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Undergraduate Program - Course Descriptions
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| MKTG 101 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Introduction to Marketing |
| Description: The objective of this course is to introduce students to the concepts, analyses, and activities that comprise marketing management, and to provide practice in assessing and solving marketing problems. The course is also a foundation for other Wharton courses, and for advanced electives in Marketing. Topics include marketing strategy, customer behavior, segmentation, market research, product management, pricing, promotion, channels of distribution, sales force management and competitive analysis. |
| Format: Lectures, recitations, discussions, and cases.
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| Requirements: Regular attendance, marketing simulation, final, case write-ups, class participation. |
| Materials: Textbook and course pack.
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| MKTG 211 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Consumer Behavior |
| Description: This course is concerned with how and why people behave as consumers. Its goals are to: 1) provide conceptual understanding of consumer behavior, 2) provide experience in applying consumer behavior concepts to marketing management and social policy decision-making, and 3) develop analytical capability in using behavioral research.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases. |
| Requirements: Regular attendance, exams, case write-ups, class participation. |
| Prerequisite: MKTG 101. |
| Materials: Small - Textbook and course pack. Berger - Course pack.
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| MKTG 212 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Marketing Research |
| Description: This course examines the role of marketing research in the formulation and solution of marketing problems, and the development of the student's basic skills in conducting and evaluating marketing research projects. Special emphasis is placed on problem formulation, research design, alternative methods of data collection (including data collection instruments, sampling, and field operations), and data analysis techniques. Applications of modern marketing research procedures to a variety of marketing problems are explored.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases.
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| Requirements: Regular attendance, case write-ups, assignments, final.
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| Prerequisite: MKTG 101, STAT 101, or equivalent. |
| Materials: Textbook and course pack. |
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| MKTG 221 ( Mini-semester - 0.5 ) |
| New Product Management |
| Description: Examination of the marketing aspects of products or services exclusive of their promotion, pricing, or distribution. Focuses on decisions regarding product introduction, positioning, improvements, and deletion, and the tools available for making these decisions. Covers both industrial and consumer products and services.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases.
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| Requirements: Armstrong:Cases,final exam / Adams:Cases, regular attendance
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| Prerequisite: MKTG 101. |
| Materials: Textbook and course pack. |
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| MKTG 222 ( Mini-semester - 0.5 ) |
| Pricing Policy |
| Description: The pricing decision process including economic, marketing, and behavioral phenomena which constitute the environment for pricing decisions and the information and analytic tools useful to the decision maker.
Format: Lectures, discussions, cases.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases. |
| Requirements: Regular attendance, class project.
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| Prerequisite: MKTG 101 and sophomore standing. |
| Materials: Textbook and course pack.
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| MKTG 224 ( Mini-semester - 0.5 ) |
| Advertising Management |
| Description: Immersion in the advertising development process and examination of the practice of advertising. Focuses on decisions regarding advertising objectives, copy selection, budget setting and media selection.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases.
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| Requirements: Regular attendance, discussions, class project, individual written assignments, team project. Various by instructor - please see syllabus |
| Prerequisite: MKTG 101.
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| Materials: Textbook and course pack.
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| MKTG 225 ( Mini-semester - 0.5 ) |
| Principles of Retailing |
| Description: This course explores the domain of retailing; marketing to the final consumer. Emphasis is placed on marketing aspects of Retailing not covered in other courses: retail strategy, merchandising, vendor relations and location.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases.
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| Requirements: Regular attendance, case discussions, possible group project, mid-term and/or final.
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| Prerequisite: MKTG 101.
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| Materials: Textbook and course pack. |
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| MKTG 226 ( Mini-semester - 0.5 ) |
| Sales Force Management |
| Description: Students who take this course will: learn the basic functions of sales force management as well as theories and concepts about appropriately managing that function; become familiar with some recent research in sales management that underlies the theories and concepts; and be able to apply the research, theories, and concepts to practical situations. The course is concerned with how to manage a sales force rather than with how to sell. The emphasis is on business-to-business (rather than consumer) sales force management. Topics covered include salesperson effectiveness, deployment, organizational design, compensation, and evaluation.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases.
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| Requirements: Regular attendance, case write-ups, mid-term and/or final.
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| Prerequisite: MKTG 101, STAT 101, or equivalent.
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| Materials: Textbook and course pack.
