GBA 656 Marketing and New Product Development

Course Description
Course Prerequisites
Required Course Material
Suggested Readings
Grading System
Competencies and Contact Hours
Project Guidelines
Cases and Readings in Marketing New Product Development
Tentative Course Schedule

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is designed to emphasize the interdisciplinary nature of complex problems in developing and marketing products and services in a global competitive environment. Students will be introduced to problems throughout the life cycle including product development, technical and economical feasibility, product positioning, and product line management. Special emphasis will be on students' ability to formulate strategies through case studies and readings.

COURSE PREREQUISITES: Completion of MBA foundation courses or equivalent.

REQUIRED COURSE MATERIAL

Cravens, David, Strategic Marketing (Fifth Edition), Richard D. Irwin Co., 1997.

Gorchels, Linda, The Product Manager's Handbook, NTC Business Books, 1995.

Hendon, Donald W., Classic Failures in Product Marketing, NTC Business Books, 1994.

SUGGESTED READINGS:

Marketing Management: Analysis, Planning, Implementation, and Control (8th. Edition). Philip Kotler, Englewood Cliff, NJ: Prentice Hall, Inc., 1997.

Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries, and Competitors. Michael E. Porter. The Free Press, New York, NY, 1985.

Selected articles from the following journals:

Journal of Marketing

Journal of Marketing Research

Journal of Industrial Marketing

Journal of Business Research

Harvard Business Review

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science

GRADING SYSTEM

The course grade will be determined by the total of the scores received from the following items:

Midterm Exam 34% Final Exam 34% Research Project 18% Book Report 9% Home Works and Class Participation 5% TOTAL 100%

COMPETENCIES and CONTACT HOURS

COMPETENCIES Contact hours

The student will be introduced to:

product life cycle stages - from new product development to introduction and managing of products in an organizational setting.
3

customer decision making process
3

The student will understand:

competitive behavior including external environment of business
3

development of innovative products and managing innovation
6

product line management including marketing, production, and economical considerations
3

the role of coordination between marketing & production in successful new product development
3

The student will be able to:

apply marketing strategy formulation.
6

apply marketing research techniques for developing innovative products and managing established products.
3

apply market segmentation, new product positioning and repositioning of established products.
3

develop marketing plans including worldwide corporate strategy in a competitive setting.
6

recognize and resolve interface issues between marketing & production in new product development
3

CLASSROOM ATTENDANCE AND OTHER POLICIES: Students are expected to attend classes regularly and be prepared to discuss the: assigned material.
The book report and the research project must be typed (double spaced) and follow: the Journal of Marketing writing style guidelines. The instructor will lower the grade by one unit for the reports that fail to meet the guidelines.

No Make-up exams will be given! The course schedule is attached, please plan: accordingly.

The following presents a partial listing of the Sources for Research Project and Case Study Analysis

Proquest Direct

ABI-Inform --computer data bases

Business Periodicals Index

INTERNET

Marketing and Strategic Management Journals

Statistical Abstract of the U.S.

Survey of Current Business

Measuring Markets: A guide to the Use of Federal and State Statistical Data

County and City Data Book

Randy McNally Commercial Atlas & Marketing Guide

Sales and Marketing Management "Survey of Buying Power" (July, and October issues)

DIRECTORY OF DIRECTORIES!!!!!

PROJECT GUIDELINES

Each project must be typed (double spaced), and professionally presented to the class. The project should be around 15-25 pages including literature review and data analysis if secondary data is used. There are three ways of approaching the project:

1) Conducting extensive literature review about a very specific topic related marketing management;

2) In addition to performing a literature review about a topic of interest, primary or secondary data can be gathered to analyze the topic. The second option is preferred, and can be accomplished with ease if one can utilize the library resources and gets started very early in the semester.

3) Performing a consulting project for a company with a specific marketing problem. Companies may be selected by you or provided to you by the instructor. If you choose to do a consulting work for a company, you may follow the outline for case analysis in writing your report. However, some consulting projects may require gathering both secondary and primary data. If so, this stage must be incorporated into the project in addition to situation analysis. All projects must be approved by the instructor.

If the first option is chosen, the topic selected should be examined by reviewing journal articles and books, and the major findings or proposals should be synthesized and integrated. For example a major aspect of single subject may have been investigated by more than one researcher and should be stated so in the paper (e.g. Based on the findings of Demstez 1995; Kerin 1996; Webster 1985; Wind 1994; and Zigler et al. 1988, early market entry leads to higher market shares. However, studies conducted by Brown 1995; Buzzel and May 1990, and Kumar 1994, indicate that firms with very small market shares enjoy higher than average profit margins). Similarly, opposing or concurring views should be stated by indicating the source. Footnotes should be used only when directly quoting a reference, and a complete bibliography should be presented at the end of the paper. As noted earlier, the Journal of Marketing writing guidelines should be used as format. You may find the guidelines in certain issues of the journal. If the literature review option is chosen, it is very important to have a hypothesis in mind and organize the text by using major headings and sub-headings.

The literature review format explained above should be utilized in the second option as well. If you choose the second option, in addition to the literature review, the paper will consist the following :

I-HYPOTHESES

II-METHODOLOGY

A) Sample--the units (i.e. industries or companies used to gather data)

B) Data Gathering Procedure--how and from where the data is gathered

III-RESULTS

Testing the hypotheses stated earlier by using appropriate statistical techniques (i.e. frequencies, cross-tabulations, t-tests, correlations, regression, ANOVA, or multivariate statistical techniques such as factor or cluster analysis, and multidimensional scaling). I do not expect that you will know all of these techniques an be able to apply them, but I am willing to help! The findings should be presented by using tables/charts, etc.

IV-LIMITATIONS

Write about the limitations of your study discussing the reliability and validity of your study.

V-FUTURE RESEARCH

Suggest future research as appropriate.

VI-CONCLUSIONS or RECOMMENDATIONS

NOTE: The use of library is a must in conducting the research project!

BOOK REPORT

You are required to read and prepare a report on the book titled, "Classic Failures in Product Marketing," by Donald W. Hendon. Objective of the book report is to identify common themes of product failures and successes through the readings, and make suggestions for development of successful new products. An attempt should be made to integrate the course readings into this book report.

CASE ANALYSIS & CONSULTING PROJECTS

Although, there are many ways of approaching case analysis and consulting projects, I think the following guidelines will be helpful in performing in-depth analysis:

I- Introduction and Problem Definition

Include Situation Analysis for projects
Include Methodology - if primary data is gathered

II-Weaknesses of the firm

III- Strengths of the firm

IV- Threats (i.e. Competitors, FTC, Poor Economic Conditions, etc.)

V- Opportunities (i.e. Unsatisfied Needs of the Customers)

VI- Alternatives (ways the firm can solve its problem(s))

VII-Recommendations

VIII- Implementation of the recommendations.

*Library can be a very useful resource in gathering additional information about a particular industry, and company and it should be utilized.

The exhibits (DATA) presented at the end of the cases or secondary data gathered from library or other sources may be used to perform statistical analysis to support the recommendations. A variety of statistical software packages and personal computers are available throughout the university. You might consider using SPSS software package on a PC.

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE