Topic outline

  • General

    • Course Introduction

      In this course, you will learn about the marketing process and examine the range of marketing decisions that an organization must make in order to sell its products and services. You will also learn how to think like a marketer, discovering that the focus of marketing has always been on the consumer. You will begin to ask, "Who is the consumer of goods and services?” What does the consumer need? What does the consumer want? Marketing is an understanding of how to communicate with the consumer, and is characterized by four activities:

      • Creating products and services that serve consumers
      • Communicating a clear value proposition
      • Delivering products and services in a way that optimizes value
      • Exchanging, or trading, value for those offerings

      Many people incorrectly believe that marketing and advertising are one in the same. In reality, advertising is just one of many tools used in marketing, which is the process by which firms determine which products to offer, how to price those products, and to whom they should be made available. We will also explore various ways in which marketing departments and independent agencies answer these questions - whether through research, analysis, or even trial-and-error. Once a company identifies its customer and product, marketers must then determine the best way to capture the customer's attention. Capturing the customer's attention may entail undercutting competitors on price, aggressively marketing a product with promotions and advertising (as with "As Seen on TV” ads), or specifically targeting ideal customers. The strategy a marketing firm chooses for a particular product is vital to the success of the product. The idea that "great products sell themselves” is simply not true. By the end of this course, you will be familiar with the art and science of marketing a product.

    • Unit 1: Marketing Definition and Principles

      We will begin with the basics of marketing. In this unit, we will define a number of important terms and distinguish between marketing, advertising, and sales. Advertising and sales are two aspects of marketing, but they come into play much later in the marketing strategy process. Companies focus on sales and advertising only after all other factors of marketing have been determined. This unit will teach you that marketing departments focus on a set of core principles, most of which are summarized by the 4 Ps (product, price, place, and promotion).

      The 4 Ps are also known as the marketing mix. Marketers use the marketing mix to determine the proper strategy for a product. For example, if an inventor comes to you with a new touchscreen technology, how do you sell it? You might first find a product in which the touchscreen would be useful, such as a phone, then determine a target price to maximize sales, identify the best place to sell it (e.g. online or in a store), and finally decide how to promote it. Applying the 4 Ps in this situation could give you the next iPhone.

      Completing this unit should take you approximately 17 hours.

    • 1.1: Marketing Basics

      • Principles of Marketing: "Chapter 1: What Is Marketing?” URL

        Read this chapter, which defines and discusses the four components of marketing, identifies the various institutions and entities that engage in marketing activities, and emphasizes the importance of marketing in society. This chapter also outlines the marketing plan and introduces future chapters as they relate to the marketing plan structure.

      • Steven Van Hook's "Marketing Fundamentals" Page

        Watch this video, which summarizes the fundamentals of marketing terminology and practices. Many of these terms and concepts are deeply rooted in the foundations and traditions of marketing. Please pay extra attention to the key concepts of "The Four Ps” of the marketing mix: product, price, place, and promotion. These topics are critical when defining public relations audiences and the methods to reach them. You may read along with the transcript here.

    • 1.2: The Marketing Mix (a.k.a. "The 4 Ps")

    • 1.2.1: Product

    • 1.2.2: Price

      • University of Georgia: John Burnett's "Core Concepts of Marketing, Chapter 9: Pricing the Product" URL

        Read this chapter. Pricing is a difficult issue because most products will sell at some volume at just about any price level. Certain customers are willing to pay almost any price for a specific product, but how many of those customers exist? Marketers could consider a value priced model, but this may make the product's price so low that there is no way to make a profit on it. One common pricing strategy is known as "the loss leader,” which involves selling one product below the cost to manufacture it to get it in the hands of customers. They make up for this loss later with complementary goods. This is commonly seen in video game consule sales. Consule system manufacturers like Sony and Nintendo will price the system below the cost to manufacture it. As consumers adopt the systems due to the attractive price point, the manufacturer makes up for the initial loss on the system with sales of proprietary accessories and video games.

