Marketing Strategy and Competitive Advantage

BMAN74011 Marketing Strategy and Competitive Advantage 15 Semester 1 Postgraduate Taught Level 7 Simos Chari Unit coordinator 1 FHEQ level (Framework for Higher Education Qualifications) ' Masters/Integrated Masters P4 ' European Credit Transfer & Accumulation System Rating : 7.5 Marketing strategy is the means by which a company creates a sustainable competitive advantage by providing superior value to target markets. To this end, this course unit provides an overview of how a company formulates plans, optimizes the use of scarce resources to leverage its strengths, and implements strategies to take advantage of market opportunities. A problem-solving approach is taken in the course, the module focuses on real-world applications to enable students to relate and apply theoretical insights to marketing strategy, to improve students’ ability in analysing business cases, brainstorming, and communicating ideas. Marketing strategy is the means by which a company creates a sustainable competitive advantage by providing superior value to target markets. To this end, this course unit provides an overview of how a company formulates plans, optimizes the use of scarce resources to leverage its strengths, and implements strategies to take advantage of market opportunities. A problem-solving approach is taken in the course, the module focuses on real-world applications to enable students to relate and apply theoretical insights to marketing strategy, to improve students’ ability in analysing business cases, brainstorming, and communicating ideas. The course aims to enable students to understand the nature of business-to-customer and business-to-business markets and acquire an in-depth knowledge of marketing strategy formulation and implementation related issues. It equips students with understanding of how organizations are "doing it" to achieve key performance objectives. Specifically, students will be able to understand how marketing strategy decisions are turned into a set of detailed marketing actions and how diverse organizations are competing for success and competitive advantage. Branding, Innovation and New Product Development, Relationship Marketing, and Service Excellence will be examined as alternative ways to achieving a sustainable advantage <o:p></o:p> <span class="TextRun SCXW20468772 BCX8 NormalTextRun" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color:transparent;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;-webkit-user-drag:none;font-family:"Microsoft Sans Serif", "Microsoft Sans Serif_EmbeddedFont", "Microsoft Sans Serif_MSFontService", sans-serif;font-size:11pt;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:none !important;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:18.3458px;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:justify;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;user-select:text;white-space:pre-wrap;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" data-contrast="auto" xml:lang="EN-US" lang="EN-US" data-ccp-parastyle="Body Text">At the end of the course students should have developed a comprehensive understanding of marketing strategy formulation and implementation concepts and theories. <span class="TextRun SCXW20468772 BCX8 NormalTextRun" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color:transparent;-webkit-text-stroke-width:0px;-webkit-user-drag:none;font-family:"Microsoft Sans Serif", "Microsoft Sans Serif_EmbeddedFont", "Microsoft Sans Serif_MSFontService", sans-serif;font-size:11pt;font-style:normal;font-variant-caps:normal;font-variant-ligatures:none !important;font-weight:400;letter-spacing:normal;line-height:18.3458px;margin:0px;orphans:2;padding:0px;text-align:justify;text-decoration-color:initial;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-thickness:initial;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;user-select:text;white-space:pre-wrap;widows:2;word-spacing:0px;" data-contrast="auto" xml:lang="EN-GB" lang="EN-GB" data-ccp-parastyle="Body Text">The overall objective of the course is to learn the process of developing strategies that can lead to sustainable competitive advantages (through New Product Development, Branding, Relationship Marketing and Service Excellence) that can deliver above-average returns in the long-run.   Explain how an integrated marketing strategy is designed and implemented<o:p></o:p>Explain how Business to Customer and Business to Business organisations achieve a sustainable competitive advantage<o:p></o:p>Describe different approaches to competing for success in the Business to Customer and Business to Business sectors<o:p></o:p> Apply critical thinking to analyse running strategies of real life B2C and B2B organizations.<o:p></o:p> Describe how business-to-customer and business-to-business organisations compete for success and competitive advantage<o:p></o:p>Assess alternative ways for creating value to Business to Customer and Business to Business customers<o:p></o:p>Apply appropriate theoretical frameworks to assess marketing strategies adopted by real-life organisations<o:p></o:p> Communicate marketing strategy insights effectively to a professional audience<o:p></o:p>Identify relevant and reliable sources for evaluating market and industry components such as competitors and customers<o:p></o:p> Other At the end of the course students should have developed a comprehensive understanding of marketing strategy formulation and implementation concepts and theories. The overall objective of the course is to learn the process of developing strategies that can lead to sustainable competitive advantages (through New Product Development, Branding, Relationship Marketing and Service Excellence) that can deliver above-average returns in the long-run. Syllabus•  Marketing Strategy: Developing & Implementing Plans • Competitor Analysis. Competitive Dynamics & Ethics in Marketing •  Achieving a Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) •  Competing for Success and achieving a SCA with Branding •  Competing for Success and achieving a SCA with Innovation & NPD •  Competing for Success and achieving a SCA with Relationship Marketing •  Competing for Success and achieving a SCA with Service Excellence I   Formal Contact MethodsMinimum Contact hours: 20 Delivery format: Lecture and Workshops 0 Other 100% Exam (60%) - 2Hrs Group Project (40%) - 10 minutes presentation  Exam - Summative feedback post exams / model answers <o:p></o:p>Group Project - In the form of a mark and comments on performance  <o:p></o:p> MSc Marketing MSc Marketing PGDT Taught Component Mandatory N • Kotler, P. and Keller, K. (2016). Marketing Management, 15 edition, Pearson Education • Palmatier, R. W., and Sridhar, S. (2017). Marketing strategy: Based on first principles and data analytics. Macmillan International Higher Education.   Lectures 20 Seminars 10 0 120