Unit convenor and teaching staff |
Unit convenor and teaching staff
Unit Convenor & Lecturer
Scott Koslow
E4A 639
Friday 1-3 (between stream 7 seminars)
Lecturer-at-large
Stephen Erichsen
Lecturer
Teresa Corsalini
Lecturer
Lawrence Potter
Lecturer
Wayne Kingston
Lecturer
Joe Pitt
Lecturer
Alexander Tevi
Lecturer
Greg Elliott
Lecturer
Stephen Burke
Tutor/marker for Scott
Nicholas Ridis
Rebecca Young
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Credit points |
Credit points
3
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Prerequisites |
Prerequisites
(MKTG202 and MKTG203 and 6cp in MKTG units at 300 level) or (admission to BMktgMedia and MKTG202 and MKTG203 and 3cp in MKTG units at 300 level)
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Corequisites |
Corequisites
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Co-badged status |
Co-badged status
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Unit description |
Unit description
The overall objectives of this unit are to introduce methods of strategic thinking and a set of practical tools and concepts that will enable students to develop, evaluate and implement innovative marketing strategies; and to provide theories, frameworks and examples relating to the management of critical aspects of strategic marketing activity. The focus is on a customer-oriented approach to the marketing organisation, market definition, and market segmentation; as well as an entrepreneurial approach to strategic choice. Throughout the unit the emphasis is on the analysis process: identifying information needs, acquiring the necessary information, interpreting it, and using it as the basis for business recommendations. During this unit students will engage in a marketing strategy simulation game and will have the opportunity of making a series of complex, real-world marketing decisions. It places teams in a dynamic competitive environment in which they devise and pursue their own strategies and react to the moves of competitors.
The unit will be delivered in intensive mode over 7 weeks.
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Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
Name | Weighting | Hurdle | Due |
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Case Analysis (Prep-work) | 30% | No | Weeks 2-7 |
Case Analysis (Participation) | 30% | No | Weeks 3-7 |
Simulation (Group Assessment) | 40% | No | Weeks 2-7 |
Due: Weeks 2-7
Weighting: 30%
We will analyse ten cases during the session. You will write up prep-work for the ten cases we will discuss the case in seminar. Your lowest two case marks will be dropped; your best eight will be retained.
Prior to the case, you need to write up a brief (500 word) discussion of the following points:
You are recommended to use those above two dot-points as headings in your write up. Bullet points are appreciated. A strong recommendation is made to look at the textbook chapters for the topic and incorporate the frameworks presented.
The 500 word length is strictly enforced. At the bottom of all case write ups, put in the word count. The lecturer/marker will stop reading prep-work case write ups at 500 words.
The purpose of the prep-work is prepare students for oral participation during the seminar case discussion, therefore, it doesn't make sense to prepare a case when one fails to attend the associated discussion. If one does not attend the case discussion, the associated prep-work mark will be zero.
Late assessments: No extensions will be granted. Student who have not submitted the task prior to the deadline will be awarded a mark of 0 for the case except for situations in which an application for disruption of studies is made and approved.
Approved disruptions of study: No additional assessed work will be required. The weighting given to the other cases will be increased accordingly.
Due: Weeks 3-7
Weighting: 30%
Cases will be discussed in seminar in the case analysis tradition. You are required to be physically present at the case discussion for all ten cases in this unit. You are also expected to participate in those discussions. You can't participate unless you are there (and case discussions never record well on Echo anyway).
All students are marked on their oral participation in the case discussions. Merely attending will not get high (or even passing) marks.
Often, however, students will participate more in some cases than others. This is normal. Accordingly, student marks are based on their best performances, not their average performances. The three highest case discussion marks will identified and these three only will be the basis of their mark. Although some students may interpret this calculation to mean that they need to participate orally in only three cases, such an inference is unwise. Participating in more cases means students understand better how case analysis works and provide more opportunities to gain high marks. If students are shy and do not participate in cases, they will be called on by name.
It is recognised that prepared students can learn from merely listening to an active case discussion--especially if they know they can participate if they choose to. This is why attendance is required at all ten cases. Although mere attendance garners less than 50 marks for a case, there is some learning from only attending and paying attention.
