Master of Science in Marketing

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effective solutions that a company can adopt in dealing with various marketing situations. For this purpose traditional teaching is integrated with more active teaching methods, consisting of discussion of case histories, role-playing, business games, and work on individual and group projects.

Goals and Contents Organisations and businesses that seek success endeavour to serve their clients and customers effectively. Since firms depend on customers and suppliers for the resources needed to carry out their business it is critical that management builds and sustains relationships with customers and suppliers The management of these relationships is critical for the development of any business. It is one of the key tasks of marketing and requires an effective understanding of how relationships work and will involve most management positions within the company.

The programme stretches over two years (120 ECTS credits) and is structured to allow students to personalise their study curricula following their individual interests. In the first semester students attend general management classes in order to acquire a broad knowledge of management. The second and third semesters are dedicated to core courses and electives. Students are required to take core courses in core marketing topics and methodologies, and complete the curriculum with electives that can be chosen among courses offered by the programme and by other programmes provided by USI. During the last semester students work in teams on a field project and write up their master’s thesis.

Graduates from this programme will acquire competencies to meet the requirements of a professional career in companies of different size. The programme seeks to prepare participants to assume general management positions or to take up specialised positions such as product and marketing managers. Graduates may also take up professional positions in marketing research and communications. The programme is designed to develop participants’ analytical and decision-making skills grounded in a solid knowledge of best management practices and a rigorous methodological approach. In particular it develops the capability to analyse and interpret markets as well as the ability to conceive and put into practice

Student Profile The programme is intended for students who have obtained a Bachelor’s degree. Prior to joining the course, candidates are expected to have acquired a basic understanding of management, economics and communication. Tutorials in these areas are offered before the beginning of the programme. Since all courses are in English, a good knowledge of the language is essential.

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Master of Science in Marketing

Sem. 1

General Management (30 ECTS) Industrial Organisation Strategic Marketing

6 6

Sem. 2

Core Courses (39 ECTS) Consumer Behaviour Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Advertising and Branding Integrated Marketing Communication Service Marketing Business-to-Business Marketing

6 3 3 3 3 3

Sem. 3

Distribution Management Data Analysis Marketing Research Commercial Communication Law Marketing Strategy and Planning

3 3 6 3 3

Sem. 4

Study Programme*

Capstone Work (30 ECTS) Field Project Thesis Total ECTS

* Slight changes in the study programme may occur.

Organisation Corporate Strategy Managerial Accounting and Finance

6 6 6

Electives (21 ECTS) Students can choose courses for 21 ECTS among the elective, specialization or core courses offered in other USI’s related Master programmes. Examples of electives offered by the programme in the recent past include: Digital Marketing, Pricing, Sales Management, International Marketing, Cause-related marketing, Customer Relationship Management

12 18 120

Master of Science in Marketing

Course Descriptions General Management Industrial Organisation Industrial organisation as a field of studies deals with the implications of market structure for business behaviour. The course provides the essential concepts needed to analyse the strategic behaviour of companies in an economic environment that is uncertain, but still well defined in terms of the market structure, regulations and behaviour of market players. The course starts from the basic concepts of competition, markets and costs, and moves on to the dynamics of market structures and the impact of new technologies, and finally to the analysis of oligopolies, market influence, mergers and acquisitions. Strategic Marketing This course builds on the introductory courses in marketing. It aims to develop the abilities of participants to interpret different market situations and to conceive and implement appropriate responses. The course highlights the economic consequences of marketing decisions, and the impact of various strategic choices in marketing on the economic and financial performance of businesses. The main topic areas covered are: the analysis of customer - supplier relationships and of market dynamics; the assessment of strategic marketing options; and the development and implementation of market strategies. The course approach is based on the use of participative teaching methods, including a business game, and the analysis and discussion of company cases.

