Marking Assignments part 2

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M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

Introduction

Important: You should take the time to carefully read this syllabus and the S t u de n t H a n db o o k before you begin the lesson assignments.

Marketing management focuses on formulating and implementing marketing management strategies and policies. The marketing management process is important at all levels of the organization, regardless of the title applied to the activity. Typically, the process is called corporate marketing, strategic marketing, or marketing management. For our purposes, they all involve essentially the same process, even though the actors and activities may differ. This course will provide you with a systematic framework for understanding marketing management and strategy. Three broad forces—globalization, technology, and social responsibility—are identified as critical to the success of modern marketing programs. These three topics are evident throughout the text. Good marketing has become an increasingly vital ingredient for business success. And marketing profoundly affects our day-to-day lives. Good marketing is no accident, but a result of careful planning and execution. It is both an “art” and a “science”—there is constant tension between the formulated side of marketing and the creative side. Firms now sell goods and services through a variety of direct and indirect channels. Mass advertising is not nearly as effective as it was, so marketers are exploring new forms of communication, such as experiential, entertainment, and viral marketing. Customers are telling companies what types of product or services they want and when, where, and how they want to buy them. They are increasingly reporting to other consumers what they think of specific companies and products—using e-mail, blogs, podcasts, and other digital media to do so. Company messages are becoming a smaller fraction of the total “conversation” about products and services. In response, companies have shifted gears from managing product portfolios to managing customer portfolios, compiling databases on individual customers so they can understand them better and construct individualized offerings and messages. They are doing less product and service standardization and more niching and customization. They are replacing monologues with customer dialogues. They are improving their methods of measuring customer profitability and customer lifetime value. They are intent on measuring the return on their marketing investment and its impact on shareholder value. They are also concerned with the ethical and social implications of their marketing decisions. As companies change, so does their marketing organization. Marketing is no longer a company department charged with a limited number of tasks—it is a company-wide undertaking. It drives the company’s vision, mission, and strategic planning. Marketing includes decisions like whom the company wants as its customers, which of their needs to satisfy, what products and services to offer, what prices to set, what communications to send and receive, what channels of distribution to use, and what partnerships to develop. Marketing succeeds only when all departments work together to achieve goals: when engineering designs the right products; finance furnishes the required funds; purchasing buys high-quality

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Course Syllabus

materials; production makes high-quality products on time; and accounting measures the profitability of different customers, products, and areas. To address all these different shifts, good marketers are practicing holistic marketing. Holistic marketing is the development, design, and implementation of marketing programs, processes, and activities that recognize the breadth and interdependencies of today’s marketing environment. The set of tasks necessary for successful marketing management includes developing marketing strategies and plans, capturing marketing insights, connecting with customers, building strong brands, creating value, delivering and communicating value, and conducting marketing responsibly for long-term success.

Over the duration of the course, students will develop a comprehensive marketing plan for a real or fictitious product or service. Each lesson will build on the previous information and provide guidance and insight to allow students to effectively develop each of the elements of the marketing plan. The eight lessons and associated readings for this course are organized as follows:

Lesson 1: Defining Marketing and Developing Marketing Plans (Chapters 1 and 2).

Lesson 2: Capturing Marketing Insights (Chapters 3 and 4).

Lesson 3: Connecting with Customers (Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8).

Lesson 4: Building Strong Brands (Chapters 9, 10, 11 and 12).

Lesson 5: Creating Value (Chapters 13, 14, 15, and 16).

Lesson 6: Delivering Value (Chapters 17 and 18).

Lesson 7: Communicating Value (Chapters 19, 20, 21 and 22).

Lesson 8: Conducting Marketing Responsibly for Long-Term Success (Chapter 23).

Expected Student Learning Outcomes After completion of this course you should be able to:

• Evaluate the range of decisions implicit in strategic marketing management and planning

• Explain how markets contrast in terms of their “enduring characteristics”, their stage of development and the nature of competition

• Evaluate the components of effective strategic marketing in the market planning process

• Develop skills in planning a variety of marketing management strategies

• Compose a comprehensive marketing plan for a product or service

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Course Syllabus

Required Materials

Kotler, P. & Keller, K. (2016). Marketing Management (15th edition). Boston, MA: Pearson. ISBN: 978-0133856460

Suggestions for getting the most out of this course:

• Read professional journals and periodicals.

• Participate in the course discussion forums, and learn from the experience and knowledge of your faculty mentor and fellow students.

• If possible, form a relationship with someone who works in an area related to your course. Explain that you would like to obtain their insights and perspectives from time to time.

Academic Engagement Each academic course at William Howard Taft University is assigned a semester unit value equivalent to the commonly accepted and traditionally defined units of academic measurement in accredited institutions. Credit bearing courses are measured by the learning outcomes normally achieved through 45 hours of student work for one semester unit. For example, a course with a value of 3 semester units would require a typical student to commit 135 hours of academic engagement and preparation to complete the course requirements. Lesson Assignments This course contains a number of lesson assignments. Work through the lessons one at a time. Unless otherwise instructed, you should complete all assignments for a particular lesson in one WORD document. When you complete all of the assignments in a lesson, submit it to the faculty for grading and feedback. Submit only one lesson at a time, completing them in sequence. Continue on to the next lesson, but be sure to incorporate any feedback received on previous lessons into your subsequent assignments – if necessary.

