Course Information

Course Prerequisite: AEB 3300 Agricultural and Food Marketing, or equivalent, or permission of instructor

Delivery Method: WebCT, E-mail, Chat sessions

Class Meetings: The class will meet in an Internet chat session every Thursday night from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Course Description: The purpose of this web-based course is to develop advanced decision making skills in the area of marketing management for the agribusiness and food distribution industry. Course materials will focus on the key concepts and techniques that have been found useful in solving marketing problems. Application of skills will be demonstrated through extensive case study projects and chat room discussions.

Text: (required)
Strategic Marketing Problems: Cases and Comments, Ninth Edition (not the Eight edition). Roger Kerin and Robert A. Peterson, Prentice Hall, 2000

Computer/Internet Access Requirements: Students must have an active e-mail account, Internet access, and access to a computer with multimedia capabilities (video, sound, animation) that meets the University of Florida computer requirements. In addition, students must have word processing software (Microsoft Word, Corel WordPerfect, etc.) and will be required to download Adobe Acrobat reader and/or Microsoft PowerPoint reader.

Every student at the University of Florida has the privilege of a Gatorlink account that provides a mailbox, computer lab access, and limited Internet dial-up. From any IFAS Computer lab, you may access the Gatorlink site to establish a Gatorlink account. The URL is http://www.circa.ufl.edu/gatorlink/. You may also go to CIRCA, located on the fifth floor of the CSE building in Gainesville, and establish an account there. Each student is to have an e-mail account no later than Wednesday, May 16th.

Course Website: http://webct.nerdc.ufl.edu:8910/public/AEB5387/

Course Format: Readings, case studies, and chat rooms will be used throughout the course, which consists of 11 weekly modules. Each module contains equal amounts of instruction and application. The instructional reading half of each module will focus on key concepts and techniques that have been found useful in solving marketing problems. During the applications half of each module, the concepts and techniques will be applied to actual marketing problems through evaluation of a weekly case study. The weekly Thursday evening chat session will be used to review and discuss the instructional readings and the weekly case study. You are expected to have completed all readings and be thoroughly familiar with the weekly case prior to the chat session for which the readings and case are assigned. That way, the chat will serve as a review and will allow you to ask questions about any issues that were unclear to you. Studies show that successful people, like CEOs, are heavy readers.

It may be useful to think of the class as a consulting group. As a new member of a consulting group, you are asked to solve a wide variety of marketing problems quickly, often working with new associates. For example, a new associate at Booz, Allen & Hamilton had to complete these three assignments in his first six months: developing a 12-month strategy for a major consumer products company; determining whether a large, fast-growing publishing company should expand its warehouses or become more efficient in its existing space; and restoring profitability to a commodity food processor after an industry price war.