Advice to future students from Summer 2001. Marketing 710: Marketing Strategy. T.C. Johnston

Heather Owens

What I learned: I have learned a lot about different companies that I did not know before this class. This was enjoyable and very interesting. This class actually put some examples with the information from the textbook. I notice myself paying more attention to the marketing and ads of different companies, even to the point where I point out things to my husband when we go shopping.

The format of the class was very laid back and informative. It seemed to me that you got more out of a case since we had problems or presentations to do on each one. This format was different from other classes I have taken in the past because a lot have been teacher lectures, which can get boring. This was a new and more interesting way of learning with specific examples.

To me, the Disney, Wal-Mart and Coke vs. Pepsi cases were the most interesting. This may be because they are all three very commonly known in the market place.

I wish I had known: I wish I had known more for the test, even though it wasn’t that bad and I did well on it. I was nervous answering multiple-choice questions over Marketing principles that I had read in the chapter. It can be very hard to remember when you have only read the chapters and no “real” lecture was done on most of the subject matter. Maybe a little more idea of the cases on the essay for the test would have made me feel a little more at ease. I also wish I had known that we were going to be more focused on cases and not principles.

So, for those who are going to take the class, be prepared to do a lot of presentations and be ready to answer the questions for the test over the chapters that you read on your own. Overall, though, it will be very enjoyable and informative with a different class format. Be prepared to pack a lot in if this is taken for a Summer term course.

Brent Attaway

What I learned: In the Marketing Strategy course, I learned that there is more to marketing than advertising. Of course I really knew this before, but when I think of marketing, I think of Advertising. I tend to forget that there is a lot more to marketing, like distribution, pricing, and customer satisfaction. I would say the highlight of the course was competition. Many of the cases focused on competition, Pepsi and Coke, McDonald’s and Burger King, and Airbus and Boeing. There is a lot more to marketing than just putting your product on the market, placing a couple ads, and hoping it sells. You have to know what the customer wants and more importantly you have to be prepared to compete. You not only need to know attack strategies, but also defense strategies. It is not enough just to attain market share but you must also know how to sustain it.

I wish I had known: I wish I had known that we would have to give “contributions” or presentations. Although the presentations were not difficult, I enjoyed some of the contributions more than others. Some of the debate assignments seemed pointless, like the ones where we already knew the outcome of the situation. However, I really enjoyed doing the Research Update. I learned a lot of information about McDonald’s that I never knew before. When the assignment was to relate the text to the case, some early presenters did not do a good job, and that hurt the class as a whole.

Although the Marketing Strategy course is case based, it is not nearly as boring as other case based courses I have taken. The cases read more like stories than cases, and because they are about companies we all have heard about, it makes it interesting to learn what is going on with the inside. I never knew that Wal-Mart could put so much pressure on its suppliers or that Toys R Us was in such a bad situation. Although some of the case questions really made you think, as a whole I enjoyed the cases.

In the future, I would make one suggestion. You should allow students time to review the cases, before they have to choose which contributions they will do. Given 5 minutes to randomly choose what they will present, could pose a problem later. If they have no knowledge about the subject they can always get on the web and do research. However, if they have no interest it will not be an effective contribution.

Kim Crews

What I learned: This course has been my favorite course out of the six courses I have taken in the MBA Program. Although I really despise public speaking, the content of this course and the teaching method has really overshadowed the public speaking aspect. Through this course, I have studied and learned about the successes and failures of many different companies. I have learned what these companies did wrong and what they could have done differently to prevent the problems. I have also seen many companies who chose actions which have proven to be very successful. It is really helpful when you can study a subject and at the same time have real-world applications to go along with the subject. Many courses focus on memorizing definitions and data, only to be forgotten by the student shortly after the course is over. This course, however, utilizes real-world situations and requires the student to think beyond memorizing definitions and formulas. After taking this course, I now look at companies in a different manner. Whenever I drink a Pepsi or Coke, I think of the war going on between the two companies and the strategies each is using to gain ground on the other. Whenever I shop at Wal-Mart, I think of how Mr. Walton started the company and how the company is now under fire for invading small towns and for being unfair to suppliers. Whenever I drink a Perrier, which is not often, I wander if I may be consuming trace amounts of benzene or when I take Tylenol I think back to the cyanide incident. These are just a few examples of the real-world applications which will stick with me forever. I may not remember the five P’s of marketing, but I will remember these classic examples of marketing strategy and how a strategy can make or break a company.