Format Unless otherwise instructed, Lesson Assignments should be prepared in Microsoft Word® using the Times New Roman font, 12 point, single space, double space between paragraphs. Each page must be numbered and your last name and student number included on the upper left hand corner of each page.

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Your lesson assignment responses should be evidenced from the course textbook and/or from peer-reviewed sources not more than 5 years old. In general, Wikipedia is not a professionally- reviewed resource and should not be used as an assignment reference. Y ou m ust cite your references so that readers can verify your conclusions, and easily determine what is your work, and what is paraphrased or taken directly from other sources. Failure to give credit for the work of others in your assignments and writing projects constitutes plagiarism. Citation Machine: http://citationmachine.net/index2.php?start=&reqstyleid=2&newstyle=2&stylebox=2 Citation Machine is an online tool to assist in proper citation of researched information. We recommend APA format, although you may use other approved formats as long as you remain consistent.

Final Examination Final examination requirements and procedures are set forth in the Student Handbook. Notwithstanding any other provision in this syllabus, if you are required to take a Final Examination for this course you must pass the exam to pass the course.

Academic Integrity It is the policy of the University that any student found guilty of cheating and/or plagiarism will be subject to immediate dismissal from the University. All students are required to sign a Coursework Certification Form for each course. This form is provided as a link in the last lesson of each course.

Evaluation Your grade will be influenced by the accuracy of your research and the quality of your writing. The extent of research necessary will vary from assignment to assignment. In most cases, your work product should not simply consist of quoting from the assigned text. When grading your assignments, the faculty will consider three general components:

1. A demonstrated understanding of the material and the learning objectives.

2. Your ability to articulate, synthesize and analyze the concepts and issues presented in the material.

3. Clear and logical composition supported by examples and appropriate references. If at any time you desire additional feedback, you should contact your faculty advisor directly via email. Feel free to ask questions about course progress, grades, etc., at any time, and remember that the faculty and administration are interested in helping you learn and succeed. The final grade for the course is determined by the sum of each of the grades in the Lesson Assignments. Each of the lesson assignments is weighted equally in determining your grade for the course. Total Possible Points = 800 (100 Points per lesson).

http://citationmachine.net/index2.php?start=&reqstyleid=2&newstyle=2&stylebox=2

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Grade GPA Percentage Comments

A 4 90-100 (Outstanding)

A- 3.67 88-89 B+ 3.33 84-87

B 3 80-83 (Satisfactory)

B- 2.67 78-79

C+ 2.33 74-77 C 2 70-73 (Passing but below the standard accepted in graduate study)

C- 1.67 68-69 D+ 1.33 64-67

D 1 60-63 (Does not meet standard for graduate study, coursework must be repeated for credit)

D- 0.67 59 F <0.67 58 or below (Failure)

Faculty Advisors will refer to the following grading rubric when evaluating your assignments:

Excellent Above Average

Satisfactory Needs Improvement

Unsatisfactory

Understanding of Material and Lesson Objectives

Demonstrates a thorough understanding of the material.

Demonstrates an adequate understanding of material

Responses are generally accurate, but at times lacking coherence.

Demonstrates a marginal understanding of the material and lesson objectives.

Provides marginally complete and/or inaccurate responses showing little understanding of the material

Articulation, Synthesis and Analysis of Concepts

Work is articulated consistent with the degree level integrating or synthesizing concepts in an original and innovative way.

Work demonstrates a solid knowledge of concepts and theories with some individual analysis of issues.

Work demonstrates an elementary knowledge of concepts but lacks original thought and analysis.

Work is primarily paraphrased or quoted directly from the text or other sources. Responses demonstrate little or no individual analysis.

No individual analysis of concepts. Work is poorly articulated and/or derived entirely from the textbook.

Composition, Presentation, and References

Work presented in a logical and coherent way supported by sound resources. Citations are composed in proper format with few or no errors.

Work presented is grammatically sound. Resources are appropriate and cited in proper format with few errors.

Work is grammatically sound with a few minor errors. Resources may be of questionable authority, but are cited in proper format with few errors.

Work contains frequent grammatical errors. Resources are few, non- existent, or may be of questionable authority.

Frequent errors in composition, grammar and presentation. Quoted material is incorporated without the use of quotation marks or citation (plagiarism).

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Course Completion Requirements

The course will be deemed completed only when all the following has been accomplished:

• You have completed all the lesson Assignments and they have been received by the University

• You have passed the course Final Examination (if required)

• You have completed the Course Certification Form and it has been received by the

University

• You have completed the Course Evaluation Survey

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Lesson 1 - Defining M ark eting and Developing M ark eting P lans Introduction This lesson provides an overview of marketing as an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stake holders. Marketing management is the art and science of choosing target markets and getting, keeping, and growing customers through creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value. Marketers are skilled at managing demand: They seek to influence the level, timing, and composition of demand. Marketers are involved in marketing many types of entities: goods, services, events, experiences, persons, places, properties, organizations, information, and ideas. They also operate in four different marketplaces: consumer, business, global, and nonprofit. Marketing is not done only by the marketing department. Marketing needs to affect every aspect of the customer experience. To create a strong marketing organization, marketers must think like executives in other departments, and executives in other departments must think more like marketers. Today’s marketplace is unique because of major societal forces that have resulted in many new consumer and company capabilities. These forces have created new opportunities and challenges and marketing management has changed significantly in recent years as companies seek new ways to achieve marketing excellence. Strong companies develop superior capabilities in managing core business processes such as new-product realization, inventory management, and customer acquisition and retention. Managing these core processes effectively means creating a marketing network in which the company works closely with all parties in the production and distribution chain, from suppliers of raw materials to retail distributors. Companies no longer compete—marketing networks do. Market-oriented strategic planning is the managerial process of developing and maintaining a viable fit between the organization’s objectives, skills, and resources and its changing market opportunities. The aim of strategic planning is to shape the company’s businesses and products so that they yield target profits and growth. Strategic planning takes place at four levels: corporate, division, business unit, and product. The corporate strategy establishes the framework within which the divisions and business units prepare their strategic plans. Setting a corporate strategy entails four activities: defining the corporate mission, establishing strategic business units (SBUs), assigning resources to each SBU based on its market attractiveness and business strength, and planning new businesses and downsizing older businesses. Strategic planning for individual businesses entails the following activities: defining the business mission, analyzing external opportunities and threats, analyzing internal strengths and

