Marketing on the Internet

IBM 403-01 (TTh 1:00-2:50 -- Bldg. 9-276)
Spring 1998

Instructor: Dr. Robert W. Schaffer
    Office: 94-235
     Hours: TTh  5:00  -  6:30
            W    5:00  -  7:00
            I will gladly make appointments if these hours are inconvenient.
 Telephone: Office: (909) 869-2441 (CBA FAX: 869-4353)
    E-mail: rwschaffer@csupomona.edu
       URL: http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~rwschaffer/

CATALOG DESCRIPTION

Study of the Internet, its culture and procedures from a marketing perspective. Using the Internet for customer contact, customer service, order taking, and marketing research. On-line experience and projects with real organizations. 4 units, lecture/problem-solving. Prerequisite: IBM 301.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Understanding how the Internet works and how it can be used in marketing. Ability to create useful marketing plans that incorporate the Internet. As the course progresses, there will likely be changes from the syllabus. Still, the course will remain true to its primary goal which is to study how the Internet can be used as part of an overall marketing strategy.

TEXTS

Hanson, Ward, Internet Marketing, prepublication version, Southwestern Publishing, 1998.

Almost all of the other references that you will use this quarter will be found online. It is also expected that you will use your Marketing Principles textbook as well as books and journals in the library.

Wall Street Journal and Business Week: Please read the Wall Street Journal each day and Business Week each week. Both of these publications have convenient indexes and summaries to reduce reading time and make your reading more productive. If you are serious about a business career, these two publications will be required reading for the rest of your life -- start now! Please come to class prepared to discuss one article from either publication that relates to the marketing aspects of the Internet. At a minimum, you should be familiar with every article that relates to marketing on the front page and the first page of the second section of the WSJ and in BW, the Corporate Strategies section as well as articles clearly labeled as marketing, advertising, retailing, and so on. A few students will be asked at random to report on their reading each class period.

CLASS PROCEDURES

This class will be taught seminar style; that is, you the students will be responsible for much of the learning that takes place. The instructor will not lecture on a regular basis, instead students will be assigned to lead discussions over topics that everyone should have researched. Given the nature of our class time, an automatic grade reduction will be made for every absence, every late, every time you leave early, and every time you are not prepared to discuss the assigned topic for the day.

CURRENT EVENT CASES

You will have a Current Event Case due each week. Pick a current BW or WSJ article that focuses on some aspect of using the Internet to implement marketing strategy. Consider the marketing management implications of the situation faced by the organization mentioned in the article and evaluate the strategy being used. Type your write-up using the following outline format; please use the numbers below to identify each section. NOTE: not all BW or WSJ articles are suitable for this assignment; even if a marketing use of the Internet issue is present -- there must still be a competitive strategy issue being discussed as well.

Publication Source (BW or WSJ), date, page(s)
Title of the article
One sentence discussion of the firm and the marketing strategy presented in the article; what does the firm hope to accomplish?
One word (yes or no); will the strategy work as the firm in the article hopes it will?
The reasoning behind your opinion of why the strategy will or will not work

CLASS DISCUSSION LEADER

You will have an opportunity to lead the class discussion two or three times on an assigned topic. You should come to class prepared with a typed handout for each student in the class.

CLASS LISTSERV

Please subscribe to the class listserv before the second class period. All assignments will be posted to the listserv rather than announced in class. It's important that you subscribe to the listserv from the e-mail account that you will use to read the listserv postings. To subscribe, send an e-mail to:

listproc@csupomona.edu with both the body and subject line the same: subscribe sales first last

Where first/last is your name. You should receive a confirmation by return e-mail within a few minutes.

ADD/DROP POLICY

The School of Business has a uniform add/drop policy and it is incumbent upon the student to be informed of the policy. Please obtain the information sheet entitled, "Add/Drop Policies and the Assignment of Incomplete Grades" in the Advising Center, Building 6, Room 219.

STUDENT EVALUATION

Regular and punctual attendance as well as satisfactory effort on all course elements is expected. Failure to meet this expectation will result in an automatic grade of "F" being assigned for the course. Final course grades will include pluses and minuses as appropriate and be computed approximately as follows.

