Course

Marketing Intelligence

Faculty
Commerce & Business Administration
Department
Marketing
Course code
MARK 4270
Credits
3.00
Semester length
15 Weeks X 4 Hours per Week = 60 Hours
Max class size
35
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Online
Hybrid
Typically offered
To be determined

Overview

Course description
Marketing intelligence (MI) is a key tool for better decision making, success, and even survival for firms today. It comes from the strategic use of a carefully analyzed collection of key information. Enterprise-wide use of marketing intelligence is increasing as firms see its power and benefit. Firms that embrace marketing intelligence use it at all levels of the organization, fostering a culture where everyone thinks “intelligence”, and contributes to its evolution. The establishment of a marketing intelligence process in firms today is increasing at a rapid rate.

Effective MI is a process of identifying and collecting information, both internal and external to the firm; analyzing it, interpreting it using business and industry experience and knowledge; and using it to make more informed decisions. This course provides a broad and in-depth understanding of marketing intelligence (MI), focusing on MI as a process, and the perspective taken will be that of a manager using marketing intelligence. Students will learn the tools, techniques, sources, analytical processes and technology of MI, and will review best practices and cases of MI in action. This course is intended for marketing and business students.
Course content
  1. The art and science of marketing intelligence (MI)
  2. The managerial perspective of marketing intelligence
  3. Establishing and directing a MI function
  4. Information stakeholders and their requirements
  5. MI as a process: determining information needs and sources, and verifying available information to capture relevant material
  6. Technological, analytical, interpretative and managerial tools and techniques used in effective MI
  7. Actionable MI plans
  8. Ethical, legal and regulatory issues in MI
Learning activities

Students will be involved in an active learning environment. They will study the concepts, techniques, tools and management processes that are critical to effective MI. They will demonstrate their ability to apply the required skills by sourcing information, analyzing business cases, conducting research, analyzing data, and preparing MI reports.

Means of assessment

Assessment will be in accordance with the Douglas College Evaluation Policy.

Research Project and presentation  25-40%
Midterm Examination       15-25%
Cases & Assignments  10-25%
Class Participation  5-10%
Final Examination  15-25%
Total 100%

Notes

  1. Students must achieve a minimum average grade of 50% on all non-group evaluations to pass the course, with the 50% calculated on a weighted average basis.
  2. No single assessment can exceed 40%.
  3. Students must complete all projects, assignments and write all examinations in order to be eligible for a passing grade in the course.

Students may conduct research as part of their coursework in this class. Instructors for the course are responsible for ensuring that student research projects comply with College policies on ethical conduct for research involving humans, which can require obtaining Informed Consent from participants and getting the approval of the Douglas College Research Ethics Board prior to conducting the research.

Learning outcomes

 

 

At the end of the course, the successful student should be able to:

  • relate to and critique marketing intelligence (MI) from a managerial perspective;
  • apply marketing analytics and intelligence strategy(ies) effectively;
  • assess and analyze marketing intelligence information from a data warehouse;
  • select and apply suitable tools and techniques (such as regression analysis, conjoint analysis, sensemaking analysis, A/B testing) to solve different business problems;
  • design a structure of marketing intelligence teams;
  • analyze, evaluate and report marketing intelligence information that meets the company’s marketing objectives and;
  • develop simple marketing intelligence plans. 
Textbook materials

Textbooks and Materials to be Purchased by Students

Marketing Intelligence by Robert J. Dolan; Leslie K. John. Harvard Business Publishing

The Handbook of Market Intelligence: Understand, Compete and Grow in Global Markets by Hedin, H., Hirvensalo, I., & Vaarnas, M.. Wiley Publishing

Market intelligence: building strategic insight by Jenster, Per V., & Søilen,  Klaus Solberg.  Copenhagen Business School Press.

All publications are the latest edition, and/or other textbook(s) and/or other material(s) approved by the department.

Requisites

Prerequisites

MARK 1120 and MARK 4441 or instructor permission

OR MARK 1120 AND currently active in one of the following:

Post-Degree Diploma in Marketing or
Post-Degree Diploma in Sales

Corequisites

No corequisite courses.

Equivalencies

No equivalent courses.

Course Guidelines

Course Guidelines for previous years are viewable by selecting the version desired. If you took this course and do not see a listing for the starting semester / year of the course, consider the previous version as the applicable version.

(Current)

Course Transfers

These are for current course guidelines only. For a full list of archived courses please see https://www.bctransferguide.ca

Institution Transfer details for MARK 4270
Kwantlen Polytechnic University (KPU) KPU MRKT 2XXX (3)
Langara College (LANG) LANG MARK 2XXX (3)
Simon Fraser University (SFU) SFU BUS 2XX (3)
Thompson Rivers University (TRU) TRU MNGT 3XXX (3)
University of British Columbia - Okanagan (UBCO) UBCO MGMT_O 2nd (3)
University of British Columbia - Vancouver (UBCV) UBCV COMM_V 2nd (3)
University of Northern BC (UNBC) UNBC COMM 2XX (3)
University of Victoria (UVIC) UVIC COM 2XX (1.5)

Course Offerings

Winter 2025