Hello, dear friend, you can consult us at any time if you have any questions, add WeChat: daixieit

TE 466: High-Tech Venture Marketing

Technology Entrepreneur Center

Fall 2024

Course Purpose

Explore cornerstone marketing concepts for innovators and engineers and integrate the impact of strategic marketing decisions and opportunities for considering artificial intelligence (AI) augmentation in scaling performance of the enterprise. Engage in analysis of products and technologies from a marketing perspective including engineering product development and adoption life cycle, objectives and strategies, marketing management, communication skills, sales process and tactics, and special considerations for new high-tech engineering products and innovations. Relevant industry professionals will share their experiences. Synchronous attendance at the weekly sessions is required.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, you will be able to:

1. Understand entrepreneurial marketing,

2. Apply entrepreneurial marketing principles to high-tech industry,

3. Explore opportunities to leverage AI support in scaling ideas & efforts,

4. Develop a working vocabulary regarding these subjects and to become familiar with theories and concepts regarding them, and lean-into emerging opportunities to integrate AI,

5. Understand and discuss the application of course concepts to real world high-tech marketing.

Learning Outcomes

You will:

1. Possess knowledge of high-tech marketing, the foundations of marketing strategy & the elements of an AI enhanced marketing plan,

2. Make marketing decisions based on professional and ethical knowledge and responsibility,

3. Be able to solve marketing related problems and manage the whole marketing process,

4. Be able to integrate marketing frameworks with financial results and business models,

5. Demonstrate awareness of contemporary issues and future trends in high-tech marketing practice,

6. Demonstrate critical thinking skills by analyzing marketing problems and applying proper logic,

7. Demonstrate an ability to design a process to meet desired needs within realistic economic, environmental, social, political, ethical, health and safety, manufacturability, and sustainability constraints,

8. Be able to function on multidisciplinary teams,

9. Be able to identify, formulate, and solve critical problems, and

10. Recognize the need for, and an ability to engage in, life-long learning.

Required and Optional Texts

1. Required: Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations

(3rd Edition). ISBN: 1269770136. Publisher: Pearson. Authors: Jakki J. Mohr, Sanjit Sengupta, Stanley Slater

2. Required: Harvard Business School Pricing Simulation: Universal Rental Car V2.

Instructions will be posted on Canvas. Cost is $16.25.

3. Required: Business Model Generation by Osterwalder & Pigneur

Student Responsibilities

• For TE 466, a typical week begins on Monday and ends Sundays at midnight.

• All assignments are due on Sunday at 11:59 p.m. (CST) to be precise.

• The weekly agenda will highlight the student responsibilities for the week.

• Each week will have assigned reading(s) from the text. Students should read each chapter carefully.

• There may be other assignments such as Business Article Analysis Assignments, Brand Yourself assignment, Harvard Pricing Simulation and Marketing Plan assignment during certain weeks. Please actively monitor the weekly module on Canvas for details (note, modules are updated often).

• Keep abreast of what is happening in the course. Attend class & participate. Challenge the professor, guests & each other with questions. Do not feel intimidated. Ask for help, if (and when) you need it.

Grading

Component                                 Points             %

1. Post Chapter Quizzes                200                20%

2. Self-branding Assignment          50                  5%

3. Harvard Pricing Simulation         50                  5%

4. Midterm Exam                          250                25%

5. Final exam                               250                25%

6. Class Participation                     200+              20% w/ article/podcast assignment conversations woven in as BONUS consideration

IMPORTANT NOTE: As a baseline, you can’t get points for participation if you don’t show up for class with your camera on.

Final grades will be assigned strictly based on the following point scale. No final grade will be rounded.

Grading Scale

A 930-1000

A- 900-929

B+ 875-899

B 825-874

B- 800-824

C+ 775-799

C 725-774

C- 700-724

D+ 675-699

D 625-674

D- 600-624

F < 600

Grades will be accessible by password only on Canvas. For your security, grades will not be provided by phone or email. Grades are not negotiable. Students with extenuating circumstances which require them to receive a certain grade or maintain a particular GPA (e.g., graduation, loss of a scholarship, University probation or suspension, loss of a job offer, revocation of student Visa, etc.) need to realize that they are responsible for working hard to achieve the needed class grade. Please ask for help if you see that you are falling short of the grade that you expect or need. We want students to succeed but you must know that we cannot make exceptions for individual students. Grades can be changed only if I have made an input or calculation error. It is important that you check your class grades and immediately notify me of any discrepancies.

Grading Components

1. Post-Chapter Quizzes

Throughout the semester, 13 online quizzes covering textbook material from a particular chapter will be required. You MUST take all 13 quizzes for 10 to count. You will be penalized if you miss quizzes. We will drop three lowest score post quiz and count your best 10 post quiz scores. Each quiz will cover material from specific chapters of the book. The pedagogical purpose of these quizzes is to ensure that you have read and understood the textbook chapters. I will note how you weave in these topics into the weekly conversations for your class participation.