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weaknesses, formulating goals, formulating strategy, formulating supporting programs, implementing the programs, and gathering feedback and exercising control. Each product level within a business unit must develop a marketing plan for achieving its goals. The marketing plan is one of the most important outputs of the marketing process. Lesson Learning Objectives By the conclusion of this lesson you should be able to:

• Articulate fundamental marketing concepts.

• Prioritize the necessary tasks for successful marketing management.

• Characterize how marketing affects customer value.

• Explain how strategic planning is carried out at different levels of the organization.

• Diagram what is included in a marketing plan. Reading Study Chapters 1 and 2 of the text View Student PowerPoints for Chapters 1 and 2 Assignments The follow ing Assignm ents should be com pleted and subm itted to the course faculty via the learning platform for evaluation and grading. Subm it your responses to these questions in one W OR D docum ent. List the question first, and then your response. Y our response m ust adequately cover the question w ithout being w ordy or relying on “yes” or “no” responses. Marketing Plan

Throughout this course you will create a marketing plan for a product or service of your choice. Each lesson will introduce a component of your overall plan that you will be required to submit for review. Unless otherwise specified, there is no limit as to the number of pages to be submitted; completeness of your marketing plan is what is important for your overall grade.

Your Faculty Mentor will review and grade each submission and suggest areas for improvement, or for more detailed study. Incorporate the suggested changes into your plan and save it. Each step of the process will be graded according to the following:

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• Use of analytical marketing concepts to analyze the company and its product(s) or services.

• Degree to which information was sought and attained.

• Quality of the proposed marketing program – use of research techniques, diagrams, and supporting documentation.

• Quality of suggestions for future marketing.

• Quality of writing. Marketing Plan - Step 1: Mission Statement, Executive Summary, SWOT Analysis

1. Select and describe your fictitious company and their product(s) or services.

2. Formulate a company Mission Statement that reflects the vision of the company and shows alignment with the offering.

3. Prepare an Executive Summary (Cover Memo) outlining the main goals and recommendations for the product(s) or services. Define what competitive spheres (industry, products and applications, competence, market-segment, vertical, and geographic) your fictitious company will operate in. Identify which of Porter’s generic competitive strategies you would recommend that the company follow in formulating overall strategy. Some hints to use in writing an Executive Cover Memo:

• Do not use terms such as increase, decrease, implement as soon as possible, and other non-specific and non-analytical language; use very specific language when preparing your case analyses.

• Cite numbers ($ or % increase; market share growth) and attach all pertinent documents to your report.

• Do not just state, “Exhibit A shows our growth rate” without first stating the

growth rate in your paragraph.

• Before submitting your document, ask yourself the question, “Does this memo contain all of the information needed for the boss or directors of the company to make a decision to proceed with implementing the marketing plan?” If not, revise your memo.

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4. For your fictitious company, develop a Strengths/Weaknesses Analysis and an Opportunity/Threat matrix. Alternatively, you can develop a more simplified SWOT analysis.

5. Prepare an initial table of contents that outlines the rest of the plan and the supporting rationale and operational detail. (This will evolve as you proceed to develop your plan).

Lesson Quiz Take the quiz for this lesson. Your results on the quiz do not affect your grade for the course. Quizzes are designed to help you to learn important concepts in the lesson and prepare you for the Final Examination. You may take the quiz as many times as you wish.

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Lesson 2 – Capturing M ark eting I nsights

Introduction To carry out their analysis, planning, implementation, and control responsibilities, marketing managers need a marketing information system (MIS). The role of the MIS is to assess the managers’ information needs, develop the needed information, and distribute that information in a timely manner. An MIS has three components: (a) an internal records system, which includes information on the order-to-payment cycle and sales information systems; (b) a marketing intelligence system, a set of procedures and sources used by managers to obtain everyday information about pertinent developments in the marketing environment; and (c) a marketing research system that allows for the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation. Marketers find many opportunities by identifying trends (directions or sequences of events that have some momentum and durability) and megatrends (major social, economic, political, and technological changes that have long-lasting influence). Within the rapidly changing global picture, marketers must monitor six major environmental forces: demographic, economic, social- cultural, natural, technological, and political-legal. In the demographic environment, marketers must be aware of worldwide population growth; changing mixes of age, ethnic composition, and educational levels; the rise of nontraditional families; and large geographic shifts in population. The focus of marketers varies depending on the environment they work in. In the:

• Economic arena - marketers need to focus on income distribution and levels of savings, debt, and credit availability.

