Principles of Marketing

Oxford Summer Seminar

This course aims to provide students with an introduction to the different aspects of marketing as a field of study, covering relevant theories, contemporary perspectives on marketing, and relevant business applications.

In this course, we will learn to look at the world through a marketing lens. Marketing is, according to some, growing a business by delivering value to customers and capturing a share of it.  In practice, this means being aware of the market place, understanding the consumer, keeping an eye on the competitor, and executing an informed marketing strategy. This course will introduce you to the key concepts and areas in marketing, from marketing management to more specific areas such as branding, digital marketing, and consumer behaviour.

Yet the savvy marketer knows that textbooks do not capture the reality of a dynamic and volatile marketplace… So besides focusing on marketing fundamentals, we will also spend some time thinking about related critical, ethical, and societal perspectives. The idea is not necessarily to criticise marketing as a practice but to develop sensitivity to its implications, as well as a keen eye for unmet trends, wants, and needs. Ultimately, the purpose is to understand how marketing can be leveraged to both grow a business and be ethically and societally responsible.

Schedule

We will be meeting twice a week, during which we discuss the readings and your assignments. Please come prepared with questions and points for discussion. There is room for a lot of debate in this field, so let’s enjoy it!

Our sessions will be held at the following times unless otherwise indicated:

Monday 9:00 – 11:00, Trinity College, Academic Corridor Teaching Room
Wednesday 9:00 – 11:00, Trinity College, Academic Corridor Teaching Room

Note timings and locations are subject to change. You will receive ample warning should this occur. Sometimes, tutorials will take a bit longer than anticipated. In the interest of having enough time to discuss the meeting’s materials and assignments, please allow for a half hour overrun buffer.

Textbook

We will not be using a textbook for this module but will rely on the original articles, case studies, and various book chapters that are cited on the reading list. However, textbooks can be good resources to supplement your reading with, and test your knowledge.  Trinity College stocks several textbooks about marketing and consumer behaviour. If you would like to purchase your own, Kotler et al.’s Principles of Marketing is one that I would recommend and that has seen numerous U.S., European, Canadian, and Global editions.

Assessment

Assignment

Deadline

Grade

Digital Challenge

July 29th (class & e-mail)

20% Presentation

5% Individual reflective document

Branding Challenge

August 7th  (class & e-mail)

20% Presentation

5% Individual reflective document

Final project

August 12th  (e-mail)

45% Individual project (35% report + 10% presentation)

Discussant Final project

August 14th  (class)

5% Individual discussion

 

Assessment material

Digital Challenge: How to maximise Starbucks’ influence through digital marketing?

Branding Challenge: Applying the principles of branding to build your personal brands.

Final Project brief 

 

Press

In order to ground our discussions in real-world examples and build insight, I will ask you to choose and follow at least two of the following marketing/advertising newsletters:

General Marketing

Brands & Advertising

Digital

Retail

Creative & Innovation

Bonus: The Marketoonist (n.b. this does not count as a source but it’s a nice supplement because it’s funny and very insightful) http://tomfishburne.com/

I suggest you pick one of the general marketing sources, plus one specialist based on your personal interest.

You are very welcome to also consider articles from other sources and to view wider news items from a marketing perspective. For example, have a think about how political events or technological innovations might influence the market.

These sources of information can provide you with insights for your final project.

Quick Guide

Where and When:

  • Mondays and Wednesdays from 9 to11 am
  • Trinity College, Room TBC

Assessment information

Questions? Get in touch

9 + 2 =

Reading List

I’ve added the links to the papers for our first week. However, all the articles mentioned in the reading list should be accessible to you via the databases that your University subscribes to (e.g. Science Direct, EBSCO). Additionally, you could try Google Scholar, as many articles are also freely available there. If you struggle to find any article, please send me an e-mail.