What I wish I had known: When I registered for this class, I had no idea how much work would be involved. This was my first summer class, and I was unprepared for the amount of work that I would be faced with. Not that knowing this information would have kept me from taking the class, but it would have better prepared me to rearrange my personal schedule around my school schedule. Practically my entire weekends have been occupied with homework and studying for presentations or exams. I guess I should’ve known that there would be a trade-off for completing the course in only four weeks. Although the four-week semester can be very tedious and gruelling, I like the idea of finishing the course in only four weeks. I would even support the idea of offering an MBA program in which there was a different four week course offered every month. This would enable the student to focus on only one course at a time and finish the MBA program in a year or less.

I wish during the course of the term that I would have spent more time preparing for the presentations in class. Since I am not the greatest at presentations, I often have to devote a little more time going over the subject of my presentation. It seems that I may not have got my point across to the class because I was reading too much of my presentation or perhaps talking too fast.

I wish that I had kept up with my assignments as they were scheduled. The reading that was assigned out of the textbook was long, and not near as interesting as the reading in the case book. Therefore, I often put the reading off until the day before the test. This made it very difficult to retain everything that I was reading because I felt as if I was in a time crunch to get all of the material read before the test.

Audrey Dailey

What I learned: I learned a great deal about the failures and successes of large firms in the corporate world. It was neat to look inside these companies and see the steps that they went through in order to get back on track or to get to the top. I really enjoyed the research updates. I liked learning about the present day or future situations of the companies in the cases. That gave me insight that I would not have gotten otherwise. I find myself telling others about the cases that we have covered in class and all about the companies and their products or future developments. I have never really enjoyed the subject material of a course enough to do that before now. The information that made an impact on me in the area of marketing strategy was the true affect that advertising and brand image has on the profitability of a company. Also, the way that the company was structured and the different styles of management really have a strong impact on the success or failure of a company. My favorite cases were Burger King and McDonald’s, Coke and Pepsi, and Johnson and Johnson. They were topics that changed the view of importance of product marketing, advertising and market research. I always knew that these areas were important in business, but I didn’t know how extreme this importance was until we examined these cases and applied those terms to the individual situations. I really liked the case concept of learning in this class. It kept me interested in the topics and helped me to learn by actual application of the concepts in the textbook.

I wish I had known: Before beginning the Marketing Strategy course, I would advise someone to get out his or her undergraduate marketing notes and brush-up a little, just to become familiar with the terms again. I now know that the course requires a lot of time from the student. Not necessarily too much because the assignments are interesting. If I had known this I would have familiarized myself with the marketing terms and undergraduate coursework a little better before I started taking this course. I also would have thought harder about taking this course and another course at the same time during the summer. That was pretty difficult. Overall, I feel that this is a valuable course and one of the most interesting ones that I have had so far in the MBA program. (And I will graduate in December 2001) I thoroughly enjoyed the way that the course was laid out and conducted. Thanks, Dr. Johnston, for actually making marketing interesting for the first time in my life.

Amanda Rainey (Wood)

What I learned: Many different areas of marketing were presented in the textbook, along with several cases from another book. Marketing is definitely a general term for many important business tasks. Since sales equal profit, the marketing department aides in almost all sales, it is an enormously important part of any business. The lifecycle of a product begins and ends with marketing. I found the cases to be extremely interesting. Too many times textbooks do not include real world evaluations of the market place. It is very valuable to have such examples taught during class. All of the cases were excellent examples of company’s mistakes and fortunes. It seems that most mistakes made in business can almost always be linked to the marketing department. By studying the cases of some businesses we can easily see were they went wrong. It seems funny that these company’s management teams could not foretell that problems were on the horizon. The cases also include how the company could have done things better and where the ultimate problem laid. Both books were informing. Being an undergraduate marketing major helped me with the class. I think that this class is beneficial to anyone seeking knowledge about marketing and it should be a required graduate level course.

