Strategic Marketing

Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)

• 5. Gender equality
• 12. Responsible consumption and production

Objectives

The objective of this course is to understand, apply and integrate strategic and operational marketing concepts and techniques in companies and organizations. These marketing fundamentals are necessary in various professions related to business management: manager, entrepreneur, technician, consultant, teacher or researcher.

In addition, the course aims to enable students to practice key management skills and competencies, such as networking, teamwork, negotiation, entrepreneurship and leadership, and to gain a personal appreciation of the nature of the work of a director or marketing analyst.

Learning outcomes

• Identify the principles and concepts that allow companies and institutions to project, develop, implement and evaluate a marketing plan for an organization, a brand or a product.
• Identify needs and new realities that allow the transfer of knowledge to current or emerging areas of professional development, with the capacity for adaptation and self-direction in professional and research processes, in global and international contexts.
• Apply marketing concepts, theories, methods and techniques to formulate and implement specific strategies for products, brands and organizations.

Content

1. Introduction to marketing
   1. Marketing concept and definition
   2. Core concepts about the customer and the market
   3. Designing a business strategy
   4. Philosophies of business management
   5. Building customer relationships
   6. Capturing value from customers
2. Consumer and organizational purchasing behavior
   1. Final consumer behavior model
   2. Characteristics that affect the behavior of the final consumer
   3. Final buyer decision process
   4. Decision making process for purchasing new products
   5. Industrial markets
   6. Purchasing behavior of industrial buyers
3. Market segmentation, target audience definition and product positioning
   1. Market segmentation, target audience definition and product positioning
   2. Consumer Market Segmentation
   3. Industrial market segmentation
   4. Determining the target market
   5. Positioning strategies
4. 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. Service Marketing
   5. New product development
   6. Strategies throughout the product life cycle
5. Pricing decisions
   1. Price concept
   2. Factors affecting pricing
   3. Pricing of new products
   4. Pricing product combinations
   5. Strategies for price adjustment
   6. Changes in prices
6. 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
7. Decisions on promotion
   1. The marketing communication mix
   2. Integrated marketing communication
   3. Establishing the overall promotion 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:

40% Analysis and presentation of practical cases (group)

30% Final evaluation test of knowledge (individual)

10% Participation in classes through the forum (individual)

20% Final project (group)

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 that the rest of the parts have been passed (>5).

Methodology

The contents of the syllabus are acquired through various teaching activities. As regards the lectures, their purpose is to analyse, understand, discuss and apply the key concepts of the subject, rather than to gather information on the contents of the syllabus (taking notes). The information is practically all available in the documents that the teacher provides to the students in writing and in the textbook (see bibliography).

During classes, students carry out various educational activities, individually and in teams. In all activities, students must actively participate in solving and discussing practical cases, making presentations of their own and of other teams, carrying out class debates and actively participating in the practical cases discussed in class.

Students dedicate their personal work hours to reading and studying textbooks, solving practical cases in writing and carrying out various tasks that are part of the teaching activities of the subject.

Bibliography

Key references

• 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.