Marketing Strategy Course

This course will provide you with a comprehensive introduction to contemporary marketing theory and practice. During your studies, you will become familiar with the importance and the fundamental thinking of this core management function.

You will use a wide range of concepts and techniques to analyse the external environment and to develop practical and creative strategies to meet its challenges.

Senior managers operate in a complex environment of rapid change both within and outside their organisations. Organisational life is full of messy problems that cannot be neatly compartmentalised into one specific management function and decisions may need to be made at short notice with incomplete or even conflicting information.

As a manager, the quality of your decision making will depend on your ability to select and combine the best and most appropriate ideas and techniques from a range of management functions and know how to use them.

So whether you are a marketing manager or work in another function, such as finance or human resources, you will need to understand the language used by marketing practitioners and have a sound grasp of the concepts and approaches that marketing offers.

This course will provide you with a toolbox of ideas and methods to help you make sense of your organisation's complexity. Through the six study units we build the basic principles and provide comprehensive coverage of the main theories of marketing set in the context of modern business practice.

You will learn how to understand your customers' needs; how to focus scarce resources most effectively though marketing segmentation and targeting; brand building through the right marketing mix; as well as the development and implementation of marketing plans. This is reflected in the more specific unit objectives.

Unit 1: Introduction to Marketing

Introduction

Objectives

Key Issues

The buyer-seller relationship

Marketing as an attitude of mind

Marketing creates customer value

Marketing approaches

The marketing mix

Marketing as a process

The marketing environment

Summary

References

Unit 2: Understanding the Market

Introduction

Objectives

Key Issues

Understanding the customer

How do consumers make decisions?

How do organisations buy?

Market segmentation

Segmentation process

Target marketing

Positioning

Marketing research

The research process

Applying research

Summary

References

Further reading

Unit 3: Product and Services Management

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Products

Services

Branding

Product life cycle

New product development

Summary

References

Unit 4: Pricing and Distribution Management

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Why is price important?

Pricing methods

Impact of the euro on price

Why is place important?

Who uses distributors?

Summary

References

Unit 5: Promotion Management

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Development of marketing communications

Defining marketing communications

The communication process

Communications planning

Marketing strategy

Message development

Communications mix decisions

Evaluating effectiveness

Summary

References

Further reading

Unit 6: Marketing Planning

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Planning or strategy?

Marketing audit and strategic focus

Marketing objectives

Marketing strategy and competitive behaviour

Implementing the marketing plan

Marketing organisation

Marketing control

Summary

Qualification 1: Marketing Strategy Diploma

Marketing Strategy Diploma issued by Stonebridge Associated Colleges, entitling you to use the letters SAC Dip after your name.

In order to offer our students the most convenient and flexible distance learning courses, Stonebridge Associated College offers you the option to study for your course via two methods:

• 1. Via the traditional paper-based method.
• 2. Through the online method via ElearnUK.

When you study through ElearnUK you can quickly access your course material online and submit all of your question papers to your tutor online, using your unique student account. You have access to all of your course material immediately, and when you submit question papers, your tutor sends you an email containing your results and feedback.

With this course you will have unlimited access to your own personal tutor who specialises in their field of study. It is your personal tutor's role to ensure that you receive constructive feedback and to deal with any queries you may have. You are more than welcome to telephone, fax or email your personal tutor.

You will also have access to a dedicated and friendly team of administrators and course advisors who offer sound and professional guidance and advice when you need it. This ensures that you will never feel neglected and that you will always succeed!

There is no experience or previous qualifications required for enrolment on this course. It is available to all students, of all academic backgrounds.

This is only an approximate figure and is dependant upon how much time you can dedicate to your studies and how well you grasp the learning concepts in the course material. Furthermore, at the end of each lesson there is a question paper that needs to be completed and returned to your tutor. You should allow at least 1 - 2 hours of study to complete each question paper.

The approximate amount of time required to complete the course is: 108 hrs.

Assessment Method

After each lesson there will be a question paper, which needs to be completed and submitted to your personal tutor for marking. This method of continual assessment ensures that your personal tutor can consistently monitor your progress and provide you with assistance throughout the duration of the course.

What's Included

• All study materials
• Study Guide
• Full Tutor and Admin support

Course Textbook

For this course you will be required to purchase the textbook:

• Principles and Practice of Marketing, David Jobber, second edition, Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill (1998).