• Social-cultural arena - marketers must understand people’s views of themselves, others, organizations, society, nature, and the universe. They must market products that correspond to society’s core and secondary values, and address the needs of different subcultures within a society.

• Natural environment - marketers need to be aware of the public’s increased concern about the health of the environment. Many marketers are now embracing sustainability and green marketing programs that provide better environmental solutions as a result.

• Technological arena - marketers should take account of the accelerating pace of technological change, opportunities for innovation, varying R&D budgets, and the increased governmental regulation brought about by technological change.

• Political-legal environment - marketers must work within the many laws regulating business practices and with various special-interest groups.

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Companies can conduct their own marketing research or hire other companies to do it for them. Good marketing research is characterized by the scientific method, creativity, multiple research methods, accurate model building, cost-benefit analysis, healthy skepticism, and an ethical focus. The marketing research process consists of defining the problem, decision alternatives, and research objectives, developing the research plan, collecting the information, analyzing the information, presenting the findings to management, and making the decision. In conducting research, firms must decide whether to collect their own data or use data that already exist. They must also decide which research approach (observational, focus group, survey, behavioral data, or experimental) and which research instruments (questionnaire, qualitative measures, or technological devices) to use. In addition, they must decide on a sampling plan and contact methods (by mail, by phone, in person, or online). Two complementary approaches to measuring marketing productivity are: (1) marketing metrics to assess marketing effects and (2) marketing-mix modeling to estimate causal relationships and measure how marketing activity affects outcomes. Marketing dashboards are a structured way to disseminate the insights gleaned from these two approaches within the organization. There are two types of demand: market demand and company demand. To estimate current demand, companies attempt to determine total market potential, area market potential, industry sales and market share. To estimate future demand, companies survey buyers’ intentions, solicit their sales force’s input, gather expert opinions, analyze past sales, or engage in market testing. Mathematical models, advanced statistical techniques, and computerized data collection procedures are essential to all types of demand and sales forecasting. Lesson Learning Objectives By the conclusion of this lesson you should be able to:

• Characterize how marketing affects customer value

• Analyze the key methods for tracking and identifying opportunities in the macro environment

• Explain what is included in a marketing plan

• Explain the components of a modern marketing information system

• Plan and perform good marketing research

• Select good metrics for measuring marketing productivity

• Decide how marketers can assess their returns on investment of marketing expenditures

• Research, measure and forecast demand

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Reading Study Chapters 3 and 4 of the text View the PowerPoints for Chapters 3 and 4

Assignment The follow ing Assignm ents should be com pleted and subm itted to the course faculty via the learning platform for evaluation and grading. Subm it your responses to these questions in one W OR D docum ent. List the question first, and then your response. Y our response m ust adequately cover the question w ithout being w ordy or relying on “yes” or “no” responses. Marketing Plan - Step 2: Marketing Research and Effectiveness Metrics Submit your responses to the following questions. Also, incorporate them into your evolving Marketing Plan. Adjust the plan to incorporate any feedback from your previous assignment, and modify the Table of Contents as necessary.

1. Describe the makeup of your target market. Forecast the demand for your product(s) or services. What trends might affect your target market’s behavior? Consider changes in economy, demographics, technology, etc.

2. Identify and describe the primary research (online or off-line) you will need to conduct to support your marketing strategy, including product management, pricing, distribution, and marketing communication? What questions or issues will you seek to resolve using primary data? What surveys, focus groups, observation, behavioral data, or experiments will you need to support your marketing strategy? Identify two Internet sources and two non-Internet sources. Describe what you plan to draw from each source, and indicate how you will use the data in your marketing plan. Be specific about the questions or issues that you need to resolve using marketing research. For which sections of the plan will you need secondary data? Primary data? Why do you need information for each section?

3. Investigate the various ways to evaluate marketing effectiveness. Recommend three specific marketing metrics to apply in determining marketing effectiveness and efficiency.

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Lesson 3 – Connecting w ith Custom ers and M ark ets

Introduction Customers are value-maximizers. They form an expectation of value and act on it. Buyers will buy from the firm that they perceive to offer the highest customer-delivered value, defined as the difference between total customer benefits and total customer cost. A buyer’s satisfaction is a function of the product’s perceived performance and the buyer’s expectations. Recognizing that high satisfaction leads to high customer loyalty, companies must ensure that they meet and exceed customer expectations. Losing profitable customers can dramatically affect a firm’s profits. The cost of attracting a new customer is estimated to be five times the cost of keeping a current customer happy. The key to retaining customers is relationship marketing. Quality is the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs. Marketers play a key role in achieving high levels of total quality so that firms remain solvent and profitable. Marketing managers must calculate customer lifetime values of their customer base to understand their profit implications. They must also determine ways to increase the value of the customer base. Companies are also becoming skilled in Customer Relationship Management (CRM), which focuses on developing programs to attract and retain the right customers and meeting the individual needs of those valued customers. Customer relationship management often requires building a customer database and doing data mining to detect trends, segments, and individual needs. Consumer behavior is influenced by three factors: cultural (culture, subculture, and social class); social (reference groups, family, and social roles and statuses); and personal (age, stage in the life cycle, occupation, economic circumstances, lifestyle, personality, and self-concept). Research into all these factors can provide marketers with clues to reach and serve consumers more effectively. Four main psychological processes affect consumer behavior: motivation, perception, learning, and memory. To understand how consumers actually make buying decisions, marketers must identify who makes and has input into the buying decision; people can be initiators, influencers, deciders, buyers, or users. Different marketing campaigns might be targeted to each type of person. The typical buying process consists of the following sequence of events: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision, and post purchase behavior. The marketers’ job is to understand the behavior at each stage. The attitudes of others, unanticipated situational factors, and perceived risk may all affect the decision to buy, as will consumers’ levels of post purchase product satisfaction, use, and disposal and actions on the part of the company.