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| MKTG 228 ( Full-semester - 1 ) |
| Contagious: How Products, Ideas, and Behaviors Catch On |
| Description: Why do some products catch on and achieve huge popularity while others fail? Why do some behaviors spread like wildfire while others languish? How do certain ideas seem to stick in memory while others disappear the minute you hear them? More broadly, what factors lead to trends, social contagion, and social epidemics? This course looks at these and other topics as it examines how products, ideas, and behaviors catch on and become popular. Marketers want their product to be popular, organizations want their social change initiative to catch on and entrepreneurs want their ideas to stick. This course will provide insight into the factors underlying these dynamics. To study these issues, students will read and discuss academic research from Psychology, Sociology, Economics, and Marketing (as well as other disciplines). Along the way, the course will touch on four main aspects:(1) Characteristics of products, ideas, and behaviors that lead them to be successful; (2) Intrapersonal processes, or aspects of individual psychology that influence what things are successful; (3) Interpersonal processes, or how interactions between individuals drive success; (4) Social networks, or how patterns of social ties influence success. |
| Format: Lecture, class discussion, cases |
| Requirements: Class participation, written assignments, team project |
| Prerequisite: Marketing 101 and 211 are recommended, but not required |
| Materials: Course Pack |
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| MKTG 232 ( Full-semester - 1 ) |
| New Product Development |
| Description: The development of new products (goods or services) is an intensively cross-functional process. This course examines that process from the marketing perspective and identifies the key points of contact with operations, finance, organizational policy, and strategic planning. Although an overview of the entire process is provided in the course, special emphasis is placed on the evaluation of concepts early in the process. Thus, this course is very much concerned with ideas and how to select the best ideas and make them a reality. The main objectives of the course are (1) to familiarize students with the strategies, frameworks, conceptual tools, and types of marketing research that are considered best practices in the development of new products and (2) to give students the opportunity to apply some of these ideas and methods in the evaluation of a specific product concept, customizing the learning experience to their own needs and interests. |
| Format: Lecture, class discussion, and guest speakers. |
| Requirements: Homework assignments, a group term project, mid-term and final exams. |
| Prerequisite: MKTG 101 |
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| MKTG 233 ( Mini-semester - 0.50 cu ) |
| Social Impact of Marketing |
| Description: This course explores the ways in which the marketing actions of firms can have an impact on society (positive or negative). Of particular interest are the actions that are central to the main products and services delivered by the firm (e.g., the development of products and brands, pricing, advertising, and distribution). It adopts a broad perspective on impact that goes beyond the buyer-seller transactions that define specific markets and also assesses impact in the aggregate marketing and social systems within which those transactions occur. For example, many analyses examine how the actions of suppliers further back in the value chain contribute to social impact and become part of branding strategies and consumer perceptions. This course contrasts with courses that focus on strategies for the design and execution of marketing programs for social causes, non-profit and non-governmental organizations or corporate social responsibility initiatives, although the material covered is foundational for such programs.
The course is structured around four problem areas: impact on health and well-being (physical and mental), impact on the environment, impact on culture (including innovation and creativity), and impact on poverty and economic development. In each area, we will identify marketing-related causal factors and assess current knowledge and controversies surrounding those factors. There is also a focus on current metrics for assessing social impact and how specific marketing actions and companies considered in their entirety can be "scored" in terms of their impact on society. Students will learn how to conduct analyses of net social impact.
The course meets twice a week. Typically, one session is lecture and/or a case, and one session is an in-class event (e.g., guest speaker, student presentations, simulation game, etc.). The main deliverables for the course are two position papers and a final short essay evaluating the social impact of companies or products in a specific industry.
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| Format: Lecture, class discussion, simulations, student presentations, guest speakers. |
| Prerequisite: MKTG101 or permission of instructor |
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| MKTG 235 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Advertising |
| Description: This course focuses on the development of strategic integrated marketing communications (IMC) programs, including traditional advertising and other forms of communication such as packaging and "buzz" marketing, among others. The course focuses on understanding the role of IMC in the overall marketing process and specifically in the creation and maintenance of a branding strategy. Emphasis is placed on product positioning, understanding the communication process and consumer behavior (psychology), the measurement and evaluation of advertising effects, thinking critically regarding different creative strategies, and developing appropriate media plans. Students will work in groups to create their own IMC plans for a brand of their choice.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases. |
| Requirements: Williams: Several individual written assignments and an advertising plan for a new or existing product.
