MSc Marketing Management

Understanding consumers is the key to a successful marketing strategy. Unfortunately, however, the mind of the consumer is not always easy to understand. This course provides an overview of theories that best explain how consumers arrive at their judgments and decisions. The course will review relevant theories from economics and psychology that provide a foundation for behavioural marketing. Consumer behaviour varies greatly depending on a range of factors. For instance, consumers’ judgments and decisions are influenced by the market environment (e.g., retail vs. online), the type of consumer (e.g., older vs. younger), and the type of product (e.g., hedonic vs. utilitarian goods), just to name a few. Although it is impossible to fully grasp and predict this behaviour, consumer researchers have created a body of knowledge that allows us to achieve at least a basic understanding of consumer needs, wants, decisions and actions. This course will provide a structured overview of this body of knowledge. In the first part of the course, students will be provided with an introduction to the psychology of perception, information processing, emotions and decision-making. The second part of the course will elaborate on the influences of the social environment, culture and situational factors on consumer behaviour. Additionally, the second part of this course will apply these theories and principles to real-world marketing problems.

Taught by Dr D. Schley.

In this course, students will familiarize themselves with the main marketing research approaches for understanding consumer behavior. Students will acquire knowledge on: (1) how to accurately measure and analyze consumers’ preferences, attitudes and choices, and (2) how marketing variables (such as product benefits, assortments, advertisements and retail environments) affect consumer behavior. The course introduces the main methods for analyzing consumer behavior (e.g. experiments and survey research), and focuses on the design and analysis of experiments and surveys.

Taught by Dr R. Cadario.

The purpose of marketing strategy is to develop and deploy an organization’s resources in the way that creates the most value for customers and other stakeholders. This course will help you to develop an in-depth understanding of key frameworks, concepts, and paradigms in marketing strategy and, just as important, to develop skills in the application of this knowledge. We will focus on two strategic problems, competitive positioning and innovation, and on two substantive areas, sustainability and technology. At a general level, the basic goal of this course is to help you make the transition from student to marketing practitioner and thus support your own goal of becoming a successful marketing professional. During the course, you will train extensively your case solving skills both in class, during interactive case discussions, and individually, in the assignments and trial exams. Student participation during the interactive lectures and meaningful contributions to the case discussions are essential. To facilitate interaction, the group will be split into three sections for some of the classes. Students will be tested by means of an exam and written case assignments (both individual and group).

Taught by Prof. S. Sweldens.

Overall, the course intends to make you well-informed and critical users of quantitative marketing, by presenting the essential tools and processes that are needed to make data-driven decisions for marketing strategies. Specifically, this course introduces a set of quantitative marketing tools that are essential for marketing strategy research. Through the discussion and application of these tools, the course intends to develop your abilities to identify and apply the right methods to solve marketing strategy problems. During the course, you will be offered hands-on training in marketing analytics with real datasets. Moreover, with case discussion, you will learn how to identify opportunities to improve business performances with marketing analytics (i.e., “when to use”), and formulate unbiased understanding of analytical tools (i.e., “how to choose”).

Taught by Dr X. Chen.

This course consists of a single lecture, in which students receive an introduction to the thesis trajectory. Students then submit a document which outlines a thesis concept (including the motivation, the basic idea, the reference literature, and the methodological approach).

Taught by Dr. X. Chen.

The aim of Your Future Career is to prepare students at an early stage in their MSc for their career.

When you care about what you do, you will enjoy your work more, create greater impact, and be more successful in being a force for positive change. However, it can be difficult to identify what your passion is, where your competencies and skills will be useful, and which professional environment and culture are the best match for you. Therefore, RSM Career Centre has developed a course to put you in the driver's seat of your career, and to support you in identifying your first career step after graduation and preparing for it.

The online modules of “Your Future Career” will help you make crucial steps towards the most suitable internship or job for you. You can decide yourself if you want to reflect on your interests and motivations, develop knowledge of the job market, functions, companies and industries, receive peer feedback on your application materials, have contact with an alumni mentor or attend an interactive workshop.

The Your Future Career course takes place in block 1 and 2 and is awarded 1 EC based on pass/fail.

Contact: RSM Career Centre via yourfuturecareer@rsm.nl.

Taught by Dr. M. Szymanowski & L. Keir.

Consumers encounter communications about brands anytime and anywhere. Marketing managers require useful frameworks to effectively communicate and advertise their products and services. This course discusses all aspects involved in designing effective marketing communications campaigns. The purpose of the course is to get introduced to the major topics in marketing communications and to further develop your communication skills through written projects, team-based work, and oral presentations.

