develop key management competencies and skills, such as relationship building, teamwork, negotiation, entrepreneurship, and leadership, and to gain a personal appreciation for the nature of the work of a director or marketing analyst.

Learning outcomes

• Applies knowledge, understanding of that knowledge, and problem-solving skills to complex or specialized professional work environments that require the use of creative and innovative ideas.
• Assumes different responsibilities in individual or collaborative work and evaluates the results obtained.
• He masters the different techniques that make up the marketing mix, which allows him to perform diagnoses, formulate strategies, and implement them efficiently.
• Develop skills for innovation in global markets by developing strategic marketing and business plans.
• Solve problems and situations inherent to professional performance with entrepreneurial and innovative attitudes.
• Assumes different responsibilities in individual or collaborative work and evaluates the results obtained.

Competencies

General skills

• Be able to analyze and summarize.
• Be able to make reasoned and coherent presentations.
• Be able to organize and plan.
• Be able to put basic knowledge of the profession into practice.
• Be able to use information: seek, analyze, select, organize and exploit information effectively.
• Be able to work in a team and a multidisciplinary network.
• Be skilled at adapting to new situations.

Specific skills

• Be able to analyze and understand the operation of the market and its influence on the activities of a company.
• Be able to apply market research theory and instruments to implement business strategies.
• Be able to critically evaluate business situations, and manage an organization effectively and efficiently.
• Be able to devise and implement integrated marketing plans.
• Be able to learn and apply knowledge and skills to strategic marketing management.
• Be able to plan decisions and product management for commercial distribution channels.
• Be able to plan sales activities focused on customers, and lead and manage sales teams.
• Display leadership skills in strategic decision-making in general, and in marketing and communication, in particular.

Basic skills

• Students can apply their knowledge to their work or vocation in a professional manner and have competencies typically demonstrated through drafting and defending arguments and solving problems in their field of study.
• Students can communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialists and non-specialists.
• Students have the ability to gather and interpret relevant data (usually within their field of study) in order to make judgments that include reflection on relevant social, scientific and ethical issues.

Content

1. Introduction to Marketing
   1. Concept and definition of marketing
   2. Core concepts about the customer and the market
   3. Designing a business strategy
   4. Philosophies of commercial management
   5. Building customer relationships
   6. Capturing customer value
2. Marketing environment analysis
   1. Marketing environment
   2. Microenvironment
   3. Macroenvironment
   4. Response to the marketing environment
3. Marketing information management
   1. Marketing information and customer understanding
   2. The marketing information system
   3. The market research process
   4. Analysis and use of marketing information
4. Purchasing behavior of consumers and organizations
   1. End consumer behavior model
   2. Characteristics that affect the behavior of the final consumer
   3. Final buyer decision process
   4. Purchase decision process for new products
   5. Industrial markets
   6. Purchasing behavior of industrial buyers
5. Market segmentation, target audience definition, and product positioning
   1. Market segmentation, target audience definition, and product positioning
   2. Consumer market segmentation
   3. Segmentation of industrial markets
   4. Determining the target market
   5. Positioning strategies
6. Product decisions
   1. Concept and classification of products and services
   2. Decisions on individual products and on product lines and portfolios
   3. Brand development strategy
   4. Services marketing
   5. Development of new products
   6. Strategies throughout the product life cycle
7. Price decisions
   1. Price concept
   2. Factors affecting pricing
   3. Pricing of new products
   4. Pricing product combinations
   5. Strategies for price adjustment
   6. Price changes
8. Decisions on distribution
   1. Nature and importance of distribution channels
   2. Channel behavior and organization
   3. Channel design decisions
   4. Channel management decisions
   5. Type of retailers and wholesalers
9. Decisions on promotion
   1. The marketing communication mix
   2. Integrated marketing communication
   3. Establishing the overall promotional mix
   4. Advertising, sales promotion and public relations
   5. Personal selling and direct marketing

Evaluation

The evaluation activities and their respective weights are as follows:

• Analysis and presentation of practical cases: 40%
• Final knowledge assessment test: 30%
• Participation in classes through the forum: 10%
• Final project: 20%

The final grade for the course is the sum of the grades obtained in the previous assessment activities. The activities are assessed continuously during the regular class period and cannot be retaken, except for the final exam, provided the remaining sections have been passed (>5).

Methodology

The syllabus content is acquired through various teaching activities. The lectures are intended to analyze, understand, discuss, and apply the key concepts of the subject, rather than to gather information about the syllabus content (taking notes). The information is practically all available in the written documents the teacher provides to students and in the textbook (see bibliography).

During classes, students engage in various learning activities, both individually and in teams. In all activities, students must actively participate by solving and discussing case studies, making presentations for themselves and other teams, leading class discussions, and actively participating in case studies discussed in class.

Individual work hours must be devoted to reading and studying textbooks, writing case studies, and completing various tasks involved in the course's teaching activities.

Bibliography

Key references

• Kotler, P., Kartajaya, H., y Setiawan, I. (2017). Marketing 4.0. New Jersey, USA: John Wiley & Sons.
• Kotler, Philip; Armstrong, Gary (2018). Principios de marketing (17 ed.). Pearson.
• Kotler, Philip; Armstrong, Gary (2018). Principios de marketing. Retrieved from https://ucercatot.uvic-ucc.cat/view/action/uresolver.do?operation=resolveService&package_service_id=355146810006718&institutionId=6718&customerId=6705

Further reading

Teachers will provide complementary bibliography and compulsory reading throughout the course via the Virtual Campus.