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Organizational buying is the decision-making process by which formal organizations establish the need for purchased products and services, then identify, evaluate, and choose among alternative brands and suppliers. The business market consists of all the organizations that acquire goods and services used in the production of other products or services that are sold, rented, or supplied to others. Compared to consumer markets, business markets generally have fewer and larger buyers, a closer customer-supplier relationship, and more geographically concentrated buyers. Demand in the business market is derived from demand in the consumer market and fluctuates with the business cycle. Nonetheless, the total demand for many business goods and services is quite price inelastic.

Business marketers need to be aware of the role of professional purchasers and their influencers, the need for multiple sales calls, and the importance of direct purchasing, reciprocity, and leasing. The buying center is the decision-making unit of a buying organization. It consists of initiators, users, influencers, deciders, approvers, buyers, and gatekeepers. To influence these parties, marketers must consider environmental, organizational, interpersonal, and individual factors. Business marketers are strengthening their brands and using technology and other communication tools to develop effective marketing programs. They are also using systems selling and adding services to provide customers added value. Business marketers must form strong bonds and relationships with their customers. Some customers, however, may prefer a transactional relationship.

The institutional market consists of schools, hospitals, nursing homes, prisons, and other institutions that provide goods and services to people in their care. Buyers for government organizations tend to require a great deal of paperwork from their vendors and to favor open bidding and domestic companies. Suppliers must be prepared to adapt their offers to the special needs and procedures found in institutional and government markets.

Despite shifting borders, unstable governments, foreign-exchange problems, corruption, and technological pirating, companies selling in global industries need to internationalize their operations. Upon deciding to go abroad, a company needs to define its international marketing objectives and policies. It must determine whether to market in a few or many countries and rate candidate countries on three criteria: market attractiveness, risk, and competitive advantage. Developing countries offer a unique set of opportunities and risks. The “BRICS” countries—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—plus other significant markets such as Indonesia are a top priority for many firms. Modes of entry are indirect exporting, direct exporting, licensing, joint ventures, and direct investment. Each succeeding strategy entails more commitment, risk, control, and profit potential.

Lesson Learning Objectives By the conclusion of this lesson you should be able to:

• Characterize customer value, satisfaction, and loyalty, and how can companies deliver them

• Cultivate strong customer relationships

• Analyze how companies can both attract and retain customers

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• Articulate how consumer characteristics influence buying behavior

• Assess what major psychological processes influence consumer responses to the

marketing program

• Propose how consumers and business buyers make purchasing decisions

• Explain the requirements for effective segmentation

• Evaluate the factors that a company should review before deciding to go abroad

Reading Study Chapters 5, 6, 7, & 8 of the text View the PowerPoints for Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8 Assignment The follow ing Assignm ents should be com pleted and subm itted to the course faculty via the learning platform for evaluation and grading. Subm it your responses to these questions in one W OR D docum ent. List the question first, and then your response. Y our response m ust adequately cover the question w ithout being w ordy or relying on “yes” or “no” responses. Marketing Plan - Step 3: Identifying Market Segments and Targets Submit your responses to the following questions. Also, incorporate them into your evolving Marketing Plan. Adjust the plan to incorporate any feedback from your previous assignment, and modify the Table of Contents as necessary.

1. Creating Customer Value, Satisfaction, and Loyalty Recommend how your fictitious company should measure total customer satisfaction.

2. Analyzing Consumer Markets What cultural, social, personal, and psychological factors have the most influence on consumers buying your product(s) or services? What research tools will help you better understand the effect of these factors on buyer attitudes and behavior?

What consumer buying roles and buying behaviors are particularly relevant for your products or services?

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3. Analyzing Business Markets

Is there a business market for your product(s) or services? If yes, what specific types of businesses appear to fit the business market definition for your company? What needs could your product(s) or services address for these businesses? Who would participate in and influence the purchase for use in these businesses? Which environmental, interpersonal, and individual influences are likely to be most important to business buyers of your product(s) or services? Why?

4. Identifying Market Segments and Targets

Which variables should you use to segment your company’s consumer markets? Which variables should you use to segment its business markets? How can you evaluate the attractiveness of each identified segment? Should you pursue full market coverage, market specialization, product specialization, selective specialization, or single-segment concentration? Why?

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Lesson 4 – B uilding Strong B rands

Introduction

Target marketing includes three activities: market segmentation, market targeting, and market positioning. Market segments are large, identifiable, distinct groups within a market. The major segmentation variables for consumer markets are geographic, demographic, psychographic, and behavioral. Marketers use them singly or in combination. Business marketers use all these variables along with operating variables, purchasing approaches, and situational factors.

To be useful, market segments must be measurable, substantial, accessible, differentiable, and actionable. We can target markets at four main levels: mass, multiple segments, single (or niche) segment, and individuals.

A mass market targeting approach is adopted only by the biggest companies. Many companies target multiple segments defined in various ways such as various demographic groups who seek the same product benefit. A niche is a more narrowly defined group. Globalization and the Internet have made niche marketing more feasible for many. More companies now practice individual and mass customization. The future is likely to see more individual consumers take the initiative in designing products and brands. Marketers must choose target markets in a socially responsible manner at all times.

