I took this course in the Spring of 2011:
Marketing Management was an undergraduate marketing class presented as an MBA marketing level course. I completely understand that this is an Intro to Marketing class, but the topics were very basic and we missed an opportunity to dive into the mathematical portion of Marketing. I an MBA program that has a certain IT flair, this missed opportunity really hurt the course in my opinion.
The class was one of those where you come to the room and sit down to watch the professor lecture from the slides from the textbook, there was no need to be there other than if you wanted to supplement the reading with a regurgitation of the book in the class. That isn’t always a bad thing though; it helps drive home the point of the material. Marketing is broad, it is hard to define, it is hard to determine the value the marketing department is bringing to the table. We hit on all the key topics, from advertising and the marketing mix, the four P’s, the process of segmentation and the difference between Sales and Marketing. All of these topics are important, but as a group we only scratched the surface of how each is accomplished.
We didn’t discuss the science of Marketing, we didn’t delve into the mathematics of how segmentation is accomplished, how companies conduct and execute user and client data to better the products or approach. In fact the only time this information came up was in the class simulation. I had no idea how to properly invest in the future of the company we were simulating or how to use my department’s resources to ensure my clients were happy and continuing to use my company. Ultimately, I made it through about 3 of the 4 years of the simulation and I was fired as marketing manager… I wasn’t the only one fired. We weren’t equipped with the knowledge to be a marketer when we completed the course.
This was an intro to the ideas of marketing class, not a MBA Marketing course at a Technology Institute. I was disappointed, maybe because of my expectations going in that weren’t met, or the fact that the class culminated in a simulation in which I was fired. I will say though, I think the professor was engaging and involved the class specifically in the discussions through small in class assignments. I believe that in the short run of things Professor Vantine was handicapped with having to teach basic knowledge and couldn’t or didn’t have time to do any more than scratch the surface of each Marketing discipline. I also understand if each person wanted to know more about marketing they could take more classes on the topic.
With all of that said, this was an undergraduate level Marketing course in an MBA curriculum. If you knew nothing of Marketing going in you may learn quite a bit, but if your company has a marketing department or have ever worked for a company with a marketing department you already understand the basics of marketing. I will further this by saying that Peter Vantine did a good job, my only personal gripe was this: it was stated by the professor that a basic “30,000 foot view” understanding of the concepts would be enough to do well on exams and perform well in the class. I take “well” to mean an “A”, I studied concepts and ideas not definitions and didn’t do as well on the exams as I would have if I was told to know the definitions in the class.
A memo to all future students: an “A” means knowing ALL of the definitions, not understanding the concepts. I got a “B”, to the class I give a “C”, to the professor I mimic the “B”.
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