1
The Ohio State University
Max M. Fisher College of Business
Spring 2012
BUS-M&L 844 - Applied Marketing Planning
Professor James L. Ginter
542 Fisher Hall
292-2267
ginter.1@osu.edu
This course is concerned with strategic marketing planning. The focus is on making and
developing plans for implementing strategic decisions, i.e. decisions that have a long-term
impact on the organization and that are difficult and costly to reverse. The strategic marketing
planning process is supported by an external analysis (an analysis of the organization’s
environment) and a self-analysis.
Course Objectives:
1. The course aims to develop your skills in developing and planning implementation of
marketing programs and strategies. In so doing, we broaden and deepen the basic
marketing “tool kit” you acquired in the core marketing course. The general goal of this
course is to enable you do develop a plan that effectively integrates the various marketing
tools into a consistent program aimed at achieving a sustainable and profitable position in
the marketplace. The course materials cover firms of different sizes marketing a wide range
of consumer and industrial products and services.
2. A second primary objective for the course is to develop general skills of making valuable
contribution to a group process of problem identification, analysis, and resolution. These
skills include effective listening, development and communication of logical frameworks,
establishment of priorities, identification of underlying reasons for differences of opinion, and
meaningful contribution to a productive discussion.
Case Analysis
A large part of the course involves case discussions and the presentation of analyses. It is
expected that everyone will prepare each case fully, and you are encouraged to discuss the
case before class with a study group.
The philosophy and expectations are those described in the handout entitled “Case Discussion
Expectations”. The following points deserve emphasis.
Your participation grade will reflect the quality (not quantity) of your contribution to the
class discussion.
Please come to each class fully prepared and ready to participate in the discussion.
This requires more than a general awareness of case facts.
Please be on time for all classes. Late arrivals unfairly distract the class member who is
opening the discussion and deprive you of the opportunity to be called to open.
Each case has its own integrity, and additional data gathering should not be undertaken.
2
Readings
Aaker, David A., Strategic Market Management, 9th Edition, John Wiley & Sons, 2011. In the
outline of sessions, the numbers refer to chapters in this book. Earlier, but recent editions of the
book are a bit different but will be satisfactory for our use. We do not study the book in a highly
structured way.
Packet of cases will be available at XanEdu.
Assigned readings are available on-line through the OSU Libraries or the HBS web site.
Company Analysis
A company analysis is to be completed by teams of 3 to 5 people. The groups need not be the
same as those you use for other purposes, but that is acceptable if you prefer. The team will
prepare a written company analysis, strategic plan, and implementation plan for a “client” firm.
This report is due on Friday, May 25. Each team will also present its report in a formal 20
minute presentation to the class.
The client can be a firm that is either already in the market or considering market entry. You
may choose a client with whom you can have contact. This may be useful for gathering
information. However you do not need to have any contact with the client. In fact, sometimes
client contact in this context can be constraining because the client’s agenda will be to get some
free information and analysis from you. In any case, you should not let the client direct your
analysis, your evaluation of strategic alternatives, or your implementation plan.
At the outset of the report you should indicate the client and the strategic decisions the client is
(or should be) facing. The focus on a client will help you focus on strategically important
material and avoid becoming too broad, unfocused, and descriptive.
To the extent possible, your report should include the completion of a “planning form” as
illustrated in the appendix of the text. Specifically, you might include:
1. A customer analysis including an identification of the key market segments (and perhaps a
segment by motivation grid).
2. A market analysis including a market definition, demand trends, product life cycle analysis
and an identification of key success factors.
3. Identification of the important competitors and their strategy objectives, weaknesses and
problems. What are the sustainable competitive advantages of each of the major
competitors? Were they “born” with those SCAs, or did they develop them (when and
how)?
4. If feasible, you may wish to contact one or two marketing managers from a firm (or two)
within the industry to get their views on:
- who is their leading competitor,
- what are the SCAs for his/her firm, for the leading competitor, and for other major
competitors,
- which of these SCAs were the involved firms “born” with and which did they develop?
