MARKETING

1. Knowledge and understanding: students will understand the main marketing activities involved in the process of analysis, design and communication of value to customers. Moreover, students will acquire competences in understanding factors affecting the different roles of marketing in the firm in order to proceed to the formulation of appropriate marketing strategies. Knowledge and understanding will be fostered through classroom lectures, examples, and applied activities, as well as through discussions with executives and entrepreneurs. 

2. Applying knowledge and understanding: students will have the ability to analyse specific marketing problems and to develop a problem-solving skill by applying the conceptual models of marketing to the specific contexts, through the presentation of a marketing plan. The development of these competencies will be facilitated by classroom discussions of case-studies, seminar lessons, reports, individual and group assignments. 

3. Making judgments: students will acquire the critical ability to judge and evaluate which marketing approaches and practices are more appropriate in different markets and firms’ contexts. Such results will be achieved mainly through the discussion of case-studies, the interaction with marketing managers during the seminar lessons, and the individual assignments.

4. Communication: students will be trained to express themselves in appropriate language and to be able to communicate with potential partners (managers, academics, experts) using a clear and appropriate language. This ability will be solicited through discussions with the lecturer and the marketing managers during tutorial discussions, presentations and a final written submission to the lecturer.

5. Lifelong learning skills: students will develop good independent learning skills that enable them to: address the main marketing decisions within the firm and the related models for the evaluation of results; undertake further individual paths of training; read and understand the specialized marketing literature. This will be solicited through the lectures and the seminar lessons and the in-depth material provided.

Lectures, team work and guest speakers.

The course is designed to develop and deepen students understanding of basic marketing concepts and applications. Topics include, but are not limited to, marketing research, consumer behaviour, product development, pricing, marketing channels and distribution, promotional strategy, retail marketing. The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with the vocabulary and concepts of marketing, the role of marketing within the firm and functional, and strategic problems dealt with by marketing managers in their efforts to compete in the marketplace. 

1. VV AA. (2024), "Marketing" (with e-book),  McGraw-Hill Education
​2. Class material  

The assessment will be conducted through a written exam consisting of three open questions and/or exercises to be answered in full in 1 page (per question).

The final evaluation (expressed in thirtieths) will be made by giving different weights to the following criteria:

• completeness of the discussion (appropriateness of the answer with respect to the question formulated, completeness of the answer with respect to the question, appropriate use of conceptual categories, themes and examples studied and learned in classroom): 50%
  
• depth of topics and critical ability to evaluate and discuss the topics: 30%
  
• ability to connect with other topics not contained in the exam, but part of the program: 10%
  
• linguistic correctness (form, style, punctuation, logical and grammatical structure): 10% 
  

NOTE ON THE USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS: 

The beta version of Dall-E-Mini, launched in July 2022, and ChatGPT, launched in November 2022, are among the many tools that use artificial intelligence. 

It is very likely that the use of tools like these will become an important skill for anyone. It will, however, take some time before it becomes clear when the use of these tools is acceptable or not. There are three reasons for this:

• the work created by artificial intelligence tools may not be considered original and, on the contrary, be considered automated plagiarism. It is derived from previously created materials from other sources on which the models were trained, but does not accurately cite its sources.
  
• artificial intelligence models have biases (i.e., they are trained on limited basic sources; they reproduce, rather than challenge, biases, offenses, and factual errors in their basic sources).
  
• artificial intelligence tools have limitations (i.e., lack critical thinking to evaluate and reflect on criteria; lack abductive reasoning to make judgments with incomplete information at hand), functioning more like a "word calculator" than a content creator.
  

In light of these (important) ethical caveats, I would like to see conscious and responsible use of such tools in the course. 

Within the Marketing course, the responsible use of AI-based tools must be done in accordance with the following:

• any of your work that uses AI-based tools must be clearly marked as such, including the specific tools used. For example, if you use ChatGPT, you must cite "ChatGPT. (DD, MONTH, AAA of the query). "Query text." Generated with OpenAI. https://chat.openai.com/"
  
• you must be transparent in how you used the AI tools, indicating the original part that was the result of your contribution. the student must ensure that the use of AI-based tools does not violate copyright or intellectual property laws.
  
• artificial intelligence-based tools must not be used to cheat in exam papers.
  
• artificial intelligence-based tools must not be used to copy content without citing the source.
  

Violations of these rules will result in penalties such as a reduced grade or retaking the exam. If you have any questions, please talk to me first so we can figure out together how best to use these tools responsibly.

1. What goals does marketing pursue?
   
2. What are the key moments in the marketing process?
   
3. What indexes can monitor customer loyalty and its impact on business decisions? How are they calculated?
   
4. What is meant by market share? How is it measured?
   
5. What are the main methods used to define market segments?
   
6. What is meant by distribution channel?
   
7. List and explain the types of cost-based pricing and explain their advantages and disadvantages
   
8. What factors should be considered when deciding on possible combinations of marketing communication tools?
   
9. How is a marketing plan constructed and what does it consist of?