Market Strategies and Customer Value

Course Director: Daniel Tolstoy

To complete the specialization, ensure you finalize both BE0252 and BE0253. Any completed course from a discontinued specialization will be counted as a course in addition to the degree and can never be counted as an elective course within the degree. This does not apply to exchange students.

For questions email: academic.advisor@hhs.se

Overview

Market Strategies and Customer Value (BE0252) is the first course in the marketing specialization at the bachelor’s level. The course is designed to equip students with both an understanding of conceptual tools from the forefront of marketing theory and the ability to apply these tools to practical marketing problems. In this course, students will learn that markets are not fixed but can be reimagined and shaped in ways that create value to both customers and society. We begin with the core concept of customer value, exploring its tangible aspects that can be readily translated into price. We also capture the more elusive aspects of customer value, examining situations where value is subjective and context-dependent. The course then expands to a broader analysis of markets, providing students with frameworks to understand different types of market situations and how to develop market strategies to influence market development, ensuring businesses remain relevant in dynamic environments (uncertain markets, changing markets, customer cultures, international markets).

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Following a ‘learning by doing’ pedagogical approach, the course is organized in seven modules that each have a distinctive theme and a group assignment that contributes toward the course grade. Through active participation, students will improve their abilities to understand customer needs and value creation processes, design compelling value propositions, positioning businesses in different types of markets, navigate market change, and use marketing to scale business, both domestically and globally. The course also provides thinking tools for reflecting the logic(s) of value creation within the society and marketing’s role and consequences within these, including the consideration of sustainability in connection to marketing practice.

Course topics include the following:

**Topic 1: Customer Value **

• How to design value propositions that resonate with customers?
• How to capture value
• How to organize around value propostions in industrial settings

Topic 2: Market Strategy

• How to analyze market malleability?
• How to shape markets for different purposes, such as, sustainability?
• How to cater to dynamic customer segments/groups/cultures

Topic 3: International Market Strategy

• Why, where and how can value offerings be scaled internationally

Course Administrator: Rebecca.Gruvhammar@hhs.se

After the course, the students should be able to:

1. Understand and apply a large range of conceptual thinking tools in connection to marketing and market strategies.
2. Analyze customers and markets using these different conceptual thinking tools and generate strategic recommendations.
3. Critically reflect upon value creation and marketing’s role within it.

SSE students: This course can only be taken by students admitted to the specialization in Strategic Marketing. To be admitted to the specialization, the student must fulfill the following criteria no later than after the examination period in December/January before the specialization starts.

• Have passed at least 45 ECTS credits out of the mandatory course requirements.
• Have passed the mandatory courses required for the specialization: BE0201 Marketing and BE0501 Economics I

Exchange students should have knowledge equivalent to the SSE courses listed above.

Six weekly group assignments constitute 25% of the grade, while 75% weight is given to the individual written exam at the end of the course. Grading will be according to the Grade Point Average Scale (Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent). A compound grade will be calculated based on scores relating to all assessment activities.

• Written examination (max 75 points)
• Group assignments (max 25 points)

All the weekly assignments are to be made in groups of 4-5 students. The written exam is, of course, individual. The written exam consists of a number of essay questions, relating to the module themes.

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Have you been granted educational support because of a documented disability? If so, please contact the course director as soon as possible so that adequate accommodations can be made.

Contact specialneeds@hhs.se if you have questions about being granted educational support or need a copy of your educational support certificate.

For more information, visit the Specific Educational Needs page on the Student Hub (login required).