To develop an effective positioning, a company must study competitors as well as actual and potential customers. Developing a positioning requires identifying a frame of reference—by locating the target market and the nature of the competition—and the ideal points-of-parity and points-of-difference brand associations. To determine the proper competitive frame of reference, one must understand consumer behavior and the considerations consumers use in making brand choices.

A company’s closest competitors are those seeking to satisfy the same customers and needs and making similar offers. A company should also pay attention to latent competitors, who may offer new or different ways to satisfy the same needs. Industry- and market-based analyses both help uncover competitors. Points-of-difference are those associations unique to the brand that are also strongly held and favorably evaluated by consumers. Points-of-parity are those associations not necessarily unique to the brand but perhaps shared with other brands. Category point-of-parity associations are associations that consumers view as being necessary to a legitimate and credible product offering within a certain category. Correlational points-of-parity are associations designed to overcome perceived weaknesses or vulnerabilities of the brand. Competitive point-of-parity associations are those associations designed tone gate competitors’ points-of-difference. Emotional branding is becoming an important way to connect with customers and create differentiation from competitors. Emotional differences are often most powerful when they are connected to underlying functional differences.

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Course Syllabus

A brand is a name, term, sign, symbol, or design, or some combination of these elements, intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors. The different components of a brand—brand names, logos, symbols, package designs, and so on—are brand elements. Brands offer a number of benefits to customers and firms. Brands are valuable intangible assets that need to be managed carefully. The key to branding is that consumers perceive differences among brands in a product category. Brand equity should be defined in terms of marketing effects uniquely attributable to a brand. That is, brand equity relates to the fact that different outcomes result in the marketing of a product or service because of its brand, as compared to the results if that same product or service was not identified by that brand. Building brand equity depends on three main factors: (1) The initial choices for the brand elements or identities making up the brand; (2) the way the brand is integrated into the supporting marketing program; and (3) the associations indirectly transferred to the brand by linking the brand to some other entity (e.g., the company, country of origin, channel of distribution, or another brand). Brand equity needs to be measured in order to be managed well. Brand audits measure “where the brand has been,” and tracking studies measure “where the brand is now” and whether marketing programs are having the intended effects. Customer equity is a concept that is complementary to brand equity and reflects the sum of lifetime values of all customers for a brand. Growing the core or seeking organic growth-focusing on opportunities with existing products and markets-is often a prudent way to increase sales and profits. A market leader has the largest market share in the relevant product market. To remain dominant, the leader looks for ways to expand total market demand, attempts to protect its current market share, and perhaps tries to increase its market share. A market challenger attacks the market leader and other competitors in an aggressive bid for more market share. Challengers can choose from five types of general attack; challengers must also choose specific attack strategies. A market follower is a runner-up firm willing to maintain its market share and not rock the boat. A follower can play the role of counterfeiter, cloner, imitator, or adapter. A market nicher serves small market segments not being served by larger firms. The key to nichemanship is specialization. Nichers develop offerings to fully meet a certain group of customers’ needs, commanding a premium price in the process. As important as a competitive orientation is in today’s global markets, companies should not overdo the emphasis on competitors. They should maintain a good balance of consumer and competitor monitoring.

M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

Lesson Learning Objectives By the conclusion of this lesson you should be able to:

• Determine the requirements for effective segmentation and how markets should be segmented

• Discuss what is a brand and how branding works

• Explain what brand equity is, and how brand equity is built, measured, and managed

• Determine how a firm can develop and establish an effective positioning in the market

• Choose marketing strategies appropriate for each stage of the product life-cycle

• Analyze primary competitors’ strategies, objectives, strengths, and weaknesses

• Explain how market leaders can expand the total market and defend market share

• Assess how market followers can compete effectively

Reading Study Chapters 9, 10, 11, & 12 of the text View the PowerPoints for Chapters 9, 10, 11, & 12

Assignment

The follow ing Assignm ents should be com pleted and subm itted to the course faculty via the learning platform for evaluation and grading. Subm it your responses to these questions in one W OR D docum ent. List the question first, and then your response. Y our response m ust adequately cover the question w ithout being w ordy or relying on “yes” or “no” responses.

Marketing Plan - Step 4: Branding and Competitive Environment Submit your responses to the following. Also, incorporate them into your evolving Marketing Plan. Adjust the plan to incorporate any feedback from your previous assignment, and modify the Table of Contents as necessary.

1. Develop a comprehensive “Branding” strategy including your product(s) or service’s brand positioning.

M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

2 . In a tabular format, list competitive information. Include all relevant information on competitors such as pricing, service, market share, etc. Which firm is the market leader, and what are its objectives, strengths, and weaknesses? Include any information on the sources of your information.

M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

Lesson 5 – Creating Value

Introduction Product is the first and most important element of the marketing mix. Product strategy calls for making coordinated decisions on product mixes, product lines, brands, and packaging and labeling. In planning its market offering, the marketer needs to think through the five levels of the product: the core benefit, the basic product, the expected product, the augmented product, and the potential product, which encompasses all the augmentations and transformations the product might ultimately undergo.

Products can be nondurable goods, durable goods, or services. In the consumer-goods category are convenience goods (staples, impulse goods, emergency goods), shopping goods (homogeneous and heterogeneous), specialty goods, and unsought goods. The industrial-goods category has three subcategories: materials and parts (raw materials and manufactured materials and parts), capital items (installations and equipment), and supplies and business services (operating supplies, maintenance and repair items, maintenance and repair services, and business advisory services).

