UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA MARK 468 FACULTY OF BUSINESS Paul R. Messinger
1 Retail Management: Course Outline
Week Beginning Topic Chapter*
TURN IN: POSITIONING STATEMENT EXERCISE
Sept 6 Retail Strategy and the North American Environment 1, 2
FIRST CLASS: Wednesday Sept 8
NO CLASS: Friday Sept 10 -- Use time for Positioning Statement Exercise Part I. Strategy
Sept 13 Assortment and Merchandise Management 10, 12
**
Nov 29 Presentations
Sept 17
Sept 20 Location and Site Planning 6
Sept 27 Layout and Shopping Experience 7
TURN IN: LOCATION AND LAYOUT EXERCISE Oct 1**
Oct 4 Service and Personnel Management 14, 15
Henry Singer Award Oct 5
Oct 11 Electronic Commerce and Non-store Retailing 3
(No Class Oct 11 – Thanksgiving Day)
TURN IN: VIRTUAL RETAILING EXERCISE Oct 15**
Part II. Tactics
Oct 18 Retail Pricing 13
MIDTERM EXAM October 22
Oct 25 Retail Selling
Nov 1 Financial Management 9
TURN IN: MARKET RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT Nov 5**
Nov 8 Advertising and Promotions 16
(No Class Nov 12 – Fall Break)
Nov 15 Management Issues 11
MIDTERM OR INDIVIDUAL PAPER** Nov 19
Part III. Presentations
Nov 22 Presentation Planning
DRESS REHERSAL: Sign Up for Time
***
Dec 6 Presentations***
* Michael Levy, Barton Weitz, Sheryn Beattie (2005), Retail Management: Canadian Edition, Toronto, McGraw-Hill Ryerson.
** Assignments are due on the last day of class of the week—to be turned in at the beginning of class.
*** Report and file with power-point presentation due last day of class.
LAST CLASS: Wednesday Dec 8
UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA MARK 468 FACULTY OF BUSINESS Paul R. Messinger
2 RETAILING MANAGEMENT
Morning of MWF [email protected] [email protected] (T.A.)
Office: Faculty of Business Building, Room 320E (492-3954) Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday: 11:00 to 12:00
Course Description
The objective of this course is to give you both strategic and operational perspectives on retail design and management. The strategic perspective applies the basic paradigm of marketing to a retailing context. The operational perspective builds on this by studying aspects of store design, merchandising, and management that are specific to the retailing context.
The format of the class will be roughly half case discussion and half lecture-based discussion. Assigned work will consist of case analysis, outside readings, and experiential-based exercises.
Upon successful completion of the course, you will be able to:
1. Assess whether a retail outlet fits with the requirements of the marketplace. This involves determining whether a store appeals to a segment of the market better than competitors' offerings.
2. Design an internally consistent retail format.
3. Identify forms of market research that can aid in marketing decision making.
Course Material
Michael Levy, Bart Weitz, Sheryn Beattie, Retail Management: Canadian Edition
Evaluation:
Midterm 20%
Individual Paper or Midterm 20%
Virtual Retailing Exercise 10%
Group Project 50%
Positioning Statement Exercise check
Retail Location and Layout Exercise 10%
Market Research Assignment 10%
Retail Design Report 20%
Retail Design Class Presentation 10%
Group Participation Factored into Retail Design Exercise Report Class participation will count in borderline cases.
UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA MARK 468 FACULTY OF BUSINESS Paul R. Messinger
3 Additional Feedback (Optional)
If you would like additional feedback, you may turn in write-ups of cases. Comments will be given, although no grade will be recorded. Such write-ups are not to exceed five pages of text and three pages of exhibits.
Class Participation
You are expected to prepare for and behave in class as you would in a work environment. Come prepared and always try to contribute to our group activity in a professional and cordial manner. Vigorous class participation can bring the room to life. You may be surprised at how much you learn from each other.
Class participation is an integral part of our planned activities, particularly for discussion of examples.
Many kinds of useful comments are possible: Tactfully presenting a differing opinion is perhaps the most common form, although not by any means the only useful form. Formulating a question, pointing out relevant parts of a case situation, describing a related business experience, and even introducing relevant humor are other forms of participation. Perhaps the simplest standard for class participation is to try to behave as you would want coworkers to behave. While each person must develop his or her own style of participating, you should avoid the extremes of never participating or of monopolizing the discussion, (particularly if the line of discussion is not particularly enlightening). After all, what employer would pay a worker either for never contributing or for wasting other people's time? Operationally, you should try to comment at least once every three class sessions. If you start to notice, after three or four comments in a given day, that your classmates or the instructor is becoming annoyed with you, that may be a signal that you are monopolizing the discussion.
Study Teams
After the second day of class, you are asked to form study teams of four members. These are the people with whom you will be performing several of the exercises. The learning experience may be enhanced if the teams have one or two quantitatively oriented people and one or two non-quantitatively oriented people. In order to "spread the wealth," I suggest that no study team have more than two people that have worked in marketing, and that each study team have at least one and no more than two people who come from countries other than the Canada. At the end of the course, you will be asked to evaluate your other study team members, to account for the possibility that some members are contributing less work than others (most groups give equal weight to all members).
Exams
If you have a conflict for one of the Midterms, please discuss this with me before the exam to try to reschedule for a time earlier than the scheduled time (we can not reschedule an exam for a date later than the scheduled time). If a student has not rescheduled and does not show up for the exam, a non-passing grade will be recorded, except in documented emergencies.
Office Hours Policy
Please feel free to drop by my office during office hours with or without an appointment. If you are unable to meet with me during office hours, please call for an appointment.
UNIVERSITY OF ALBERTA MARK 468 FACULTY OF BUSINESS Paul R. Messinger
4 Attendance Policy
In class we will cover some critical material that is not in your assigned readings. For this reason and in order to benefit from the case discussion process, attendance is important. Some of you with outside commitments may have to miss a class session or two. Plan for this contingency by getting the phone number of a class member to fill you in on what happened during a class you are unable to attend, tell you the assignment, and describe what to emphasize for next class. That person can also give you a copy of his or her notes from the class. If any materials are passed out in a class you miss, copy the materials of this class member or ask him or her to take two copies and hold on to one for you. Most handouts in class will also be available on the University Blackboard system. (Because of logistical difficulties, I usually do not keep inventories of materials passed out in previous sessions to subsequent sessions.) Although you are responsible for every class and for any materials passed out in class, proper attention and work on everyone's part usually avoids problems.
Leaving Early/Arriving Late
If you have to leave early from class, please sit near the door so as to minimize class distraction when exiting. Make an effort to shut the door quietly. If you come late to class, come in as quietly and unobtrusively as possible. Avoid standing in the front of the class looking for a place to sit. If you do not immediately see an accessible chair, go to the back of the class and survey the seating accessibility from there (our classroom layout makes this easy). Please also turn of your cell phones before the beginning of class.
