COURSE DESCRIPTION

“Marketing Analytics” refers to a broad range of activities, all of which ultimately rely on (1) more or less “big” data, (2) more or less advanced analytical methods, and (3) more or less sophisticated technical tools aimed to improve managerial decisions. Some of these activities provide descriptive summaries of the past and the present, others generate predictive forecasts of how the future may unfold, and still others culminate in prescriptive advice about how an organisation (be it for profit or not) should move forward. Given the explosion over the past two decades in the amount and types of data available to even the smallest companies, the increasing sophistication in analytical methods, and last but not least, the ever accelerating innovation in technologies, it should not come as a surprise that spending on marketing analytics will increase in the future.
Because marketing analytics encompasses such a diverse set of activities, analysts must rely on a diverse set of skills. Of course, analysts must be comfortable manipulating and understanding data, performing analysis, and manipulating the necessary tools. . . but the data we want are seldom the data we have. Thus analysts must also be creative, both in the way they use the data at hand, and in their ability to discover new (and sometimes unexpected) data sources. But even these qualities together are not enough: The most sophisticated and insightful analysis will have no impact on decisions if managers cannot understand what they are being told, and at the end of the day, if they do not have a precise idea of what they are aiming at achieving (i.e. what their marketing objectives or “use cases” are). Marketing analysts, therefore, must also be able to communicate their purposes and ideas (and hence their facts and data) clearly and persuasively. Accordingly, this course will provide many hands-on opportunities to understand, develop and integrate these diverse skills.

Goals:
 Providing an overview of the main principles in managing market information (i.e. information on consumers/ customers, competitors and suppliers) and performing marketing analytics
 Reviewing the key techniques to obtain market information (primary research – i.e. quantitative and qualitative market research methods – and secondary research) and to extract and leverage insights from facts to support marketing decision making
 Illustrating these techniques in practice
 Allowing students to experiment with these techniques through a field research project in teams