2. Business Podcast|Article Analysis

We have several business articles, case studies or podcasts during the semester. Business assignments provides a great opportunity to not only understand newest business, marketing trends and hotspots, but also develop strategic and critical thinking as well as work on your “presentation layer” during class discussion. It will be noted how you weave in these topics each week into the conversations for your class participation. Most class conversations will be anchored on the supplemental assignment, so it is imperative that you come prepared to discuss these each week.

3. Self-Branding Assignment

In 1997, Tom Peters, the famous consultant wrote the following in Fast Company: “Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you have to be your own brand. Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You.”

This assignment is about creating your own personal/professional brand strategy. After your stint at Illinois, if you want to be an entrepreneur and start your own company, you need to be differentiated and stand out. A well-done assignment can help you understand what makes you tick and help you communicate that message effectively. The output of this exercise is for you to have a clear understanding of what makes you competent to be an excellent entrepreneur. You must find out and deliver your strength to prospective partners, employees, and investors.

Your assignment must include the elements below, and will be delivered as a video, audio, in a narrated presentation. Details about the delivery included at the end.

Step 1. Self-analysis: Do a strengths / weaknesses analysis of yourself. What are the attributes / characteristics that make you distinctive from your colleagues or competitors? What is your strong suit? What needs improvement? This will help you understand what you must focus on in the future.

Step 2. External analysis: Talk to your family and friends. What do they say about you? What do they say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your best personal trait? Your weaknesses?

Step 3. Is there congruence between your self-analysis and the external analysis? If so, you’re lucky. If not, why not? What direction is the incongruence? How would you reposition yourself? Remember it does not matter what you think of yourself. Other people’s perception of you is the reality. While what your friends and family say may not be completely true, that perception is how the world sees you.

Step 4. Based on the analyses above, what is the “feature-benefit” model that you offer. Every feature a product offers yields an identifiable and distinguishable benefit for their customer or client. Car companies don’t sell 60” back seat; they sell that the car can seat four people comfortably. A dominant feature of Nordstrom is the personalized service, but the customer benefit is a feeling of being accorded individualized attention.

Self-branding delivery options:

It is important that you show your creativity in this assignment. Here you will see some guidelines but feel free to innovate.

(Option A) You can create a 5–10-minute video that you can post in YouTube, or in the server of your choice. It is a good idea to create a script to follow as you record this video, or else, you may go overtime or miss some of the points you want to make.

(Option B – with prior approval upon request) If you would like to discuss doing an alternative written|or more audio-centric narrated presentation we can. I would prefer you did a video.

4. Harvard Pricing Simulation: Universal Rental Car V2

All students will participate in the Pricing Simulation: Universal Rental Car V2, published through Harvard Business School publishing. The simulation plays like a game, and we have found it very engaging. We hope that students find that simulation not only interesting, but a powerful learning experience where you see the results of effective and ineffective application of course concepts. You will benefit from running the simulation multiple times (3 attempts) with increasing complexity (scenarios A & C). This single-player simulation includes two pre-set scenarios (A and C) to meet specific learning objectives.

Description:

At a Florida rental car agency, you assume the role of a district manager responsible for setting prices for rental cars across three Florida cities: Miami, Orlando, and Tampa. Over 12 simulated months, you will analyze price sensitivity between leisure and business travelers and consider strategies that maximize rentals across weekdays and weekends in each city. Demand for rental cars can vary depending on the month and whether the location is more popular with business or leisure travelers. Unrented cars have associated holding costs while running out of cars is lost opportunity for profit. You can make periodic inventory adjustments among the locations to match anticipated demand. The market for rental cars in Florida is intensely competitive and you must also consider the likely competitive response to their pricing decisions. Ultimately, you will analyze the economic, seasonal, and competitive forces of the rental car market and develop a pricing strategy to maximize the cumulative profit for the firm.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the nature and dynamics of consumer response to price (price elasticity).

• Account for demand differences across customer segments and regions.

• Understand and plan for seasonal variations in demand.

• Explore the impact of pricing decisions on firm profitability.

• Use pricing strategies to optimize inventory.

• Anticipate and understand competitive reactions to pricing decisions.

• Understand how price and general economic conditions affect overall market demand.

Grading:

This assignment is worth 50 points and 5% of your grade. To be graded, you will need to complete 2 scenarios (for a total of 6 tries, you must do all to get full credit) and the Strategy Discussion part of this assignment in the forum below. You will receive 25 points for your performance in both scenarios and 25 points for your simulation strategy response. To get performance points: you are required to target earning $10 million profit in each Scenario while maintaining “good” market share.