The goal of this course is to help students set marketing communications objectives for a variety of products/services; understand and apply the principles that are necessary for persuasive advertising, from strategic principles (information, influence, emotion and mere exposure) to more specific tactics (resistance, acceptance, message, attention); generate, select and evaluate creative ideas for an advertising campaign; set a campaign budget and select appropriate media (still/motion) for a marketing communications campaign, taking into account strategic and tactical rules for implementation of the media plan; and propose/design an advertising campaign and discuss, present and defend the proposed campaign.

Taught by Dr B. Van den Bergh.

This course will be significantly different than any other course you have ever taken. Its design is such that it has features of both a course and a competitive consulting assignment. The elective covers many aspects of branding, marketing and communications in a challenging way. We focus on digital & data, corporate social responsibility & purpose and neuromarketing.

L’Oréal is offering the marketing students of Erasmus University a unique opportunity to play the role of consultant, and dive into a very dynamic, real-life, practical assignment.

At the same time, the elective is designed such that teams will be able to build inspiring and well-underpinned brand experiences by applying the right concepts, methods and techniques.
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It provides the opportunity to develop marketing and consulting skills through a practical, real-life experience, the chance to work closely with professionals in their field, and the possibility of winning a contest at one of several levels. All of these can contribute to one’s clarification of what kind of professional career could be interesting to pursue (or not) in the future. Being able to discuss the experience and what was learned with future employers. The course as it is designed, is a lot of work, and a lot of fun to apply marketing and strategy models and techniques learned during their study in a real-life business situation.

Taught by Dr D.I. de Raaf.

“Marketing Analytics” refers to a broad range of activities that rely on data to improve marketing decisions. This exciting field continues to grow in its scope and importance as the amount of data available to companies increases. Many large companies now have dedicated business analytics groups, and companies of all sizes are looking to hire marketing managers with a mix of technical and practical knowledge.

This course provides students with hands-on experience using many of the tools employed by marketing analysts. The purpose of this hands-on experience is not to develop students into analysts, but rather to help them understand the value and limits of these tools, and to develop the ability to communicate analytical insights to less technical stakeholders.

This course is taught by Dr J.M.T. Roos.

The development of practice and research in marketing is always accompanied by advancement in technologies. From 1921 when Queensboro Corporation paid for the first radio commercial to 2015 when Oreo used “#RedVelvetOreo” to promote its new cookie flavor on Twitter, technologies have exerted profound influence on how marketers connect with consumers. The technological advancements bring forth new opportunities while posing unprecedented challenges for marketers. This course balances the strategy and tactic side of digital marketing by not only examining how to develop digital marketing strategies to increase shareholder value and sustain competitive advantage but also creating hands-on experiences with different digital marketing tools. With a systematic approach, we will explore various managerial problems such as how to design a website and drive traffic, how to optimize search engine efforts, how to purchase inventory for online display advertising, and how to allocate budget to different online communication channels. With these discussions, this course aims to shape your perspective as a digital marketing leader.

Taught by Dr A. Ferecatu.

Over the past few decades, scholars from multiple disciplines (psychology, economics, organizational behaviour and marketing) have gained deeper insight into how consumers make choices, including the non-economic features of the choice environment that can influence people’s choices (e.g., default decisions, displayed font). Many of these insights have challenged the traditional assumption that people make choices primarily in a rational, self-interested manner. These research programs have provided novel insight into how people deviate from “optimal” choices and the consequences of these “sub-optimal” choices.

Because these decision strategies and mindsets often lead to choices that have harmful consequences for business, society and consumer welfare, it is important that students as future business leaders a) understand the basic principles of consumer decision making and b) have the tools to implement strategies that change consumer choice in the desired manner (dubbed nudging). Doing so will help them in numerous ways, including (but not limited to): a) making them a better decision maker in your personal and professional life, b) improving their ability to attract and retain satisfied customers and c) ensuring that their business runs smoothly.

Although there may be some overlap with contents typically seen in marketing courses on communication and advertising, Choice Architecture course provides a substantially different approach to understanding and changing consumer choice. Specifically, the current course will draw primarily from behavioural economics research, will be geared towards making sustainable choices at the individual, business, and societal levels, and will be aimed at developing choice-intervention strategies that can be implemented in a wide variety of contexts: one-on-one negotiations, team organization, risk management, policy design, among others, as well as more classic communication arenas such as social marketing.

Taught by Dr D. Schley.

This course introduces the interdisciplinary field of neuromarketing. This new and exciting area in marketing aims to understand the neurobiological mechanisms underlying customer responses to marketing actions, and to better predict customer behavior using brain markers.

 Neuromarketing is proposed to reveal information about customer preferences and reactions to marketing actions that other techniques cannot provide (Ariely and Berns, 2010). This is based on the assumption that customers are not always able or willing to express their true preferences in questionnaires. Furthermore, measures of brain activation could assist in the early stages of the product development process thus reducing the likelihood of failures.

