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 at large. Business owners not only aim to provide customers with the goods and services they want and need, they 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 advertisement, 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 10 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 among 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 the customer life cycle 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 pages 176–190 to learn more about the marketing process.
Read the introduction, section 9.2, and section 9.3 to get another perspective on marketing and the marketing mix. Complete the exercises at the end of each section.
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: Marketing Mix
The marketing mix is comprised of 4 elements: product, price, placement (or distribution), and promotion. This is often referred to as the 4 Ps of marketing. Businesses can change any one of these elements and create a different marketing mix.
3.2.1: 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 introduction and sections 10.1, 10.2, and 10.7 to learn about products and product development.
3.2.2: Pricing
Read this section to learn about various pricing strategies. Once a business has a product to sell, the next consideration is how to price the product. They want to price the product high enough that they make a profit, but not so high that their typical customer wouldn't buy it.
3.2.3: Placement (Distribution)
Once a product has been developed and a pricing strategy has been chosen, the business must now consider where it should place the product and how to get it there. This placement and distribution.
Read this section to learn about product distribution strategies and supply chain management.
3.2.4: Promotion
The final P in our marketing mix is promotion. This is often what people think about when they hear the term marketing. But, as we have seen, it is only a part of the marketing mix. The promotion mix includes advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, and publicity. Some of these elements are paid for and the business has direct control over the message, some are not.
Read this section to learn more about promoting a product.
3.3: Consumer Behavior
Now that we have a basic understanding of the marketing process, we can explore the whole purpose of marketing: to reach the customer. It is important to understand how consumers make their purchase decisions so the marketer can tailor the marketing mix to meet the consumers' needs.
Read this section, which reviews consumer behavior and gives a more in-depth look at the elements that influence what we buy and why we buy.
3.3.1: Customer-Relationship Management
The customer should be the focus of all business endeavors; without the customer, there would be no business. 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 the business in general and marketers in particular.
Read this short article that describes Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and what it means to businesses.
3.3.2: Multicultural CRM
Read pages 191–192 to look at Customer Relationship Management from a multicultural perspective. Complete the assignment on page 193 to develop a PowerPoint presentation that addresses the five main points of research. Instead of presenting this to a class, you should try to present to family members or friends and have them give you feedback on your presentation.
3.3.3: Electronic Commerce
Technology has changed the way consumers shop and how they receive information about products. Think about the last time you wanted to purchase something out of the ordinary (not a candy bar, but maybe a dishwasher). Was your first step to go to a local appliance store and buy the first one you saw? Probably not. More than likely, you went online and did some research. Perhaps you even read reviews of dishwashers other people had purchased. You may have even asked your friends on Facebook for their opinions. In the end, you may have even purchased the dishwasher online and had it delivered right to your door.
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 ecommerce could take.
Most businesses now have online presences, ranging from informational websites to full-blown marketplaces for 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. Pay particular attention to the section about social media marketing. You'll gain a better understanding of why businesses are using social media to promote their products and what their goals may be.
3.4: Marketing Strategies
So far, we've learned about the marketing process, the marketing mix, and consumer behavior. Now, let's take a look at marketing strategies that bring these three elements together.
3.4.1: Marketing Segmentation
Rather than trying to sell 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.
Read pages 183–184 to learn more about target markets paying particular attention to the figure on page 183 detailing the differences between segmentation, targeting, positioning. Complete the assignment on page 199. Since you will be working by yourself rather than with a team, you may decide to create a profile on only one radio station.
3.4.2: Marketing Research
Businesses must conduct research to find out who their typical customers are.
Read this article to learn about conducting marketing research. Try to summarize these lessons, by writing a brief reflection of how you would conduct your own research if you were the owner of an upscale retail clothing store in a major metropolitan city with several competitors.
3.4.3: Product Life Cycle
Earlier we learned about products and product development (in the marketing mix). Businesses must consider where a product currently is in its lifecycle so appropriate marketing strategies can be created. For example, a product in the introductory stage would require heavy advertisement compared to a product in the decline state.
Read pages 186–188 and look carefully at the product lifecycle. Complete the assignment on the product life cycle on pages 194–195. For this assignment, indicate where each of the eight technology products is on the product lifecycle chart based on the percentages of the population that has that technology. Be sure to explain your reasoning.
3.4.4: Branding
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 the section on branding on page 190. Then, complete the individual assignment on branding on page 196. For this exercise, you will explore the PBS "Persuaders" site, which discusses the branding of a failed airline. You will then write a personal reflection of approximately 700–900 words.
Finally, complete the assignment on Starbucks branding and channels on page 197.
If you wish, you may write your essay from the assignment above in this space.
3.4.5: SWOT Analysis
To pull all these strategies together, businesses often perform a SWOT analysis, which stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
- Read the description of the SWOT analysis on page 184.
Watch this brief video about how a SWOT analysis can be applied in various business scenarios. Then, 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 would be affected by those 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.