Orthodox and Critical Perspectives in Marketing A

PART I.   THE EVOLVING MEANING OF CUSTOMER CENTRICITY 

• From orthodox to cultural marketing
• Customer centricity

PART II.  STRATEGIC MARKETING:  A LIFE-LONG JOURNEY

• Customer lifetime value 
• The customer journey
• Customer and their roles
• Customer experience and experiential value
• Consumer trends

PART III.   ANALYTICAL AND STRATEGIC MARKETING:  LEARNING FROM THE FIELD 

• Research methods supporting innovation and creative thinking
• From segmentation to fragmentation

 PART IV.    OPERATIONAL MARKETING: PRODUCT, CHANNEL, RETAIL, PLACE & COMMUNICATION

• New products and product strategy
• Cultural innovation
• Go to market strategy: Channel and retailing
• Marketing communication
• Servicescape
• Price and value

The Course first lays grounding marketing concepts, to then discuss and extend them in light of alternative marketing traditions (cultural, interpretive, critical) and of raising societal concerns (materialism, post-colonialism, sustainability, etc.). 

In so doing, the Course revisits the idea of marketing-as-science, criticizing its normative and merely profit-oriented perspective. It also locates marketing much further than the economic sphere, to acknowledge its socio-cultural, political, and environmental implications.

The two labels “orthodox” and “critical” are thus used to constantly refer to “dominant” (capitalistic, Wester, positivistic) and “alternative” views and practices in marketing, which percolate through both academic research and business. Each professor embodies one of the two perspectives, making the Course dialogical by foundation.  

In presenza

Classes will provide rich opportunity for critical discussion, analysis of examples and real-life cases. 
Students are invited to actively participate. An in-company project will accompany students along the semester.

Students are requested to attend at least 60% of the in-presence classes to validate the course. In case of personal impediments, students are expected to reach out to professors to discuss with them the best way to proceed.

• Assessment is based on both an individual written exam (50% of the final grade) and group assignments (50%). To validate the course and average the project grade, each student must achieve a grade of 5 out of 10, or higher, on the written individual examination.
• Detailed evaluation criteria are set at the beginning of the course.
• Peer evaluation will be granted upon request.