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| Prerequisite: MKTG 101. May be substituted for MKTG 224 as part of major. Credit will not be given for both courses.
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| Materials: Textbook and course pack.
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| MKTG 236 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Law of Marketing And Antitrust |
| Description: Study of the antitrust laws and the law of intellectual property. Emphasis on the legality of various pricing, promotion, and distribution strategies. Current developments are emphasized.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases. |
| Requirements: Regular attendance, case write-ups, mid-term and/or final.
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| Prerequisite: MKTG 101. |
| Materials: Textbook and course pack.
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| MKTG 271 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Models for Marketing Strategy |
| Description: The purposes of the course are to help participants become better managers by acquainting and helping them to understand different types of models that have been used to aid marketing decisions; have them applied various tools developed for analyzing marketing decision problems; give participants critical skills for evaluating new marketing models about which they may read in the literature; help participants understand marketing problems more clearly by analyzing them quantitatively; and produce managers who will not be taken advantage of by some quantitative consultants. The course is not only about models. It also covers modeling needs in a number of industries. In particular, it addresses the packaged goods, pharmaceutical and movie industries. |
| Format: Evaluating marketing models papers; practicing with computer-based models and software; building marketing models; discussing case studies that describe modeling applications; group presentations of model-based marketing strategy.
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| Requirements: Individual assignments, computer-based case analyses and presentations, term paper, group assignments, and class participation. |
| Prerequisite: MKTG 101 and STAT 101. |
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| MKTG 276 ( Full-semester - 1 ) |
| Applied Probability Models Mktg |
| Description: This course will expose students to the theoretical and empirical "building blocks" that will allow them to develop and implement powerful models of customer behavior. Over the years, researchers and practitioners have used these methods for a wide variety of applications, such as new product sales forecasting, analyses of media usage, customer valuation, and targeted marketing programs. These same techniques are also very useful for other types of business (and non-business) problems. The course will be entirely lecture-based with a strong emphasis on real-time problem solving. Most sessions will feature sophisticated numerical investigations using Microsoft Excel. Much of the material is highly technical. Students must have a high comfort level with basic integral calculus, and recent exposure to a formal course in probability/statistics would be helpful (but not required). |
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| MKTG 277 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Marketing Strategy |
| Description: This course introduces the student to problems in high-level marketing decision making with several strategic marketing planning frameworks frequently applied during the analysis of those problems. The course will focus on a variety of management problems which include the following characteristics:
Several strategic business units are involved in the decision.
Competitors' behaviors are formally taken into account.
Long-term marketing advantages are sought.
Profit and other financial consequences are considered.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases.
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| Requirements: Regular attendance, case write-ups, mid-term and/or final.
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| Prerequisite: MKTG 101.
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| Materials: Textbook and course pack. |
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| MKTG 278 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Strategic Brand Management |
| Description: Which brands make you happy? Apple? Starbucks? The Daily Show? Google? What draws you into these brands? How do companies create compelling brand experiences? How could you cultivate a well-loved brand? This course explores such questions with the goal of identifying the ingredients for building an inspired brand, where brand is defined as “a sensibility” – departing from traditional perspectives of brand. The course is created for students interested in building their own brands and/or immersing themselves in the enhancement of an existing brand, and it is comprised of lectures, cases, guest speakers, discussions, in and out of class exercises, all of which culminate in a brand audit group project that students will present in the final class session. Broadly, the course will be divided into four parts: 1) Understanding Brand, 2) Crafting Brand, 3) Measuring Brand, and 4) Managing Brand. The course will provide students with an appreciation of the role of branding and (taking a consumer-centric approach) will augment students’ ability to think creatively and critically about the strategies and tactics involved in building, leveraging, defending, and sustaining inspired brands. |
| Format: Lectures, cases, discussions, exercises, and a group project |
| Requirements: Regular attendance, case discussions, several individual and team assignments, and a brand audit group project |
| Prerequisite: MKTG 101 |
| Materials: Course Pack |
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| MKTG 281 ( Mini-semester - .5 ) |
| Entrepreneurial Marketing |
| Description: This course focuses on the key marketing concepts and methods relevant for entrepreneurs. In particular, it covers the marketing elements of new venture initiation (including a business plan), as well as marketing decisions for small and growing organizations. Topics include product/service design, assessment of market potential, creation of successful distribution relationships, and new product pricing. In contrast to the product development course, the emphasis here is on a new startup business rather than a new offering from an existing business. Topics covered in this course also include low-budget or no-budget market research, successful strategic alternatives for small business, alternatives to high-cost advertising (e.g., direct marketing, alternative media, and personal selling), segmentation, and targeted marketing. Students will prepare a marketing plan for an entrepreneurial organization of their choice, possible for a new venture they are considering. |
| Format: Case, lecture, class discussions.