 

Session 1: Is marketing and art or a science? (July 8th)

Slides for Session 1 

 

Session 2: So, what is marketing? Perspectives and conceptualisations (July 15th)

Slides Session 2

 

Session 4: Marketing Planning (July 17th)

Slides Session 3

 

Session 4: Marketing Management (July 22nd)

Slides Session 4

  • Borden, N. H. (1964). The concept of the marketing mix.Journal of advertising research, 4(2), 2-7.
  • Constantinides, E. (2006). The marketing mix revisited: towards the 21st century marketing.Journal of marketing management, 22(3-4), 407-438.
  • Grönroos, C. (1994). From marketing mix to relationship marketing: towards a paradigm shift in marketing.Management decision, 32(2), 4-20.
  • Van Waterschoot, W., & Van den Bulte, C. (1992). The 4P classification of the marketing mix revisited.The Journal of Marketing, 83-93.
  • Smart Insights (2018). The Segmentation, Targeting, and positioning model [Website] Available: https://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/customer-segmentation-targeting/segmentation-targeting-and-positioning/

 

Session 5: Consumer Behaviour (TBC)

  • Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behaviour. Organizational behaviour and human decision processes, 50(2), 179-211.
  • Armitage, C. J., & Conner, M. (2001). Efficacy of the theory of planned behaviour: A meta‐analytic review.British journal of social psychology, 40(4), 471-499.
  • Gabbott, M., & Hogg, G. (1994). Consumer behaviour and services: a review.Journal of marketing management, 10(4), 311-324.
  • Palmgreen, P. (1984). Uses and gratifications: A theoretical perspective. Annals of the International Communication Association, 8(1), 20-55.
  • Ruggiero, T. E. (2000). Uses and gratifications theory in the 21st century. Mass communication & society, 3(1), 3-37.
  • Singh, S. (2006). Impact of color on marketing. Management decision, 44(6), 783-789.

 

Session 6: Digital Marketing (July 24th)

  • Christodoulides, G. (2009). Branding in the post-internet era. Marketing Theory, 9(1), 141–144.
  • Edelman, D. C. (2007). From the Periphery to the Core: As Online Strategy Becomes Overall Strategy, Marketing Organizations and Agencies Will Never Be the Same. Journal of Advertising Research, 47(2), 130–134
  • Jansen, B. J., Zhang, M., Sobel, K., & Chowdury, A. (2009). Twitter power: Tweets as electronic word of mouth. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 60(11), 2169–2188.
  • Lamberton, C., & Stephen, A. T. (2016). A Thematic Exploration of Digital, Social Media, and Mobile Marketing: Research Evolution from 2000 to 2015 and an Agenda for Future Inquiry.Journal of Marketing, 80(6), 146-172.
  • Naylor, R. W., Lamberton, C. P., & West, P. M. (2012). Beyond the “like” button: The impact of mere virtual presence on brand evaluations and purchase intentions in social media settings. Journal of Marketing, 76(6), 105-120.
  • Raacke, J., & Bonds-Raacke, J. (2008). MySpace and Facebook: Applying the uses and gratifications theory to exploring friend-networking sites. Cyberpsychology & behavior, 11(2), 169-174.
  • Tiago, M. T. P. M. B., & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), 703-708.

Session 7: Digital Challenge (July 29th)

Case study and brief to be shared one week before.

Session 8: Branding (August 5th)

  • Aaker, J., Fournier, S., & Brasel, S. A. (2004). When Good Brands Do Bad. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(1), 1–16.
  • Fournier, S. (1998). Consumers and their brands: Developing relationship theory in consumer research.Journal of consumer research, 24(4), 343-373.
  • Holt, D. B., Quelch, J. A., & Taylor, E. L. (2004). How global brands compete.Harvard business review, 82(9), 68-75.
  • Keller, K. L., & Lehmann, D. R. (2003). How Do Brands Create Value? Marketing Management, 12(3), 26–31.
  • Kirmani, A. (2009). The self and the brand.Journal of Consumer Psychology, 19(3), 271-275.
  • Paharia, N., Avery, J., & Keinan, A. (2014). Positioning brands against large competitors to increase sales. Journal of Marketing Research, 51(6), 647-656.

 

Session 9: Branding Challenge (August 7th)

You will develop a marketing strategy for your personal brand. Please read Espinoza Petersen’s (2014) case study, and complement with your own independent research and the reading materials from Session 8. You will need to work on this project throughout the seminar, and presentations will take place during Session 9. A maximum of 15 minutes presentations + 10 minutes for discussion. 

Session 10: Special Session (August 12th)

 

Session 11 (August 14th)

Project Presentations

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