      • Principles of Marketing: "Chapter 15: Price, the Only Revenue Generator" URL

        Read this chapter for a thorough treatment of the important concept of price, which the authors note is the only means a company has of generating revenue. This chapter discusses the process companies must go through to effectively price their offerings, including identifying pricing objectives, accounting for the factors that affect pricing decisions, and implementing a pricing strategy. Pay attention to concepts of pricing basics, value pricing, target pricing, price sensitivity and elasticity, dynamic pricing, rack pricing, and loss leaders.

      • Boundless: "Demand-Based Pricing" Page

        Read this article, which discusses price, impacts on the price point, the effects of demand and competition on price, how economic concepts of substitution and elasticity impact price, and the psychology of pricing.

    • 1.2.3: Place

    • 1.2.4: Promotion Tools and Tactics

    • 1.2.5: Marketing vs. Advertising

    • Unit 1 Discussion and Assessment

      • Unit 1 Discussion URL

        After reviewing the unit materials, please click on the link above and post and explore the discussion forum. Feel free to start your own post and respond to other students' posts as well.

        Think of a company or social campaign that has caught your attention and assess it by using the 4 Ps of marketing (product, place, price, and promotion). Pick a product, service, or issue for which you might develop a marketing campaign. What are the first issues you need to address according to the fundamental rules of marketing? Beyond the topics covered in this unit, what would you suggest are other issues marketers should keep in mind in the twenty-first century marketplace as they launch a campaign?

    • Unit 2: Segmenting, Targeting, and Positioning

      Philip Kotler, the grand dean of marketing textbooks, has suggested that if marketers can nail their target and position, all other aspects of a marketing campaign will fall into place. Target and position define whom we are trying to reach with our marketing campaign, and what message (or position) we will use to connect. The concepts of targeting and positioning are so critical to marketing success that we now dedicate an entire unit to them.

      So let's now consider the concept of segmenting, targeting, and positioning (STP), known as the strategic marketing formula that helps marketers identify and segment their audience, target their market, and posture their products to cultivate their desired brand position.

      Completing this unit should take you approximately 9 hours.

    • 2.1: STP Strategy

    • 2.1.1: Segmentation

    • 2.1.2: Targeting

    • 2.1.3: Positioning

    • 2.2: Publics

    • Unit 2 Discussion and Assessment

      • Unit 2 Discussion URL

        After reviewing the unit materials, please click on the link above and post and explore the discussion forum. Feel free to start your own post and respond to other students' posts as well.

        Marketing expert Philip Kotler says once the target and position are identified, all other aspects of a marketing campaign fall into place. What do you think he means by that? Pick a marketing campaign that has caught your attention. Who are the marketers targeting? What is their position? Think of a product, service, or issue where you might launch a marketing campaign. Who will you target? What will your position be?

    • Unit 3: Customers and Marketing Research

      Marketing is all about the customer. But who is the customer? If you are a car manufacturer, you have multiple types of customers. You might have governments and rental agencies that wish to buy fleet vehicles. We call these customers business-to-business (B2B). You would also have dealerships to whom you want to sell your cars; this is also B2B. Then, there are the end users, or dealer's customers. Though the dealer owns the car when it is sold, the manufacturer almost always plays a crucial role in the marketing of that car. Identifying your target customer can be difficult, but with the proper definitions and the right research, marketers will know their customers better than they know themselves.

      Completing this unit should take you approximately 25 hours.

    • 3.1: Business-to-Business

      • University of Georgia: John Burnett's "Core Concepts of Marketing: Organizational Buyer Behavior" URL

        Read the section titled "Organizational Buyer Behavior". The decision-making process that organizations follow to determine their needs for products and services is known as organization buying. After reading this material, please consider the following review questions: What buying stages do buying centers typically go through? Why should business buyers collaborate with the companies they buy products from? Explain how a straight rebuy, new buy, and modified rebuy differ from one another.

