FISHER COLLEGE OF BUSINESS, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
BUS M&L 4203: MARKETING STRATEGY, SPRING SEMESTER 2014
THURSDAYS
A. COURSE SYLLABUS
Instructor:
Vasu Unnava, Ph. D.
Office Hours: By Appointment & Special Hours
Email:
Office:
Telephone:
URL:
313 Fisher Hall
(614) 292 3212
Carmen.osu.edu
unnava.2@ fisher.osu.edu
Required Course Pack:
We use nine cases from Harvard Business publishing and the details of how to access these cases can
be found on CARMEN course website.
Supplementary Course Material:
All other course materials such as class slides and study guides for quizzes will either be made available on
CARMEN or given out in the class.
Course Objectives:
Marketing strategy is the key part of the marketing processes. Decision makers within corporations and other
organizations create marketing strategy using tools, planning and research. You will develop and improve
your qualitative and quantitative analytical skills, written and oral presentation skills by applying your
knowledge of marketing principles to real business problems, making formal presentations of your
recommendations and defending them. To be a successful marketing strategist, you should understand the
problem, the underlying causes, and provide justification for the marketing strategy.
Class Format:
Marketing strategy course is based on business cases. We will use case presentations by groups, discussions,
team interactions, critiques and evaluations. If you cannot attend regularly, you should not plan on taking this
course this quarter. Class attendance and active, quality participation in discussions are critical to your learning
and success in this course. The concepts learned from case analyses will be applied to a select case on
TARGET Corporation to formulate a marketing strategy.
Course Evaluation:
Your grades will be evaluated as follows:
1. Course Case Presentation
2. Executive Committee Evaluation
3. Class Participation
4. Online quizzes, Best eight out of ten
5. Target Case
6. Target Report
TOTAL
Bio BONUS
TOTAL
12% (Group Grade-one case)
5% (Group Grade-one case)
10% (Individual Grade)
56% (7% each quiz, Individual Grade)
10% (Group Grade)
7% (Group Grade)
100%
1%
101%
IMPORTANT NOTE: Re-grading requests will be accepted in writing on a paper (emails are NOT accepted)
within 1 week of receipt of the grade.
VASU UNNAVA
BUS M&L 4203: Marketing Strategy
THURSDAYs, Spring Semester 2014
Page 1 of 7
Grading Scale
The grading scale, and point conversion that will be utilized for the final grade is as follows:
Grade
GPA
Grade
GPA
A
= 94-100 %
4.0
C+
= 77-79 %
2.3
A= 90-93 %
3.7
C
= 73-76 %
2.0
B+
= 87-89 %
3.3
C= 70-72 %
1.7
B
= 83-86 %
3.0
D+
= 67-69 %
1.3
B= 80-82 %
2.7
D
= 63-66 %
1.0
E
= below 62
Group Work in the course:
Students will be assigned to groups at the beginning of the semester and they will be responsible for
working in groups to complete four assignments. The first one is a course case presentation and the
second one is to evaluate another group’s presentation as an executive committee. The third
assignment is creating marketing strategy for an assigned TARGET case, and final responsibility is
writing a report on TARGET case.
I) Oral Presentation (12%): A formal professionally prepared oral presentation of your course case
analysis is required. Your presentation includes:
a) A clear statement of the problem including your justification for viewing the problem as you
do
b) A thorough analysis of the situation
c) Presentation of the two or more alternative problem solutions
d) Selection and justification of chosen solution and reasons why other alternatives are rejected
e) Implementation plan
Each group will have Question and Answer session at the end of the presentation. This is an
opportunity to participate in the class. Executive committee would take lead in asking questions and
then other students will follow. Each member in presenting group will take turns in responding to
questions from students in the class. Information on how to analyze a case is posted o CARMEN.
Each group will meet with instructor to discuss case questions and presentation material. Dress code
is business casual.
You will provide a copy of your PPT file to the instructor at the beginning of presentation.
II. Executive Committee (5%): Each group will become board of directors or executive team
evaluating one case presentation. You will evaluate on the quality of case analysis and presentation.
The evaluations will be kept confidential till the finals week of the semester. Details on the
responsibilities of executive committee can be found on CARMEN.
III. Class participation (10%): An extremely important part of the class will involve your
contributions to case discussions. There are at least a couple of reasons why class participation is
