MGPS.5030 Creating Customer Value Through Marketing
Marketing activity is the engine that creates value in a business. It provides the focus for interfacing with customers, and is the database for knowledge about customers, consumers and competitors. Marketing focuses on both the achievement of short-term sales as well as the long-term relationship of a company to its customers, thus its critical role to the generation of revenue and profit for a firm. This course emphasizes the role of marketing in creating value for customers, which in turn creates value for owners, shareholders and employees. The course teaches what business managers need to know to create strategies that achieve competitive advantage for products and services. Topics taught in this course include (but are not limited to) analyzing market opportunities, competitive analysis, customer relationship management (CRM), customer decision-making, value of brand, product/service management, segmentation and target selection, product positioning, customer acquisition and retention, and social media leverage. At the conclusion of the course, students will understand (a) how companies create, capture and sustain competitive advanatge in the marketplace, (b) the sources of value in product/service offerings and how they evolve over time, (c) the role of technology, operations and distribution in delivering value, and (d) effective responses to preempt, deter or effectively counter competitive moves.