      • Principles of Marketing: "Chapter 4: Business Buying Behavior" URL

        Read this chapter, which provides an overview of business-to-business buying behavior. This chapter discusses the various ways in which B2B markets differ from B2C markets, types of B2B buyers, buying centers, and stages of the B2B buying process. The chapter wraps up with a discussion of international B2B markets, e-commerce, and ethics in the B2B market. From this reading, you will learn what a buying center is and will be able to name the members of buying centers and describe their roles. Pay special attention to the concepts of the decision making unit (DMU) and the purchase process.

    • 3.2: Business-to-Consumer

      • Principles of Marketing: "Chapter 8: Using Marketing Channels to Create Value for Customers" URL

        Read this chapter, which explains that a direct marketing channel consists of just two parties: the producer and the consumer. By contrast, a channel that includes one or more intermediaries (wholesalers, distributors, brokers, or agents) is an indirect channel. Firms often utilize multiple channels to reach more customers and increase their effectiveness. Some companies find ways to increase their sales by forming strategic channel alliances with one another. Other companies look for ways to cut out the middlemen from the channel, a process known as disintermediation. Direct foreign investment, joint ventures, exporting, franchising, and licensing are some of the channels by which firms attempt to enter foreign markets.

      • University of Georgia: John Burnett's "Core Concepts of Marketing, Chapter 4: Understanding Buyer Behavior" URL

        Read this chapter. Please note that pages 91-98 will be a review from subunit 3.1. The terms "customer” and "consumer” are often mistakenly used interchangeably. The distinction is blurry because different organizations, academics, and governments have varying definitions for both of them. One easy way of distinguishing between the two is to think of the consumer as a potential customer to a firm and the customer as someone that already consumes the goods a specific firm produces. For example, if you regularly purchase shoes from Footlocker, you are a Footlocker customer. But if your friend does not shop at Footlocker, then Footlocker considers him a consumer, i.e., a potential customer. Firms often target consumers and existing customers differently.

    • 3.3: Customer Psychology

    • 3.4: Value of Customers

      • Principles of Marketing: "Chapter 2: Strategic Planning" URL

        Read this chapter, which examines the strategic planning process companies go through in order to develop, price, promote, and sell their products and services. The first section explains the value proposition and will help you to understand why a company may develop different value propositions for different target markets. After reading the chapter, please complete the discussion questions at the end of the chapter.

    • 3.5: Marketing Research

    • Unit 3 Discussion and Assessment

      • Unit 3 Discussion URL

        After reviewing the unit materials, please click on the link above and post and respond to the following topics on the course discussion forum. Feel free to start your own post and respond to other students' posts as well.

        Pick a marketing campaign that has caught your attention. Who exactly are the marketers' customers? How might other businesses be part of their customer base? As you begin to launch a marketing campaign for your own company or service, who would be your customer base? What sorts of information would you need to obtain to provide precise detail to your customers? Beyond some of the resources suggested in this unit, what other research resources might you find useful? What sorts of information do these resources provide

    • Unit 4: Life Cycles, Offers, Supply Chains, and Pricing

      Products do not last forever. New products typically cost more than existing products due to the high costs associated with production and development- this is best illustrated by technology products. The fact that initial customers will be early adopters of a new product affects the marketing strategy. As the product grows and matures, the strategy again changes; over time, marketers lower the price. When a product is in the declining stage, most competitors leave the market and prices are very low. At each stage, the marketing of the product is different.

      When a new product is developed and offered, a company must consider what will develop the product's value to the customer, whether the customer is a consumer or another business. Marketers must always ask where a new product will fit in their current lineup and how the new product will serve as an extension of an existing brand. Take the car manufacturer BMW. They make sporty luxury vehicles aimed at the upper-middle and wealthy classes.

      Developing an inexpensive and lower-quality vehicle to compete with cars in another class may dilute the brand and hurt sales. However, if BMW were to market the vehicle under a different brand, they could diversify their product portfolio, avoid the risk of diluting the BMW brand, and be able to reach new customers all at the same time. Some firms go to great lengths to disassociate their brands from one another, while others embrace a family of brands model. Appropriate decisions vary by industry and strategy.

      Equally important in delivering value to the customer through an offering is how a company sources the goods and services necessary for production and delivers the end product for customers to purchase - otherwise known as the supply chain.

