B6601 Marketing

Spring 2023, 1.5 Credits

Professor Kristen Lane COURSE/TEACHING ASSISTANTS:

Professor Office Location: Kravis 992 TBA
E-mail: [email protected] Office Hours: By appointment
Office Hours: By appointment

Communications from the instructor and teaching assistants about the course will take place through Canvas.
Students should make sure they regularly check for announcements and messaging notifications.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course follows a customer-centric approach to marketing, which is based on understanding consumers and how
they drive firm value. Specifically, marketing provides conceptual frameworks and tools for (i) understanding consumers,
(ii) designing the value proposition, and (iii) delivering value to the marketplace. Products and services (Product)
distributed through channels (Place) are the main vehicles for delivering value to customers. Through pricing strategies
(Price) and promotion and advertising (Promotion), firms implement the marketing plan. Therefore, we will also cover
the “4 P’s” of marketing throughout the course, leading to an integrated marketing strategy. This course emphasizes
both quantitative and qualitative analyses. Quantitative analysis is valuable for estimating the impact of marketing
decisions on consumers and firm profits. At the same time, qualitative analysis is important because marketing deals
with the psychology and the behavior of people (e.g., consumers, competitors, collaborators) that is sometimes difficult
to capture in quantitative terms. It is essential to balance both kinds of approaches when you justify the marketing
decisions you will make during class discussions and in the assignments.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Through the completion of this course, students will acquire and demonstrate the following knowledge and skills:
• Understand customers by acquiring customer-centric tools and frameworks. Students will learn how to model
and quantify customer-lifetime value, elicit customer motivations and needs, quantify customer preferences,
and segment customers and brands.
• Designing value for customers. Students will become proficient in developing positioning statements, branding
strategies, and in designing value for their customers through innovative products and channels of distribution.
• Delivering value to customers. Students will learn pricing and pricing analytics tools. Students will become
proficient in designing advertising and communication campaigns, and in quantifying the effectiveness of
advertising and promotional activities.

CLASSROOM NORMS AND EXPECTATIONS

Core Culture
Students are expected to adhere to CBS Core Culture in this class by being Present, Prepared, Participating.

Page 1 of 4
Inclusion, Accommodation, and Support for Students
At Columbia Business School we believe diversity strengthens any community or business model and brings it greater
success. The School is committed to providing all students with equal opportunity to thrive in the classroom by providing
a learning, living, and working environment free from discrimination, harassment, and bias on the basis of gender,
sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or ability.

Students with documented disabilities may receive reasonable accommodations. Students are encouraged to contact
the Columbia University’s Office of Disability Services for information about registration.

Columbia Business School adheres to all community, state, and federal regulations as relate to Title IX and student
safety. Read more about CBS’ policies to support Inclusion, Accommodations and Support for Students here.

Honor Code and Academic Integrity

The Columbia Business School Honor Code calls on all members of the School community to adhere to and uphold the
notions of truth, integrity, and respect both during their time in school, and throughout their careers as productive,
moral, and caring participants in their companies and communities around the world. All students are subject to the
Honor Code for all of their academic work. Failure to comply with the Honor Code may result in Dean’s Discipline. Any
case of proven academic dishonesty will result in failure in the course. Students are subject to an Honor Code violation if
they violate the Columbia Community Health Compact; please refer to OSA’s website. Here you can review examples of
Academic Misconduct which may result in discipline.

Course materials (videos, assignments, problem sets, etc.) are for your use in this course only. You may not upload them
to external sites, share them with students outside of this course, or post them for public commentary without the
instructor’s permission. Use of case or lecture notes from previous sections of the course is not allowed.

Simple things such as arriving on time to class, turning cell phones off during class time and not being tempted by the
many distractions that the Internet offers can make the experience more enjoyable and rewarding to all.

Course Attendance Policies

Students from all programs should review and be familiar with the MBA Core Attendance Policy and the Exam Policy.
Attendance is tracked and will affect a student’s participation grade. This course may use PollEverywhere as a tool to
increase student engagement. PollEverywhere may also be used to confirm student attendance and participation
records. If a student is absent from class and is allowed to attend a different cluster’s class meeting, it is at the discretion
of the faculty member to count responses to any polls presented during this time as attendance or participation.

Students remain in the classroom during the entire session unless given a break by the instructor. Class sessions lasting
90 minutes typically do not have a break, while those lasting three hours typically have a 15-minute break near the
session mid-point.

