Marketing seminars offer new strategies

Professor Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, one of the world's top marketing scholars, will combine with Professor Steve Burgess, an internationally respected marketing academic resident at the UCT GSB, to deliver 'International Marketing'on 15 -17 March.

According to Burgess, the seminar will focus on the changing nature of competition in global markets and how firms can respond with effective marketing strategies: "Professor Steenkamp is much in demand for his talents at business schools globally and his participation is a major coup. We hope to bring global insights from our research that will enrich the learning."

Steenkamp is the C.Knox Massey Professor of Marketing and Marketing Area Chair at the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School. He has received an O'Dell Award from the American Marketing Association, an award from the Journal of Consumer Research for the most influential article during the last decade, and the Society for Marketing Advances lifetime achievement award. He consults to the senior management of top global companies such as Procter & Gamble and Unilever and sits on the Board of the Marketing Science Institute in Boston.

"Our goal is to provide executives with new insights about changing markets that help them re-energise the competitiveness of their marketing strategies. We focus on winning export marketing strategies and the practices of winning global marketers in a variety of sectors, including food products, industrial goods, telecommunications, fast-moving consumer goods, and financial services."

Another seminar, 'Rewriting the Marketing Plan', on 8 - 10 March, focuses exclusively on marketing within South Africa. The seminar, hosted by Burgess and Professor Andrew Ainslie of the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA, focuses on practical aspects of marketing analysis and plans in a wide range of industries and received high marks from executives last year.

"The effects of rapid change and globalisation on local markets are every bit as significant in emergent markets, although marketing concepts may require substantial adaptation. We focus on South African context and the processes, logic and practices that drive market orientation in winning firms.

"Experts are calling for more marketing influence in the boardroom. This seminar will help marketers think and write marketing plans that communicate in a more universal language other disciplines understand and appreciate."

For more information contact +27-21-406-1094.