      Finally in this unit, we will examine issues in pricing, including the costs of delivering a product, customer and societal perspectives, the impacts of competition, and ultimately the revenues a company may generate.

      Completing this unit should take you approximately 11 hours.

    • 4.1: Product Life Cycle

    • 4.2: The Creation of an Offering

      • Principles of Marketing: "Chapter 6: Creating Offerings" URL

        Please click on the link above and read the entire chapter. This chapter discusses what constitutes an "offer," including key aspects of benefits and price, the types of consumer and business-to-business offerings, and the important considerations of branding, labeling, and packaging in the development of new offerings.

    • 4.3: Creating Customer Value through Supply Chains

    • Unit 4 Discussion and Assessment

      • Unit 4 Discussion URL

        After reviewing the unit materials, please click on the link above and post and respond to the following topics on the course discussion forum. Feel free to start your own post and respond to other students' posts as well. If you haven't done so already, you will need to create a free account at the link above to participate in the discussions.

        As we consider how a life cycle might apply to products and services, how might it also apply from a perspective of consumer interest and purchasing patterns? Pick a release of any company's new product, and describe it in terms of its target audience, its place within the existing company brand, and supply chain issues that might need to be considered. Think of a product or service you might launch your own marketing campaign for. Describe it in terms of its target audience, its place within any existing brand, and supply chain issues that might need to be considered.

    • Unit 5: Distribution and Promotion

      Once marketers have identified the right product and determined appropriate pricing, they must decide how to effectively raise awareness and distribute the product. This unit will focus on these decisions. You will learn that distribution is a complex process that involves taking a product through the manufacturing process, shipping to warehouses, distributing to sellers and customers, and taking returned products. Marketers must work with supply chain managers to determine the best method to route products. If marketers expect that sales will be heavier in the northeast than in the west, additional resources will need to be allocated there to meet demand. There are a number of strategies for moving a product through various distribution channels. These vary based on anticipated demand, actual demand, and the competition. Marketers must have a proactive strategy: They cannot sit on inventory and wait for orders because inventory storage is expensive and a lack of sales is disruptive.

      The final and arguably most vital aspect of marketing is the actual promotion of the product. This can take for the form of giveaways, competitions, advertising, sales, and anything else a creative manager can think of. Marketers must take a number of aspects into consideration, however. 

      If you employ a sales staff to promote the product, how do you compensate them? If you pay a commission, how much commission will be paid per unit? Will the sales staff be given discretion on price, or do you want to send a uniform message that the price is locked in? If a new company has limited funds available for advertising campaigns, might they use public relations tactics to gain free media coverage? 

      These are just a few considerations that marketers must consider. This final unit will provide you with the tools you need to make the best possible promotion decisions.

      Completing this unit should take you approximately 18 hours.

    • 5.1: Distribution Channel Strategies

      • University of Georgia: John Burnett's "Core Concepts of Marketing, Chapter 10: Channel Concepts: Distributing the Product" URL

        Please click on the link above and read the entire chapter. Note that the push and pull strategies are based on how the customer perceives a product. For example, if the company really wants to sell a product, it may aggressively push it through the distribution channel and into stores with pricing incentives. This is often seen with products the customer does not have a perceived need or desire for yet. A pull strategy is based on satisfying a customer's want or need. It is almost as if the customer is pulling the product through the distribution channel. Channel membership is a distribution strategy based on the type of product in question. If quality and reliability is important, marketers will use exclusive distributions, i.e. "authorized resellers." An intensive distribution is the opposite; a marketer will allow just about anyone to carry a product. Convenience foods are a good example. Just about every check-out line in a store now carries snacks and sodas.

    • 5.2: Promotion Tools and Tactics

      • Entrepreneur Architect: Mark R. Lepage's "10 Rules for a Powerful Brand in Architecture" URL

        Read this article on branding your company. This article describes in branding an architecture firm, but the rules are applicable to a variety of different types of companies.

