Marketing: For the Common Good Summer Scholars Session II
One of the fundamental tasks of a business is to understand the needs of its customers and create products and services that will satisfy those customers. Some firms uncover the needs of its customers through marketing research (e.g., Kellogg) while others create new products based on their vision (e.g., Apple). At its core, marketing deals with activities and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for its customers.
In one-half of this course, we will help students understand how firms implement marketing strategies to retain customers. Students will explore the basics of the marketing discipline through a variety of presentations, small group exercises, case studies and a field trip to a few Chicago businesses, including an ad agency. Students will also develop a comprehensive marketing plan for a product or service of their choice in a small group setting.
While marketing has a positive impact on corporations in terms of sales and profits, scholars have also been exploring the impact of marketing on the society as a whole. The societal perspective of marketing emphasizes consumer welfare. Marketing leads to a better standard of living and perhaps a socially beneficial distribution of goods and services. We will explore how marketing can be a force for the common good, by looking at how effective it has been in a variety of social contexts such as in the non-profit sector. Thus, a second half of the course will explore the larger issues of marketing’s place in the society as a force for common good.
Course Schedule
This course will be offered during Summer Scholars Session II (July 1 - 15, 2023) on campus.
Academic Directors
Bob Essig
Robert Essig has served as an instructor and speaker at the Mendoza College of Business for more than 25 years at the graduate and undergraduate levels. His professional expertise includes sales management, B2B sales careers and business ethics. Essig was an executive for IBM’s Midwest Region from 1977 until retiring in 2011, where he managed more than 100 sales professionals and account representatives. Essig served as president of board for United Health Services in South Bend, Indiana, from 2000 to 2006, and as the United Way Campaign chair at IBM for St. Joseph County from 1990 to 2011. He earned his B.A. in political science from Loyola University, and his M.A. in history from Northeastern Illinois University. Essig also completed the IBM Sales Executive Certification Program, which included a 13-month program at Harvard Universit
Mitchell Olsen
Mitch Olsen is an assistant professor of marketing at the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business. Starting this July, he will become an associate teaching professor and serve as the director of undergraduate studies and assistant chair of the marketing department.
He is passionate about the Summer Scholars program, as it offers him the opportunity to introduce people to two amazing places at the same time: (1) Notre Dame and (2) the world of marketing. In his courses, he enjoys pairing foundational marketing theories – informed by his three degrees on the subject (B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business) – with emergent applications of those theories in practice – informed by his work experience at Procter & Gamble and his active research on firms in the retail and consumer packaged goods industries.
He looks forward to working with you and welcoming you to marketing at Notre Dame!