Donna Hoffman, Louis Rosenfeld Distinguished Scholar, professor of marketing and co-director of the Center for the Connected Consumer, introduced to GWSB in 2018 an experiential course on marketing strategy, based on first principles and data analytics. The course was popular among students and is now offered again in Spring 2020.
The advanced and highly immersive course focuses on strategically analyzing and solving marketing problems from a decision maker's perspective. The course builds on the topics explored in the marketing core curriculum by focusing on specific marketing strategies (e.g., developing and launching innovative products, building customer loyalty) and critical marketing tools/processes (e.g., cluster and conjoint analysis, choice models) in greater detail.
Class teams accentuate the integrative nature of the marketing function through the development of a marketing plan and the popular marketing simulation game Markstrat. Within the Markstrat simulated business environment, each team takes control of a company and competes against the other teams for industry domination. Marketing decisions involving new product development projects, product attributes, pricing, advertising and resource allocation affect each firm's market share and financial performance.
The course counts as an elective toward the Graduate Certificate in Marketing and Brand Management. Students may register for the course until January 13, 2020.