MKT211 – Business-to-Business Marketing (B2B)
Fall 2008
Course Syllabus
Instructor
Time & Location
Pre-requisite
Office
Phone
E-mail
Website
Office Hours
Ling Peng
M 9:30 - 11:00 (SO203) & W 11:00 - 12:30 (SO201)
BUS205 – Marketing Management
BU205
2616 8242
L2peng@ln.edu.hk
http://www.ln.edu.hk/mkt/staff/l2peng/mkt211
M 14:30 - 16:30 & W 14:30 - 16:30
Or by email & appointment
Department General Course Description:
This course develops students' understanding of the various marketing
concepts involved in organizational buying. It helps students to comprehend
the buying process of business markets. Concepts including strategic alliance,
networking, supply chain management, outsourcing, and issues and impacts
of globalization, will be introduced. With value created and delivered in the
marketplace as its cornerstone, this course equips students with the
necessary marketing tools to deal with issues related to business
markets. Business ethics is emphasized in the course and integrated into the
topics.
Ling’s Description of the Course’ Aims:
B2B refers to marketing activities that are directed toward businesses,
governments, and not-for-profit organizations - as opposed to consumers.
This course enables you to understand specific issues and problems faced
firms by having organizations as customers; get to know some tools and
concepts with which firms analyze and answer to these challenges; acquire
the capability to identify and analyze some underlying mechanisms of the
challenges on business markets. An important aspect of that is how it can
best handle its relationships with other firms (its customers).
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Learning outcomes:
On completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Describe the nature of business markets and the related concepts and
theories involved in business activities among business organizations.
- Recognize the similarities and differences between consumer markets and
business markets.
- Familiarize the business organization buying behavior with particular
emphasis on the globalization of modern business and related ethical
issues and consideration of corporate social responsibility.
- Analyze business situations in the context of buyer-seller relationships,
consumer relationship management and supply chain management.
- Apply concepts and theories to business marketing situations and take
appropriate decisions using a strategic marketing perspective.
Teaching Method
A variety of methods will be used to accomplish the above objectives
including instructor's lectures, in class group discussions & assignments
(usually on Wednesday section), case studies, term project, videos & films.
The course is designed to clarify the material in the textbook and outside
material, stimulate your thinking about key issues related to marketing, and
relate the covered material to real world situations. Emphasis will be placed
on active student participation and discussions. You are expected to come to
class prepared to discuss the relevant issues. Ideally, I would like to create
an open atmosphere in which we can creatively and imaginatively analyze
ideas and concepts. In the process we will add to our intellectual skills and
become more analytical in our thinking about daily events.
Required Texts:
Dwyer, F. Robert & Tanner, John F. Jr. (2009) Business Marketing, 4rd ed.,
McGraw-Hill (available in the university bookstore).
Only partial lecture notes will be provided prior to each class on the course
website, with additional information provided during class. Some concepts
discussed in the text will be emphasized during class, and new concepts not
found in the text will also be introduced. You are responsible for keeping up
with the readings prior to each class.
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Measurement of learning outcomes:
Final grades will be determined as follows:
Class Participation
10%
At an individual level: 60%
Mid-term Exam
Final Exam
10%
50%
At a group level: 30%
Group Assignments (5X2%)
Group Project
10%
20%
Overall Course Grade
100%
Exams:
There will be a mid-term (10%) and a cumulative final exam (50%). The
exams are designed to test your understanding of basic B2B concepts and
your ability to apply those concepts in various situations at an individual level.
The mid-term exam will cover chapter 1-8 and lecture materials up to and
including October 20. It will be held on October 27 (Monday, in normal class
time) and consist of 50 multiple choice questions.
The cumulative final exam will consist of short-answer questions and essay
questions based on all lecture materials and the whole textbook.
Short-answer (4 X 10%)
Long-answer (2 X 30%)
40%
60%
Final Exam Grade
100%
Hence at an individual level, you will only have two exams, accounting for
60% of the overall course grade.
Teamwork and collaborative learning are the essence of the “new economy”.
Individual competency in marketing is critical, but so is your ability to work in
groups and accomplish tasks as a member of a team. We will try to simulate
a similar environment in the classroom to enable learning and to provide you
with an “on-hands” experience. The class will be divided into small groups or
teams for in-class discussion, assignments and project purposes. Each team
will comprise of 4-6 students. Group assignments and projects account for
30% of your final grade.
