Marketing Management Detailed Course Outline
Week 5 (Thursday, April 3)

“Plans are nothing.  Planning is everything.”

— Dwight Eisenhower
 


Topics Managing Customers for Profits

Read

Best:  Chapters 15 & 16
"Customer Profitability and Lifetime Value," HBR, August 2002.
"Getting the Most out of All Your Customers," HBR, July 2004.
In Class Activities Video Case:  Making Loyalty the Mission:  Vail Corporation

Discussion Questions:

  1. How did Vail Corporation capture and use information about its customers?  Do other organizations have these same opportunities?
  2. How did Vail Corporation create value and reduce costs for customers?
  3. What are the implementation challenges of such initiatives?
  4. How can an organization financially justify investing in a sophisticated customer information system?
Case Assignment Merrill Lynch:  Integrated Choice

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you think Merrill Lynch has moved at the appropriate speed in responding to market changes?  Or was it too slow?
  2. What is the strategy behind Integrated Choice?
  3. What are the implications of Integrated Choice?  For clients?  For financial consultants?  For the firm?
  4. What are the two or three significant actions that Merrill Lynch ought to take?
  5. What will be the future role of the financial consultant?  How should Merrill Lynch organize itself in the future?
LINKS Activities Q7 Decisions due on Monday April 7 Noon.