Applied marketing analytics

Course content

Marketing Analytics for Impact

Are you a master’s student in management, business, or civil engineering looking to specialize in business analytics while tackling real sustainability issues? This course is for you.

At its core, the course focuses on marketing analytics—the concepts, methods, and tools that turn data into actionable decisions. You will apply these skills throughout a semester-long Sustainability Challenge, which serves as the main project, learning thread, and assessment basis. You will work in interdisciplinary teams, reinforce teamwork and communication skills, and develop marketing and strategy expertise in a challenge-based, entrepreneurial setting that raises sustainability awareness.

What is marketing analytics?

It is the use of big data, advanced methods, and modern tools to improve decision-making across three levels:

Descriptive: Understanding the past and present
Predictive: Forecasting likely futures
Prescriptive: Recommending what to do next

You will learn to clean, shape, and model data creatively—because the data you need is rarely the data you have. You will explore new sources, think critically, and translate your analysis into clear, persuasive outputs like concise briefs, dashboards, and decision memos. These will be tied to real use cases and business objectives. You will also use generative AI to support your project work.

The course culminates in the U.L.B. Sustainability Challenge (Unite, Launch and Boost) with a hackathon-style final event in collaboration with the Solvay Impact Institut (SII), where teams apply their analytics toolbox to real environmental and social issues, co-creating actionable solutions that will be pitched in front of a jury.

Evaluation focuses on analytical rigor, relevance and feasibility, teamwork, and communication quality.

Top projects may receive Start Lab support, including coaching, prototyping resources, and access to a dynamic entrepreneurial ecosystem to help bring your ideas to life.

Learn Out Loud (L.O.L.) by embracing open collaboration, creative thinking, and bold experimentation to solve sustainability problems.

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

Course Focus and Activities

Gain an overview of principles for managing market information (customers, competitors, suppliers) and applying marketing analytics.
Review and practise key methods to obtain market information — both primary (quantitative and qualitative) and secondary — and turn facts into decision-ready insights.
Demonstrate and apply techniques in practice through workshops and exercises.
Work in interdisciplinary teams on a sustainability-focused field project, leveraging linguistic and intercultural skills.
Apply analytics to sustainability–related challenges, addressing real environmental and social issues.
Co-create data-driven solutions and develop actionable recommendations for partner organisations.
Pitch solutions professionally, integrating communication, storytelling, and strategic framing.
Engage with entrepreneurial support structures (e.g., Start Lab) to explore pathways for implementation.
Leverage generative AI for creative and analytical work in marketing, while critically addressing implications for innovation, communication, and ethics.

Targeted Learning Outcomes

Knowledge: Understand how marketing analytics and generative AI support sustainable business, innovation, and creative strategy.
Skills: Apply analytical tools, AI technologies, and teamwork to real-world sustainability challenges, co-developing concrete and feasible solutions.
Reflection: Critically evaluate the societal, cultural, and ethical implications of data-driven marketing and innovation in a global context.

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

Be able to follow lessons and perform and present fieldwork in English
Be registered in one of the following programs listed below for a full year (M-GESTM, M-INGEF, MS-GEST, M-IREMI); in an exchange semester with the faculty of applied sciences or economics & management; or be a PHD STUDENT.
Have basic skills and knowledge in business administration. No advanced understanding of mathematics or econometrics is necessary for this course, but the basic understanding of statistics (at an undergraduate business studies level) is beneficial for following the course. Basic knowledge and use of Microsoft Excel programs are preferable. Advanced data science and computer programing skills are not needed for this course.
Have a genuine interest in sustainability, social innovation, or the societal impact of business practices.
Be present in our first lecture and you will receive your predefined group numbers. In the first lecture, you will pitch for your field project! Note that the lecture is limited to 50 students and 10 exchange students. If you are not registered by the 2nd lecture registration will not be possible anymore (no exception!). If you are an exchange student, please note that for practical purposes, only 10 exchange students will be allowed (1 per fieldwork group). If more than 10 exchange students register, students will be chosen by drawing lots.
Actively participate in the lectures, coaching sessions and expert sessions.
Fieldwork Report & Final Presentation (70%) Team performance will be assessed based on the depth and rigor of their research, the originality and practicality of proposed solutions, the clarity and conciseness of the executive summary, and the overall impact of the final presentation delivered to the jury.
AI-Based Mid-Term Exam (30%) An individual evaluation designed to measure students’ grasp of marketing analytics concepts and their ability to apply AI tools and techniques to real-world sustainability challenges.

Required and corequired courses

Teaching methods and learning activities

The course combines interactive lectures, curated online resources, and real-life case discussions led by external executives and sustainability experts. A central component is the Sustainability Challenge, where cross-disciplinary student teams engage in fieldwork and applied research in collaboration with companies, local organizations, or NGOs. Through this mix of theory, practice, and hands-on problem solving, students develop both analytical expertise and actionable solutions to real sustainability challenges.

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

Required readings – readings are important for active class discussions and are part of the exam! For each theory part (see schedule) there are journal articles and/or cases to read. They will be always announced for the next session “in class” and downloadable on UV.

