BUS305 Study Guide
Unit 4: Marketing Strategy
4a. Identify and describe the strategies that support entrepreneurship
1. Conducting marketing activities – the act of providing customers with a product or service they want and need and making them aware of those goods and services – can provide the entrepreneur with a wide range of tools with which to develop, launch, and grow a business. The elements of the marketing mix are product, price, place, and promotion. Some important examples of demographic information that helps entrepreneurs define a consumer segment are age, income, education, culture, religion, gender, marital status, and occupation.
2. Gathering as much information as possible about the market, the competition, and the enterprise's potential customers will provide a competitive advantage.
- What is the difference between primary research and secondary research?
- What are four sources of primary research?
- What are four sources of secondary research?
3. Learning about the external environment can enable a more effective strategy. A company's competitors may be enterprises within the same industry or businesses that provide a similar or substitute product and service.
- What are psychographics? How do they help companies refine their knowledge of their target market?
To review, see:
- What is Marketing?
- Is Your Business Doing Effective Market Research?
- Primary Market Research
- Primary and Secondary Research
- Demographics
- External Factors
4b. Explain how to write a marketing plan and perform this task
1. A marketing plan is an essential tool for defining a company's mission, identifying potential customers, describing the benefits the company will provide to those customers, and outlining the activities the company will conduct to communicate with customers.
- What are the features of each of the kinds of analyses within the marketing plan: SWOT, 5C analysis, and Porter's Analysis?
- What is the value proposition? How can a company incorporate it into their marketing efforts?
- How do companies identify and define their target markets?
- What is an integrated marketing communications strategy?
2. Total customer management focuses on customers and a corporate philosophy that focuses on a service orientation.
- What are the features of the pricing strategies companies consider for their products and services: penetration pricing, cost-plus pricing, skim pricing, and psychological pricing?
To review, see:
- The Marketing Plan
- Marketing Plan Elements
- The Purpose of a Marketing Plan
- More on The Marketing Plan
- Defining the Target Market
- Scanning and Analysis
- Strategic Planning
- Conducting a Situational Analysis
- Integrated Marketing Communications
Unit 4 Vocabulary
This vocabulary list includes terms that might help you answer some of the review items above and some terms you should be familiar with to be successful in completing the final exam for the course.
- 5C analysis
- Competition
- Culture
- Demographics
- Environmental scanning
- Geography
- Integrated marketing communications
- Marketing
- Marketing concept
- Marketing mix
- Marketing plan
- Mass marketing
- Mission Statement
- Niche marketing
- Porter's analysis
- Pricing
- Primary research
- Psychographics
- Qualitative information
- Quantitative information
- Secondary research
- Segmentation
- SWOT analysis
- Target
- Value proposition