Course in Industrial Marketing

Term IV: The maximum number of students for the class will be 50. Only credit students will be eligible.

§ Course Objective:
Industrial Marketing or B2B Marketing covers a wide territory. From Agro Inputs sold by Monsanto, and Mineral products by Coal India, it covers Metal sales by TISCO, Capital equipment by L&T, Polymers by Reliance, Chips by Intel, Tyres by MRF, Speciality Chemicals by ICI or Computers by Dell. The entire range of Financial, Advertising, Consulting or Security services sold to corporates fall within B2B Marketing. Clearly, this is a huge, diverse & dynamic market. While the basic tenets of Consumer marketing are equally applicable to Business marketing, there are some unique characteristics in Business markets that demand special attention. The forces that affect Business demand, the composition of Business markets, the nature of Business buyers and their buying behaviour - all of these lead to special challenges for the Business marketing manager. This course gives an opportunity to the students to integrate the learning from various marketing and strategy courses and apply them in the context of Business to Business Marketing.

§ Course Content:
1. Business Market Management: Guiding principles
2. Market Sensing: Generating and Using Knowledge about the Market Place
3. Understanding Firms as Customers
4. Crafting Market Strategy
5. Managing Market Offerings
6. New Offering Realization
7. Business Channel Management
8. Gaining Customers
9. Sustaining Reseller Partnerships
10. Sustaining Customer Relationships

§ Learning Method:
The course would have classroom sessions (consisting of conceptual discussions and cases). It is expected that all the participants will prepare and thoroughly analyze the case and reading (book chapters) before coming to the class.

§ Course Evaluation:
Class presentations, quizzes, and end-term examination will be the major elements used for evaluating the participant's performance in the course. Quizzes will be held in the class and will not be announced before. For cases, you will have to form yourselves into teams of two.

§ Class Rules:
Your enrollment in this course indicates your agreement to follow the class rules. This means:
- Be on time to class and don't leave early
- Be quiet when someone else is officially speaking
- Don't read newspapers or do outside work in class
- Leave the classroom as clean or cleaner than you found it