However, the enforcement of attendance will be as follows:
In effect, two absences of the ten are not fatal--but students are well advised to attend all cases where reasonably possible. Students are warned that experience suggests missing the first two cases are often highly problematic. Some students will still chose to miss the first three or four cases and they will find that the penalty is surprisingly high. At some point in time, students may be advised to "get serious or get out" of the unit. If you have gotten caught in the situation where you have missed a large number of cases, please drop the unit before the date financial or academic consequences apply. MKTG303 is offered both S1 and S2 so retaking the unit in a later session can offer a fresh start. But do please understand that dropping this unit will also mean you must be removed from MKTG304 (if taken in the same session as when MKTG303 was dropped). Please also be advised that in similar units at MQ with case attendance standards, up to 20% of the students who start the unit fail to meet the attendance standard and either drop or fail the unit as a result. Plan accordingly, please attend and make the most of the opportunities offered in MKTG303.
The below table lays out the penalty for missing cases:
Number of missed cases
1
2
3
4
5
6
Number of absences that meet standards for approved disruptions
0
See unit convenor (Scott) to consider withdrawing from MKTG303
1
2
3
4
5
6
Late assessments: Because of the live performance nature of the case participation, late assessments are not possible.
Due: Weeks 2-7
Weighting: 40%
Student teams will participate in a competitive simulation called "Markstrat". Each session from weeks 2 to 7, students will make decisions about how to manage the marketing of a simulated product. They will compete against other students in the unit. Although class time will be set aside for teams to make decisions, students teams will also need to meet outside class time. Students will be observed by their lecturers and report weekly on what happened in their student teams. Although these observations and weekly reports are not marked during the session, they will help frame what the student learned in their written learning self assessment. Details of the simulation will be provided.
At the end of the simulation (week 7, session 2) students will be led in a debrief of what happened in the simulation. Then student teams will write up learning group self assessments due 3 October. The required detail for these written reports are as follows;
Marks will be determined by two things: actual simulation performance and the group self-assessment. About 75% of their simulation mark is based on their group self assessment document. About 25% of their simulation mark is determined by their SPI and other objective measures from the Markstrat simulation.
Use of actual performance in students' marks is to ensure student teams have "skin in the game". However, the lowest mark given will be 50% on this component. The scores given will follow the rank order corresponding to coming first, second, third, etc in SPI in their Markstrat industry. But lecturers can move marks up or down within those rank orders to reflect relative performance on other objective measures than SPI. For example, if there are two run-away great performers in an industry, the lecturer may choose to award high and identical marks to both teams. Or if one team does poorly, coming in last, but did manage to turn things around in the last periods, their mark can be brought up to be equal to the next to last team's mark.
Acceptable marks for an industry may be 100, 90, 80, 70, 60, or 50 for the first, second, third, etc. placed teams in an industry. Or it might be that the top team gets 100, second gets 95, but the rest get 65. Or it's even possible all teams get 70. Because the patterns in industry competitiveness are always hard to anticipate, lecturers assess these marks based on a thoughtful consideration of relative SPI, industry competitiveness, and other objective factors from the simulation. But it will be based on rank orders, with the possibility of ties.
Two methods are used to determine whether students contributed equally to the group self-assessment. First, confidential peer evaluations will be obtained from students and compared with one another. Second, the lecturer will interact with student teams through out the session--usually every seminar--and observe relative contributions directly. Between these two sources of information, adjustments will be made to marks, if necessary.
Textbook:
Palmatier, Robert and Shrihari Sidhar (2017), Marketing Strategy: Based on First Principles and Data Analytics, Palgrave Macmillan Education.
Hard copy vailable at the Co-op.
The eBook ISBN is: 9781137526243 Price: AUD$84.95
https://www.vitalsource.com/en-au/products/marketing-strategy-robert-w-palmatier-v9781137526243
Cases:
Available from iLearn.
