Instructor details:
Class sessions:
Office hours:
Course material:
Course website:
Course overview:
Wesley J. Howe
School of Technology Management
BT-350 Marketing
Professor Gaurav Sabnis
Email: gsabnis@stevens.edu
Phone: 201-216-3463
Office: Babbio 407
(Note: Email is the best way to contact me)
Section A
Syllabus 8/26/2013 v1
Mondays 9:00 am – 10:40 am
Wednesdays 9:00 am – 9:50 am
Babbio 104
Babbio 104
Mondays: 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm
Wednesdays: 11:30 am to 1:00 pm
(Note: If for some reason you can’t meet me during office hours, send me an
email to set up a mutually convenient time to meet)
Required text: Marketing An Introduction, 11 th edition
Gary Armstrong and Philip Kotler; Publisher: Pearson
ISBN 13: 978-0-13-274403-4
Etext at www.coursesmart.com
(accessible on smartphone/tablet via app)
(Note: You will need the textbook for readings, cases, and homework)
Slides used in class and other important handouts will be on the course page on
Moodle. Keep checking the Moodle website for announcements too.
The purpose of this course is to introduce undergraduate students to the vast and crucial discipline of Marketing. To the layperson, Marketing is synonymous with Advertising. Although Advertising forms a significant part of the marketing domain, Marketing is about much more – identifying needs and wants of customers, designing products, setting up distribution, and so on. Marketing is about comprehensively creating and delivering value to customers.
In this course, you will learn about marketing concepts, be exposed to real life examples, and apply your learning through case analyses, individual presentations and group projects.

CLASS POLICIES: Following are some policies I follow related to issues that frequently come up during college classes. Please read and understand them carefully.
Attendance policy: You are expected to attend all sessions. I will be taking attendance. Your regular presence (physical as well as mental) during class will be key to your learning the concepts you’re here to learn and will play a big role in your performance in the class. While I can understand and condone an occasional absence here or there, prolonged or frequent absences, unless explained by a genuine reason
IN ADVANCE BY EMAIL, will cost you in your class participation grade.
Punctuality policy: Class starts at 9:00 am, so please be in class a couple of minutes before time to ensure that we cover everything in time. When you stroll in late, you distract students who are on time and that isn’t fair to them. If you miss attendance roll call because you’re late, you forfeit that day’s attendance credit. If you miss a pop quiz because you’re late, you forfeit that grade. So if there is a genuine reason you’re going to be late (and “stuck in traffic” or “train/bus delayed” are not valid reasons), inform me a day in advance.
Make-up Policy: If you miss a pop quiz, presentation or case analysis session due to a casual absence or coming late to class, there will be NO MAKE-UP for it, and you will FORFEIT that component of the grade. I will allow for make-ups only if, a.
You are genuinely ill, in which case you have to submit a doctor’s note (on a letterhead) to get a make-up. “Am feeling a bit under the weather” emails don’t count. b.
You are representing the university in a sporting or extra-curricular event, in which case I will need a note from your coach or relevant faculty advisor. I will need at least two weeks notice for an absence for this reason. c.
A family emergency.
If you qualify for make-up due to the above reasons, I will do my best to have you do the same quiz/assignment. But I also reserve the right to give you a make-up assignment that is different in content or nature to the original assignment. For example, the quiz you missed may have been a multiple choice quiz, but I may ask you to write an essay question to make-up for it.
Submission deadline policy: Over the course of the semester, you will have several deliverables to be submitted, including homework. These must be submitted on or before time. For every day’s delay in a graded submission, you will be docked 20% of that submission’s grade. For ungraded submission, every day’s delay will cost you 20% from your class participation grade.
Personal electronic devices policy: Cellphones must be on SILENT when you’re in class and stashed away in your pocket or bag. You may use tablets and/or laptops to take notes ONLY. If I think that your use of the laptop or tablet is distracting you from what’s happening in class, I may ask you to shut it down. If you’re planning to use a voice recorder to record the lecture, you must inform me beforehand.