Suggested books:

Business Analytics: Data Analysis & Decision Making (S. Christian Albright; Wayne L. Winston)
Marketing Research (A. Parasuraman, Dhruv Grewal, R. Krishnan)
Marketing Analytics: Data-Driven Techniques with Microsoft Excel, Wayne L. Winston
Cutting Edge Marketing Analytics: Real World Cases and Data Sets for Hands-on Learning (Rajkumar Venkatesan, Paul Farris, Ronald T. Wilcox)
Sustainable Marketing: Strategic Marketing for People, Planet and Profit, S. M. Riad Shams, David M. Brown, and Kimberley Hardcastle, Springer, 2025. (available online for free)

Course notes

Université virtuelle
Syllabus
Podcast

Contribution to the teaching profile

This integrative course contributes to most of the program learning outcomes in business, management and civil engineering disciplines, namely:

In management:

Integrate sustainable development into problem analysis.
Master and apply key economic and management concepts, frameworks and theories in a professional context in order to identify a business opportunity and create a relevant innovative solution for it.
Embed scientific and technological processes as well as external factors to formulate a business issue into a well-defined problem and propose a solution.
Adopt a scientific approach to data collection, research and analysis and communicate results with clear, structured and sophisticated arguments.
Display critical thinking and develop autonomous learning strategies and techniques.
Apply quantitative and qualitative techniques to support data analysis using standard office and statistical software.
Demonstrate work ethics to foster a socially responsible behaviour in the workplace.

In civil engineering:

Formulate and solve complex technical and scientific problems, or new questions, by mobilizing abstraction, modeling, simulation, and multidisciplinary analysis skills, while meeting the requirements of academic research and integrating needs, constraints, context, and technical, socioeconomic, ethical, and environmental issues, with a view to providing concrete solutions.
Design, develop, implement, and operate complex electromechanical, mechatronic, energy, or industrial systems.
Master and mobilize a structured body of knowledge, both cross-disciplinary and specialized, and be able to develop it independently and critically.
Innovate, combining rigor and creativity, through a critical and demanding scientific approach (including state-of-the-art, problem-solving, hypothesis-making, modeling, validation, argumentation, and peer review).
Define, plan, manage, and successfully complete large-scale projects, taking into account their objectives, resources, and constraints, while ensuring the consistency and quality of the approach and deliverables.
Work effectively with other professionals (in teams, partnerships, or in competition), make decisions, and develop leadership skills in a variety of professional, disciplinary, and cultural contexts.
Communicate and exchange information in a structured manner—orally, graphically, and in writing, in French and one or more other languages—on the scientific, technical, and cultural levels, adapting to the goal pursued and the interlocutor or audiences concerned.
Act as a reflective and autonomous professional, as part of a continuous process of professional development.
Develop an ethical and responsible professional practice, taking into account societal issues (ethical, social, environmental and economic aspects).

Other information

Additional information

The U.L.B. Sustainability Challenge (Unite, Launch, Boost) is an interdisciplinary and participatory learning initiative, inspired by the Climathon format and embedded within the Applied Marketing Analytics course (GEST-S440). It combines academic rigor with real-world impact, giving students the chance to work on sustainability cases directly linked to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Challenge integrates sustainability into problem analysis and solution design, develops scientific, technological, and analytical skills in real contexts, and strengthens critical thinking, teamwork, and professional ethics while fostering socially responsible behavior and long-term employability.

Over the semester, students form teams of four to six members and work on a real case proposed by an external corporate or non-profit partner. They may also bring forward their own project ideas if these are tied to a concrete partner, such as an internship company or a thesis topic. The Challenge unfolds in several phases: a preparation and kick-off stage introduces sustainability themes and marketing analytics tools, followed by team formation, goal setting, and initial contact with client organisations. Inspiration and coaching then take place through interactive workshops with academics, professionals, and NGOs, as well as case study analyses and methodological training.

During the fieldwork and development phase, each team applies the market information management process learned in class, combining secondary research with at least one qualitative and one quantitative research activity. Regular coaching sessions help them refine their findings and solutions. The process culminates in a two-day final event where teams deliver a five-page executive summary, a 10-minute presentation with Q&A, and a full hand-over of research materials. They pitch their innovative solutions to a jury of academics, professionals, and client representatives, with the best projects offered follow-up support and potential implementation through ULB’s StartLab and FabLab.

After the event, winning projects continue to receive mentoring, networking opportunities, and possible funding, while all students benefit from feedback sessions that ensure the transfer of learning. Graduates of the Challenge join a growing alumni community committed to sustainable innovation.

Beyond its pedagogical purpose, the Challenge is a strategic initiative that fosters interdisciplinary and international collaboration, with the ambition to scale up to partner universities within the CIVIS Alliance. It builds bridges between research, teaching, and local stakeholders, responding to the need for more practice-oriented and sustainability-focused training, and it enhances ULB’s institutional visibility as a driver of societal impact.

In short, the U.L.B. Sustainability Challenge is more than an academic assignment: it is an immersive, collaborative, and transformative experience in which students learn by tackling real sustainability problems while acquiring valuable professional skills for their future careers.

Contacts

Université Virtuelle (UV) will be the main communication channel of the course.
Professors, the coordinator and assistants are available for questions at the break or at the end of the lecture.
This is why sending emails to the teacher or his assistants should stay exceptional: Philippe Mauchard (philmauchard@gmail.com), Sandra Rothenberger (sandra.rothenberger@ulb.be) and Simon Dupont (simon.dupont@ulb.be)

Campus

Solbosch, Other campus

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

written examination
Project
Oral presentation
Group work
Written report

written examination

Open question with short answer
Closed question with Multiple Answers (MAQ)
Closed question True or False (T/F)

Project

Oral presentation

Group work

Written report

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

Fieldwork Report & Final Presentation (70%)
Teams are evaluated on the quality and rigor of their research, the originality and feasibility of their solutions, the clarity of their executive summary, and the impact of their final presentation to the jury.

AI-Based Mid-Term Exam (30%)
An individual assessment designed to test students’ understanding of marketing analytics concepts and their ability to apply AI tools and methods to sustainability-related problems.

Language(s) of evaluation

english