Introduction to Marketing

Introduction to Marketing explores the cornerstone concepts that influence customers’ buying habits. The course describes how broadband companies aim to understand consumers, develop marketing strategies, conduct research and analyze information to target and sell to key market segments. The curriculum combines textbook principles, online exercises, industry-specific case studies and real-life situations to show how to translate marketing theory to everyday business. Some of the topics covered include: creating marketing for new products, implementing pricing strategies, handling distribution channels, forming integrated marketing communications with advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing, and the social responsibility and ethics for sustainable marketing.

Completion Time:

The estimated completion time for this course is 32 hours. The maximum allotted time is four months from enrollment.

Benefits:

• earn three hours of college credit
• receive an industry-recognized NCTI certificate of graduation

Upon completing this course, students will be able to:

1. Define marketing and outline the steps in the marketing process
2. Explain marketing’s role in strategic planning and how marketing works with its partners to create and deliver customer value
3. describe the environmental forces that affect the company’s ability to serve its customers
4. explain the importance of information in gaining insights about the marketplace and customers
5. understand the consumer market and the major factors that influence consumer buyer behavior
6. define the major steps in designing a customer value-driven marketing strategy: market segmentation, targeting, differentiation, and positioning
7. define product and describe the major classifications of products and service
8. explain how companies find and develop new product ideas
9. identify the three major pricing strategies and discuss the importance of understanding customer-value perceptions, company costs, and competitor strategies when setting prices
10. explain why companies use marketing channels and discuss the functions these channels perform
11. explain the role of retailers and wholesalers in the distribution channel and describe the major types of retailers
12. discuss the changing communications landscape and the need for integrated marketing communications
13. discuss the role of a company’s salespeople in creating value for customers and building customer relationships
14. define direct and digital marketing and discuss their rapid growth and benefits to customers and companies
15. discuss how the international trade system and the economic, political-legal, and cultural environments affect a company’s international marketing decisions
16. Define sustainable marketing and its principles and describe how consumerism, environmentalism, and ethics impact marketing strategies

Outline:

Marketing: Creating Customer Value and Engagement

What is marketing, understanding the marketplace and customer needs, designing a customer value-driven marketing strategy, preparing an integrated marketing plan and program, engaging customers and managing customer relationships, capturing value from customers, the changing marketing landscape

Company and Marketing Strategy: Partnering to Build Customer Engagement, Value, and Relationships

Company-wide strategic planning: defining marketing’s role, planning marketing: partnering to build customer relationships, marketing strategy and the marketing mix, managing the marketing effort, measuring and managing marketing return on investment

Analyzing the Marketing Environment

The microenvironment, the macroenvironment, responding to the marketing environment

Managing Marketing Information to Gain Customer Insights

Marketing information and customer insights, assessing marketing information needs, developing marketing information, marketing research and analyzing and using marketing information

Understanding Consumer and Business Buyer Behavior

Consumer markets and consumer buyer behavior, the buyer decision process, the buyer decision process for new products and business markets and business buyer behavior

Customer Value-Driven Marketing Strategy: Creating Value for Target Customers

Market segmentation, market targeting, ,and differentiation and position

Products, Services, and Brands: Building Customer Value

What is a product, product and service decisions, services marketing and branding strategy: building strong brands

Developing New Products and Managing the Product Life Cycle

New product development strategy and process, managing new product development, product life-cycle strategies and additional product and service considerations

Pricing: Understanding and Capturing Customer Value

What is a price?, major pricing strategies, internal and external considerations affecting price decisions, new product pricing strategies, product mix pricing strategies, price adjustment strategies, price changes and public policy and pricing

Marketing Channels: Delivering Customer Value

Supply chains and the value delivery network, the nature and importance of marketing channels, channel behavior and organization, channel design decisions, public policy and distribution decisions and marketing logistics and supply chain management

Retailing and Wholesaling

Retailing and wholesaling

Engaging Consumers and Communicating Customer Value: Advertising and Public Relations

The promotion mix, integrated marketing communications, advertising and public relations

Personal Selling and Sales Promotion

Personal selling, managing the sales force, social selling: online, mobile, and social media tools, the personal selling process and sales promotion

Direct, Online, Social Media, and Mobile Marketing

Direct and digital marketing, forms of direct and digital marketing, digital and social media marketing, traditional direct marketing forms, and public policy issues in direct and digital marketing

The Global Marketplace

Global marketing today, looking at the global marketing environment, deciding whether to go global, deciding which markets to enter, deciding how to enter the market, deciding on the global marketing program, and deciding on the global marketing organization

Sustainable Marketing: Social Responsibility and Ethics

Sustainable marketing, social criticisms of marketing, consumer actions to promote sustainable marketing, business actions toward sustainable marketing