Page 2 of 4
METHOD OF EVALUATION

Class attendance and participation 30%

Individual assignment (individual) 10%
Conjoint Analysis group project (group) 15%
Final examination (individual) 45%

Class attendance and participation

• Attending class, being on time, and present (10%) ‒ Presence means being in class paying attention and avoiding
use of electronic devices unless explicitly instructed. Excused absences must be cleared through the office of
student affairs (OSA), who will then inform me of the excused absence.

• Participating in class (10%) ‒ Completing the required readings and cases for each session is the best way to
prepare for class discussion. Evaluation of class participation is based upon the quality (not the quantity) of
comments, as reflected by their relevance, insightfulness, and coherence.

• Being prepared before class (10%) ‒ Class preparedness will be assessed based on your responses to some short
online surveys and concept checks to be filled out before sessions. Note that many of the questions in these
surveys do not have a unique answer. You will receive full credit for each survey if you fill it out before class and
give some reasonable justification for your answers. Concept checks will not be graded based on performance
on these short quizzes, but they need to be completed on time. You can take concept checks as many times as
you wish.

• Extra Credit ‒ You can earn extra credit by contributing content relevant to the course in a few ways:

o Posting on the discussions thread on the Canvas course page. You can contribute content by
participating in these discussions.

o Sending me a short presentation (i.e., about 5 slides) about a case of new products, branding,
distribution, price, or communication that caught your attention. Each student can send one
presentation before the class of the related topic; I may share the case in class.

Individual Assignment
This is a type C assignment, which means that you must do this assignment entirely on your own. Further instructions for
this exercise are available on Canvas.

Conjoint Analysis Group Project

You will work in your study group to design and test your own new product concept using conjoint analysis. Further
instructions for this exercise are available on Canvas. This is a group assignment, type A.

Final Exam
The final exam will be a three-hour, open-book, open-notes exam. The exam will be designed to test your understanding
of the topics covered in the lectures, readings, cases, and assignments.

Page 3 of 4
COURSE ROADMAP/SCHEDULE

Assignments Due (Type)

Session Topic(s) Required Pre-Readings
11:59pm the night before
MODULE 1: UNDERSTAND
1 Customer Lifetime Value Reading: What’s A Customer Worth Read syllabus carefully (C: Ind.)
Reading: Rethinking Marketing “Marketing Intro” survey (C: Ind.)

2 Customer Centricity Case: Jaguar Land Rover: Towards a “Jaguar” survey (C: Ind.)
Customer-Centric Organization “Moncler” survey (C: Ind.)

3 Segmentation, CLV Concept Check (C: Ind.)

Targeting, and
Positioning (STP)
4 Capstone Case Case: Chase Sapphire: Creating a “Chase Sapphire” survey (C: Ind.)
Millennial Cult Brand STP Concept Check (C: Ind.)
Customer Lifetime Value Review Session/Coffee Talk #1 (DATE AND TIME TBA)
Individual assignment (C: Ind.) due on DATE AND TIME TBA
MODULE 2: DESIGN
5 Conjoint Analysis Reading: Online conjoint tutorial Bring Laptops
(registration required)
Reading: Apple Vs. Samsung: The $2
Billion Case
6 Branding Reading: Generating Perceptual Maps Conjoint Concept Check (C: Ind.)
from Social Media Data

7 Distribution Reading: The Store is Dead, Long Live “Omnichannel” survey (C: Ind.)
the Store

8 Capstone Case Case: Chateau Margaux: Launching “Chateau Margaux” survey (C: Ind.)
the Third Wine

Conjoint Analysis Review Session/Coffee Talk #2 (DATE AND TIME TBA)

MODULE 3: DELIVER
9 Pricing Case: How Should Netflix Add an Ad- “Netflix” survey (C: Ind.)
Supported Subscription Tier?
(and spreadsheet)
10 Promotion Case: Brand Activism: Nike and Colin “Nike” survey (C: Ind.)
Kaepernick
11 Measuring Promotion Case: Rocket Fuel (and spreadsheet) “Rocket Fuel + Chirpin’ Tavern” survey
Effectiveness + Case: Chirpin’ Tavern Coupon (C: Ind.)
Promotion Pricing Concept Check (C: Ind.)
12 Capstone Case Reading: “How Leaders Can Move Exam question survey (C: Ind.)
Beyond Greenwashing Toward Real Promotion Concept check (C: Ind.)
Change”
Final Exam Review Session (DATE AND TIME TBA)
Conjoint Analysis Project (A: Group) due on DATE AND TIME TBA
Final Exam (TBA)

Page 4 of 4