ALS 459
Marketing Analytics

Whereas ALS455 (Marketing Management) focuses on the marketing manager and takes a top-down, managerial perspective to marketing, ALS459 instead focuses on the marketing analyst and takes a bottom-up perspective to marketing. Through an active learning, workshop-style class experience, Marketing Analytics integrates and extends the core concepts of ALS455 (Marketing Management) by introducing the analytic techniques required to enable effective decision making in relation to each of these topics. Class will begin with a discussion of questionnaire design and then move into several of the most popular analytic techniques, including customer lifetime value, advertising response curves, perceptual mapping, resource allocation, segmentation and conjoint analysis. Strong emphasis will also be given to the interpretation and application of results through team based case analyses and presentations. To reinforce these concepts, students will also participate in a data analytics simulation developed by Harvard Business Press.

ALS 455 or equivalent with faculty permission

The purpose of this class is to provide a foundation in the analytic techniques used by marketers and to learn the benefits of using a systematic and analytical approach to enable decision-making. Additionally, students will gain the skills required to collect the data necessary for analyses, conduct the analyses and interpret and apply the results effectively. Analytics enable the marketer to (a) identify and evaluate alternative marketing options and actions, (b) calibrate opportunity costs of the various options, and (c) then choose of one or more of these options that afford the greatest likelihood of achieving the firm’s business goals. By completing this course, students be better able to make stronger cases for marketing expenditures (based on ROI); this is critically important for the 21st century marketer as companies are increasingly shrinking their marketing budgets while simultaneously asking their executives to provide a compelling argument for marketing expenditures.

The goals of this course are:

• To gain experience in questionnaire design and associated best-practices
• To identify the type of analytic techniques associated with each core marketing principle
• To gain exposure to the most popular analytic techniques used in marketing, as well as associated data requirements
• To effectively interpret data and results, as well as identify limitations
• To effectively communicate the results of analyses and apply to marketing decision making
• To identify the role of marketing analytics in business organizations
• To assess and propose marketing solutions to real business case situations
• To use teamwork and management skills in a marketing analytics context