Brands can be differentiated on the basis of product form, features, performance, conformance, durability, reliability, repairability, style, customization, and design, as well as such service dimensions as ordering ease, delivery, installation, customer training, customer consulting, and maintenance and repair. Most companies sell more than one product. A product mix can be classified according to width, length, depth, and consistency. These four dimensions are the tools for developing the company’s marketing strategy and deciding which product lines to grow, maintain, harvest, and divest. To analyze a product line and decide how many resources should be invested in that line, product-line managers need to look at sales and profits and market profile. A company can change the product component of its marketing mix by lengthening its product via line stretching (down-market, up-market, or both) or line filling, by modernizing its products, by featuring certain products, and by pruning its products to eliminate the least profitable. Physical products must be packaged and labeled. Well-designed packages can create convenience value for customers and promotional value for producers. In effect, they can act as “five-second commercials” for the product. Warranties and guarantees can offer further assurance to consumers.

M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

A service is any act or performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. It may or may not be tied to a physical product. Services are intangible, inseparable, variable, and perishable. Each characteristic poses challenges and requires certain strategies. Marketers must find ways to give tangibility to intangibles; to increase the productivity of service providers; to increase and standardize the quality of the service provided; and to match the supply of services with market demand. In the past, service industries lagged behind manufacturing firms in adopting and using marketing concepts and tools, but this situation has now changed. Service marketing must be done holistically: It calls not only for external marketing but also for internal marketing to motivate employees, and interactive marketing to emphasize the importance of both “high-tech” and “high-touch.” Customers’ expectations play a critical role in their service experiences and evaluations. Companies must manage service quality by understanding the effects of each service encounter. Top service companies excel at the following practices: a strategic concept, a history of top- management commitment to quality, high standards, self-service technologies, systems for monitoring service performance and customer complaints, and an emphasis on employee satisfaction. To brand a service organization effectively, the company must differentiate its brand through primary and secondary service features and develop appropriate brand strategies. Effective branding programs for services often employ multiple brand elements. They also develop brand hierarchies and portfolios and establish image dimensions to reinforce or complement service offerings. Even product-based companies must provide post purchase service. To provide the best support, a manufacturer must identify the services customers value most and their relative importance. The service mix includes both presale services (facilitating and value-augmenting services) and post sale services (customer service departments, repair and maintenance services). Once a company has segmented the market, chosen its target customer groups and identified their needs, and determined its desired market positioning, it is ready to develop and launch appropriate new products and services. Marketing should participate with other departments in every stage of new-product development. Successful new-product development requires the company to establish an effective organization for managing the development process. Companies can choose to use product managers, new- product managers, new-product committees, new-product departments, or new-product venture teams. Increasingly, companies are adopting cross-functional teams, connecting to individuals and organizations outside the company, and developing multiple product concepts. Eight stages take place in the new-product development process: idea generation, screening, concept development and testing, marketing strategy development, business analysis, product development, market testing, and commercialization. At each stage, the company must determine whether the idea should be dropped or moved to the next stage.

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Course Syllabus

The consumer-adoption process is the process by which customers learn about new products, try them, and adopt or reject them. Today many marketers are targeting heavy users and early adopters of new products because both groups can be reached by specific media and tend to be opinion leaders. The consumer-adoption process is influenced by many factors beyond the marketer’s control, including consumers’ and organizations’ willingness to try new products, personal influences, and the characteristics of the new product or innovation. Despite the increased role of nonprice factors in modern marketing, price remains a critical element of the marketing mix. Price is the only element that produces revenue; the others produce costs. In setting pricing policy, a company follows a six-step procedure. It selects its pricing objective. It estimates the demand curve, the probable quantities it will sell at each possible price. It estimates how its costs vary at different levels of output, at different levels of accumulated production experience, and for differentiated marketing offers. It examines competitors’ costs, prices, and offers. It selects a pricing method. It selects the final price. Companies do not usually set a single price, but rather a pricing structure that reflects variations in geographical demand and costs, market-segment requirements, purchase timing, order levels, and other factors. Several price-adaptation strategies are available: (1) geographical pricing; (2) price discounts and allowances; (3) promotional pricing; and (4) discriminatory pricing. After developing pricing strategies, firms often face situations in which they need to change prices. A price decrease might be brought about by excess plant capacity, declining market share, a desire to dominate the market through lower costs, or economic recession. A price increase might be brought about by cost inflation or overdemand. Companies must carefully manage customer perceptions in raising prices. Companies must anticipate competitor price changes and prepare contingent response. A number of responses are possible in terms of maintaining or changing price or quality. The firm facing a competitor’s price change must try to understand the competitor’s intent and the likely duration of the change. Strategy often depends on whether a firm is producing homogeneous or nonhomogeneous products. Market leaders attacked by lower-priced competitors can seek to better differentiate itself, introduce its own low-cost competitor, or transform itself more completely. Lesson Learning Objectives By the conclusion of this lesson you should be able to:

• Describe how companies can differentiate products

• Explain how companies can combine products to create strong co-brands or ingredient brands

• Integrate packaging, labeling, warranties, and guarantees as marketing tools

• Explain how services are defined and how they differ from goods

• Plan organizational structures and processes to oversee new-product development