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| Requirements: Development of an organizational marketing plan for a entrepreneurial venture; readings; class discussion.
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| Prerequisite: MKTG 101; MKTG 212 (can take concurrently); students are discouraged from taking this course and MKTG 221 without the permission of the marketing undergraduate faculty advisor.
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| MKTG 282 ( Mini-semester - .5 ) |
| Multinational Marketing |
| Description: Global marketing is an extremely demanding discipline but, from a career standpoint, one which is both challenging and rewarding. Inherent to the success of any global marketing professional, yet many times overlooked and/or underappreciated, is the critical nature of human understanding and relationships in business planning and execution. This is especially relevant in today’s business environment when you consider the dual multinational company imperative of continued revenue and profit growth in mature markets and successfully expanding into new growth and emerging markets. This course assumes an understanding of marketing principles and some exposure to and appreciation of the global environment. The objective of the course is to provide an understanding of how the global environment (particularly cultural diversity) affects the application of marketing principles and business practice on a global basis and the competencies necessary to be a successful global manager. |
| Format: Cases, lectures, discussions.
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| Requirements: Team projects, class participation, midterm assessment |
| Prerequisite: MKTG 101
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| Materials: Textbook and course pack. |
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| MKTG 288 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Pricing Strategies |
| Description: This course is designed to equip you with the concepts, techniques, and latest thinking bearing on pricing issues, with an emphasis on ways in which you can help a firm to improve its pricing. The overall orientation of this course is not about the theory but the practice of pricing. Rather than focusing on the allocative role of pricing, this course focuses on how firms can improve its profitability through pricing. We will take a close look at how firms go about setting their prices and how one may improve firms' current practices to increase their profitability.
The first half of the course covers analytical tools and conceptual frameworks needed for analyzing a pricing environment and for formulating a sound pricing strategy. From this part of the course, you will learn not only how to analyze costs, customers, and competitors in order to formulate proactive pricing strategies, but also specific ideas that you can use to help a firm to identify the opportunities for improving its pricing. The second half of the course focuses on developing pricing tactics. This part of the course will help you to gain insights into successful pricing strategies in various industries and discuss how to improve a firm's pricing through engineering a sophisticated pricing structure. The topics of discussion include price promotions, price bundling, price discrimination, versioning, nonlinear pricing, pricing through a distribution channel, dynamic pricing, etc.
Upon successful completion of this course, you will (a) gain in-depth knowledge of current pricing practices in diverse industries, (b) learn the state-of-the-art analytical framework for making proactive pricing decisions, (c) master the basic quantitative techniques for analyzing and making profitable pricing decisions, and (d) improve your acumen for strategic thinking, so that you can excel in today's competitive business environment. |
| Prerequisite: MKTG 101
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| MKTG 341 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| SENIOR SEMINAR - Marketing Problems Seminar |
| Description: Project course oriented toward developing a marketing plan for a sponsoring organization. Research (primary, secondary, or both) is a major component. Students are required to integrate marketing concepts into a consistent whole and to make firm recommendations for decision making in real world situations. Most projects are done in teams, although evaluation is individual. MKTG 211 and 212, while not required, are very helpful.
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| Format: Group project.
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| Requirements: Research, presentation, and final report.
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| Prerequisite: Senior standing and completion of 3 CU in marketing. Open to non-majors with written permission of instructor.
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| Materials: Possible textbook and/or course pack.
