Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy

This course will provide you with a comprehensive introduction to contemporary marketing theory and practice. During your studies, you will become familiar with the importance and the fundamental thinking of this core management function.

You will use a wide range of concepts and techniques to analyse the external environment and to develop practical and creative strategies to meet its challenges.

Senior managers operate in a complex environment of rapid change both within and outside their organisations. Organisational life is full of messy problems that cannot be neatly compartmentalised into one specific management function and decisions may need to be made at short notice with incomplete or even conflicting information.

As a manager, the quality of your decision making will depend on your ability to select and combine the best and most appropriate ideas and techniques from a range of management functions and know how to use them.

So whether you are a marketing manager or work in another function, such as finance or human resources, you will need to understand the language used by marketing practitioners and have a sound grasp of the concepts and approaches that marketing offers.

This course will provide you with a toolbox of ideas and methods to help you make sense of your organisation's complexity. Through the six study units we build the basic principles and provide comprehensive coverage of the main theories of marketing set in the context of modern business practice.

You will learn how to understand your customers' needs; how to focus scarce resources most effectively though marketing segmentation and targeting; brand building through the right marketing mix; as well as the development and implementation of marketing plans. This is reflected in the more specific unit objectives.

Modules

Unit 1: Introduction to Marketing

Introduction

Objectives

Key Issues

The buyer-seller relationship

Marketing as an attitude of mind

Marketing creates customer value

Marketing approaches

The marketing mix

Marketing as a process

The marketing environment

Summary

References

Unit 2: Understanding the Market

Introduction

Objectives

Key Issues

Understanding the customer

How do consumers make decisions?

How do organisations buy?

Market segmentation

Segmentation process

Target marketing

Positioning

Marketing research

The research process

Applying research

Summary

References

Further reading

Unit 3: Product and Services Management

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Products

Services

Branding

Product life cycle

New product development

Summary

References

Unit 4: Pricing and Distribution Management

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Why is price important?

Pricing methods

Impact of the euro on price

Why is place important?

Who uses distributors?

Summary

References

Unit 5: Promotion Management

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Development of marketing communications

Defining marketing communications

The communication process

Communications planning

Marketing strategy

Message development

Communications mix decisions

Evaluating effectiveness

Summary

References

Further reading

Unit 6: Marketing Planning

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Planning or strategy?

Marketing audit and strategic focus

Marketing objectives

Marketing strategy and competitive behaviour

Implementing the marketing plan

Marketing organisation

Marketing control

Summary

Entry Requirements

There is no experience or previous qualifications required for enrolment on this course. It is available to all students, of all academic backgrounds.

All course fees, inclusive of all payment plans including our Premium Credit Limited option, must be settled before certification can be ordered.

*You will have access to the course for 24 months.

Assessment Method

After each lesson there will be a question paper, which needs to be completed and submitted to your personal tutor for marking. This method of continual assessment ensures that your personal tutor can consistently monitor your progress and provide you with assistance throughout the duration of the course.

What's Included

• All study materials
• Study Guide
• Full Tutor and Admin support

Course Textbook

For this course you will be required to purchase the textbook:

• Principles and Practice of Marketing, David Jobber, second edition, Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill (1998).

On successful completion of your course you will receive the learndirect Certificate of Completion of Training in Marketing Strategy.

Your course certificate will also state the number of CPD points/hours the course is eligible for.

View a sample of the certificate (opens in new window)

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