Curriculum

This course will present an overview of marketing practices in a global environment and provide the framework upon which international marketing management can be based. Emphasis will be placed on the scope and challenges of international marketing, the culture, political, legal, and business systems of global markets, the global market opportunities, and the development of global marketing strategies (product planning, promotion, pricing and channels of distribution). The course is designed to provide students with the latest understanding of global issues and the necessary skills in making strategic decisions based on a global perspective through lectures, case studies, and group projects.

Consumer behavior covers all the decision processes and acts of people involved in buying and using products and services, including the mental and social processes that precede and follow these actions. This field is of utmost importance for marketers’ and companies’ decisions. This module examines consumption related choices from an international perspective. It focuses on the individual consumer and offers students an accurate picture about a) the process of consumer behavior and impact on consumer decision making; b) how culture clashes and values affect consumer behavior; and c) how international marketers decode and incorporate into their offerings the cultural components of foreign target markets.

Marketing research allows marketers to make empirically-determined, well-informed decisions and more so when dealing with the complexities of international markets. This module is intended to introduce the principles of marketing research and familiarize students with the main research methods and techniques. Its syllabus include topics such as research methodology, research design, data sources for international marketing research, measurement and scales, questionnaire design, survey design, sampling, understanding marketing metrics, qualitative studies, and basic analytical techniques.

This course will provide students with the knowledge and skills required to analyze web, social network, social media and other marketing data. This will allow them to generate key insights using various quantitative methods. Initially, focus will be given on how to access and manage structured and unstructured data.  Students will learn how to perform text mining so as to extract useful information from text data (e.g. tweets, Facebook, blog posts, movies, TV, restaurant reviews and newspaper articles) and how to use exploratory and supervised machine learning methods (e.g. Naïve Bayes, Neural Networks, K-Means, Rules, Logistic Regression and Decision Trees) so as to perform sentiment analysis, classification, market basket analysis and segmentation. This will allow them to build recommendation systems. Next, emphasis will be given on key aspects of online advertisement, such as pay per click and search engine optimization. Students will learn how to track and report website traffic, to measure the conversion rates and to calculate the ROI in a multi-channel marketing environment. Finally, students will learn to analyze and describe networks, model the evolution of networks, and apply the network analyses in marketing settings (e.g. for customer profiling, targeting, and trend detection).

The main objective of this module is to familiarize students with the mechanisms that determine the effectiveness of advertising and integrated marketing communications (IMC). A balanced approach is adopted with a focus on both the theoretical and managerial aspects of advertising and IMC. The module emphasizes the role of marketing strategy and communication strategy in enhancing brand equity. In addition to advertising, a range of other MARCOM tools (e.g. sales promotion, personal sale, public relations, internet and social media advertising) are presented and their synergistic use is discussed. The process and issues surrounding the development of an IMC plan as well as the methods for assessing its effectiveness are analyzed. The challenges of advertising and IMC at an international level provide a central focus throughout the module.

Upon completion of the module, students should be able to:

• Understand the relation between marketing goals and communication goals.
• Understand the function of advertising and its relationship to branding.
• Understand the role of each MARCOM tool as a component of an integrated strategy.
• Understand and handle the challenges of international communications.
• Develop their own IMC plans and evaluate their effectiveness.
• Plan, execute and evaluate local and international IMC campaigns.

The objective of this course is to help students develop the skills for formulating and implementing strategy. It provides an understanding of: A company's operative environment and how to build and sustain competitive advantage; How to make a strategic choice given a number of alternative strategic options; How to create superior customer value by designing the optimum configuration of company resources and capabilities; How to balance the opportunities and risks associated with dynamic and uncertain changes in industry attractiveness and competitive position; How to spot and avoid the most common strategy mistakes taking place and make better strategic decisions; How to direct the company into the future.

Marketing strategies, practices and frameworks are being radically transformed by the unprecedented growth of the digital economy, the evolving technological capabilities, the emergence of new business models, and the changes in consumer behavioral patterns. The Digital Marketing, Web Analytics and Social Media course aims at developing students’ skills in understanding the impact of digital media on marketing strategy and making students familiar with the use of key digital marketing tools. Topics covered include: digital strategy and e-business models, consumer behavior and digital media, content marketing, omni-channel retailing, social media, e-media mix, using data and analytics.

Innovation is the most important guarantor of sustainable competitive advantage for firms around the world. Entrepreneurship is the principal source of jobs and wealth in the economy. However, shaping an organization so that it successfully and repeatedly brings innovations to market is a daunting managerial challenge. This course examines the basics managers need to organize and commercialize valuable innovation in both entrepreneurial and established firms. Major topics include designing appropriate innovation processes; identifying, building and commercializing innovations; taking advantage of internal and external sources of innovation; and structuring entrepreneurial organizations. The course includes lectures, case analyses, visiting experts, practical exercises and student presentations.