Launched by Harvard Business Publishing for Educators in 2009, the Marketing Simulation: Managing Segments and Customers® has been conducted in the classes of Master’s IT class during the three sequential academic years – 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12. A need of segmenting student strategies has been identified so as to draw attention on the issues: how do Master’s IT students perceive the classroom debrief support in Marketing Management and how do they proceed further? How do the IT students prefer to play the simulation – pragmatically or holistically? How much of them succeed in playing it in a holistic manner, covering the scope of the simulation by:
- managing segment and customer behaviour;
- monitor competitive behaviour;
- understanding market and consider market conditions;
- using marketing research;
- making investment decisions as product feature improvements;
- leveraging by pricing decisions; and
- managing channel conflict?
To affirm whether any of learning objectives, set behind the MSim® scope, have been pursued, a parallel has been extended between students’ engagement by means of their enrollment, participation and activity, from one side, and their personal scores, from the other.