        Promotion gets to the heart of a marketing campaign. Once you have developed your product or service, identified a target audience, and crafted a selling proposition, now comes the time to let the world know about it. This may be accomplished through a number of means ranging from paid advertising to public relations outreach to direct sales. This subunit provides useful detail on this most critical 'P' of the marketing mix.

    • 5.2.1: Advertising

    • 5.2.2: Sales Promotion

    • 5.2.3: The Sales Force

    • 5.2.4: Public Relations

      • Principles of Marketing: "Chapter 12: Public Relations and Sales Promotions” URL

        Read this chapter. Answer the review questions at the end of each section. The material explains the various public relations (PR) concepts and tools used by organizations. Public relations are the activities organizations engage in to create a positive image for a company, product or service, or a person. Press releases, sponsorships, and product placements are three commonly used PR tools. Press releases are designed to generate publicity, but there is no guarantee the media will use them in the stories they write. Sponsorships are designed to increase brand awareness, improve corporate image, and reach target markets. Product placements are designed to generate exposure, brand awareness, and interest.

      • Steven Van Hook's "Media and Public Relations: A Primer" URL

        Visit this interactive resource. You should briefly review each of the eight primer modules and make a note of any resources or templates you find especially useful. These resources and templates may be useful at a future date as you undertake a public relations campaign. We will refer back to this primer elsewhere in the course for specific examples supporting subunit topics ahead, but for now it provides a useful overview of the public relations craft and some tools at its disposal. This primer was prepared to help government and business leaders in the former Soviet Union make the transition from a centralized system to a market system, where they were expected to interact with a freer and more independent media. The concept of "public and media relations” was new to many of these leaders, so this primer provides a fundamental overview of the basic ideas and tools of PR.

      • Wikipedia: "Multicultural Marketing" URL

        Read this article about international communication tactics, using themes and images that transcend cultural differences. If you publish a website, then you are positioned to reach a global audience. English may connect those in global business with a common language, but we still need to be sensitive to cultural differences.

    • Unit 5 Discussion and Assessment

      • Unit 5 Discussion URL

        After reviewing the unit materials, please click on the link above and post and respond to the following topics on the course discussion forum. Feel free to start your own post and respond to other students' posts as well. If you haven't done so already, you will need to create a free account at the link above to participate in the discussions.

        Observe an advertising campaign for a new product or service. Did you notice the same product or service advertised in different media? Who was the target audience? What was the marketing message? Why did the marketers select the particular medium (or media)? Think of a product or service you might promote with your own marketing plan. Who will be your target audience? What media will you select and why? What might your marketing message be? Find an example of a marketing campaign that may have relied more on public relations and free media placements than on a paid advertising campaign. Assess it for its strategies and effectiveness.

    • Unit 6: Launching a Marketing Campaign

      Marketing is not just a matter of internal strategies and customer analysis. There are factors outside of the company that must be taken into consideration with any marketing strategy. Though marketers can control how they might respond to customer needs and expectations, they face the often-unpredictable reactions of customers to them. Maintaining customer satisfaction is essential to sustainable success. Marketers need to be sensitive to the regulatory and ethical constraints that may be placed upon them by a wide range of domestic and international industry standards and the expectations of society.

      Companies must also face social forces that challenge their success. For example, marketers must be aware of the social and cultural aspects of each region in which they choose to market a product. Even a worldwide brand such as Coca Cola must adjust its marketing strategy for every region it enters. An awareness of the cultural factors affecting a marketing strategy can make the marketing message much more effective. Quite often marketers will address social issues especially relevant to lives of their audiences or the larger society with social marketing campaigns.

      Finally, as a marketing campaign prepares for its launch, all the issues addressed in this and earlier units must come together in a formalized document - the comprehensive marketing plan.

      Completing this unit should take you approximately 39 hours.

    • 6.1: Satisfying the Customer

    • 6.2: Marketing Ethics

      • Steven Van Hook's "Business and Marketing Ethics" URL

        Read this article on business and marketing ethics in the global marketplace. Pay a visit to the Center for the Study of Ethics' webpage, which is linked in the reading, and participate in the discussion topics for this subunit.