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Group Assignments:
To facilitate cooperative learning, there will be some group assignments
offered during the class that pertain to specific course material. These
assignments are meant to help you explore a recent issue in B2B area at a
group level. They might be case studies or answers to questions. To complete
the assignments, groups should report back to the full class and/or hand in
written points or answers to questions.
In total, there will be plenty more than 2 assignments; only 2 are counted
into your final grade (I will let you know which one counts when I announce
the assignment).
Group Project:
Each team (the same as for the group assignments) will investigate a B2B
phenomenon or issue by searching the company website, talking with the
people of the company, or even talking with their clients, suppliers, the
advertising agency and others.
A team may choose to examine either:
(a) A specific company’s B2B marketing problem, or
(b) A B2B marketing issue confronted by a group of companies or
industry.
A team project should (a) clearly define the issue or problem at hand,
including its importance, (b) contain a thorough analysis of the customer,
competitive and organizational environments relevant to the problem or issue,
and (c) offer a concrete recommendation for handling the problem or issue.
Projects must include at a minimum:
- Presentation (20 minutes with 5 minute Q/A)
- Written report
Each team will be assigned a presentation date, in one of the time slots in
the last two classes. Each team will make an oral presentation of its findings
on its assigned presentation date. Each team should distribute a 1-page
Executive Summary to all students in the class at the beginning of the
presentation, to facilitate communication.
Final reports are due on December 3 (the last class, of course, reports turned
in earlier will be gladly accepted). Final report must be:
o Between 12-15 pages, Not including appendices
o Double spaced
o 12 point font (your choice between Arial or Times New Roman)
o Margins, header and footer are 1 inch wide
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Marking of the Group Project will be determined as follows:
Presentation
10%
Written report
10%
Class Participation:
The instructor and the textbook are not the only sources of learning in this
class. You and your peers are also a large source of information. It is critical
that you participate during class in discussions. I will assess your
participation level by your attendance and your willingness to present the
answers for your team during class.
Please also keep in mind that most group assignments are announced and
completed during the class. You take the risk of missing assignments if you
are not in the class.
As agreed in the Department Board Meeting 2007-08, held on 15 Jan 08, all
Marketing Instructors will implement the Departmental Attendance Policy
that requires students to have at least 75% of attendance rate for each
course offered by the Department. Therefore I will randomly check your
attendance during the class.
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Class Schedule (subject to change) for LEC1:
Dates
M Sept. 1
W Sept. 3
M Sept. 8
W Sept. 10
M Sept. 15
W Sept. 17
M Sept. 22
W Sept. 24
M Sept. 29
W Oct. 1
M Oct. 6
W Oct. 8
M Oct. 13
W Oct. 15
M Oct. 20
W Oct. 22
M Oct. 27
W Oct. 29
M Nov. 3
W Nov. 5
M Nov. 10
W Nov. 12
M Nov. 17
W Nov. 19
M Nov. 24
W Nov. 26
M Dec. 1
W Dec. 3
TBA
Chapter
1
1&2
2
3
4
5
6
6
7
8
8
14
9
9
10
11
12
13
-
Notes
Introductions / Overview
What is B2B
Character of B2B
Character of B2B (Cont)
Mid-Autumn Festival – No Class
B2B Purchase Function
Org. Buyer Behavior
Market Opportunities in B2B
Marketing Strategy in B2B
National Day - No class
Marketing Strategy in B2B (Cont)
Weaving Marketing into the Fabric of the firm
Project Day (Briefing & project meeting)
Managing B2B Products
Managing B2B Products (Cont)
Review Class for Mid-term
Mid-term Exam
Pricing & Negotiations
B2B Channels
B2B Channels (Cont)
Communicating with Customers (IMC)
Advertising, Trade, and PR
One-to-One Media
Sales and Sales Management
Project Presentation
Project Presentation
Project Presentation
Review Class for Final; Written Report due
Final Exam
Important Dates:
September 10: Group formed
October 13: Project day (topic determined)
October 27: Mid-term exam
December 3: Project written report due
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