Course Syllabus

 

Course Description

 

The overall objective of the course is to enable students to understand a company/organization’s opportunities for growth by expanding its international marketing activities – and connected sales activities. The course is divided into two modules:

Module 1:

We will look into the most important theories and tools as background for performing professional marketing in international organizations. We will discuss building of strong brands, overall and international marketing strategies, research, target groups, segmentation, impact of cultural differences etc.

Module 1 will be concluded with an written assignment and a presentation by each group of students (4-5 persons), and we will use the international retailer H&M as case.

Module 2:

This module gives students a practitioner's view of how a modern marketing department actually operates. Rather than a deep dive into a single discipline, students move through 5-6 sessions covering distinct functional areas of marketing — such as brand, media, CRM/customer experience, sponsorship, and social — each taught with real-world frameworks and examples from industry. The module includes an on-site case visit to a global brand's marketing organization, giving students direct exposure to how these disciplines operate in practice. The module concludes with an integrative assignment in which students draw on knowledge from across the different sessions to solve a realistic, cross-disciplinary marketing challenge — mirroring the collaborative, cross-functional nature of marketing work in industry today.

In general the course is very much focussed on experiental learning and application of marketing theories to real business.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, students will have acquired skills enabling them to:

• Analyze and understand a company’s market situation with a focus on international opportunities.
• Demonstrate how to build stronger brands and how to internationalize these brands.
• Understand the cross-cultural challenges within international business and  communication.
• Produce comprehensive reports (business plans) and presentations in groups, Final exam is a group presentation based on the final paper.

 

Faculty Leif Rasmussen

2008 -              CEO and owner of Trading companies

2008 -              Owner of cosultancy, Sales and Marketing Strategies

2008 -              Faculty at DIS, Copenhagen

1997 – 2008:  Member of Executive Board, Royal Unibrew

1995 – 2008:  Member/Chairman of Supervisory Boards.                                        

1987 – 1995:  Marketing Director, Danish Brewery Group

1982 – 1987:  Consultant and Account Manager, Ted Bates Advertising Agency

1982:               Cand. Merc (Master degree), International Business, Copenhagen                           Business School

1975 – 1982:  Product Manager in retail and fast moving consumer goods

 

Readings

Textbook 1: Basic textbook  Andrew McAuley:  “International Marketing, Consuming Globally, Thinking Locally”

Textbook 2:  “Global Marketing and Advertising, Understanding Cultural Paradoxes”  by Marieke de Mooij. Selected chapters.

Also articles, presentations and company profiles will be used as part of the teaching and will be uploaded on Canvas.

 

Approach to Teaching

The course is focussed on application of marketing theories to real business, and students will be inspired to take part in discussions and planning of marketing strategies and operational plans. Discussions and critical thinking are key words for this course.

Lecturing: During the semester we will review key marketing concepts in an international environment. The importance of proper market analysis, research, and investigation of cultural differences will be discussed, as will the necessity of brand building, market research, market segmentation, cross border market communications, etc.

Case discussions and student presentations: Early in the course, real cases will be introduced.  This enables students to relate marketing therories and class discussions to real business. 

Group work and consultations:The remainder of the scheduled sessions will be used for group work and individual group consultations with faculty and external instructors.

 

Grading

	Percent
Report and presentation of basic marketing tools (group)	20%
Written midterm exam (individual)	20%
Participation (individual)	25%
Final Exam: Marketing report (group)	35%