Fall 2005 11-12:15 Monday and Wednesday
Course prerequisite: Mktg 3310 or equivalent
Fall 2005
11-12:15 Monday and Wednesday
Course prerequisite: Mktg 3310 or equivalent
Professor Herbert Jack Rotfeld
246 Business Building
844-2459/home: 826-8535
Fall office hours: Monday and Wednesday, 8:15-9:30
Also
available any time the office door is open and by appointment.
http://www.auburn.edu/~rotfehj
Required purchases:
+ Advertising and Promotion, 6th Ed., by Belch and Belch, 2004.
Web sites of suggested reading or periodic review:
IMPORTANT DATES for on-campus students
Preliminary report on audience research and tentative target
audience: Friday, September 23, noon
Term paper due: November 28 (Monday after Thanksgiving break)
University-scheduled date for final exam: Tuesday, December 13, 11-1:30
p.m.
Note
for video-outreach students:
Video students do not have these deadlines or due dates. I
would ask that you try to turn things in with the rythm in which the
tapes arrive, but it is understood that the delays of tape deliveries
and other functional limits (e.g. work, family or military obligations)
means that your work might extend to later times. Specific details and
expectations will be in a later message sent to outreach students and
proctors.
COURSE OBJECTIVE
This course provides students an opportunity to gain an understanding
of advertising and other mass communications marketing practices:
common
business activities and terminology, perspectives applied when taking
the
optimal approach to decisions, plus descriptions and rationales of
common
practices (which are often far from optimal). The class itself places
emphasis
on developing students' abilities to express their analysis and
recommendations
in class discussion, essay exams and written assignments.
The greatest difficulty for students in this class is shifting perceptual focus. You can no longer think as if you are part of the audience (as you do when you watch television commercials or read magazines), but instead, as if you are the creators of communications strategies. And you must put aside your personal tastes. Since not all audience members (if any) are people like you, advertising strategy and tactics must be assessed in terms of what a target audience might perceive, not in terms of what appeals to you. This is being realistic: in business, people preparing advertising, publicity and sales promotion strategy and tactics are seldom members of the target audience and strategy desirability must be judged in terms of what a target audience might like, dislike or understand. And this also means we will be covering some topic areas and using examples that you might find offensive, such as sexual appeals, or media vehicles whose audiences are people whose lifestyles or values are not the same as yours.
And if we do it right, this class will be the single best training for the capstone MBA case course or any other business activity of applied decision making. We will not have formal presentations, but you will get a thorough perspective on making data-driven recommendations.
GRADES
The final grade for the course will be determined by a combination from
the following factors: preliminary research report; term paper; and a comprehensive
final exam.
EXAMS
The final exam will consist of essay questions that require you show
understanding, thought, and insight into lecture topics and reading
assignments. Scores are an assessment of how each essay, taken as a
whole, exhibits your knowledge and understanding of the area addressed
by the question. All assigned textbook readings, additional handouts,
videotapes, lectures or student discussion could be the basis for exam
questions, and, since they are all inter-related, it is impossible to
say what to "emphasize" when you study. The comprehensive final exam
asks you to retain, apply and inter-relate different parts of this
course's material. Since course completion must be viewed as a mark of
learning, not an experience to be endured as you acquire credit toward
a
degree, it is important that the grade include something that reflects
an
assessment of what you take from the class at the end of the quarter.
As
per university directions, the final exam will be on the final class
day. However, we will try to arrange a time and place where you will
have more time to do your best work instead of the hour and a half
restriction for the
class meeting.
TERM PAPER ASSIGNMENT
The papers provide an opportunity for you to apply the course materials
to a client business in which you will assess its advertising,
publicity
and sales promotion needs in terms of potential audience reactions. You
will make recommendations for a target audience, communications goals,
and the strategies to attain those goals and grades will be based on
the rationales you provide as to why those recommended directions
should be followed. The term paper will be your application of the
course materials so the guidelines for doing each part of the paper
will be developed as we work on various areas of class materials. As we
go over each section of communications decisions in class, you should
be working on that section of the paper.
In other words, the project is a direct application of class materials.
The preliminary report is to force everyone to start working right away. It will cover your preliminary assessments of target marketing and potential audience perspectives. It will be a short preliminary statement (4-5 pages) that will then be revised and improved in the final report. This is to get you going from the start and to give me a basis for feedback so we are all working on track.
The requirement for primary research is for you to conduct depth
interviews with 20 non-students who are present or potential customers
for the product. This is NOT a requirement for you to conduct a survey,
but for you to have systematic, organized and directed discussions with
people about how or
why they might make a purchase. This will be explained in more detail
in
the first classes.
With this link, you have the required outline (and subheads) for the final paper. For the most part, write the report as if it is being written for senior management. The maximum length of the text of the final paper is a total of ten double-spaced pages (reference lists and appendices are not part of the ten pages). Be complete but concise. In addition to pure content you should be concerned with how well the paper reads. When in doubt, quote opinions directly and cite factual information from secondary sources properly. You must give the reference citations for all assertions originating from somewhere other than the confines of your cranium. You also need to be wary of yours sources. The internet, while a wealth of opinions and statements, is not an authoritative resource since anyone can freely distribute all sorts of garbage without any oversight, review or analysis. Opinions, rumors and conspiracy theories abound. Newspapers and news magazines give current information, but they, too, have their limitations. Research reports in academic journals present all materials for scientific peer reviews, but even then, since the topics are controversial, interpretations can vary from the same data. Your analysis must not make the mistake of over generalizing from questionable resources and you must be able to distinguish facts from opinions in assessing the issue. Remember, an opinion does not become a fact simply because you can cite someone who says it!! For example, if you come across a prediction that "the GNP will grow at an average rate of 5% per year for the the next three years," you must still cite the source. And even with the citation, it is still just someone's opinion.
The preferred method for citation is to include the name of the author, date and page in parentheses in the text and the complete reference in a "References" section at the end of the paper (that will not count as part of total pages). For example: "One recent study contends that all new net job creation came from firms with less that $5 million in sales (Jones, 1986, p. 17)." Then in the References section the complete bibliographic citation will be listed (in alphabetical order.) But I do not expect many reference citations since main concern here is your assessment of the audience and the potential purchasers.
Please turn in papers stapled in the upper left-hand corner and do not use binders or covers. Make two copies before handing it -- turn in the original and one copy and keep a copy for yourself.
Details on the assignments and clients will be given in the first classes.
TOPIC OUTLINE (specific assignments will be
made in class)
The numbers are used to indicate different
topics -- the actual pace the class goes through the sections is
uncertain and will vary with the amount of student discussion,
questions raised and visits by possible guest speakers. Additional
assigned articles will be handed out in class or sent via email
attachments and the day-to-day
topic assignments will be announced in class.