Office policy: I encourage you to meet me frequently for clarifications or feedback. I will be available during office hours. If you can’t make it then, you can email me to set up a time to meet.
INDIVIDUAL COURSE COMPONENTS: These are the various individual activities and deliverables that make up the course and will contribute towards your final grade.
Class Participation (20%): You are expected to attend all lectures, physically as well as mentally. This means you should pay attention, ask questions, and give inputs at appropriate times. Contributions to the class discussion should be meaningful, and not made for the sake of getting on the scoreboard. This grade will be awarded fully at my description and will be based on regular attendance and the value of your contributions during class discussion. As noted on the previous page, if you delay ungraded submissions, this component of the grade will be affected.
Pop Quizzes (30%): There will be an unspecified number of pop quizzes (i.e., unannounced or “surprise” quizzes) to test your grasp of the course material. Roughly half of these quizzes will be about that day’s assigned readings and will be held when class starts. So make sure you have read the assigned chapter/handout/case for a particular day. Other quizzes could be about material previously covered or about an assignment or even about your project. Most of these quizzes (but not all) will be multiple choice.
The 30% component of the total grade assigned to these quizzes will be calculated by averaging the score for your best N-1 quizzes, i.e., the lowest grade you receive will be left out. If you miss a quiz for non-genuine reasons (see make-up policy on the previous page), your score for that quiz will be 0.
“In The News” Presentation (10%): Once during the semester, you will make a solo presentation to the class on a marketing-related column or article that was in the news within the previous week. You must send me a link to the article (or a scan of the article if it isn’t available online) at least 24 hours before you present. This presentation must start with a short 1-2 minute summary of the article, followed by your original and well-thought out analysis of what marketing lessons can be learned from it.
You may use Powerpoint during this presentation. The presentation must be no less than 7 minutes and no more than 10 minutes in duration. If you err on either side of these margins, it will affect the grade. If you plan to show a video clip during the presentation, it should be less than 1 minute long. You may
NOT use flash cards or notes during the presentation. At the end of the presentation, I will ask you a couple of questions. You will be graded on the quality and content of your presentation as well as the response to my questions.
I will be scheduling these presentations within the next week using a randomization algorithm.
The schedule will be on Moodle. If your presentation date conflicts with something else you have planned, it is up to you to find someone else in the class willing to swap dates with you. Just be sure to email me about the swap, cc-ing the student who has agreed to the swap.
GROUP COMPONENTS: The following activities will be done by you in groups of 4 or 5.
Group composition: If you know your classmates, you can form groups of 4 or 5 on your own and email me (cc-ing other group members) by September 10 th . Even if you don’t have a full group of 4 or 5, but

have one or two friends you’d rather work with, send me an email about it (again, cc-ing the other person or persons). After September 10 th , I will randomly create groups out of the remaining students who haven’t self-organized.
Case Analysis (10%): You will work in groups to analyze and present one case to the class. You will also submit a single-spaced 12 pt font 2 page analysis of the case before you present it. Case analysis will last
20-30 minutes depending on the case and questions. Once the groups are formed I will randomly assign cases and schedule them.
Marketing Plan Project (20%): To give you an approximate idea of how the concepts you learn are applied in real life, you will work with your group on a “marketing plan” for a fictional brand that you’re launching in the Greater New York market. It is up to you to decide which product/service this fictional brand will be of. In coming weeks, I will give you more details on the project. But for now, here are the salient points and important deadlines

You will make a presentation (10%) during last week of class and submit a written marketing plan report (10%) by 11:59:59 PM on December 12 th .

Your first deadline is September 30 th by which time, you must decide on the product/service your brand is going to be in and come up with a tentative name (or list of names) for your brand. Before this is decided, your group must meet with me for a discussion AT LEAST
ONCE, either during office hours, or at some other convenient time.

Your group will also meet with me AT LEAST once each during the months of October and
November to apprise me of the developments in your project.

As we progress through the semesters, I will give you a couple of ungraded assignments related to this project whose submission deadlines will be announced in the coming weeks.
The purpose of these assignments is to help you make smooth progress towards the completion of your marketing plan. Although these submissions are ungraded, they must be made on time, or it will hurt your class participation grade.
Group Peer Evaluation (10%): This component of your grade is completely out of my hand. At the end of the semester, each of you will be asked to grade your group members based on their contribution to the group’s work. So your grade here will be an average of the score your group members give you. This grade component is in place to discourage “free riders” to benefit from the hard work of other members.
INTEGRITY AND PLAGIARISM: You are expected to adhere to the strictest standards of integrity and not engage in cheating or plagiarism. Anyone found doing so will be given the strictest penalty.

CLASS SCHEDULE
26
27
28
29
21
22
23
24
25
30
15
16
17
18
19
20
Session Date
3
4
1
2
Topic
26-Aug Introductions
28-Aug Syllabus and Course Overview
2-Sep NO CLASS LABOR DAY
4-Sep Case Analysis Example
9
10
11
12
7
8
5
6
13
14
9-Sep Marketing and Customer Value
11-Sep Presentations and Cases
16-Sep Strategy and Relationships
16-Sep Presentations and Cases
23-Sep Marketing Environment
25-Sep Presentations and Cases
30-Sep Marketing Information
2-Oct Presentations and Cases
7-Oct Consumer Behavior
9-Oct Presentations and Cases
15-Oct
Customer-driven Marketing Strategy
(Tuesday class)
16-Oct Presentations and Cases
21-Oct Customer Value
23-Oct Presentations and Cases
28-Oct NPD and Product Life Cycle
30-Oct Presentations and Cases
4-Nov Pricing
6-Nov Presentations and Cases
11-Nov Marketing Channels
13-Nov Presentations and Cases
18-Nov Retailing and Wholesaling
20-Nov Presentations and Cases
25-Nov Advertising and PR
27-Nov NO CLASS THANKSGIVING
2-Dec Marketing Plan Presentations
4-Dec Marketing Plan Presentations
Readings/Deliverables
Case to be emailed
Ch 1, group member names
Converse case
Ch 2 eBay case
Ch 3
Target case
Ch 4, Project product, brand
Meredith case
Ch 5, project assignment 1
Porsche case
Ch 6
Darden case
Ch 7, project assignment 2
Vegas case
Ch 8
Samsung case
Ch 9
Burt's Bees case
Ch 10
Pandora case
Ch 11, project assignment 3
Tesco case
Ch 12