SYLLABUS MAN 335

FUNDAMENTALS OF MARKETING
SUMMER 2018

Instructor: Ahmet Ekici

Class Time: Tuesday 08:40-10:30, Wednesday 15:40-17:30, and Friday 10:40-12:30
Classroom: MA 201
Office: MAN 327
Office Hours: by appointment
Phone: 290-2628 (Office) 290-1276 (Department)
E-mail: ekici@bilkent.edu.tr

TEXT
Principles of Marketing, Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong, 16th Global Edition,

COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the successful completing of this course, students will be able to:
 Demonstrate an understanding of the fundamental concepts and terminology used in
marketing
 Identify and apply appropriate marketing tools
 Make marketing decisions by critically thinking the information provided to them
(i.e. by evaluating arguments)
 Further develop their analytical reasoning and problem solving skills in a marketing
management setting, especially with respect to
 understanding social, political, economic and competitive environments, their
inter-relationships, and their influences on marketing actions, and
 evaluating marketing decision variables in the design of marketing strategies, and
 showing awareness of the ethical components of marketing decision making
 Develop a foundation for further study in marketing and other business areas
 Practice interpersonal communication and writing skills consistent with contemporary
marketing management and business practices. More specifically, students will be
able to:
 Produce quality marketing plans, and
 Deliver a quality professional presentation of their marketing plan to the class
using appropriate technology.

COURSE STRUCTURE

We will have two different types of class meetings. Some meetings (see syllabus)
will mainly be a lecture and discussion session of the course material assigned for that
week. You must come to all class meetings well prepared as if you are going to deliver
the lecture and/or moderate the class discussion for that day. There may be unannounced
quizzes. Quizzes and homework assignments will affect your “professionalism” grade,
which is 10 percent of the total grade. I expect your active participation to the lectures in
the forms of asking questions, answering questions, making comments, asking for

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clarifications, and bringing class related material and sharing them with the rest of the
class.
We will also have “project progress” hours (see syllabus). If you use these
“project hours” wisely you should not have any problem completing the project on time.
Beware that you must allocate plenty of additional time for the project outside of the
project hours. Some suggested activities of this project hour include discussing issues
with me, doing library/internet search, fieldwork such as interviews or surveys, and
writing the project report.

ASSIGNMENTS

A- Reading Assignments:
You must read all the assigned material prior to each class. You will mainly be
responsible for reading the textbook chapters. When necessary, I will provide you the
copies of outside reading materials (such as articles or cases).

B- Term Project:
I truly believe in the value of hands on learning. One of the prime means of
providing such a learning environment is to allow students experience the real life
marketing problems through projects. For the term project, you will be working in a team
of approximately 5 people. The project requires you to develop a marketing plan for a
new product. This new product can be truly innovative or an extension or adaptation of a
currently existing product. In other words, the term project for this course involves the
market introduction of a “new” (re-invented, line extension, brand extension, or
innovative) product. Introducing a new product to its target market requires a complete
marketing plan.

Developing the Marketing Plan:

1. Select a product: Your group should act as if you area small entrepreneurial
company that will be re-inventing or innovating the product and any part of
the marketing mix in order to develop the Unique Selling Proposition (USP).
In selecting the product, the idea is to be “socially responsible.” You can
think about a “green” product, a “safer” product, a “healthier” product, a
product or service that enhances the quality of life of a vulnerable group (such
as poor, children, elderly, disabled, etc). Do not be concerned with technical
engineering or technological details. However, your innovations should be as
realistic as possible.

2. Conduct secondary research on your product, markets, competitors, and

industry. More specifically, you will conduct “microenvironmental” and
“macroenvironmental” analysis of the market within which your proposed
product will compete. With respect to the microenvironmental analysis, you
will particularly study “customers” and “competitor.” With respect to the
macroenvironmental analysis, you will study the trends in the
macroenvironment and identify if these trends are opportunity or threat for the
success of your proposed product. Use sources found in the library and on the
Internet. In summary, this research should give you ideas about opportunities

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 and threats in the market, the potential market segments for this product, as
well as the strengths and weaknesses of existing competitor.

