Sociology 158
Markets and Marketing

Office:  Soc./Psych Building rm. 260
Phone: 660-5696
Email: mreeves@duke.edu
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 11:00 – 12:00 and 2:00- 4:00 or by appointment.

Required materials:

Beniger, J. 1986. The Control Revolution: Technological and Economic Origins of the Information Society. Harvard Business Press.

Peter, J. and Donnelly, J. 2000. A Preface to Marketing Management (8th edition), McGraw-Hill.

Selected readings on e-reserve or through J-Stor and other library data bases.

Business Week  subscription or news stand copy.

Goals:

This course will investigate how economic activities and institutions are shaped by social forces. Understanding how the economy is socially constructed provides insights into topics such as labor practices, consumer and seller behavior, advertising, product development and the global marketplace.   We will:

1.)        Define markets and marketing in sociological terms.

2.)        Investigate arguments about the origins of markets and marketing.

3.)        Explore the “embeddedness” of markets

4.)        Investigate what managers and firms do in terms of a sociological definition of marketing, particularly with respect to labor and product markets.

5.)        Examine the marketing of services, global markets and ethical issues.

6.)        Apply our knowledge with examples form Business Week and selected contemporary cases.

7.)        Creatively apply marketing concepts by producing a marketing plan for a product or service.

Early in the semester I will divide the class into teams.  These groups will be used for the final project (the marketing plan) and for selected class assignments.

Requirements:

Your final grade is determined by four components:  a midterm exam (35%), a final Project (35%), class participation (10%), and Business Week market notes and summaries (20% - see description below).  I do not require attendance, but class participation assumes consistent attendance and participation.  It is imperative that you read the assigned materials in advance of our discussion.  I will periodically call on individuals (or groups) to lead the discussion.

The Group Project: Develop a Product or Service and a Marketing Plan

Think creatively and establish a new product or service (or a brand extension).  Write a marketing plan reflecting your new idea.  The plan should include the following: an Executive Summary; A Situation Analysis (this includes things such as a competitor analysis, a SWOT analysis, and a description of your product or service); Your Marketing Strategy (this includes your target market(s), the marketing mix etc.).  Most plans would include financials and controls, however, for the purposes of this assignment I am not requiring that you include these parts.

During the semester, we will examine several plans from a software package called Marketing ProPlan.

Beginning Jan. 30, we will spend all or part of each Thursday’s class in structured discussions of that week’s BW.  Business Week is a current source of “real world” examples and interpretation of the concepts we have been studying and as such links theory with practice.  The attached matrices will guide our discussion.  Please photocopy 15 of these before using the one provided.   

Please follow the “2-5 rule” as a minimum.  Each week spend at least two hours reading Business Week.  Make at least five entries into the matrix we are using for that part of the course.  This is the minimum required for a C grade on the news discussion part of your final grade.  At the start, simply list the gist of the story headline and a clause or so as to what is important from a markets point-of-view.  In the first part of the course, concentrate on market phenomena and in the second half of the course, on marketing phenomena.   During some weeks, I will collect your entries, and once later in the semester I will ask for one typed page of analysis of a story of your choosing.  Save your notes because exams will ask you to document your arguments with evidence and stories from BW.

I expect your full compliance with the Duke Honor Code with respect to all exams and assignments.  For more information on the Honor Code, consult: htttp://www.duke.edu/web/HonorCouncil/resources.htm.

Course Outline:

Sociological Conceptions of the Market

Week of:                      Topic and Reading

Jan. 9                           Introduction to the course    

                                    I.  The sociology of markets: definitions, types and processes

Jan. 14                         A Critique of Economic Models and Institutional Views

Read Chapter 3, “The Market”, in Block, F. Postindustrial Possibilities: A Critique of Economic Discourse .

Jan. 16                         Historical Notes:  Markets, the West and Capitalism

Beniger, Industrialization, Processing Speed, and the Crisis of     Control, chapters 4-6

Jan. 21                         Control of Production, Distribution and Consumption

                                    Beniger, The Control Revolution, chapters 7-10

Jan. 23                         Status, Institutional and Transaction Cost Views of Markets

                                    Podolny, J. 1993. “A Status-Based Model of Market Competition.”

American Journal of Sociology 98: 829-872.  (available through JSTOR)

Jan. 28                         Fligstein, N. 1996. “Markets as Politics: A Political-Cultural Approach to Market Institutions.” American Sociological Review 1: 656-673. (available through Proquest)

                                    We will go through an example of the Business Week matrix.

Jan. 30                         Business Week

Feb. 4                          Transaction Costs / Social Costs

Sholtz, P. “Transaction Costs and Social Costs of Online Privacy,” pp.1-22.  http://www.firstmonday.dk/issues/issue6_5/sholtz

Feb. 6                          Business Week

Feb. 11                        Grannovetter, M. “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness,” American Journal of Sociology  1985: 91 (481-510). (Available through JSTOR)

Uzzi, Brian. 1996.  “The Sources and Consequences of Embeddedness for Economic Performance in Organizations: The Network Effect.” American Sociological Review 61: 674-698. (Available through JSTOR)

Feb. 13                        Business Week

Feb. 18                        Midterm

                       

 

Markets and Strategy

Feb. 20            Porter, M.E.  1990. The Competitive Advantage of Nations. Ch. 4, “The Dynamics of National Advantage,” (131-175).

Feb. 25            D’Aveni, R.A. 1999. “Strategic Supremacy Through Disruption and

Dominance.” Sloan Management Review Spring: 127-135. (Available through Proquest)

Feb. 27            Business Week (Take examples from either week of Feb. 17 or week of Feb. 24)

Contemporary Marketing

March 4           Marketing Strategy – Different Frameworks for Understanding Marketing Strategy

                        Chapter 1 – Strategic Planning and the Marketing Management Process – in Marketing Management.