weighted 10% in this class. First, those who prepare the most outside of class and participate most
actively in class will be likely to learn the most from the class. Second, they will also contribute
greatly to the learning of other students in the class by encouraging thorough discussion of important
case-related marketing concepts and issues.
To do well in class participation, students must regularly contribute to class discussion by making
insightful comments that reflect a careful analysis of assigned material. It is expected that all
students will carefully read and analyze each case prior to coming to class. This will facilitate active
participation and enrich the quality of class discussions.
VASU UNNAVA
BUS M&L 4203: Marketing Strategy
THURSDAYs, Spring Semester 2014
Page 2 of 7
The following grading guidelines are provided to assist you in understanding how class participation
will be graded. Please also note that class participation should not be confused with class attendance.
Merely attending class will not lead to a strong class participation grade. To accomplish the latter it
will be necessary to be consistently actively engaged in the class discussions and a leader in many of
these discussions. Therefore, we might consider the following examples of possible class
participation grades.
Scale
Description
A
A consistent leader in class discussions who regularly makes
strong contributions by making insightful comments that reflect a
thorough analysis of the case and/or articles and other enrichment
material under consideration in this class – comments that advance
our understanding of the topics under consideration.
B
Contributes fairly regularly to class discussion making insightful
comments that reflect a careful reading of the cases and articles
under consideration in the class.
C
Contributes to class discussion with reasonable comments that
follow from the prior discussion, but does not contribute as
frequently or consistently as others.
D
Infrequent comments or a tendency to make comments that do not
appear to be based on a reading of the case. Comments when
called on but the comments frequently do not reflect a careful
reading of class material.
E
Very few positive contributions to the class discussion.
Students will receive a set of class participation sheets at the beginning of the semester and it will be
collected during at the end of the semester. Students will note down their contributions to each case
discussion in the class and hand over the sheet set to the instructor during and/ or at the end of the
semester.
IV. Quizzes (56%): Best eight quizzes out of ten quizzes, each 7% or 56% of total points
There will be ten quizzes during the semester and best eight scores will be counted. The dates for
quizzes are given in the syllabus. Questions will come from the assigned readings and cases. Each
quiz will contain about 10 multiple choice questions. The quizzes are CARMEN online quizzes.
Duration of quiz will be about 20 to 30 minutes. Material for quizzes will come from the cases that
are going to be discussed in the class. Quizzes will open on Tuesdays and close on Saturday at
11:00PM.
V) Oral Presentation of TARGET case (10%):
Each group will be assigned a case on TARGET Corporation. For the stated problem(s), the group
will market conduct customer, competitor, market and industry analyses and formulate a marketing
strategy.
VASU UNNAVA
BUS M&L 4203: Marketing Strategy
THURSDAYs, Spring Semester 2014
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VI) Written Report (7%) on TARGET case: Each group will submit a written report of TARGET
case. It should not exceed five pages (double spaced, 12 point font, standard margins). It should
summarize key points from oral presentation and conclusions about marketing strategies. You can
submit the report in electronic format in CARMEN drop box.
Note: The University and College expectation is that students spend two hours outside of class for
every hour spent in class. So, for our course, you would about spend two hours and forty minutes
on the course outside class room every week.
FIRST BONUS OPPORTUNITY:
You can earn one bonus point when you will turn in bio-sheet (emails do not get credit) with your
picture by Jan 23, 2014.
FISHER COLLEGE OF BUSINESS, THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
SPRING SEMESTER 2014
B. IMPORTANT NOTES
Important Notes
 All quiz dates, exam dates, and assigned reading due dates are included in the Course Outline.
Please make note of these dates and plan your semester accordingly. If you are unable to
attend a class, please notify me by email unless it is an emergency. With a valid written
excuse, missed exams or quizzes will be dealt with on an individual basis. Without a valid
written excuse, missed exams or quizzes will recorded as zero pints.

