MF-903 Customer Driven Marketing

The course is connected to the following study programs

• Executive Master of Business Administration

Prerequisites

The admission requirements for the Executive MBA is a completed bachelor's degree or equivalent education consisting of at least 180 ECTS and a minimum of two years relevant work experience after the completion of the education.

Please refer to "utfyllende regler for opptak til Executive Master of Business Administration" for more information.

Recommended prerequisites

Students are recommended to have a solid background in English.

Course contents

Customer Driven Marketing is a hands-on course designed for middle level managers, especially those working in small to medium commercial and public enterprises. It is also suitable for marketing professionals aspiring towards executive positions. The course approaches effective management through a customer focus that builds and manages sustainable brand equity in the age of social media. Customer Driven Marketing is relevant for both consumer and business-to-business markets, for products and services, and even for technology and experiences. The focus of the course is on customer orientation, brand management, and managing supporting marketing functions like communication and pricing.

Customer Orientation
Customers and customer satisfaction are the core of a customer-oriented business. The focus is on helping customers meet their long-term needs and goals. In order to do so, it is imperative that the business has a thorough understanding of who its target consumers are and how they behave. The module combines knowledge from psychology and sociology with qualitative research tools to gain consumer insights.

Brand Management
Brands are among the most valuable assets of corporations so knowledge about brand management is imperative for managers and a key in corporate strategy for building competitive advantages that drive financial results. The module is organized to include topics like brand storytelling, brand elements and associations and brand architecture.

Managing Supporting Marketing Functions
The rise of new technologies and social media challenges traditional marketing thinking, making it important for managers to understand how consumers communicate, understand, and influence each other. This module combines the learning from the first two modules to approach these challenges with marketing functions that help develop, position, and grow the brand through different social media platforms in combination with traditional media. Communication, persuasion, content marketing, and consumer engagement are some of the topics covered in this module.

Learning outcomes

On successful completion of the course, the students should be able to
- Manage a business for providing customer value with consumer welfare in mind.

- Develop sustainable brand management strategies.

- Develop and manage customer-based brand equity

- Organize a business that is able to meet the challenges of a technology driven marketplace

- Understand ethical challenges of restraining consumer insight from consumer exploitation.

Examination requirements

Mandatory assignment(s).

Teaching methods

The course will consist of lectures, guest speakers, cases and group work. In addition, internet-based Canvas will be used for disseminating course material.

Each of the three modules will be delivered over a period of two days which translates to six days in total, with an estimated workload of 270 hours

 

Language of instruction: English/Norwegian.

Evaluation

The person responsible for the course, in consultation with the student representative, decides the method of evaluation and whether the courses will have a midterm- or end of term evaluation, see also the Quality System, section 4.1.

Assessment methods and criteria

A one-week individual home-exam. The grades A-F are used (ECTS grading scale)

Other information

Responsible faculty: School of Business and Law