3. Conduct primary research. To generate additional ideas regarding how to

innovate/develop your product, conduct a small (with about 20-30 people)
survey (i.e. a “concept test”), using a convenience sample (friends, family,
classmates, etc.). Be sure to conduct the research with those who are likely to
use the proposed product. This research will have two main components:
satisfaction with the existing products, and reactions to the new (your)
product. As a group, develop a short (10-15 questions) survey. Find out the
level of customer satisfaction with the quality, price, service, and attributes of
the existing product(s). Also, find out what they think about your
innovation/product; what they like most (least) about it, where they expect to
find this products, how much (more) they are willing to pay for it, what
improvement they suggest for the product, etc.

4. Crafting the Marketing Strategy: Based on the identified market segments

select one target market. Then, based on the “concept test” results, identify the
positioning strategy for the product and design the marketing action plan that
reflects this positioning. From your research (both secondary and primary)
and using your own creativity, develop a short, but concise marketing plan
with strategies for targeting and positioning (price, product, place, and
promotion).

Outline for the Marketing Plan:

1. Executive Summary. The executive summary is a 1-2 page summary of the

entire project. It should summarize the main sections of the plan and should
explain the purpose and vision of the plan. The executive summary “sells” the
plan to interested stakeholders: managers, salespeople, stockholders, etc. An
executive should be able to read the executive summary and get an overall grasp
of the project without having to read the entire plan.

2. Introduction: This will be a brief (1-2 paragraphs) overview of the main points in
your plan. The purpose of the introduction is to acquaint the reader with what you
are doing, why you are doing it, and what you have found.

3. Method. This section entails a two-paragraph discussion of how you went about
developing the plan. I.e., your use of secondary and primary methods of data
collection. This section should be presented as if you were describing the project
to a friend – giving them instructions that they can follow.

4. Summary of Secondary Research. Concisely summarize (3-4 pages) your

secondary research efforts. Be sure to properly cite all sources in writing.

5. Summary of Primary Research. Concisely summarize the results of your

customer satisfaction surveys. What new ideas did you generate? How satisfied

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 are current customers? What did they think about your proposed product? Etc. (3-
4 pages).

6. Target Market. Describe in detail your target market using segmentation analysis
(demographic, pyschographic, or behavioral variables). Your secondary data
sources will be important here. Make sure to demonstrate the targeting process
(i.e. how you moved from segmentation to targeting).

7. Product Description, Benefit Analysis, and Positioning. Provide a short

description of the product or service. Discuss the benefits as they pertain to your
selected target market. Why will these benefits be of interest to the target market?
Then, using your unique selling proposition (USP) describe your positioning
strategy.

8. Marketing Mix Decisions: This section, along with the section 7, are key to your
project/report. I expect you to integrate the marketing knowledge you’ve gathered
during this course into the project repost effectively (appox. 10 pages)

a. Product Decisions: Briefly summarize the core, augmented, and other

product benefits. Describe your brand, line, packaging, labeling etc product
decisions.

b. Place (Distribution) Decisions. Describe the type of sales, shipping,

storage, retailers, and wholesalers that are used to make the product available to
your target market. This is your distribution plan. How will customers be able to
buy your product?

c. Price Decisions. This section will discuss the bases for your pricing
decisions (e.g. cost, value, etc.), along with financial goals, distribution prices
(prices to wholesalers, retailers, etc.), and prices to the final consumer. You will
need to have an idea of how many products you will need to sell to breakeven,
and make a profit. You will need to identify price customers are willing to pay for
your product and estimate sales, cost of goods sold, variable and fixed costs, and
gross profit margin. Since this analysis is “pro forma,” you will have to make
certain assumptions in order to do the analysis. I am interested in the logic of
your assumptions (regarding sales, costs, etc.) much more than the accuracy of
your numbers – which will be hypothetical anyway.

d. Promotion Decisions. In this section, you will discuss your Integrated

Marketing Communication plan. Address how you will use the different elements
of the IMC: advertising, direct marketing, personal selling, sales promotion, and
public relations. Each element of the promotional mix should be under its own
sub-heading in this section.