In recent years, the application of neuroimaging and psychophysical techniques in marketing has surged both in academia and in marketing practice. Modern brain imaging techniques of electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) are commonly applied, for example, to track the emotional response to brands and TV commercials, to assess which scenes of a commercial attract attention and are memorable, to evaluate the beauty of a package or how customers trade-off price and quality. Psychophysical techniques such as eye-tracking, galvanic skin response and heart rate measurement add additional insights into the customers’ heart and mind.

Currently, most marketers are not trained in these techniques and thus have difficulty in properly evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of these methods. Clients of neuromarketing companies may get easily impressed by colourful pictures of activations in the brain which may not be truly insightful or predictive. In this course we provide the student with an up to date insight into the current body of knowledge in consumer neuroscience and neuromarketing. Accordingly, this course will provide many hands-on opportunities to develop neuromarketing skills. In assignments, the main neuroimaging techniques of fMRI and EEG will be introduced. You will collect data and learn the basics of analyzing this data.

Taught by Dr M. Boksem and Prof. Dr Ir A. Smidts.

New products, which are also called innovations, provide new ways to create value for customers, and moreover, it yields growth and profitability for firms. A huge percentage of a company’s sales and profit is generally earned by products that have been launched in the past five years. However, at the same time, many new products fail, and disappear from the market sooner or later after its launch. This is very problematic for companies, given the huge amount of money involved in the research and development of new products. The success or failure of a new product is determined by its ultimate acceptance in the market place. This raises the question which factors influence the acceptance and diffusion of new products in the market place? This question will be central in this course. The answer to this question provides marketing managers with information on how to effectively develop and launch new products.

During this course the students get acquainted with both conceptual and tacit knowledge of important methods in launching new products, and moreover in tracking the new product launch. Additionally, this course will provide a structured overview of the body of knowledge on adoption and diffusion of new products in the market place, and moreover, insights into how this knowledge can be incorporated in new product launch decisions. Attention will be paid to the consumer adoption decision process as well as to the new product adoption decisions by retailers, both in the domestic and the international market. The course challenges you to think critically about new products marketing. As such, routine learning of terms and concepts is not sufficient. You are prepared to take a marketing manager’s seat in managing new products across international markets.

Taught by Dr Y.M. van Everdingen.

How are businesses using “big data” to make better decisions? Behind the success stories are so-called data scientists - touted as one of the best jobs of recent times - using machine learning to extract actionable insight from various kinds of data. In this course, we will look at how this is done by studying machine learning principles and applying algorithms to a variety of data sets and cases. The main focus will be supervised machine learning (or predictive analytics), a key subfield of artificial intelligence and a common activity of data scientists.

Data, enabling so-called data-driven decision-making in businesses and beyond, is now seen as an extremely valuable asset, and have arguably replaced oil as the world's most valuable resource. In this course, you will work with data from business problems using the popular open-source statistical computing environment R (https://www.r-project.org/).

Although no prior knowledge of R is strictly required, it would be extremely helpful to have some experience with it (such as plotting with the ggplot2 package and doing data manipulations with the dplyr package). Such experience can be obtained from the Marketing Analytics elective, for example, or from online courses. Limited class time will be available for covering R basics; where applicable, students will need to spend time outside the classroom on this. Willingness to learn R is a very important prerequisite for this course.

Taught by Dr P. Schoonees.

Pricing approaches have evolved from very restrained economic and financial perspectives to a broader consumer-oriented framework. In this course, we will study different approaches to have a comprehensive understanding of the economic, strategic, and behavioral considerations that impact a pricing strategy. We will study theoretical concepts linked to economic and behavioral approaches to pricing, price customization/discrimination, price bundling and multi-part tariffs, value-based pricing, dynamic pricing, retail pricing strategies, pricing for goods/services with externalities, and pricing in two-sided markets. We will use examples and case studies from various product categories such as consumer packaged goods, financial services, healthcare plans, and cell phone plans.

Taught by Dr A. Ferecatu.

The emergence of information and data technologies have led to a radical shift in the way marketing operations are run. The focus of companies has been shifted away from product-centric approaches and mass marketing campaigns to customer-centric campaigns tailored to the needs and wants of each customer. Customer-centric marketing campaigns target a well-chosen subset of customers, at a wellchosen time, and with a well-chosen incentive. Moreover, they also require a good monitoring of their impacts on firms’ profits. In other words, a customer-centric campaign requires companies to answer four key questions:

1. Who to target?
2. What to offer?
3. When to target?
4. How to evaluate effectiveness?

Customer-centric marketing can be applied to any domain of marketing and, so, is an approach that can be broadly adopted by multinationals. In this course, we will focus on the three key marketing tasks, which relate to the stages of a customer lifecycle: customer acquisition, customer development and customer retention. The course will focus as much on the managerial questions and challenges, as well as on the use of methods to address these questions. This elective will be articulated around the customer lifecycle and rely on the core metric of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV).

