MKT 466 Special Topics: Current Issues in Marketing

CASE STUDIES: ONLINE DISCUSSIONS AND PAPERS

Each student will prepare three marketing cases from the Harvard Business Review: Marketing
Malpractice, How Low Will You Go, and Marketing New York City (can be purchased at the Salem
State College bookstore). These will be discussed for a week then your report of the case is due.
You will be graded on the discussion throughout the week and your paper at the conclusion of the
discussion. Use WebCT Assignment Box to turn in your papers and get your grades.

Questions for Discussions and Papers

Case Study #1: How Low Will You Go?
By Mary Edie Mobley and John Humphreys
-

When does client entertainment cross the line?

What are examples of appropriate entertainment?
What are examples of inappropriate entertainment?
Do you agree or disagree with your fellow students opinions on these? Why or why not?

Case Study #2: Marketing Malpractice: The Cause and the Cure
By Clayton M. Christensen, Scott Cook, and Taddy Hall
-

What does it mean that marketing executives should focus on what the consumer need to get
done?
Give some examples of products/services and define them in that way.

Case Study #3: Marketing of New York

By V. Kasturi Rangan, Anita Elberse and Marie Bell
-

What is the marketing problem facing New York?

Discuss in detail how you would go about solving their Marketing problem?

Online Discussion Guidelines

You will be expected to take part in a weekly threaded discussion. It will be your responsibility to
remember to check the threaded discussion. The reason why it is so important is because knowledge
comes from dialogue. If we were in class together, discussion would be the focal point of our
meeting when presentations werent in progress.
Students should post an initial response to each discussion and then a second response by given
dates (see WebCT Calendar), all within a week from the beginning of each discussion. If a week has
passed, and a student has not posted, he/she will not receive points for that week.
Students should respond to at least one comment by a fellow student, and also introduce at least one
new idea on their own. In answering the questions you should also use material from lectures, text
and outside material if relevant.

What do I say?
You need to be fully engaged in the discussion. Answers like I agree, or I think what you said is
interesting are not acceptable and will result in point deductions. You need to make sure that your
responses ADD VALUE to the discussion.
Example:
No value added: Joe, I completely agree that there is much Gorilla Marketing these days in
the business community.
Value added: In my research I found that entrepreneurs have been using Gorilla Marketing
since
. Some examples of small businesses that use Gorilla Marketing
are
. Some of the types of Gorilla Marketing that the small businesses use
include
. Do you know of some examples of organizations and techniques that
use Gorilla Marketing? Have you noticed any problems in these areas? You may want to
check out The Economist article that I read on Gorilla marketing in Europe. I will write
back to you so I can give you the date of the issue.
Can I argue with other students?
Argument: Making a claim and supporting it.
(Dr. Leslie Dinauer, University of Maryland, University College)
Perhaps one of the most important skills that college students need to learn is developing arguments.
An argument is not a fight; it does not even need to be a disagreement. An argument is an attempt to
offer "good reasons" in support of a claim that you make, reasons that others will consider and
accept. At the graduate level of thinking and communicating, it isn't enough to talk or write "about"
something. You need to have an opinion make a claim and you need to be able to substantiate
your position. The best of what scholars (and you) can do is observe and explain. But that
observing and explaining is done quite rigorously. Arguments must be tight and evidence must be
solid.
Thus, observations, organization of your thoughts as well as clear statements of any evidence are
necessary and absolutely essential for all comments and worth 10% of your grade. Often times this
can be accomplished by providing a detailed explanation.
What rules should I follow?
1. Please do not use profanity in your postings.
2. Please do not be personally critical. You can and should challenge someone's arguments (see my
guidelines on this), but do not criticize the person themselves (i.e., "You are dumb, and don't know
anything about Gorilla Marketing").
3. As the syllabus notes, when posting to the weekly discussion, please make sure that you respond to
at least one person's opinion, and then introduce at least one new opinion on your own. BUT, don't
just read the post of the last person who posted. Read all of the posts so that your answer will make
sense. This may take some time, but remember that you would be spending the same amount of time
attending class. (Taking an online class doesn't mean spending less time on the class, it just means
that you can do class related activities at your own pace outside of a set schedule).
4. Make sure that you answer the discussion questions in a timely manner. Your classmates will post
presentations with questions on Tuesdays by 7:00 p.m. You must answer questions initially and with

a second response within the week. For example, if I post on Tuesday, Feb. 6st and you respond to
that posting on Wednesday, Feb. 14th, you will be answering an old posting and will receive no credit
for that posting.
5. When you post to discussions, it would be great if you provided examples from your own
research.

How do I facilitate questions?

Questions are the potent tool of the discussion leader, and the open-ended question has the most
potential. This is a question with no single, correct answer. "Is this important?" is a closed-ended
question. Asking "In what ways could this be important?" is open-ended one. Remember that you
are asking "What do you think?" Try not to lead the questioner by saying "Don't you think...?"
Ask members of your class to diagnose. "What is your analysis of this situation?" "What
conclusions can you draw?" Ask them to hypothesize. "What would happen if...?" Be willing to
challenge participants. "Why do you believe that?" Finally, encourage expansion of thinking. "What
arguments might be developed to counter that point of view?
Example:
When selecting the topic of Baby boomers, one may ask, What product(s) do you feel
would be the most profitable when marketing to the Baby Boomers segment and why? How
would you market such a product?

Discussion Grading
Because online discussion is such a central aspect of this course, I have designated the discussion
worth 20% of your grade. Throughout the semester I will evaluate your general pattern of
performance in the following areas:
Timely responsiveness to discuss questions
Relevant and insightful comments
Comprehensive comments (not just a line or two)
Relevant material from text, lectures, websites incorporated in your discussions and assignments
See Discussion rubric on WebCT homepage.

Case Study Papers

Your paper should answer the case questions listed (see section above: Questions for Discussions
and Papers) and summarize what you have learned during case discussions. Make your answers
succinct as you are limited to a maximum of one single spaced typed page to answer each question.
Apply the questions and responses to your project research topic as much as possible in the
discussions and your paper.