You are encouraged make use of the office hours. Besides office hours, you are welcome to
set-up appointment. E-mails should not be seen as an alternative to class participation. Not
all questions can be effectively answered by e-mail. The response to any e-mail question can
be suggesting a one-on-one meeting, or by addressing the question during next class session

Please let me know if you have a disability and need accommodations to make the learning
environment more effective.

You are responsible for everything that takes place in class, including changes to assignments
or schedules, whether you are present or not. If you must miss class, please arrange with a
classmate to share notes and insights.

Please come to class on time. Do not engage in side conversations. Turn off your cell
phones, mp3 players and pagers before you come to class. Do not take calls. No texting is
permitted in the class. Do not use your laptops while class is being conducted. They
cause the class to become distracted from the main issues.

Late arrivals, moving in and out of class room or using computers in the class room for
activities such as social networking/emails will cause a letter grade deduction from your
final grade.
Have fun! This course let you conduct marketing strategy without risking your own money or your
job.
VASU UNNAVA
BUS M&L 4203: Marketing Strategy
THURSDAYs, Spring Semester 2014
Page 4 of 7
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY (ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT)
Academic integrity is essential to maintaining an environment that fosters excellence in teaching,
research, and other educational and scholarly activities. Thus, The Ohio State University and the
Committee on Academic Misconduct (COAM) expect that all students have read and understand the
University’s Code of Student Conduct, and that all students will complete all academic and scholarly
assignments with fairness and honesty. Students must recognize that failure to follow the rules and
guidelines established in the University’s Code of Student Conduct and this syllabus may constitute
“Academic Misconduct.”
The Ohio State University’s Code of Student Conduct (Section 3335-23-04) defines academic
misconduct as: “Any activity that tends to compromise the academic integrity of the University, or
subvert the educational process.” Examples of academic misconduct include (but are not limited to)
plagiarism, collusion (unauthorized collaboration), copying the work of another student, and
possession of unauthorized materials during an examination. Ignorance of the University’s Code of
Student Conduct is never considered an “excuse” for academic misconduct, so I recommend that you
review the Code of Student Conduct and, specifically, the sections dealing with academic misconduct.
If I suspect that a student has committed academic misconduct in this course, I am obligated by
University Rules to report my suspicions to the Committee on Academic Misconduct. If COAM
determines that you have violated the University’s Code of Student Conduct (i.e., committed
academic misconduct), the sanctions for the misconduct could include a failing grade in this course
and suspension or dismissal from the University.
If you have any questions about the above policy or what constitutes academic misconduct in this
course, please contact me.
Other sources of information on academic misconduct (integrity) to which you can refer include:

The Committee on Academic Misconduct web pages (http://oaa.osu.edu/coam.html)
VASU UNNAVA
BUS M&L 4203: Marketing Strategy
THURSDAYs, Spring Semester 2014
Page 5 of 7
Course Outline* for BUS ML 4203, THURSDAYS
VASU UNNAVA, Marketing Strategy, SPRING SEMESTER 2014
No
Date
Content/Case
1
9-JAN
Syllabus
2
16-JAN
3
23-JAN
Analysis Tools
Introduction to Target and Target Cases
4
30-JAN
Brand Management:
ONLINE QUIZ 2
Black & Decker
(Black & Decker)
Brand Extensions: Mountain Man Brewing Co:
Bringing Brand to Light
ONLINE QUIZ 3
Innovation:
ONLINE QUIZ 4
Brita Products
(Brita Products)
Loyalty Programs:
ONLINE QUIZ 5
Hilton HHonors Worldwide: Loyalty Wars
(Hilton HHonors.)
Positioning Strategy:
ONLINE QUIZ 6
IKEA Invades America
(IKEA)
Retail Pricing:
ONLINE QUIZ 7
XM Satellite Radio (A)
(XM Satellite Radio)
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
6-FEB
13-FEB
20-FEB
27-FEB
6-MAR
Assignment
.Bio Sheet Due
ONLINE QUIZ 1
(Analysis tools)
(Mountain Man.)
10-14 MAR
Spring Break
20-MAR
Social Media:
ONLINE QUIZ 8
UnMe Jeans: Branding in Web 2.0
(UnMe Jeans)
Advertising & Segmentation:
ONLINE QUIZ 9
What is the Deal with Living Social?
(Living Social)
Mobile Marketing:
ONLINE QUIZ 10
Bank of America: Mobile Banking
(Bank Of America)
27-MAR
3-APR
.Due Class Participation
13
10-APR
TARGET Case Presentations
14
17-APR
TARGET Case Presentations
Finals
Week
TARGET CASE WRITTEN REPORT,
CARMEN DROP closes by 11:00 AM on April 29,
2014
*Note: Subject to change if necessary. Please check CARMEN for important notes, lecture slides, and
announcements.
VASU UNNAVA
BUS M&L 4203: Marketing Strategy
THURSDAYs, Spring Semester 2014
Page 6 of 7
Due: 23-Jan, by the start time of class.
THURSDAYS 4203
BUS M&L 4203: MARKETING STRATEGY,
SPRING SEMESTER 2014
BIO SHEET: Bonus Opportunity
Name: __________________________________________
(e-mail):___________________________________
(phone). (
)
-
.
What is your experience in Marketing?
What are your career goals?
One interesting fact about yourself:
Please attach your photo in the upper right and corner of this sheet.
VASU UNNAVA
BUS M&L 4203: Marketing Strategy
THURSDAYs, Spring Semester 2014
Page 7 of 7