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Course Introduction
Basic Course
Information
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Meeting
Times and Places:
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Tuesdays,
4:10-6:55 PM,
Featheringill 200
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Instructor:
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John
A. Bers
Office:
336 Featheringill Hall
Phone
(summer): 370-0137
Office
Hours (summer): Tues., 2-4 PM or by appointment
e-mail: john.a.bers@vanderbilt.edu
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Course Overview
The technology-based company presents a unique set of challenges for the marketing function, particularly
the management of high levels of risk and uncertainty about both the technology itself and the markets it does or could
address. Almost every aspect of the traditional marketing mix must be reconsidered and adjusted to account for the
risk and uncertainty accompanying products, services, and technologies at the earliest stages of the technology
life-cycle. Marketing in
the Technology Enterprise considers each of these stages in the marketing process, bringing to bear insights from a
variety of technology management-related fields and introduces the theory, tools, and specialized techniques
used in the marketing of technology.
Two themes permeate the course. The first is that the extreme uncertainties surrounding
such marketing issues as segmentation, demand forecasting, product design decisions, pricing, and
positioning can be mitigated through a process of understanding the prospective user's business environment,
determining precisely how the product will add value to the business, and developing a
value
proposition targeted to that customer group. The second theme is that traditional market
analysis techniques
(surveys, focus groups, etc.) are not sufficiently effective at reducing market
uncertainty to an
acceptable level when the potential market has yet to be established. This qualitatively different level of
uncertainty can be more effectively addressed through more proactive involvement of the user at every stage of
product conceptualization and development, using prototypes and product "probes,"
working with early adopters, and building in extensive user feedback loops.
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