Market-oriented Management

Knowledge

For students of all disciplines. No formal prerequisites—curiosity about markets, marketing, innovation, and creativity is expected. The course serves as an entry point to further specializations (e.g., Brand Management, Pricing, Digital/AI Marketing, Growth & Experimentation).

Description

Market Oriented Management is the gateway course for anyone aiming to become a marketing expert. We focus on Marketing Strategy, the STP process (Segmentation–Targeting–Positioning), the 3Cs (Customer–Company–Competitor), and how to translate strategy into an effective 4Ps/7Ps tactics. We also explore the interface between innovation and marketing: How do market-proximate innovations emerge? How do we anchor customer centricity as a leadership principle and execute it with data- and hypothesis-driven rigor? A further emphasis is Marketing in the Era of AI; from insight generation and personalization to content and campaign automation, including ethics and governance.

Learning objectives

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• Analyze markets systematically using the 3Cs and derive high-quality problem definitions.
• Apply the STP process rigorously and craft precise positioning statements 
• Develop coherent marketing strategies (based on S-T-P) and translate them into 4Ps/7Ps.
• Embed customer centricity in innovation processes (Jobs-to-be-Done, Value Proposition Design, experiment roadmaps).
• Evaluate AI use cases in marketing and deploy them responsibly (bias, privacy, brand safety).
• Define relevant marketing KPIs, set up A/B tests, and interpret results using evidence-based methods.

Preparation

Content & Flow

1. Market Orientation & Customer Centricity
   Market orientation as an organizational principle; JTBD & problem framing; hypothesis-led rather than opinion-led decisions.
2. Marketing Strategy: STP Deep Dive
   Data-driven segmentation (demographic, psychographic, behavioral), targeting logics, positioning, and messaging architecture.
3. Marketing Tactics: Marketing Mix (4Ps/7Ps)
   Product/service design, pricing (value-based, behavioral), promotion (paid/owned/earned), place/distribution, and services (people, process, physical evidence).
4. Innovation × Marketing
   Discovery vs. delivery, experiment design, MVP/MVT, funnel learning, and governance of explore activities.
5. Marketing in the Era of AI
   GenAI for research & content, synthetic customer interviews, creativity & the cost of intelligence, personalization/recommendations, marketing automation, social listening; risks, ethics, compliance (among others).

Comment

Literature

• Kotler, Keller, et al.: Marketing Management (current European edition).
• Prereadings (required): Selected academic papers on market orientation, STP, positioning, pricing, customer centricity, and AI in marketing (provided in Moodle in advance).
• Additionally: Curated cases and practice-oriented articles (e.g., HBR).

Detailed information about the examinations

Final exam (100%): multiple choice; 60 minutes

Second additional field

Please indicate the language of the course here:

English