                        Exercise on Philip Morris and Office Depot – hand-out

March 6           Business Week

March 10-14    Spring break

March 18         Marketing Strategy (con.)

“Customer Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines”, Treacy and Wiersema, Harvard Business Review, Jan.-Feb. 1993. (see questions at end of syllabus) (article available through Ebsohost).

Business Week – Look for articles about marketing strategy from any previous issue – bring examples to class.

                       

March 20         Creating a Marketing Plan – Examples from Marketing ProPlan for discussion  (each team presents/explains one case/company)

March 25         Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Chapters 3 and 5 – Consumer Behavior and Market Segmentation in Marketing Management.

March 27         Product Strategy and New Product Planning

Chapter 6  and 7–in Marketing Management

                        Look for examples in Business Week of Product Strategy

“Vistakon”, Harvard Business Review Case Study – see questions at the end of syllabus.

Complete the VALS questionnaire and come to class prepared to discuss your placement and your preferences. 

It is available on www.sric-bi.com/VALS/presurvey.shtml

April 1              Integrated Marketing Communication: Advertising and Sales Promotion

                        Chapter 8 – Marketing Management

April 3              Business Week

Web assignment – find two sites that appeal to two different groups – (e.g. your generation vs. senior citizens; males vs. females etc.  How are the sites positioned differently? Look at pricing, language, images etc.) Bring your examples to class.

April 8              “Cunard Line, Ltd.: Managing Integrated Marketing Communications,” Harvard Business Review Case Study, August 29, 1994.  (see questions end of syllabus)

April 10            Business Week

April 15            “The Base of the Pyramid Marketing” guest speaker – Dan Vermeer, Coca-cola

                       

April 17            Global Marketing – Chapter 13 in Marketing Management

                        “Gallo Rice,” Harvard Business School Case, January 1998.

April 22            The Ethics in Marketing – in-class presentations (5 teams)

Group 1:  Targeting vulnerable groups (senior citizens, children, college students, etc.)
Group 2: Are marketers responsible for America’s culture of violence?
Group 3: Has marketing overstepped its boundaries (with infomercials, advertorials, video news releases, and telemarketing?)
Group 4: Marketing politicians
Group 5: Marketing drugs: two issues – price of life sustaining drugs and direct-to-consumer marketing

These presentations could examine rights vs. responsibilities/balance of power/societal improvements vs. detriments to society etc.

                       

Final Exam period             
Marketing plan projects due and presented – Attendance required for all.

As you read the HBR cases, think about these questions:

Vistakon Case:

1.         What are Vistakon’s major strengths and weaknesses?
2.         How may this market best be segmented?
3.         Which markets should Vistakon target for its new disposable contact lens product?
4.         How should the new product be positioned?
5.         How should the marketing program support the new strategy?
6.         Should the new product be launched nationally or should it be expanded incrementally from the test market?  Why?

Customer Intimacy and Other Value Disciplines:

1.         Give examples of companies that you think follow the three disciplines – customer intimacy, operational excellence, or product leadership.
2.         Why is the choice of discipline and the choice of customer one and the same choice?
3.         How does this theory of marketing strategy differ from D’Aveni’s?

Cunard Lines:

1.         Describe the industry and Cunard’s segmens.
2.         What are the arguments for developing a separate marketing communication strategy for each ship?
3.         What are the arguments for developing one, common communication message in an “umbrella brand” manner?
4.         What are the organizational issues Leslie will face?

Gallo Case:

1.         What is special about F&P Gruppo?  Why has the company been successful?
2.         Assess Gallo’s market position and opportunities in Italy, Argentina, and Poland.
3.         What similarities do you see in the three markets and in Gallo’s approach to them?

Causes Consumer Industrial Business

Investment Markets

(capital, selling to investors, monetary system etc.)

 Government Labor Market Strategy
Gov’t and Politics            
Technogi-cal/scientific change            
Labor Force Dynamics (race,gender, class, unions, demography)            
Consumer preferences
(ethics, style, culture)		            
Business and
Business
strategy		            

Additional Reading – Not required

On neo-classical approaches:

Becker, G. 1975. Human Capital. 2nd edition. New York: Columbia
D’Aveni, R. A. 1994. Hypercompetition: Managing the Dynamics of Strategic Maneuvering. New York: Free Press.
Varian, H. 1984. Microeconomic Analysis. 2nd edition. New York.: Norton.

On technology:

Cybert, R. and Mowery S. 1988. The Impact of Technological Change on Employment and Economic Growth. New York: Balllinger.
Shapiro, C. and Varian, H.  1999. Information Rules. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

On institutional approaches: (macroscopic, economic, global)

Block, F. 1990. Postindustrial Possibilities: A Critique of Economic Discourse. Berkeley: UC Press.
Coase, R.H. 1988. The Firm, The Market, and the Law. Chicago: Univeristy of Chicago Press.
Fligstein, N. 2001. The Architecture of Markets. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Porter, M.E. 1990. The Competitive Advantage of Nations. New York: Free Press.

On firms, managers, and marketing:

Hanson, W. 2000. Principles of Internet Marketing. Cincinnati: South-Western College Publishing.
Hill, C. 2003. Global Business Today. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Kotler, P. and Armstrong, G.  2002. Principles of Marketing. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
Winer, R. 200o. Marketing Management. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Journals of interest in M & M resource room (rm. 258 Soc./Psych.)