Current Event Cases/Homework/Short Projects  20%
News Groups Paper . . . . . . . . . . . . .  10%
Internet Collaboration Project. . . . . . .  10%
GMAC Marketing Plan . . . . . . . . . . . .  30%
Midterm/Final Exams . . . . . . . . . . . .  20%
Class Participation, Subjective . . . . . .  10%

You are responsible for checking your e-mail at least twice a day, including weekends. It is unlikely that a Cal Poly PPP account will provide you with the Internet flexibility you need to be successful in this class.

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITY

The instructor will make every effort to insure that this class is relevant to your needs. Still, it is the responsibility of each student to prepare adequately for class and to make this course meaningful for himself or herself. The instructor will always be open to suggestions and welcomes student comments.

CLASS SCHEDULE

Week     Chapter    Topic                                             

T  3/31             Course Introduction
Th 4/2   1,2        Introduction to the Internet, Overview of how the Internet might be used in
                    marketing, Form Groups

T  4/7   3,4        Presentation to class by local GMAC Executives
Th 4/9   5          Discuss GMAC Project

T  4/14  6          Student led discussions, Domain Name Project
Th 4/16             NO CLASS (Work in groups on project)

T  4/21  7          Student led discussions, Collaboration Project: Week One
Th 4/23  8          Student led discussions, IPP Game Project

T  4/28             Catch-up, Review, Collaboration Project: Week Two
Th 4/30             MIDTERM EXAM

T  5/5   9          Student led discussions, Collaboration Project: Week Three
Th 5/7   10         Student led discussions

T  5/12  11         Student led discussions, work on GMAC Project
Th 5/14  12         Group Presentations of GMAC Projects

T  5/19  13         Student led discussions, Identify GMAC Presentation Team
Th 5/21  14         Student led discussions, work on GMAC Project, Individual Profile Project

T  5/26             Student led discussions, work on GMAC Project
Th 5/28             Class presentation to national GMAC Executives in Agoura Hills (No regular
                    class today, all are welcome to attend presentation)
                                          
T  6/2              News Groups Paper
Th 6/4              Catch-up, Review

Th 6/11  COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAM   (11:30-1:30 pm)   (Note change in time period.)

GMAC Project

Our major project this quarter will be sponsored by GMAC. They have asked us to look at their web site (http://www.gmacfs.com) and make recommendations as appropriate. We will do this project in stages.

Stage 1: Divide into groups and look at the GMAC site. You might also want to begin looking at the sites of other financial services providers.
Stage 2: Participate in a discussion of the GMAC site with local GM executives on April 7. Be prepared to ask questions to determine the mission, audience, budget, and so on for the site.
Stage 3: As a group, develop your plan for the GMAC site. Use the various concepts we have discussed in this class to prepare a brief (6 minute) presentation and a written report with site map, and storyboards detailing your plan.
Stage 4: Participate in an in-class review and scoring of each presentation on May 19. We will vote on four issues: the best ideas, the best Powerpoint programming, the best graphics and artwork, and the best presenters. This vote will help determine who will travel to Agoura Hills and make the presentation for the class as well as the basic structure of that presentation.
Stage 5: Extra-Credit Develop the final plan to be presented to GMAC management along with the various presentations aids. Students will be selected from a list of those volunteering based on the in- class scores from Stage 4 and the Instructor's personal evaluation.
Stage 6: Extra-Credit Make a presentation to GM management in Agoura Hills, California on Thursday, May 28 (all day) in competition with other schools.

Threaded Discussion List

The class has a threaded discussion list located at: http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~rwschaffer/ibm403/ You can both respond to existing threads and create new ones. You are to make at least one posting each week to the list. In addition, you should be reading the postings daily so that you can respond, as required to another person's post no flame wars, please. Remember that you will have to "reload" the page in your browser before you will be able to see your post. Note: the instructor plans to use the Discussion Board as a way to share possible exam questions and provide you an opportunity to discuss these questions with others in the class.