Readings:
Available from iLearn
Week | Session | Cases | Lecture | Markstrat Moves | Readings |
Week 1 | Session 1 |
Welcome and lecture Paperwork for group formation |
Palmatier & Sridhar Chapter 1 (P&S 1); Ettenson, Conrado and Knowles 2013; Kim and Mauborgne 2004 |
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Session 2 |
Lecture, Strategic Frameworks Groups announced |
Almquist, Senior and Bloch 2016; Christensen, Cook and Hall 2005 | |||
Week 2 | Session 1 | Introduction to Markstrat | Move 0 (test) | Materials and video, TBA | |
Session 2 | Lecture, Strategic Frameworks | Move 1 | |||
Week 3 | Session 1 | Case 1: Brannigan Foods | Mini lecture: All Customers Are Different | Move 2 | P&S 2; Mittal, Sarkees and Murshed 2008 |
Session 2 | Case 2: Ford Ka (A&B) | Mini lecture continued | Move 3 | Dawar and Bagga 2015; Schneider and Hall 2011 | |
Week 4 | Session 1 | Case 3: BRITA | Mini lecture: All Customers Change | Move 4 | P&S 3 |
Session 2 | Case 4: Walt Disney | Mini lecture continued | Move 5 | ||
Week 5 | Session 1 | Case 5: AMD Fusion | Mini lecture: All Competitors React | Move 6 | P&S 4-7; Kirby 2013; Teixeira 2013 |
Session 2 | Case 6: Pedigree (A&B) | Mini lecture, continued | Move 7 | Edelman and Singer 2015; Holt 2016 | |
Week 6 | Session 1 | Case 7: AccorHotels | Mini lecture: All Resources Are Limited | Move 8 | P&S 8 |
Session 2 | Case 8: Stihl | Mini lecture continued | Move 9 | Bertini and Wathieu 2010 | |
Week 7 | Session 1 | Case 9: Ocado | Mini lecture: Integrating the Four Principles | Move 10 | P&S 9 |
Session 2 | Case 10: L'Oreal China | Markstrat debreif |
Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central. Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:
Academic Honesty Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/academic_honesty/policy.html
Assessment Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/assessment/policy_2016.html
Grade Appeal Policy http://mq.edu.au/policy/docs/gradeappeal/policy.html
Complaint Management Procedure for Students and Members of the Public http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/complaint_management/procedure.html
Disruption to Studies Policy (in effect until Dec 4th, 2017): http://www.mq.edu.au/policy/docs/disruption_studies/policy.html
Special Consideration Policy (in effect from Dec 4th, 2017): https://staff.mq.edu.au/work/strategy-planning-and-governance/university-policies-and-procedures/policies/special-consideration
In addition, a number of other policies can be found in the Learning and Teaching Category of Policy Central.
Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/support/student_conduct/
Results shown in iLearn, or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au.
Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/
Learning Skills (mq.edu.au/learningskills) provides academic writing resources and study strategies to improve your marks and take control of your study.
Students with a disability are encouraged to contact the Disability Service who can provide appropriate help with any issues that arise during their studies.
For all student enquiries, visit Student Connect at ask.mq.edu.au
For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/.
When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.
We want our graduates to have emotional intelligence and sound interpersonal skills and to demonstrate discernment and common sense in their professional and personal judgement. They will exercise initiative as needed. They will be capable of risk assessment, and be able to handle ambiguity and complexity, enabling them to be adaptable in diverse and changing environments.
This graduate capability is supported by:
Our graduates will take with them the intellectual development, depth and breadth of knowledge, scholarly understanding, and specific subject content in their chosen fields to make them competent and confident in their subject or profession. They will be able to demonstrate, where relevant, professional technical competence and meet professional standards. They will be able to articulate the structure of knowledge of their discipline, be able to adapt discipline-specific knowledge to novel situations, and be able to contribute from their discipline to inter-disciplinary solutions to problems.
This graduate capability is supported by:
We want our graduates to be capable of reasoning, questioning and analysing, and to integrate and synthesise learning and knowledge from a range of sources and environments; to be able to critique constraints, assumptions and limitations; to be able to think independently and systemically in relation to scholarly activity, in the workplace, and in the world. We want them to have a level of scientific and information technology literacy.
This graduate capability is supported by:
We want to develop in our students the ability to communicate and convey their views in forms effective with different audiences. We want our graduates to take with them the capability to read, listen, question, gather and evaluate information resources in a variety of formats, assess, write clearly, speak effectively, and to use visual communication and communication technologies as appropriate.
This graduate capability is supported by:
In S1 2017 the follow changes were new:
In S2 2017 additional changes were made:
The unit features cases based in several of Australia's main trading partners, USA, UK, France and China.
This unit uses 12 articles on current thinking in strategy from Harvard Business Review, one of the premier journals in business.