9. References. This page lists all reference materials used in developing the paper.

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 10. Appendices. This section includes one blank copy of the survey and copies of
research material that you wish to include. Select only the research material that
is relevant to your discussion in the paper.

By the completion of the project, you will evaluate the performance of your
teammates. I will give you a “group” grade; however, your individual grade may vary
depending on the “peer evaluations”. Peer evaluation sheets will be provided later.

Policy on late submissions: Projects are due on Friday, July 27th in the class. Late
projects will be penalized with a 3% deduction for the same day delivery, and additional
5% for each additional day. You are responsible for making certain that your computer,
printer, and project-mates are all in working order well before the due date.

EXAMS

There will be two non-comprehensive exams during the semester. First exam will
account 20% of the total grade, and second exam will account 25% of the grade. Each
exam may contain a mixture of short answer and assay questions.

PROFESSIONALISM:

The majority of the students in this class are juniors; even some of you are seniors and
most likely be graduating next year. I would like to help you prepare for your careers by
helping you get used to behaving as professionals. To do this, I suggest that you think of
me as your manager, and our class sessions as regularly scheduled meetings. Here are a
few tips for starters:
 Do not miss a class (or any other planned meeting for this course) unless it is
absolutely necessary to do so. In such a circumstance, please send me an
email prior to missing the class.
 Be on time for the meetings and do not leave the meeting in-between without
explaining the circumstances ahead of time.
 Come prepared and participate actively.
 Make the most of teamwork and learn early how to work with others.
Your grade on professionalism will be assessed on your extent of class participation,
attendance, and behavior.

GRADING
Exam 1 20
Exam 2 25
Project 30
Assignment 15
Professionalism 10
Total 100

Minimum requirements for letter grades

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 A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D F
94 90 86 82 78 74 70 66 62 56 0

Bilkent University Policy on Academic Honesty:

Violations of academic honesty include but is not limited to cheating on exams-

looking or attempt spring to look at another student’s answers, allowing others to copy
one’s answers- and plagiarism on assignments and research papers- representing
another’s work as one’s own.

Violations of academic honesty can result in disciplinary action, as stated in the

“Student Disciplinary Rules and Regulations” of the University:

“The use of somebody else’s ideas, viewpoints, findings or works in a paper,

project report or a similar document which is presented as a part of a course requirement,
without proper acknowledgement of the source, can result in suspension from the
University for one week to one month.” (Item 7.j)

“To cheat during an exam and to submit any homework, project, report, term
paper or thesis which has been prepared by somebody else as one’s own work, to prepare
the same for other persons, to submit someone else’s work with or without amendments,
and to present in a thesis somebody else’s ideas or finds without due acknowledgement of
the source can result in suspension from the University for one to two semesters.” (Item
8.l, 8.m)

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Tentative Course Outline
Date Topics and Assignments
June 8 Syllabus/Course Introduction
Basic Concepts of Marketing (Chapter 1)
Forming Project Groups/Project Progress
June 12 Project group formations finalized
The Marketing Environment (Chapter 3) and Social Responsibility (Chapter 20)
Project Progress
June 13 Managing Marketing Information (Chapter 4)
Submit 1 page product description by June 14
June 15 Ramazan Holiday-No class
June 19 Project and/or Assignment Progress

June 20 Competition (Chapter 18)

June 22 Consumer and Business Markets (Chapters 5 and 6)

June 26 Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (Chapter 7)

June 27 Exam 1
June 29 Product and Service Decisions (Chapters 8 and 9)

July 03 Product and Service Decisions (Chapters 8 and 9)

July 04 Pricing Decisions (Chapters 10 and 11)

July 06 Project Progress

July 10 Project Progress: Field work

July 11 Project Progress: Analysis of the field work

July 13 Project Progress: Writing Product and Pricing Decisions

July 17 Distribution Decisions (Chapters 12-13)

July 18 Marketing Communication Decisions (Chapter 14)

July 20 Project Progress: Distribution and Communication Decisions

July 24 Exam 2
July 25 Project Progress: Marketing Communication Decisions

July 27 Projects Due

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