Prin­ciples of In­ter­na­tion­al Mar­ket­ing

Course content

This is the core marketing course in the BSc in International Shipping and Trade. The course introduces students to the principles of international marketing through the context of global B2B shipping and trade. The course presents marketing as the managerial process of understanding markets and customers, creating value for customers and stakeholders, and capturing value for the firm through commercial decisions. Across the course, students move from market-level questions to customer-level and decision-level questions. They examine why firms internationalize, how attractive markets can be identified, how customers differ in value, how customer relationships can be prioritized, how demand is shaped by decision processes, and how firms can capture value through pricing, account management, and related commercial actions. Core topics include market selection, entry forms, B2B segmentation, key account management, customer lifetime value, customer portfolios, network value, decision theory, pricing and willingness to pay, and the analysis of market signals through company texts and ESG-related communication.

The course combines core ideas and theories from international marketing with hands-on analytical application in a shipping context. Throughout the course, students work with a case problem and linked datasets in exercises. In this way, the course connects marketing theory to analytically grounded and professionally relevant decision-making in shipping and trade.