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| MKTG 392 ( Full-semester - 1.0 cu ) |
| SPECIAL TOPICS: Visual Aesthetics and Style in Retail Merchandising |
| Description: This course is a visual and practical approach to understanding global styles and it involves readings, active participation in the creation of lifestyle boards, brand books, exercises to develop all the senses and the development of a total style concept. Students will be exposed to the Whitaker Lifestyle Segmentation of the Global Consumer system and will learn: • How to anticipate and predict consumers needs and their style evolution. • How to identify new retail opportunities. • How to create innovative retail concepts and brands. • How to merchandise the appropriate products for a specific lifestyle. • How to develop your intuition and creative power. In addition, students will critically evaluate this style segmentation system and compare it to other segmentation approaches This course is relevant for students interested in developing their intuition and creativity. The topics of this course are a foundation for anyone working in any area of the retail industry: marketing, merchandising, visual merchandising, store design, planning, advertising, etc. |
| Format: Lecture plus experiential learning |
| Prerequisite: None |
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| MKTG 394 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Interactive Media Marketing |
| Description: This course will examine the marketing implications of the media and entertainment industries evolution from its original one-to-many model, to its present transition into a more customized, individualized approach. The course will begin by looking at the industries overall and the forces creating change. The second section considers emerging media, the future of the media and entertainment industries, and consumer experience moving forward. This class is unique in that the instructor specializes in entertainment and marketing research; the class will draw upon practical experience and feature guest lectures from other industry experts. Because the industry changes are happening real time, the class will focus heavily on current events rather than theory or academic research. |
| Format: Lecture, class discussion, and guest speakers. |
| Requirements: |
| Prerequisite: MKTG 101 and MKTG 211. MKTG 211 may be waived with instructor permission. |
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| MKTG 396 ( Mini-semester - .5 ) |
| Retail Merchandising |
| Description: This course provides a detailed introduction to the role of merchandising at various retailers, including apparel and other softlines businesses, grocery stores, mass-merchandisers and "catagory killers". Selected topics may include product development, line planning, sourcing, product lifecycle, forecasting, planning and allocation, pricing and markdowns, vendor relations |
| Prerequisite: MKTG 101; MKTG 225 |
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| MKTG 398 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Forecasting Methods for Marketing |
| Description: Better forecasting can lead to better short-term and long-term planning and, in turn, to better decision-making. Forecasting Methods for Marketing examines judgmental forecasting methods such as prediction markets, structured analogies, simulated interactions, intentions, and expectations. The course also examines quantitative methods such as extrapolation and econometric, with the latter as especially useful for assessing the effects of changes in key variables such as pricing or advertising. These methods can be used to forecast consumer behavior, market share, and sales (for production and inventory control). They can also be used to forecast actions by competitors, unions, and retailers. We will examine such topics as: how to predict success of CEO's, presidential elections, terrorism and climate change. Recently developed methods have been shown to substantially improve accuracy and to provide better assessments of risk.
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| Format: Lectures, discussions, cases |
| Requirements: Final exam |
| Prerequisite: None |
| Materials: Coursepack, book |
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| MKTG 399 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Supervised Independent Study |
| Description: Content arranged by supervisor.
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| Prerequisite: MKTG 212 and written permission of instructor and the department undergraduate advisor.
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| MKTG 411 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Principles of Marketing |
| Description: This course integrates concepts from economics, behavioral science, and quantitative analysis to allow the student to understand marketing as a system within its social and economic environment. |
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| MKTG 423 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Marketing Research |
| Description: This is a survey of marketing research (MR) techniques. The goal is for you to become exposed to marketing research problems and techniques so that you may begin to assemble your own toolbox to gather, evaluate, and use information effectively when making marketing decisions. |
| Format: We will discuss how MR is commissioned, evaluated, and used to affect business decisions and processes. We will also cover how MR is designed, executed, analyzed, and reported. The text is primarily designed for prospective users of research (managers); conversely, the course includes elements for specialists producing research (marketing researchers). Thus, our quantitative work will be both conceptual and practical. Problem-solving in this domain will rely heavily on interpreting PC outputs fr |
| Prerequisite: You will benefit from having taken an introductory marketing course and some fundamentals of statistics. If you have not had a minimum of one semester of statistics, the quantitative part of this course will be a blur without some remedial help. |
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| MKTG 453 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| New Product Management |
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| MKTG 476 ( Full-semester - 1.0 ) |
| Applied Probablity Models for Marketing |
| Description: This course will expose students to the theoretical and empirical "building blocks" that will allow them to construct, estimate, and interpret powerful models of customer behavior. Over the years, researchers and practitioners have used these models for a wide variety of applications, such as new product sales, forecasting, analyses of media usage, and targeted marketing programs. Other disciplines have seen equally broad utilization of these techniques.
The course will be entirely lecture-based with a strong emphasis on real-time problem solving. Most sessions will feature sophisticated numerical investigations using Microsoft Excel. Much of the material is highly technical. Students must have a high comfort level with basic integral calculus, and recent exposure to a formal course in probability statistics would be helpful (such as STAT 430).
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| Prerequisite: None |
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