University of Colorado – Boulder
Leeds School of Business – Marketing Division
MKTG 4820 – Pricing Strategies
Fall Semester, 2008

GENERAL INFORMATION - PREREQUISITES - COURSE DESCRIPTION - TEXTBOOKS - SUGGESTED READINGS - CALENDAR - DOWNLOAD -

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES AND DISABILITIES - ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT - CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR - COURSE GRADE - COURSE LEARNING COMPONENTS

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• BCOR 2400
• MKTG 3250: Buyer Behavior.
• MKTG3350: Marketing Research

MKTG 4820 is offered to students with a formal major in Marketing at Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado at Boulder. MKTG 4820 does not provide credit toward a degree in non-Business major.

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COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is designed to provide you with a thorough overview of both the strategic and tactical aspects of pricing strategies. In this class we examine how to optimally set price, which is a key component of a company’s marketing portfolio 4P’s (Products, Price, Place and Promotion). The result of the strategic price-setting process can make or break a company’s performance since it has most direct impact on a company’s profit bottom line. This strategic process is a non-trivial one because it must take into consideration both the external conditions faced by company, such as cost, customer value and competition, and the internal strategic decisions on other aspects of company strategies (such as products, place and promotion). Throughout the class, students will understand how external conditions and internal decisions affect designing and executing an optimal pricing strategy.

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TEXT

REQUIRED TEXT: Nagle, Thomas T. & Hogan, John E. (2006), The Strategy and Tactics of Pricing: A Guide to Growing More Profitably, Fourth Edition, Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ.

INSTRUCTOR’S COMMENTS. Nagle and Hogan (2006) is a popular text used at undergraduate level pricing courses in many business schools. It offers a thorough coverage of various concepts and techniques and nicely demonstrates the idea of strategic pricing process. The textbook also offers many examples of pricing strategies that will support the material covered in class. Students are required to have this text book for this course.

SUGGESTED READINGS

Various journal articles: Throughout the semester, I will assign non-technical articles from various business journals (e.g., Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review and Journal of Marketing) that are most useful for enhancing our understanding of certain topics that are not thoroughly discussed in the classroom. Some of the exam questions will be derived from the assigned journal articles. Appendix C gives a list of reference articles that might appeal to further interests of the students. The students are also expected to find articles relevant to their projects from various journals when they start working on the term project.

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COURSE GRADE DETERMINATION

Your MKTG 4820 course grade will be determined based upon your relative overall performance on the four examinations, your ten highest quiz scores, the written analysis assignments. Letter grades will be assigned at the end of the course using the scale presented below:

COURSE LEARNING COMPONENTS

• Exams. Four examinations are scheduled throughout the entire semester and each exam is worth 150 points. All exams are closed-book .
• Group project. The group project is worth 300 points. Students will self-select into 4-5 people teams to work on a term project throughout the semester.
• Attendance scores. The maximum attendance score that can be earned is 100. Starting on the first class of the third week, I will take attendance on a regular basis, using CUClickers.
• Classroom participation scores. Students can earn up to 50 classroom participation points. These extra points are made available to each student for speaking out and sharing their thoughts with the classmates.

Important: It is the student’s responsibility to check the full syllabus for details of the above course learning components.

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MKTG 4820 Fall 2008 Calendar

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DOWNLOAD

Full Syllabus(pdf)

Class Materials

• Slides on 08/26
• Slides on 08/28
• Slides on 09/02
• Slides on 09/04
• Slides on 09/09
• Slides on 09/11
• Slides on 09/16
• Review slides on 09/18
• Slides on 09/25 (with table added)
• Slides on 09/30
• Slides on 10/02
• Slides on 10/07
• Demand estimation worksheet on 10/07
• Slides on 10/09
• Slides on 10/14
• Review slides on 10/16
• Slides on 10/23
• Slides on 10/28 - with remarks added
• Slides on 10/30
• Slides on 11/04
• Slides on 11/06
• Slides on 11/11
• EXAM 3 WORKSHEET
• Slides on 11/20
• Slides on 12/02
• EXAM 4 WORKSHEET

Guidelines to Project Report and Presentation (pdf)

• Task 1 (pdf)
• Task 2 (pdf)
• Task 3 (pdf)
• Task 4 (pdf)
• Presentation evaluation form (pdf))

List of Business Journal Articles on Pricing Strategy (pdf)

Peer Evaluation Form (pdf)

You need Acrobat Reader to view those files.

http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

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RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES AND DISABILITIES

I will try my best to accommodate religious observance and qualified disabilities. However, both advance notice (written or in email) and supporting documents are required in order for any observance to be accommodated. If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit to me a letter from Disability Services in a timely manner so that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented disabilities. (303) 492-8671, Willard 322, www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices.

ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT

All students in this course are expected to abide by the provisions of University of Colorado at Boulder Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct, which states:

“All students of the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution. Violations of this policy may include: cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. All incidents of academic misconduct shall be reported to the Honor Code Council (honor@colorado.edu; 303-725-2273). Students who are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions from the faculty member and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited to university probation, suspension, or expulsion).

CLASSROOM BEHAVIOR

University of Colorado policy states that: “Students and faculty each have responsibility for maintaining an appropriate learning environment. Students who fail to adhere to such behavioral standards may be subject to discipline. Faculty have the professional responsibility to treat all students with understanding, dignity and respect, to guide classroom discussion and to set reasonable limits on the manner in which they and their students express opinions. Professional courtesy and sensitivity are especially important with respect to individuals and topics dealing with differences of race, culture, religion, politics, sexual orientation, gender variance, and nationalities. ” (http://www.colorado.edu/policies/classbehavior.html)

In order to make the learning experiences as rewarding and enjoyable as possible, please make sure that you abide by the following classroom norms:

Class Norms

• Be on time for class! Late entrance into the classroom results in a serious distraction of the entire class, and, as stated below, the late student might forfeit the attendance score for the class.
• Cell phones / Pagers - Please keep them TURNED OFF during the entire class session of 1 hours and 15 minutes. It is an unwanted intrusion into the classroom. This disturbs your classmates and me.
• Laptop use is not allowed in this class without explicit consent of the instructor. Use disturbs others around you, and me.
• Non-Academic Activities during Class - Please do not indulge in activities such as reading non-class related material (e.g., newspaper), eating, etc. during class. That disturbs students around you and me.

It is a joint responsibility for everyone in the classroom, students and instructor alike, to create and maintain the best environment for learning. As you know, improper laptop usage and other improper activities like reading non-class material during a class session (e.g., newspaper) or eating any food cause severe disturbance/distraction for your fellow students and for me. It is simply unfair to others who are engaged in activities relevant to that class session. Your cooperation is of utmost importance to me and I thank you in advance for that.

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