5. An analysis of the major environmental trends, opportunities, and threats.
3
6. An assessment of the firm’s industry in terms of the GE “industry attractiveness” dimension
and the BCG “market growth” dimension.
A client firm and industry should be selected for which information is available, preferably in
trade magazines and business publications like Business Week and Fortune as well as on the
internet. Possible industries include gourmet or other specialty frozen foods, wine, retail
banking, a software area, a retail segment, a type of restaurant, a type of sports equipment, etc.
You may consider a competitive industry that exists completely within a local market, if
appropriate.
Please note that this assignment is a research report. It is to be based on multiple information
sources of various types. It is not simply a restructuring of information from one or two key
sources. As a benchmark, your report should be based on a minimum of fifteen different
information sources. Further, your sources should include items from the business press, such
as WSJ, Business Week, Forbes, etc., in addition to those you might find through an electronic
search such as Google.
By Wednesday, April 4 you should hand in a report of:
- who is in the group
- the client firm and industry selected.
- a preliminary list of strategic decision options your client is likely to face.
These must be approved prior to Monday, April 16. If any member of the group has worked
for the proposed subject firm or has worked on a project involving the proposed firm in any other
course, this must be disclosed. Such projects may be approved if the proposed work is
sufficiently distinct from the prior work.
Hand in by Wednesday, May 2 a progress report in the form of a short (one page) memo. This
should include a brief description of the major competitive forces in the industry and the most
interesting and useful strategic issues (not strategic decisions) for your client firm.
The written report is due on Friday, May 25. It should be concise but thorough. You should
make free use of appendices for descriptive background material. The report must go beyond
recitation of descriptive facts and get at strategic implications. You must use this material to
discuss and support strategic insights and recommendations in the body or in figures. It is
helpful if the paper starts with an introduction that briefly describes the client, sets forth the
objectives of the study, motivates the project and provides an overview of the paper structure.
An executive summary is required, but it does not replace an introductory section. The report
must provide both a recommended strategy for the client and an implementation plan that
includes an indication of the level of various efforts (e.g. budget) and a timeline for the
recommended actions. It should also tie the recommended actions clearly back to the selected
strategy. Your paper must also include a bibliography of the information sources that were
used. No format for the bibliography is prescribed, but it should contain sufficient detail on each
source for the reader to be able to go to that source.
It is not imperative that the group agree upon the interpretation and conclusions. A note setting
forth a “minority opinion” is appropriate if a group member has an opinion not shared by others.
In both the written and oral report, when covering a section like competitor analysis do not
attempt to be comprehensive -- just discuss those areas that are important and add insight. The
goal is to reflect an appropriate set of priorities in providing an analysis that is insightful and
helpful to the client.
4
The oral report will consist of a 20 minute presentation that is polished, professional, rehearsed,
interesting, and useful to your client. You should regard it as an excellent opportunity to
improve or refine your presentation skills. Everyone should present. During the presentations
by the other groups you will be asked to provide written comments on the presentation skills of
each speaker (not the content) and make suggestions for improvement. A set of these
comments will be copied and returned to you. The goal is not only to provide feedback but also
to sensitize you to presentation skills.
Members of a group may receive different grades based upon their oral presentation, their
section in the report (if it is well defined), and their role in the group. At the end of the course
each student will be asked to describe the role played by each of the group members.
Marketing Simulation: Managing Segments and Customers
Students will work in teams on this simulated decision making exercise. The teams will be the
same as those for the company analysis term project. This exercise will be discussed in class
on the following dates:
Wednesday, April 11 - Simulation introduction, discussion of background materials and
decision process, and initial assignment. The team then makes two series of decisions.
