Marketing on MBA level

Marketing on MBA-level: The key to soaring success or doomed demise

As part of our Marketing course on MBA level, we engaged in a thrilling project that involved selecting a company and creating a marketing plan. This allowed us an opportunity to merge theory with actual work and was a chance to experiment with different ideas.

Before embarking on my MBA at CBS, I worked for a sales enablement firm helping top tier companies boost the efficiency of their sales and marketing teams. I understood that marketing was chiefly about identifying the product market fit, segmenting your customers, understanding them, and reaching them, wherever they are. Sales would then inherit leads and convert them into paying customers. Coming from this background, I was excited to start my Marketing Management course to learn more about the psychology, theory and framework behind what constitutes great marketing and to engage in fascinating debates with my peers and with our teacher. One of the great marketing gurus, Seth Godin, said “Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.” This quote has been a leading light for me in my career. As part of our Marketing course, we engaged in a thrilling project that involved selecting a company and creating a marketing plan. This allowed us an opportunity to merge theory with actual work and was a chance to experiment with different ideas.

Learning about strategic marketing on MBA level was a great experience. The theory and foundational frameworks, as well as valuable practical applications we learned about through case studies, are directly interlinked with a firm’s soaring success or, on a gloomier note, its doomed demise. Companies need a shared mission and values; their marketing and sales strategies help them come closer to reaching their goals. During the course, I and my team members engaged in a thrilling role-playing project to develop an end-to-end marketing plan for a company. We worked through all marketing stages, from identification of the problem the deployment and distribution channels. I worked on developing a marketing plan for a natural gas company arguing for coexistence of that energy source alongside renewables. Indeed, seen by many as a good and viable alternative to fossil fuels, it was fascinating to think critically about the story to tell and how to position ourselves. I have vowed to possess a growth mindset during my MBA and always be willing to embrace new perspectives, which definitely came in handy during this experience.

After completing an intensive week of learning about the “high-level” of marketing, it was fitting to attend lectures by impressive industry experts like Taylor Ryan who built on the knowledge I had just acquired and shared some of his brilliant insights around growth marketing.

The past week has been an amalgam of theoretical and practical learning. As someone aspiring to lead and inspire teams to success in the future,, I am always excited to add valuable skills to my toolkit and to gain fresh perspectives on corporate strategy.

Here’s to hoping the marketing strategies I and my classmates create in the future set us and our organisations on the path towards soaring success!

Alex hails from Lebanon, has lived in France and decided to move to Denmark with his family since offers an unmatched quality of life. Most of his career has been spent in sales at S&P Global, a US financial data and market intelligence company and Seismic, a San-Diego based SaaS Sales enablement company.