About the Course

Overview

The Internet is the biggest change in marketing in the last 25 years.  This paradigm shift will generate many new firms and cause established firms to rethink their strategies (and some won't make the transition). The Internet changes how we design, communicate, promote, price, and distribute our products.  In this course we study the state of the art issues surrounding: 1. Understanding Customers, 2.  Strategy Formulation, 3. Customer Acquisition, 4. Distribution, and 5. Relationship Building .  We will use lectures and class discussion, readings, "live cases" (a company and executive live with a problem and background information), exercises, and projects to develop our knowledge.

Although many things are new on the Internet, we will find that many of the fundamental theories of marketing are useful in developing a response to the threats and opportunities created by the Internet.  The recent failures of Internet companies and dramatic financial re-valuations emphasize the need for sound business models and marketing strategies.  Although the industry has been restructured, there are many opportunities for growth and profit as the Internet moves from its birth to growth phase. Live cases and the latest readings will provide input for our discussions of how to effectively and efficiently market in the new age of the Internet.  Group projects will give hands on experience in solving real marketing problems or developing new marketing tools. 

The outline below gives our initial readings and assignments (readings packet in Graphic Arts).  We will be adding material for live cases and perhaps substituting readings as the field develops this spring so stay current with the Web site. Grading will be: group project  -- 40%,  lecture class participation --20%, and case discussion -- 40%.

Sharing our past experiences and the lessons from our cases and  projects will provide a group learning environment that leads to understanding the rapidly changing state of the art in Internet Marketing.

Instructor

Professor Glen L. Urban
Office: E56-332
Tel: 617-253-6615
Email: GLUrban@mit.edu

Teaching Assistants

Ben Gibbon (bgibbon@mit.edu)

Srinath Narayanan (srinathn@mit.edu)

Sebastian Periera (seba@mit.edu)

Shyan Wen (shyanwen@mit.edu)