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Organisation This course aims to enhance the understanding and management of organisations. It covers the behavioural, managerial and structural influences that affect organisational effectiveness, productivity and efficiency. It integrates organisational issues such as job design, organisational design, culture and strategy. It also teaches students to understand, analyse, evaluate and apply the theory and the methods related to the design of organisation structure and processes, job redesign, role analysis, management by objectives, task forces and new organisational forms. Corporate Strategy The aim of the course is to introduce the participants to the field of corporate strategy. It explores the central issues in the management of corporate strategy, namely strategic analysis, strategy formulation, and implementation and management. The course aims to provide students with a set of analytical tools and concepts drawing on recent developments in the field of corporate strategic management. The emphasis is on understanding the forces shaping business strategies and the critical variables in strategy development in companies of varying sizes and in different contexts. Managerial Accounting and Finance The scope of this course is to introduce the concept of management accounting and finance in order to acquire a solid understanding of the variables underlying the economy of a company. The first part of the course introduces the concepts of cost and revenue analysis and other accounting information for management decisions and control. Topics covered include

Master of Science in Marketing

cost, value and price analysis; determination of relevant costs; budgeting; responsibility accounting, and performance measurement and assessment. The second part of the course introduces the field of corporate finance and the logic underlying a firm’s financial decisions. The main topics covered relate to the theory and practice of corporate finance, assessment of financial costs, decisions on sources of financing, investment decisions, and financial accounting. Core Courses Consumer Behaviour This course explores the conceptual frameworks and the analytical research tools for understanding customers’ market behaviour. Understanding customers is important in particular when building a company’s intangible resources such as brand, customer loyalty, and customer relations and in conceiving and delivering customer value. Developing effective customer relationships is based on understanding the cognitive and behavioural factors underlying their behaviour. The first part of the course deals with the main theories explaining consumer behaviour. The second part builds on this analytical framework to develop models for eliciting effective customer response. Purchasing and Supply Chain Management Companies depend on a multitude of relationships with suppliers and intermediaries and operate within “supply chains”, that are a complex network of relationships with other companies that all concur in creating value for end-users. This course is designed to provide the conceptual frameworks and methodological tools to

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gain an understanding of purchasing and supply chain dynamics. Emphasis will be placed, to in- and out-sourcing decisions and to the management of supply and distribution networks. The conceptual content of the course will be applied to empirical analysis of supply chain-related issues in a variety of industries and companies. Advertising and Branding The course examines the broad topic of branding, brand management and advertising For many companies their most valuable asset is the brand name associated with their products or services. Yet too often marketing decisions affecting product policy, pricing, advertising or distribution are taken without taking into account their impact on brand value. Thus the focus of this course will be to explore and understand the importance of brands, what they mean to consumers. The course looks at how brands need to be managed for the greatest benefit of the organisation and the role that advertising plays in this context. Integrated Marketing Communications The course covers operational aspects of managing marketing communication, following a specific process (from the identification of a target group, through decisions about the media and messages, to the evaluation of the results) and integrating various market communication tools. It looks at issues of company communication in a multidisciplinary perspective and aims to present the various conceptual models and useful operational tools for planning and managing communication effectively. Since communication decisions are a result of a convergence of decision making processes inherent in both communication and

Master of Science in Marketing

marketing policies, the course focuses on the role that communications has in developing market relations. Service Marketing More than half of the GDP of developed economies originates in the service sector. The exchange process and market for services differs in several respects from that for tangible goods. This poses some specific problems in the marketing and management of services that will be exposed and discussed. The course revolves around three main themes: peculiarities of the market and of the exchange process for services; managing service content and quality; and organisational aspects of marketing in service companies. Students are expected to actively participate in discussions of case studies as well as to carry out field work and present their results. Distribution Management Distribution includes all of the activities that are involved in delivering a suitable offering to end-customers. This is a very broad topic and the course will concentrate on some of its key aspects. It examines distribution from the perspective of suppliers, distributive intermediaries and retailers. More specifically it deals with distribution in the modern economy; distribution as a problem for manufacturers; physical distribution; retail evolution and strategy. The course will comprise lectureing sessions and research / group work presentations by students. An interactive atmosphere will be sought via open discussion of different issues between the instructor and students.

