Marketing Strategy

This introductory MBA marketing strategy course emphasizes core marketing concepts involved in creating, communicating, and delivering value as core to business models. It covers marketing in various contexts including small businesses, corporations, and nonprofits, focusing on the exchange of value. The course introduces key marketing concepts: the "four Cs" (customer values, company capacity, competitors, constraints) and the "four Ps" (product, price, place, promotion). It moves beyond traditional views of marketing as just advertising, highlighting the importance of understanding customer needs and product differentiation. The course also explores Holistic Marketing, addressing the complexities of modern organizations.

• Module 1: Strategic Overview of Marketing
• Welcome to Marketing Strategy: Creating, Communicating and Delivering Value! This introductory MBA marketing strategy course emphasizes core marketing concepts involved in creating, communicating, and delivering value as core to business models. It covers marketing in various contexts including small businesses, corporations, and nonprofits, focusing on the exchange of value. The course introduces key marketing concepts: the "four Cs" (customer values, company capacity, competitors, constraints) and the "four Ps" (product, price, place, promotion). It moves beyond traditional views of marketing as just advertising, highlighting the importance of understanding customer needs and product differentiation. The course also explores Holistic Marketing, addressing the complexities of modern organizations. This introductory module on Marketing Strategy provides a foundational understanding of marketing's scope and value. It covers basic questions like the definition of marketing, what is marketed, who markets, and the concept of a market. Core marketing concepts discussed include understanding needs, wants, and demands, target market strategies, segmentation, branding, marketing channels, and media dynamics. It also explores the importance of impressions, engagement, value, satisfaction, supply chain, and competition in marketing. The module then addresses the new realities in marketing shaped by technology, globalization, and social responsibility, examining different company orientations towards the marketplace, including production, product, selling, marketing, and holistic marketing concepts. It updates the traditional "Four Ps" of marketing and outlines key marketing management tasks. This module of the course delves into the strategic aspects of marketing, focusing on customer value, the value delivery process, and the value chain. Also reviewed are strategic issues including different levels of strategic planning, including corporate and division strategic planning, mission definition, strategic business units, and growth opportunities. Topics such as SWOT analysis, goal formulation, and strategy implementation are covered, along with the contents of a marketing plan and its implementation. The module also touches briefly on Marketing Research and Analysis and explores marketing information systems and intelligence, along with a detailed analysis of the macroenvironment, identifying key external forces like demographic, economic, and sociocultural factors. Overall, the module offers a comprehensive overview of key marketing concepts and strategies.
• Module 2: Connecting with Customers
• Module Description: Building Long-Term Customer Relationships and Customer Value. This module focuses on establishing and nurturing long-term customer relationships, crucial in marketing. Starting with by discussing the significance of customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty; the module then delves into the marketing research system, outlining the process from defining the problem to making decisions based on research findings. An emphasis is placed on understanding customer satisfaction and quality, along with strategies to maximize customer lifetime value and profitability. It also covers methods to cultivate customer relationships, including attracting and retaining customers, building loyalty, and strategies for customer win-backs. The module explores consumer and business buying dynamics, examining factors influencing consumer behavior, key psychological processes, and the consumer buying decision process. You will also look briefly at organizational buying, detailing the stages and participants in the business buying process. Strategic brand management is another focal point, including market segmentation, targeting, and brand positioning. It discusses various segmentation criteria, evaluating and selecting market segments, developing brand positioning, and understanding value propositions. The module also touches on competitive strategies for different market positions like leaders, challengers, followers, and nichers. Finally, the module addresses branding and core business growth, exploring the role of branding, brand equity, and strategies for managing brand equity and growth. The module concludes with an executive summary and notes, providing a thorough understanding of connecting with customers in marketing.
• Module 3: The Power of Strategic Brand Management
• Module Description: Branding as a strategic driver of business growth. The "Power of Branding" module delves into the intricacies of branding and its crucial role in business growth. It begins by explaining how branding works, detailing the role and scope of brands in the marketplace. A key focus of the module is on defining and understanding brand equity, including customer-based brand equity and various brand equity models. Building brand equity is a major theme, encompassing strategies like choosing brand elements, designing holistic marketing activities, and leveraging secondary associations. The module emphasizes the importance of internal branding in creating a cohesive brand image. Sometimes challenging, measuring and managing brand equity is another critical area covered. This includes techniques for conducting brand audits, brand tracking, and brand valuation, providing a comprehensive approach to maintaining and enhancing brand value. The module also discusses the strategic aspects of branding, including devising branding strategies, making branding decisions, managing brand portfolios, and exploring brand extensions. It highlights the importance of customer equity and its role in driving business growth, outlining various growth strategies and focusing on growing the core business. This module builds on prior discussions of targeting and positioning, showing how these concepts are integral to effective branding. It concludes with an executive summary and notes, offering a complete overview of the power and significance of branding in marketing.
