Marketing Innovation is a course designed to introduce and provide tactical content in marketing for managers and future managers. It takes a very digital, innovation, and technology-driven approach to marketing, and graduates will learn how to research, design, build and implement marketing strategies and tactics for a variety of industries and contexts. As consumer behaviors evolve and product consumption becomes increasingly digital in nature, students will examine how marketing can be used to drive innovation, digital transformation, data-driven marketing segmentation, and product positioning. The course emphasizes practical applications, case studies, and strategic problem-solving.
Explain the role of marketing in managerial decision-making.
Create a comprehensive marketing plan.
Segment a market, target appropriate audiences, and position a product effectively.
Demonstrate proficiency in core marketing concepts and practices.
Investigate a market using online research tools and sources.
Analyze integrated marketing communications and their strategic use across channels.
Apply marketing theories and strategies to real-world industry scenarios.
The culminating assignment for this course is an individual Comprehensive Marketing Plan (CMP) for SailGP, due in Week 7. Throughout the course, you will approach marketing from the perspective of a manager making decisions. Each week focuses on a different question: understanding the customer and market, choosing an audience, communicating value, evaluating pricing, considering strategic relationships, strengthening the offering, and determining how to reach and serve the customer.
You will use SailGP as a common case across much of the course, giving you an opportunity to examine the same organization from different marketing perspectives. Your weekly work is practice, not a set of sections that you will simply combine at the end. The SailGP case folder is linked in Week 1 of Brightspace.
In Week 7, you will step back and reconsider those decisions as a whole, refining or changing your earlier thinking as needed to develop and present an integrated marketing strategy for SailGP as a narrated executive presentation. In Week 8, you will change roles and evaluate a classmate’s recommendation from the perspective of a SailGP executive.
Marketing decisions often begin with something a manager notices about a customer, competitor, or market. Practice separating observation from assumption, developing a managerial question, and identifying the evidence needed before deciding what to do.
Analyze the SailGP market, develop a segmentation grid, choose a target segment, and create a perceptual map. This work defines the audience and positioning strategy that later weeks will build upon.
Translate your audience and positioning decisions into an integrated communication strategy. Determine what SailGP should communicate, what you want the audience to think, feel, or do, which channels make sense, and how those channels should work together.
Calculate the break-even point for a product, clearly showing work and assumptions, and propose a pricing strategy that balances profitability, market expectations, and competitive positioning. Then prepare a Pricing & Analytics Decision Memo recommending how a company should respond when a disruption such as tariffs or supplier cost increases raises its costs.
Evaluate one of SailGP’s existing sponsors or strategic partners. Consider strategic fit, audience value, activation, measurement, and whether SailGP should strengthen, expand, modify, or rethink the relationship.
Examine SailGP’s broader offering and customer experience. Identify a meaningful customer need or opportunity and determine whether a product, service, experience, digital offering, or technology-enabled innovation would create enough value to pursue.
Determine how SailGP should reach and serve its target customer, then step back and consider the strategy as a whole. Revisit your earlier decisions, retain what still makes sense, revise what does not, and present one integrated marketing strategy to SailGP leadership.
Change seats. Instead of presenting the strategy, take the role of a SailGP executive evaluating another marketing leader’s recommendation. Consider the evidence, strategic alignment, assumptions, and tradeoffs, identify what you would pressure-test, and ask the question you would need answered before moving forward.
You will then respond to executive feedback on your own recommendation, deciding whether to defend, clarify, strengthen, or revise your thinking.
Your grade in this course will be determined by the following criteria:
| Assignment | Points |
|---|---|
| Academic Integrity Agreement | 1 |
| Week 1 Discussion: Introductions and Marketing Decisions | 4 |
| Week 1 Discussion: From Customer Observation to Marketing Decision | 5 |
| Week 2 Discussion: Who Is the SailGP Audience | 5 |
| Week 2 Deliverable: SailGP STP Strategy & Positioning Analysis | 10 |
| Week 3 Discussion: Marketing Detective — IMC Campaign Audit | 5 |
| Week 3 Deliverable 1: SailGP Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy | 10 |
| Week 4 Assignment 1: Break-Even Analysis & Pricing Strategy | 5 |
| Week 4 Pricing & Analytics Decision Memo | 10 |
| Week 5 Discussion: The “Really?” Partnership Test | 5 |
| Week 5 Deliverable 1: Strategic Sponsorship, Partnership & Brand Activation Evaluation | 10 |
| Week 6 Innovation Reality Check | 10 |
| Week 7 Comprehensive Marketing Plan | 15 |
| Week 8 Discussion: The Executive Review | 5 |
| Total Points | 100 |
| Grade | Points Grade | Point Average (GPA) |
| A | 94 – 100% | 4.00 |
| A- | 90 – 93% | 3.75 |
| B+ | 87 – 89% | 3.50 |
| B | 84 – 86% | 3.00 |
| B- | 80 – 83% | 2.75 |
| C+ | 77 – 79% | 2.50 |
| C | 74 – 76% | 2.00 |
| C- | 70 – 73% | 1.75 |
| D | 64 – 69% | 1.00 |
| F | 00 – 63% | 0.00 |
Fall B Session Dates: 10/28/2026 – 12/18/2026
Week 1: Wednesday – Sunday
Week 2: Monday – Sunday
Week 3: Monday – Sunday
Week 4: Monday – Sunday
Week 5: Monday – Sunday
Week 6: Monday – Sunday
Week 7: Monday – Sunday
Week 8: Monday – Friday
| WEEK | TOPICS | ASSESSMENTS | DUE |
| 1 | Foundations of Marketing Innovation |
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| 2 | Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning (STP) |
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| 3 | Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) |
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| 4 | Marketing Analytics & Pricing |
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| 5 | Strategic Partnerships, Sponsorship, and Brand Activation |
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| 6 | Products and Digital Products |
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| 7 | Channel Management & Comprehensive Marketing Planning |
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| 8 | Review, Challenge & Decide |
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