    • 6.3: Social Marketing

      • Steven Van Hook's "Social Marketing" Page

        Watch this video on social marketing. Most of the tools for promoting commercial projects can also be applied to advancing social causes and programs. You may read along with the transcript here.

    • 6.4: Cultural Modifications for Marketing

      • Wikipedia: "Multicultural Marketing" URL

        Read this article about international communication tactics, using themes and images that transcend cultural differences. If you publish a website, then you are positioned to reach a global audience. English may connect those in global business with a common language, but we still need to be sensitive to cultural differences.

    • 6.5: The Marketing Plan

      • Principles of Marketing: "Chapter 16: The Marketing Plan" URL

        Read this chapter, which discusses marketing planning roles, the parts and functions of the marketing plan, forecasting, and the structure of a marketing plan audit. It also discusses PEST Analysis and other external factors that affect marketing decisions. Some of the material in this chapter is a review of concepts addressed in the course up to this point. Key takeaways include the steps in the forecasting process. Thus, you will be able to identify types of forecasting methods and their advantages and disadvantages as well as discuss the methods used to improve the accuracy of forecasts. Lastly, you will apply marketing planning processes to ongoing business settings and identify the role of the marketing audit. Please answer the discussion questions at the end of the chapter.

      • Carnegie Mellon University: Mark Juliano's "Marketing Budgets" URL

        Listen to this lecture, in which Mark Juliano discusses where to spend your marketing dollars and the costs associated with different types of marketing vehicles. This information is a very important component of the marketing plan. Without a budget you cannot implement the marketing plan. Many external factors will affect the marketing budget.

    • 6.5.1: Marketing Plan Project

    • Unit 6 Discussion and Assessment

      • Unit 6 Discussion URL

        After reviewing the unit materials, please click on the link above and post and respond to the following topics on the course discussion board. Feel free to start your own post and respond to other students' posts as well. If you haven't done so already, you will need to create a free account at the link above to participate in the discussions.

        What key components do you believe are most essential to maintaining customer satisfaction? How might you address those in your own marketing efforts? Find an example of a social marketing campaign you admire. Who was the marketers' target audience? What media did they select to connect with their audience and why? What message did they convey? Marketing plans will naturally be modified according to the type of service or product marketed, company structure, particularities of the target audience, etc. Consider a marketing campaign you might launch. What would be the primary components of your own marketing plan? Posting and responding to the discussion questions in the forums should take you approximately five hours to complete.

    • Unit 7: Professional Development

      Well-honed marketing and communication skills have a place in just about every human enterprise from international commerce to campaigns for public office to solving social ills. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts the employment opportunities for marketing and related professions will grow in the years ahead. Among the issues to consider for those contemplating a career in marketing are the skillsets required, the working conditions, the potential for career advancement, and salary levels. This unit will introduce you to available employment resources that aid marketing aspirants in finding a first job and advancing through a professional career.

      Completing this unit should take you approximately 15 hours.

    • 7.1: The Marketing Workplace

      • Steven Van Hook's "Careers in Marketing Professions" URL

        Read this article, which considers employment trends in the twenty-first century, requisite skills to compete in the marketing job market, and tips from the world's top CEOs on how to fit in. Also, explore the links to resources embedded in this text.

    • 7.2: Resources for Career Development

    • 7.3: Networks for Marketers

    • Unit 7 Discussion and Assessment

      • Unit 7 Discussion URL

        After reviewing the unit materials, please click on the link above and post and respond to the following topics on the course discussion board. Feel free to start your own post, and respond to other students' posts as well. If you haven't done so already, you will need to create a free account at the link above to participate in the discussions.

        Where in the world would you most like to work, and what kinds of marketing projects would you like to be involved with? What useful employment resources and job leads did you find in your research for this unit? Based on your studies in this unit, what words of advice would you offer to someone just starting out in a marketing career? What social networks do you currently participate in and why? What benefits do these social networks offer? How might networking help improve your own career goals? Posting and responding to the discussion questions in the forums should take you approximately five hours to complete.