Unit 3: Marketing
Marketing encompasses more than simple advertising and selling. It describes the activity businesses engage in to create, communicate, deliver, and exchange their products to their customers, clients, partners, and society. Business owners not only aim to provide customers with the goods and services they want and need, but they also need to convince them to make a purchase and come back for more. It involves the product, price, distribution, and promotion in the form of advertisements, publicity, public relations, and sales promotion. We will explore e-commerce, e-business, and the use of social media marketing.
Completing this unit should take you approximately 9 hours.
Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- identify the major components of the marketing mix;
- describe how segmentation and research foster an understanding of consumer behavior;
- describe the marketing concept;
- describe the evolution of marketing;
- differentiate between the components of a marketing strategy;
- analyze consumer decision-making processes to predict buying behavior;
- identify the implications of marketing research on marketing strategy;
- describe elements of customer relationship management, including customer life cycles and the customer value proposition;
- identify the marketing implications of customer-relationship management;
- describe brand, product development, technology adoption cycle, and product life cycle;
- use product life cycles to determine marketing strategy; and
- identify the marketing implications of e-business.
3.1: Marketing Defined
Read these sections to learn more about the marketing process.
Read these sections to get another perspective on marketing and the marketing mix. Complete the exercises at the end of the sections.
Read this section, which describes the various marketing orientations through time. As you read, think about how this evolution has impacted products or services you may purchase.
3.2: The Product
The first element is the product. A product is a good or service intended to meet the needs of consumers or society. Read the introductions of each section to gain an understanding of products and product development.
Once a business has a product to sell, the next consideration is how to price the product. The business wants to price the product high enough to make a profit, but not so high that a typical customer wouldn't buy it. Read this section to learn about various pricing strategies.
- Once a product has been developed and a pricing strategy has been chosen, the business must consider where it should place the product and how to get it there via placement and distribution. Read this section to learn about product distribution strategies and supply chain management.
The final P in our marketing mix is promotion, which people often think about when they hear the term marketing. But, as we have seen, it is only a part of the entire marketing mix. The promotion mix includes advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and publicity. Some of these elements are paid for, with the business having direct control over the message. Some are not. Read this section to learn more about promoting a product.
3.3: Consumer Behavior
Read this section. This material provides an overview of consumer behavior. Be sure to click on the tabs within the Key Points and Terms sections for a more in-depth look at the elements that influence what we buy and why we buy.
The customer should be the focus of all business endeavors; there would be no business without the customer. In fact, without repeat customers, most businesses would be hard-pressed to keep going. Because of this, creating a relationship with the customer is extremely important to businesses in general and marketers in particular. Read this short piece describing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and what it means to businesses.
Review this section about customer satisfaction and building long-term relationships with customers. Without customers, there is no business. Develop a PowerPoint presentation that addresses why it is so important to develop these relationships with customers, how to develop relationships, and what a business can do to retain existing customers.
First, we need to understand the difference between electronic commerce and e-business. Read this short excerpt that explains the terms and how they came about.
Read this short excerpt to learn the various forms e-commerce could take.
Most businesses now have an online presence ranging from informational websites to full-blown buying and selling online. Read this short excerpt for some key motivators for taking a business online.
Now that we've learned a little about e-business and e-commerce, read about the importance of interacting with customers paying particular attention to the section about social media marketing. You'll better understand why businesses are using social media to promote their products and what their goals may be.
3.4: Marketing Segmentation
Rather than selling their products to every possible consumer, businesses will concentrate their marketing efforts on a target market. The target market is the consumer who would be most likely to purchase a product. Re-read this section to learn more about target markets paying particular attention to the examples of Marriott hotels and the target market for each type of hotel.
To accurately arrive at a target market, businesses must research who their typical customer is. Read each section to learn about conducting marketing research. Try to summarize these lessons and write a brief reflection of how you would research if you were the owner of an upscale retail clothing store in a major metropolitan city with several competitors.
Earlier, we learned about products and product development (in the marketing mix). Businesses must consider where a product currently is in its lifecycle so they can create appropriate marketing strategies. For example, a product in the introductory stage would require heavier advertisement than a product in the decline state. Read this section and look carefully at the product lifecycle. Answer the concept check questions. For this assignment, use two products as examples and indicate where each product is on the product lifecycle chart. Be sure to explain your reasoning.
Selling its products to make a profit is something businesses desire, and the next level up is making the business a household name or a brand. Read this case study about branding and answer the critical thinking questions. Then, write a 700-word essay reflection about creating a brand using social media.
Review the definition of a marketing plan. A marketing plan will include an analysis of a companies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT). A SWOT is typically conducted during the strategy stage of developing a business. It is essential to analyze the SWOT regularly to ensure the business is still current in the marketplace. The SWOT analysis becomes part of a marketing plan because the strengths of a product or business are what marketing will focus on for advertising.
Watch this brief video about how a business can apply SWOT analysis in various business scenarios. After watching the video, select a company and develop a general SWOT analysis for that organization. Based on your analysis, consider two actions the company could take to improve its market position. After developing your new strategies, re-create the SWOT analysis for the company and consider how the company's situation has been affected by these changes.
Unit 3 Assessment
- Receive a grade
Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.
- This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
- You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
- You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.