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Dates Location Tuition
Nov 30, 2008 - Dec 5, 2008 Philadelphia $8,450
Apr 26, 2009 - May 1, 2009 Philadelphia $8,450

In this highly competitive business environment, marketing is everyone’s business. Essentials of Marketing provides you with the core concepts and strategic perspectives found in most marketing MBA programs. In five intensive days, you will understand and apply the basic techniques of marketing, including segmenting and targeting customers, understanding the decision-making processes of your customers, using lifetime customer value in marketing planning, developing a unique brand, managing a product line, understanding distribution channels, and making effective advertising decisions.

You'll be actively engaged in learning and application by Wharton professors who teach the core marketing courses in Wharton's top-ranked MBA program. Using both quantitative and qualitative methods, interactive lectures, case studies, and hands-on simulations, you'll gain a deeper understanding of your customers and the role marketing plays throughout the organization. In the evenings, small groups work together to get hands-on practice in applying theories and tactics discussed during the day.

Tuition for Philadelphia programs includes lodging and meals. Prices are subject to change. Course Consultants are available to provide more information on course specifics and discuss how this program might meet your needs. Please contact them by telephone at +1.215.898.1776 or by e-mail.


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Using both quantitative and qualitative methods in lectures, case studies, and hands-on exercises, you will gain a better understanding of your customers and the role of marketing throughout the organization. The program is taught by the professors who teach the core marketing courses in Wharton’s top-ranked MBA program. In the evening, small groups work together to gain hands-on practice in applying theories and tactics discussed during the day, such as evaluating new business opportunities, forecasting, measuring consumer preferences, and discussing methods for setting pricing.

Essentials of Marketing Session Topics

  • Analyzing Markets and Customers
  • Understanding Customer Behavior
  • Using Customer Analysis To Make Business Decisions
  • Pricing Issues
  • Product Lifecycle and Line Management
  • Strategies for Managing Channel Conflict
  • Allocating Your Marketing Resources
  • Advertising Decisions

Related Marketing Articles

Wharton Alumni Magazine

This program will benefit executives across the organization (in engineering, R&D, operations, finance, product development, accounting, sales, public relations, and other areas). Managers who are assuming marketing responsibilities for the first time, as well as managers already in a marketing capacity but without significant formal education in this discipline, can gain valuable insights. Sending several members of a product development team can provide a common marketing language and understanding that greatly facilitate the development process.

Gain a clear, indepth understanding of core marketing concepts, and identify the essential elements of a strong marketing plan. In sessions such as Analyzing Markets and Customers, Product Lifecycle and Line Management, and Advertising Decisions, you will:

  • Develop a thorough understanding of customers and what motivates their behavior.
  • Understand the value of your brands and how to build and develop that value.
  • Learn to use quantitative analysis to make — and support — marketing decisions.

Jagmohan Raju, PhD JAGMOHAN S. RAJU, PhD
Academic Director
Joseph J. Aresty Professor
Professor of Marketing
The Wharton School

Professor Raju is a leading authority on competitive strategy and pricing. His research interests include pricing, strategic alliances, new-product introduction strategy, retailing, private labels, and corporate advertising. He teaches marketing management to the MBAs, pricing strategy to the Executive MBA students, and mathematical models in marketing to the PhD students. He is the academic director of Wharton's Essentials of Marketing, Competitive Marketing Strategy, and Pricing Strategies Executive Education programs and is the marketing editor of Management Science. He holds a PhD in business, an MS in operations research, and an MA in economics from Stanford University. He also has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and a BTech in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
undefined STEPHEN J. HOCH, PhD
Patty and Jay H. Baker Professor
Professor of Marketing
The Wharton School

Professor Hoch has researched and written extensively on retail strategy, consumer behavior, and the psychology of forecasting. His research areas include retail merchandising, assortment, pricing, and promotion strategy; decision support systems and the psychology of forecasting; and consumer behavior. Prior to teaching, he served as national sales and marketing manager for Disney Music. Professor Hoch is the faculty director of the Jay H. Baker Retailing Initiative, the result of a $10 million pledge to the Wharton School by Jay and Patty Baker. The Initiative will link retail theory with practice by forming a partnership among world-class researchers, educators, and the global leaders of today's retail industry. Professor Hoch also teaches in Competitive Marketing Strategy and Pricing Strategies programs.
undefined WES HUTCHINSON, PhD
Stephen J. Heyman Professor
Professor of Marketing
The Wharton School

Wes Hutchinson’s current research projects include studies on consumer and managerial decision-making processes, modeling the sales impact of brand awareness, and the role of visual attention in point-of-purchase marketing activities. He has published articles in a wide variety of journals in business and psychology and is on the editorial review boards of the Journal of Consumer Research, the Journal of Consumer Psychology, and Marketing Science. Dr. Hutchinson’s current teaching interests include marketing management, new-product development, global demographic trends, and graduate seminars in marketing research methods.
David J. Reibstein, PhD DAVID J. REIBSTEIN, PhD
William Stewart Woodside Professor
Professor of Marketing
The Wharton School

Professor Reibstein has conducted research into competitive marketing strategies, e-commerce resource allocation, promotion evaluation, product variety, brand equity, and market segmentation. He has authored numerous books, developed the ValueWar competitive simulation, and teaches marketing management and marketing research in the MBA program, where he has received numerous teaching awards, including national recognition for teaching among business school faculty in BusinessWeek and Fortune. He developed and coordinates several Wharton’s Executive Education programs such as Competitive Marketing Strategy and Wharton Marketing Metrics™: Linking Marketing to Financial Consequences. He helped found Bizrate.com, a leading infomediary that has surveyed more than three million Internet customers and was recently appointed to a new marketing task force for Major League Baseball called Major League Baseball in the 21st Century.
undefined GEORGE S. DAY, PhD
Geoffrey T. Boisi Professor, Professor of Marketing
Co-Director, Mack Center for Technological Innovation
Director, Emerging Technologies Management Research Program
The Wharton School

George Day began as a market development engineer with a major plastics maker and has been deeply involved in management of new products since. For 10 years he was academic director of the product planning program at the GE company. His current areas of research are marketing, organic growth strategies, strategic planning, organizational change, and competitive strategies in global markets. Dr. Day is the author of 14 books in the areas of marketing and strategic management, his most recent being Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals that Can Make or Break Your Company (with Paul Schoemaker). He has received all of the major awards in the field of marketing.

"This program has a unique blend of world-class faculty, an integrated curriculum, and in-class exercises that taught us how to apply key learnings. The evening exercise on break-even analysis was invaluable to me. It was great that each professor could relate to the others' presentations to continuously drive home the key learnings until the very final session."
— Mark Hayes, Project Manager, Aetna

"Without a doubt, the 'Essentials' program was most valuable. The quality of the information and faculty, coupled with the interaction with the other participants, exceeded every other program I have attended during my entire professional career."
— Keith Ensinger, Development Manager, Decorative Coatings & Adhesives

"My learning came not only from the professors and class material, but from a really diverse group of classmates from a wide range of industries — city government, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, health care, and retail. Also, the case material was stimulating and gave me a chance to challenge myself way beyond my own business experience."
— Kim Seaman, Marketing & Communications Coordinator, Seaman Corporation

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