Useful Site Project

As part your web explorations, try to find sites that would be useful to someone in marketing. Once a week, post to the class listserv the URL of a useful site as well as a brief paragraph explaining why you thought it was useful. IMPORTANT NOTE TO AVOID REPEATS: read the other posts before posting; if two students post the same site, only the first poster will get credit. Please use the following format for these posts:

TO: sales@csupomona.edu
SUBJECT: Your Name, Name of Site (put the URL in the BODY)

News Groups Paper

Join (subscribe, you don't need to post) three different listservs or read the postings to three different news groups that focus on three unrelated topic areas. Examine the postings that seem to have marketing related purposes for at least five weeks and keep records. Write a brief paper in which you:

1) Compare and contrast the three listservs or news groups in terms of the amount and nature of the obvious marketing related efforts as well as the organizations behind these postings.
2) Discuss what opinions (or conclusions) you have about the effectiveness of these marketing efforts.

Internet Collaboration Project

You will be assigned to a team of students at other schools either in North America or in Europe to write a brief case analysis of a Marketing situation. You will interact with your team members primarily by e-mail but you are free to use IRC if desired. It is anticipated that every member of your team will be able to communicate with you in English. See: http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~rwschaffer/imc/collab98.html. Once your team has prepared its analysis, arrangements will be made for your analysis to be hosted on the web. Grading will be a function of the total result as well as your individual contribution to the total.

Individual Profile Project

Select any one person who is a frequent poster to one of the news groups to which you have subscribed. The only limitation is that this person CANNOT be a member of the Cal Poly community (faculty, student, staff, administration). Assume that this person has applied for a job at your firm. Write a one-page letter to the VP of Marketing (your boss) explaining why you think this person should be hired or not hired based solely on their postings to the various news groups. Hint: pick someone who posts a lot to different groups. Check out: http://www.dejanews.com/ use the author profile feature.

IPP Game Project

Play the 1997 Internet Presence Provider (IPP) Game on the Tenagra site at: http://seasonsgreetings.tenagra.com/. You will probably need to download the most current Shockwave plug-in from the Macromedia site first. Also, please be patient during the game download process, it can take as much as two minutes with a 28.8 connection. You will likely want to play the game a few times to get the feel for all the possible events that can occur. You are welcome to try for a "high Score" but your actual performance on the game is not relevant to this assignment.

Write a brief paper in which you first discuss the extent to which Tenagra's game is an accurate model of the IPP Industry. Then explain what you think it takes to be success as an IPP. Could there be more than one road to success? Explain.

Domain Name Project

Select any industry of your choice. Assume that you starting a new business in this industry. Use the connection to InterNIC's Whois that is on the http://register.com/ site to test the availability of your possible domain names. NOTE: This project is much more difficult than it looks. When you finally have an acceptable name, write one paragraph explaining why this domain name is a good Internet address for a firm in your chosen industry.

Some Suggestions For A Better Paper

1. Use many headings and subheadings; three or four a page would not be too many, one a page is probably not enough. (Yes, three or four!) HINT: use the outline presented here for your major headings and create additional indented paragraph headings as needed.
2. Remember Kipling's "Six Honest Serving Men"; What, Who, How, Why, Where, When
3. Some good phrases: Because, For example, Therefore, Thus, As can be seen by, One way to dramatically improve the quality of your writing is to construct each sentence in the paper so that it includes one of these, or a similar, phrase. Of course, this usage will become awkward and you will want to modify many of your sentences during the final editing process. Still, the final result will be a much stronger paper because you will have included a reason for each suggestion and an explanation of why each fact is important.
4. Avoid 1st and 2nd person, contractions, "etc." and other similar expressions that do not add to a sharing of meaning with your reader.
5. Have someone read your paper aloud to you before handing it in. The "ear" is more sensitive than the "eye" when it comes to proofreading. Use the speller on your word processor for spelling errors.
6. Start Early! Any error can be corrected if you leave enough time for the corrections to be made.

Evaluation of Class Participation

Both the quantity and the quality of your class participation will be evaluated. Quality is considered to be much more important.

1st Level: Profound comments or questions causing us to rethink our basic understanding of fundamental issues or concepts and allowing us to see the topic area from a new perspective.
2nd Level: Perceptive and insightful comments or questions that explain basic relationships or identify other related variables of interest.
3rd Level: Clarifying comments or questions that further the discussion by providing additional examples or relevant personal anecdotes.
4th Level: Silence.
5th Level: Banal, inane, and superficial comments or questions that provide nothing useful to the discussion and only take up time.