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Business-to-Business Marketing Most business transactions take place between companies and customers that are businesses or some other type of organisation. The scope of this course is to explore the workings of industrial or business markets, and to discuss the implications for marketing. The course deals with three topics: 1) how to assess business markets, understand customer needs, and interpret the dynamics of business markets; 2) how to conceive and put into practice effective solutions to problems that arise in relationships with customers; and 3) how to develop market strategies and organise the company for effective performance. Data Analysis The goal of the course is to make students familiar with statistical data analysis – the art of examining, summarising and drawing conclusions from data. This includes the organisation of a coherent database and its use to produce statistical summaries and inference. Statistical software is essential in this respect. It lets the researchers focus on thinking about problems rather than being engaged with computational details. The course introduces students to the use of the SPSS statistical software. The software environment is explored from the data entry to the handling of the SPSS output. The course builds on students’ knowledge of introductory level statistics, such as frequency, distribution and correlation. Marketing Research The course explores the research process and the most common research methods in marketing. After an introduction concerning the nature of empirical research, the course focuses on

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how to design a research process around a problem statement and how to carry out the subsequent field research in order to obtain relevant primary and secondary data. The course explores the main qualitative and quantitative research methods, and in particular, issues related to survey design, questionnaire development, interview techniques, focus groups, observation and experiments. A significant part of the course deals with data analysis and the application of findings in taking marketing decisions. Commercial Communication Law Communication cannot function without respecting some basic rules. The course introduces students to the various limits set upon commercial communication by legislators or tribunals in order to protect specific public or private interests, like the norms governing advertising, unfair competition, privacy or the right of reply. As modern communication does not stop at national borders, and as regulations change more and more quickly, the relevant rules are not described and discussed from a purely legalistic perspective (as would be the case with lawyers), but from a political, dynamic and an international one. That means that not only Swiss law is addressed, but EU and US law as well. Market Strategy and Planning Formulating market strategy is based not only on a sound analysis of the market and a solid understanding of the forces underlying the dynamics of the market development but also on a demanding process of crafting the strategy in an organisational context. This course focuses on the process of market strategy development in global markets. The emphasis of the course is on the assessment of the economic consequences of various

alternative market strategies for the economic and financial performance of the business. Electives Each term the programme offers a certain number of electives (examples of electives offered by the programme in the recent past include: Digital Marketing, Pricing, Sales Management, International Marketing, Cause-related marketing, Customer Relationship Management). During the second and third semester, students are required to choose courses totaling 21 ECTS from among these courses and the elective, specialisation or core courses offered in other USI’s related programmes. The choice should be discussed with the programme director. By combining electives, students can obtain a second specialisation (‘minor’). Capstone Work Field Project During the fourth semester, students are asked to carry out a consulting project for a client company. Students choose from among a list of projects selected by their tutors within the topic areas covered in the programme. Students are expected to base their work and their recommendations to the client organisation on sound research, using the methodologies learned in the third semester. Students work in teams and are tutored by faculty members who support them in managing their contacts with the company, in developing the project and in preparing the final report and the presentation to the client. During the field project period, teams attend research laboratories to present and

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discuss the intermediary results of their consulting activity with the members and tutors of other teams. Thesis The Master’s thesis is an academic piece of work that should provide an original contribution to the body of marketing knowledge. Such a contribution can be either theoretical or empirical, but should always builds on a solid research effort, and on the use of appropriate concepts, methods, and tools acquired during the programme. Faculty members support and coach the participants during their work with the Master’s thesis. This can be started during the third semester, but should be completed by the end of the fourth semester of the programme.

General Information Language This programme is entirely held in English. Admission Requirements The formal requirement for admission is a Bachelor’s degree in Social Sciences (or equivalent) from a recognised academic institution. In addition candidates are expected to have acquired basic concepts in management, economics and communication. Contacts Università della Svizzera italiana, USI Study Advisory Service Tel. +41 58 666 4795 [email protected]

For further information: www.mktg.unisi.ch