Taught by Dr A. Lemmens.

From a marketing standpoint, the brand is the most valuable asset of the firm. Brands embody a firm’s strategy and drive its execution. As such, managing and developing a brand is a complex task that requires sharp critical-thinking skills, an advanced understanding of marketing concepts, and an imaginative mind.

The goal of this class is to equip students with the fundamentals of brand development through a mix of research-driven frameworks, case-based discussions, and hands-on projects. After taking this class, students will possess a solid understanding of how, why, and when brands drive value; in-depth knowledge of the opportunities, issues and challenges a brand can face throughout its life; the ability to critically evaluate brand positions and branding decisions.

This class is of particular relevance to students who destined themselves to become brand managers, as the concepts and skills that they will learn directly relate to this executive role. Beyond this specific role, the class is also relevant to students who seek to work in strategy and/or marketing departments: Understanding the function and strategic roles of brands will help them adopt a longer-term orientation in their decisions.

As this class is the last elective of the MSc in Marketing Management, this class is also designed to facilitate the transition for students from consumers of knowledge to marketing practitioners. The cases and examples developed in the lectures are specifically picked to show how the extensive knowledge of consumer behavior and marketing strategy that you have accumulated in the MSc can be used to generate novel insights for success in the marketplace.

Taught by Dr J. Boegershausen.

What is happening in the world of commerce and e-commerce? What is machine learning and how can it be part of a company’s strategy? How do we deal with “big data” and customer behavior? What is happening based on demand of customers and how can we successfully change the organization. Also, the new approach of marketing will add to the change over from supply to demand.

Course Topics:

• Data driven organizations as new disruptors,a change from supply driven to demand driven
• New technologies and future developments based on platforms and machine learning
• The impact of MSP, multi sided platforms and AI
• Imploding supply chains and new business models
• Changes in marketing, product development and marketing communication
• Changes in relations between companies and opportunities for the future
• New business models, how to make money in a demand driven organization
• The impact of customer data, analyses and algotithms on customer behaviour
• Knowledge of the customer, principles of clustering and algorithms
• New business models and developments
• The impact of disruption

Taught by Prof. Dr C.N.A. Molenaar.

How can companies gain and sustain competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive environment? In recent years, companies have realized that a crucial source of competitive advantage lies in the provision of a compelling customer experience. Customer experience is comprised of all cognitive, emotional, physical, sensorial, and social elements that mark the customer’s interactions with companies or other market actors (De Keyser et al. 2015). Due to the rapid rise of digital and mobile devices, customers are increasingly valuing seamless experiences. In response, leading companies have decided to hire so-called “customer experience managers” to improve their customer experiences. This course discusses the general determinants of great customer experiences across all touch points (prior, during and after purchase) and introduces methods to improve customer experiences.

Taught by Dr C.J.P. Lembregts.

Consumers use various technologies in their everyday life, such as mobile applications, internet browsers, social networks, and wearables. In doing so, consumers leave a digital footprint - a stream of data that describes their online activities. Sometimes, they explicitly share content with other people (e.g. social networks, forums) or have direct communication with a company (e.g. online customer service). Data that consumers intentionally submit online is defined as active digital footprint. At the same time, consumers also leave a passive digital footprint: their search history, the news they read online, the location and time when they use a device. Both active and passive digital footprints can reveal consumer attitudes, interests, and preferences. This brings numerous opportunities and challenges for companies, consumers, and public policy makers.

This course discusses the benefits and risks associated with the use of digital footprints for marketeers, consumers, and policy makers. Brand managers can use detailed consumer level data to gain better insights about their target group and to adapt their communication and branding strategies accordingly. At the same time, consumers and policy makers are becoming more concerned about how digital footprints are collected and used. This course will help you develop an in-depth understanding of ethical issues related to digital footprints and measures that can mitigate such risks (e.g., the EU General Data Protection Regulation).

Taught by Dr. A. Martinovici.

There is a very big contrast between the proportion of business school alumni that work in sales - which is high - and the proportion of business schools offering a sales-related course in the curriculum – which is extremely low -. This is problematic because today’s world of sales more than ever requires professionals with an academic understanding of the field. Key trends like the knowledge intensity of sales work, and the shift towards a service economy have made the complexity of the sales environment higher than ever. Also, without a sale, it is impossible to run a business. Thus, sales is an essential element of management.

In this course we will focus first on salespeople, and start with the question: “what makes a salesperson effective?” Next, we’ll move the analyses towards the sales team level and will zoom in on leadership. The central goal is to understand how sales leaders can best manage salespeople. We will analyze what is unique to the management and leadership of salespeople, and discuss how to cope with this. Research-driven insights will form the foundation of the course, complemented with cases from modern-day business practice.

Taught by Dr. H.M.S Dietz.