I wish I had known: Marketing strategy covers about every major facet of marketing. The textbook itself is in depth. The casebook gives overview examples with concentrating on a few important areas. Both books make you think about decisions and strategy in marketing. This course does have a lot of outside work. Generally, most work if not all is done out side of class. It only becomes overwhelming if you don’t start out doing it on time. The requirements and assignments are amble and fair. They also help your grade if you struggled with a test.

Anonymous

What I learned: Through the case studies, class contributions, and assignments in Marketing 710, I have learned valuable information that will be an asset to my future work experience and educational studies. The cases are valuable teaching techniques in that they apply real world experiences to the technical terms in the textbook. I have learned what has worked for some companies and what has not worked for other companies. Marketing involves all the different facets of organizations, from research and development all the way to quality control. It is important for companies to understand how their reactions to events and the environment will be interpreted by the various markets in which they are positioned. I really thought it was helpful that the cases involved companies we have all heard of and could relate to. It was very beneficial to become aware of the past strategies of these prominent companies. I also believe that student contributions offered a more versatile pool of knowledge and diversified way of thinking.

I wish I had known: I wish I had known how intense the class would be for such a short period. I guess that is the nature of a summer course though. I enjoyed the presentations and case studies, but with so many it would be nice to have them spread out rather than all in a four week period. My advice to future students would be to budget time well in order to prepare for the contributions and in order to complete the assignments on time.

Courtney Graves

What I learned: This semester I gained a greater appreciation for the difference in marketing and marketing strategy. Examining the ways companies have used the basics of marketing to gain advantage over one another has been an interesting study. I now have a greater appreciation for why some companies succeed so well and why some fail so miserably. These companies’ marketing strategies played a significant role in determining how we viewed them in society. I particularly enjoyed the case studies on Johnson & Johnson (crisis management), Maytag (marketing blunders), and the ethical debate on big tobacco. The textbook was also interesting, but almost too much technical information was involved in the chapters. I feel that I have realized that every person in an organization should be a “marketer” of sorts, from the president to the salesmen. I learn best from examples of what others have done. The case studies were definitely an interesting way to learn how important marketing strategy is to a company. We seemed to focus a lot on the three C’s (complacency, conceit, conservatism) and competitor myopia and how these ideas can destroy a prominent company.

What I wish I had known: Before beginning this class, a student should be ready to read a massive amount of material and hone their presentation skills. I might have taken this course at a different time if I had known how much reading and preparation between classes was going to be necessary. The summer session proved to be a difficult time to take this particular course. Time between classes made it difficult to finish all work in a quality manner. I think this course would be better if I had taken it during the normal fall or spring semester.

Anonymous

What I learned: During this Marketing strategy class, many different marketing ideas were enhanced such as: marketing mix, advertising, sales promotions, competitive strategies, competitive environment, and many other topics. However, I feel like the most important topic covered during this course involved marketing research. In almost every case we studied, more efficient research would have proven very beneficial to the company. For example, if Boeing had researched the demand for aircraft, they would not have seen themselves in such a dilemma when demand increased rapidly. Toys “R” Us could have researched consumers wants more efficiently and kept up with the growing demand of consumers. Maytag could have researched their promotion and developed a prize that was more suitable. Time and time again, research was the answer.

The most interesting case or the one that made a lasting impression on me was the J & J case. So many times, we think that there is no way to overcome such a tragic event; however, J & J proved that to be wrong. They had a total disaster with one of their products – people died- and they were still able to make a successful comeback. I think that case should serve as a lesson to everyone, that tragedy can be overcome.

Before this course, I truly never thought about the importance of marketing research. I have always been much more concerned with the numbers of an organization. However, I have realized that a little research goes a long way.

I wish I had known: My advice to anyone taking this class is to be organized and to do all the reading, especially the cases. It is a very interesting class that focuses on class discussions and unless you’ve read the cases you want be able to participate. Organization is also very essential, especially if you are taking it in the summer. Several assignments are due each class meeting and in order to get them done you must stay caught.

I wish I had known what the tests would have been like. I focused a lot on the cases since we seemed to discuss them more thoroughly in class, when actually the tests were more centered on the chapters. If I would have known that the tests were more focused on the chapters, I would have more thoroughly read each chapter.