Marketing

Training objectives of the course

After completing this course, the student will:
- Develop the necessary knowledge and understanding to engage in a business context, thanks to the knowledge of marketing processes and what companies do to build and manage their relationships with the reference market.
- Understand and know how to distinguish strategic issues that analyze the needs of consumers and the behavior of competitors to define the positioning of the company in the market from those of an operational nature that affect the marketing mix.
- Develop the ability to apply the knowledge from the previous point and address and solve problems related to marketing in a work team.
- Interact professionally with colleagues in a work environment.
- Gather, read, and use information from inside and outside the organization.
- Develop solutions and manage key operational marketing processes for each product in the portfolio, set prices and select sales and communication strategies.

Course programme

The main topics covered in the marketing course are the following.
- Marketing: the reasons for it and its evolution
- From strategic marketing to the marketing plan
- The analysis of the competitive arena
- Marketing research
- Consumer behaviour and market segmentation
- Differentiation and positioning of products and services
- Business marketing: key account management
- Services marketing and the fifth "P": personnel
- Brand policy and the product portfolio
- The product life cycle and new product development
- The marketing plan
- Pricing policy
- Marketing channels
- Integrated marketing communication

Didactic Methods

Lectures include presentations by company executives and a workshop in which students work in small groups to develop a marketing plan.
The course will use an online community to share information and materials.

Learning assessment procedures

The exam consists of a written test that focuses on understanding a marketing plan or individual marketing activities. In doing so, the student must be able to select principles from the knowledge acquired in the course that are useful in explaining concepts or solving problems. The written exam is based on three open-ended questions that require the application of the tools learned in the course (4 for students who did not attend the workshop). At the end of the course, the group of students who have participated in the workshop submit a paper in which they develop a marketing plan by putting into practice what they have learned in the course. They will receive up to 8 points for this.
So for students who attended the workshop, the exam is worth 24 points and is based on three open-ended questions. On the other hand, the exam is worth 32 points and is based on four open-ended questions for students who did not participate in the workshop.
A score of 31 or higher will result in a distinction (cum laude).
The written exam takes 75 minutes for all.