Wednesday, April 25 – Discussion of initial results. Teams then make the final series
of decisions (a “re-do”)
Wednesday, May 9 – Final discussion/debrief. Each team submits a paper (no longer
than 10 pages) that describes their initial strategy, the plan they pursued, a log of their decisions
in implementing this plan (with a discussion of necessary adjustments), and their conclusions
with respect to their strategy and their implementation plan.
Note: The team’s evaluation on this project will be based on the quality of this paper (and the
strength of the logic underlying it), rather than the team’s numerical performance in the
simulation.
Final
There will be an in-class written final exam. Your response will be limited in length, but exhibits
may be used. The final is during the normal final exam period:
Wednesday, May 30, 1:30 – 3:18 pm.
Office Hours
There are no set office hours. Appointments will be made as needed.
Grade
Your grade will be based 45% on class participation, 10% on the simulation exercise, 25% on
the industry analysis group project, and 20% on the final exam.
THANK YOU FOR REGISTERING FOR THE COURSE
I HOPE YOU FIND IT INTERESTING AND VALUABLE!
5
The following statement is provided by and requested by the OSU Office of Academic Affairs:
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 (oaa.osu.edu/coam/home.html)

Ten Suggestions for Preserving Academic Integrity (oaa.osu.edu/coam/tensuggestions.html)
6
INSTRUCTIONS FOR ACCESS TO THE DICKSON/GINTER READING
1.
go to www.osu.edu
2.
Under the “Students” tab at the top of the page, click on the “Libraries” link
3.
Select “Research Databases”
4.
Under the databases arranged alphabetically, select “B” (for business)
5.
Scroll down to and select Business Source Complete [Selected Articles in Full
Text]
6.
In the middle of the next page, click on the link: Business Source Complete
[Selected Articles in Full Text]
7.
Under “ Search Options” , select “ advanced search”
8.
Now you can search for the specific article. For example, for our first article,
a. in the upper field input “Dickson”
b. go to the adjacent drop down box and select AU (author)
c. go to the next open field on the left and enter “Ginter” go to the adjacent drop
down box and select AU (author)
d. select the search button (upper right)
9.
Under the bibliographic entry for the article, select PDF Full Text
10.
You can now read and/or print the article as you wish
7
APPLIED MARKETING PLANNING
Spring Quarter 2012
CLASS ASSIGNMENTS
Introduction
MAR 26
Course Introduction
MAR 28
Chapters 1, 3,
Case: Sears, Roebuck and Co.
APR 2
Chapters 2, 4
Case: Ring Medical
APR 4
Group Project Proposal Due
“Market Segmentation, Product Differentiation, and Marketing Strategy,” Peter R.
Dickson and James L. Ginter, Journal of Marketing, April 1987.
Case: Reed Supermarkets: A New Wave of Competitors
APR 9
Chapters 5,6
Case: The Clorox Company: Leveraging Green for Growth
APR 11
Read Simulation Materials and Decision Process
Case: Mountain Man Brewing Company
APR 16
Group Project Proposals Approved
Note on the Motorcycle Industry - 1975
Case: Harley-Davidson: Marketing Strategy for Motorcycles – 1977
APR 18
“Cult Brands,” Melanie Wells, Fortune, April 16, 2001.
GUEST:
Mr. Tim Hoelter
Retired Vice President of Government Affairs
Harley Davidson Motors
8
APR 23
Chapters 7,8
Case: Aqualisa Quartz: Simply a Better Shower
APR 25
Discussion of Initial Simulation Runs
Case: Manchester Products: A Brand Transition Challenge
APR 30
Chapter 9
Case: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW)
May 2
Group Project Progress Report Due
Case: H-E-B Own Brands
May 7
Chapters 10, 11
Case: The American Express Card
May 9
Simulation Report Due
Debrief on Simulation
May 14
Chapters 12, 13
Case: Nantucket Nectars
May 16
Chapter 14
Case: Bank of America: Mobile Banking
May 21
Term Project Presentations
May 23
Term Project Presentations
May 25
Term Paper Due
May 28
NO CLASS (Memorial Day)
May 30
Final Exam