An Introduction to Marketing

About the Course

PART OF THE WHARTON FOUNDATION SERIES 

This course is part of the Wharton foundation series in the MOOC format. It is taught by three of Wharton's top faculty in the marketing department, which is consistently ranked as the #1 marketing department in the world. This course features on-location videos and debates between the three professors.

The three core topics focus on customer loyalty. The first is about branding: given a very disparate world in which new startups are emerging constantly, brand equity is one of the key elements of keeping customers so that they have a trusted source for their needs. The second topic is customer centricity, which is taught in a global context where students learn how to gather needs and focus on the customer via discussion forums and empirical examples which are advanced by the mix of cultures in the course. Finally, the course explores practical, go-to-market strategies to help students understand the drivers that influence customers and see how these are implemented prior to making an investment.

Click below for the other Wharton Foundation Series courses:An Introduction to Corporate Finance 
An Introduction to Financial Accounting 
An Introduction to Operations Management

Course Syllabus

MODULE ONE: Branding
Weeks 1 - 3

1. Marketing Strategy and Brand Positioning
2. Customer Decision Making and the Role of Brand
3. Brand Communications and Repositioning

MODULE TWO: Customer Centricity
Weeks 4 - 6

1. Establishing Competitive Advantage through Customer Centricity
2. How Can Customer Centricity be Profitable?
3. Vocabulary of Customer Centricity and Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

MODULE THREE: Go to Market Strategies
Weeks 7 - 9

1. Omni-Channel Strategy and Online-Offline Interaction
2. How to Find Lead Users and Facilitate Influence and Contagion
3. Social Targeting, Social Advertising and Persuasion

Recommended Background

While no background is required for this course, it is a graduate level MBA course where a basic knowledge of marketing concepts may be helpful.

Suggested Readings

Optional, recommended readings will be posted throughout the course at no cost to the student.

Course Format

There will be three modules of three weeks each that span the critical fundamentals of marketing.  Each module will be led by one of the three instructors; at the end of each module the three instructors will engage in a dialogue about the module and there will be an assessment covering the material. The student will be exposed to empirical examples of how companies implemented the strategies discussed and what the outcomes were.