• Module 4: Value Creation
• Module Description: Creating differentiated successful products and services for growth. The "Creating Value" module explores how value is created and delivered in marketing – and in business overall. You will begin with an overview of product mix management and the development of new offerings, focusing on the diversity and dynamics of product portfolios. Key topics include product characteristics and classifications, customer-value hierarchy, and various product differentiation strategies, including design and services. The module also examines the interplay between products and brands, product line management, and pricing strategies. We will touch on the concepts of new product management, emphasizing innovation, the new product development process, and the consumer-adoption process. It also covers product life-cycle marketing strategies. The module further delves into the unique aspects of marketing services, discussing service quality management and post-sale strategies. Strategic pricing is explored, detailing how prices are set, adapted, and how companies respond to market changes. Value delivery is another major theme, focusing on the development and management of marketing channels and value networks, including e-commerce and m-commerce considerations. It also covers retailing, wholesaling, and logistics, touching on modern retail environments, wholesaler trends, and logistics management. The module provides a comprehensive understanding of value creation and delivery in marketing.
• Module 5: Customer Value Delivery
• Module Description: Where the rubber meets the road: assuring customers get the value promised. The "Value Delivery" module focuses on ensuring that customers receive the value promised by a business. It emphasizes the development and management of marketing channels and value networks, highlighting the importance of multichannel marketing and the digital channels revolution. We touch on strategic pricing, outlining how companies determine and adapt prices in a changing environment. This includes analyzing demand, costs, competitors, and selecting appropriate pricing methods. You will also examine channel functions and flows, exploring different levels and types of channels, design decisions, customer needs analysis, and channel management strategies. It covers the selection and training of channel members, global considerations, and the integration of marketing systems. Additionally, the module addresses channel conflicts and cooperation, and the legal and ethical issues in channel relations. It delves into managing retailing, wholesaling, and logistics, discussing retailer types, marketing decisions, private labels, wholesaling trends, and market logistics. This module provides a concise overview of the critical role of value delivery in fulfilling customer expectations and maintaining a business's value promise.
• Module 6: Communicating Value and the Role of Increasing Role of Digital Marketing
• Module Description: Effectively creating a relationship and getting your message out it in the digital age. The "Communicating Value" module covers the essentials of integrated marketing communications. It begins by discussing the role of marketing communications and the components of the marketing communications mix. Central to the module is the process of developing effective communications, including identifying the target audience, setting objectives, designing the messages, selecting channels, and budgeting. You will explore the characteristics and setting of the marketing communications mix and techniques for measuring communication results. Key areas include managing mass communications like advertising, sales promotions, events and experiences, and public relations, each dissected to understand their strategies, objectives, and effectiveness. The module also emphasizes digital communications, focusing on online, social media, and mobile marketing. It discusses the advantages and challenges of online marketing, social media engagement, word-of-mouth impact, and mobile marketing strategies. Personal communications are explored through direct and database marketing and personal selling, covering topics like direct marketing methods, customer databases, ethical considerations, personal selling techniques, and sales force management. Concluding with an executive summary and notes, the module provides an overview of various strategies and channels for effectively communicating value in marketing. This module covers the essentials of integrated marketing communications. It begins by discussing the role of marketing communications and the components of the marketing communications mix. Central to the module is the process of developing effective communications, including identifying the target audience, setting objectives, designing the messages, selecting channels, and budgeting. You will explore the characteristics and setting of the marketing communications mix and techniques for measuring communication results. Key areas include managing mass communications like advertising, sales promotions, events and experiences, and public relations, each dissected to understand their strategies, objectives, and effectiveness. The module also emphasizes digital communications, focusing on online, social media, and mobile marketing. It discusses the advantages and challenges of online marketing, social media engagement, word-of-mouth impact, and mobile marketing strategies. Personal communications are explored through direct and database marketing and personal selling, covering topics like direct marketing methods, customer databases, ethical considerations, personal selling techniques, and sales force management. Concluding with an executive summary and notes, the module provides an overview of various strategies and channels for effectively communicating value in marketing.
• Module 7: Global Marketing
• Module Description: Marketing in an increasingly Global World: Key assessment and decisions. The "Global Marketing" module addresses the complexities and strategies of marketing in a global environment. You begins by exploring the concept of responsible marketing principles in a global context. The module then delves into the challenges and opportunities of competing on a global basis. You will consider crucial decisions that businesses face when considering international expansion, such key questions as determining whether to go abroad, selecting which markets to enter, and deciding on the most effective ways to enter these markets. You will explore approaching the challenge of designing appropriate marketing programs for international markets. This includes adapting marketing strategies to suit different global market environments and consumer preferences. The module provides a comprehensive overview of the strategic considerations and decision-making, risks and processes involved in global marketing, highlighting the importance of responsible and effective marketing practices in a worldwide context.
• Module 8: Marketing Orientation & Managing the Marketing Organization for Long-Term Success
• Module Description: Marketing as a strategic asset and driver of performance and other key organizational considerations. The final module focuses on internal marketing and the concept of market orientation as a tool for competitiveness. It starts by discussing the organization of the marketing department, emphasizing the importance of its relationships with other departments and the significance of building a creative marketing organization. The module then shifts to socially responsible marketing, covering aspects like corporate social responsibility, sustainability, cause-related marketing, and social marketing. These topics highlight the importance of ethical practices and social responsibility in marketing strategies. A central theme of the module is how marketing departments can champion creating and sustaining a market orientation within firms. This approach is presented as crucial for long-term performance and competitiveness, emphasizing that a market-oriented perspective should pervade all aspects of an organization, not just the marketing department. The module provides insights into how internal marketing and a strong market orientation can drive a business's success in a socially responsible and sustainable manner.
• Summative Course Assessment
• This module contains the summative course assessment that has been designed to evaluate your understanding of the course material and assess your ability to apply the knowledge you have acquired throughout the course.