09511 - Marketing

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will have learnt issues, methods and basic knowledge of marketing. The course is dedicated to the marketing strategy and marketing operations, from market analysis to the definition of the product, pricing, communication and distribution formats and all the tools that allow a product to be delivered to its the final market.

Course contents

Course contents

• Marketing research and customer knowledge
  
• Marketg segmentation and targeting
  
• Value and branding
• Value and product development and management
  
• Value and pricing
• Distribution: delivering value to customers
• Integrated comunication 1: mass comunication tools
• Integrated comunication 2: direct comunication tools
• Digital marketing
• Case studies: Wilson, Tendercare, Intersport, Cleopatra
• Exercises and marketing models
• Exercises and marketing models with Excel
• Digital materials, with additional case studies, video and text
  

IMPORTANT: The business cases have been deliberately chosen to include companies that are either little known or situated in a past time, about which students have no specific information. This choice is intentional to train students to be able to make decisions based solely on the data at hand (in our cases, the data that are explicitly provided), by conducting a thorough analysis of them. Indeed, if only current or well-known cases were analyzed without yet having a solid understanding of marketing concepts (which are the focus of this course), there would be a risk of reasoning too superficially, using loosely structured implicit knowledge and hearsay, and making backward inferences from the company's success/failure to factors that might (but for which clear data is lacking) have been important in such a positive outcome, without being able to truly engage in the simulation of the decision-making process, which occurs before the events (when the outcome is still unknown).

During the discussion of marketing concepts, students will also be able to engage with examples and cases related to current events. Since teaching benefits from interactivity, students are encouraged to bring up examples and current cases to stimulate discussion.

Readings/Bibliography

The program includes, in addition to classroom lectures, educational materials in both (1) print and (2) digital formats.

1) Textbook, to be studied in its entirety:

PLEASE NOTE: THE 2024 EDITION IS DIFFERENT FROM PREVIOUS EDITIONS

Title: Corso di Marketing (2024), per il Corso di Laurea in Economia Aziendale dell'Università di Bologna, McGraw Hill.

ISBN 979-82-190-0799-6

To keep the sale price low, the textbook has been produced by McGraw-Hill as a condensed edition, limited to the chapters covered in the Marketing course of the CLEA at the University of Bologna, based on two books:

a) "Fondamenti di Marketing," by Fahy, Jobber, Poggesi, Mingione, seconda edizione, 2024, McGraw Hill, (ISBN: 978-88-386-5779-5); the chapters covered in the course are: chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13

b) "Marketing. L'eserciziario" by Lorenzini B. and Manaresi A., 2023, McGraw Hill, ISBN: 978-88-386-1206-0; all chapters are covered in the course. The essential Excel files are also downloadable. (ISBN 978-88-386-1206-0)

2) The digital materials are available on the University of Bologna's platform virtuale.unibo.it

Teaching methods

Lectures, companies' presentations, case studies of companies, computer marketing models

Assessment methods

The evaluation is conducted exclusively through a written, in-person exam, with the following timeline:

1. A midterm exam halfway through the course (late October-early November) consisting of open-ended questions, lasting approximately 50-60 minutes.

2. A final exam (at the end of the lectures, once in December, and a second session in January-February) consisting of open-ended questions, lasting approximately 50-60 minutes, which will cover:

2a) the second part of the course for those who have taken and passed the midterm exam,

2b) or the entire course for those who did not pass or did not attempt the midterm exam.

From the third final exam session onwards, which takes place in July if requested by students through a procedure approved by the School of Economics and Management Council, and then with the fourth session in September, only a comprehensive final exam covering the entire course will be administered, lasting approximately 50-60 minutes.

Students who need to retake the exam must prepare based on the current year's program and can only take the comprehensive final exam, not individual partial exams. The exam, whether partial or final, aims to verify the achievement of the following learning objectives:

• In-depth knowledge of the marketing concepts presented during lectures and exercises with business cases and presentations by company managers.
• Ability to use these tools to analyze business management and marketing phenomena.
• Ability to use the results obtained with marketing models to interpret the phenomenon under study and to implement business decision-making processes.

If a student decides to be evaluated through partial exams, both partial exams are graded on a scale of thirty. The student is allowed to take the second partial exam only if they have passed the first one with a minimum score of 18/30. If the second partial exam is also passed with a minimum score of 18/30, the final grade, published with reference to the list of participants in the second partial exam, is the arithmetic mean of the grades obtained in the two partial exams, and this completes the examination in its entirety.

If a student decides to be evaluated through a single comprehensive exam covering both parts of the program, there will be only one grade, also on a scale of thirty.

To take the exam, registration through the electronic bulletin board in the Almaesami system is required, adhering strictly to the scheduled deadlines. Those who encounter technical issues preventing them from registering must promptly notify (and in any case before the official closing of the registration lists) the problem to the academic office. It is at the instructor's discretion to allow them to take the exam if there are justified technical reasons not related to student negligence.

The final grade is recorded in Almaesami. Students can review their completed exam in the days preceding the publication of results and seek clarifications on the date indicated by the instructor along with the list of results for each exam. The possibility to use alternative office hours to review the exam is reserved for exceptional cases with a valid reason. The grade can be recorded in the student's absence.

Graduating students who pass the exam and need their grade recorded more urgently than usual are invited to inform the instructor via email immediately after taking the exam.

As indicated above, the exam is conducted in written form and graded on a scale of thirty. In addition to answering questions on methods (commonly referred to as "theory questions"), students must solve exercises/cases where they demonstrate their ability to apply the acquired tools to manage a specific practical situation in business marketing, verify particular hypotheses, and interpret the results obtained.

During the exam, the use of support materials such as textbooks, notes, or electronic devices is not allowed. Attendance is not mandatory, but it is highly recommended.

Given the educational need for interaction and the application of marketing concepts to real business situations, students are strongly discouraged from attending class without having read the recommended business cases each time.

Teaching tools

digital materials that are part of the exam program will be available on the repository of the university

 

 

Office hours

See the website of Angelo Manaresi