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Course Syllabus

• Analyze how consumers process and evaluate prices

• Propose how a company should set prices initially for products or services and when they should adapt prices to meet varying circumstances and opportunities

• Assess when a company should initiate a price change and how a company should respond to a competitor’s price change

Reading Study Chapters 13, 14, 15, & 16 of the text View the PowerPoints for Chapters 13, 14, 15, & 16 Assignment The follow ing Assignm ents should be com pleted and subm itted to the course faculty via the learning platform for evaluation and grading. Subm it your responses to these questions in one W OR D docum ent. List the question first, and then your response. Y our response m ust adequately cover the question w ithout being w ordy or relying on “yes” or “no” responses. Marketing Plan - Step 5: Product and Pricing Strategy Submit your responses to the following. Also, incorporate them into your evolving Marketing Plan. Adjust the plan to incorporate any feedback from your previous assignment, and modify the Table of Contents as necessary.

1. How would you define the core benefit for your product(s) or services? What support services do buyers of your product(s) or services want and need? Consider what your competitors are doing in this area. How can you identify and manage gaps between expected and perceived service to satisfy customers? What post-sale services must you make available to your customers? What internal marketing do you need to do to implement your service strategy?

2. What should your primary pricing objective be? Why? Are your customers likely to be

price-sensitive? Is demand elastic or inelastic? What are the implications of the answers for pricing decisions? What price adaptations such as discounts, allowances, and promotional pricing should you include in your marketing plan?

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Course Syllabus

M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

Lesson 6 – Delivering Value

Introduction Most producers do not sell their goods directly to final users. Between producers and final users stands one or more marketing channels, a host of marketing intermediaries performing a variety of functions. Marketing-channel decisions are among the most critical decisions facing management. The company’s chosen channel(s) profoundly affect all other marketing decisions. Companies use intermediaries when they lack the financial resources to carry out direct marketing, when direct marketing is not feasible, and when they can earn more by doing so. The most important functions performed by intermediaries are information, promotion, negotiation, ordering, financing, risk taking, physical possession, payment, and title. Manufacturers have many alternatives for reaching a market. They can sell direct or use one-, two-, or three-level channels. Deciding which type(s) of channel to use calls for analyzing customer needs, establishing channel objectives, and identifying and evaluating the major alternatives, including the types and numbers of intermediaries involved in the channel. Effective channel management calls for selecting intermediaries and training and motivating them. The goal is to build a long-term partnership that will be profitable for all channel members. Marketing channels are characterized by continuous and sometimes dramatic change. Three of the most important trends are the growth of vertical marketing systems, horizontal marketing systems, and multichannel marketing systems. E-commerce has become firmly established as more companies have adopted “brick-and-click” channel systems. M-commerce (selling via smart phones and tablets) is also gaining in importance. Some consumers engage in showrooming by which they shop in stores to inspect products but buy online later to seek a lower price. Channel integration must recognize the distinctive strengths of online and offline selling and maximize their joint contributions. All marketing channels have the potential for conflict and competition resulting from goal incompatibility, poorly defined roles and rights, perceptual differences, and interdependent relationships. Companies can try to manage conflict through dual compensation, superordinate goals, employee exchange, co-optation, and other means. Retailing includes all the activities involved in selling goods or services directly to final consumers for personal, nonbusiness use. Retailers can be understood in terms of store retailing, nonstore retailing, and retail organizations.

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Course Syllabus

Like products, retail-store types pass through stages of growth and decline. As existing stores offer more services to remain competitive, costs and prices go up, which opens the door to new retail forms that offer a mix of merchandise and services at lower prices. The major types of retail stores are specialty stores; department stores; supermarkets; convenience stores; discount stores; off-price retailers (factory outlets, independent off-price retailers, and warehouse clubs); superstores (combination stores and supermarkets), and catalog showrooms. Nonstore retailing is growing and includes direct selling (one-to-one selling, one-to-many party selling, and multilevel network marketing), direct marketing (which includes e-commerce and Internet retailing), automatic vending, and buying services. Retail organizations achieve many economies of scale, greater purchasing power, wider brand recognition, and better-trained employees. The major types of corporate retailing are corporate chain stores, voluntary chains, retailer cooperatives, consumer cooperatives, franchise organizations, and merchandising conglomerates. As new retail forms have emerged, competition between them has increased, the rise of giant retailers has been matched by the decline of middle-market retailers, investment in technology has grown, and shopper marketing inside stores has become a priority. Like all marketers, retailers must prepare marketing plans that include decisions about target markets, channels, product assortment and procurement, prices, services, store atmosphere, store activities and experiences, communications, and location. Wholesaling includes all the activities in selling goods or services to those who buy for resale or business use. Wholesalers can perform functions better and more cost-effectively than the manufacturer can. These functions include selling and promoting, buying and assortment building, bulk breaking, warehousing, transportation, financing, risk bearing, dissemination of market information, and provision of management services and consulting. There are four types of wholesalers: merchant wholesalers; brokers and agents; manufacturers’ and retailers’ sales branches, sales offices, and purchasing offices; and miscellaneous wholesalers such as agricultural assemblers and auction companies. Like retailers, wholesalers must decide on target markets, product assortment and services, price, promotion, and place. The most successful are those that adapt their services to meet suppliers’ and target customers’ needs. Producers of physical products and services must decide on market logistics—the best way to store and move goods and services to market destinations and to coordinate the activities of suppliers, purchasing agents, manufacturers, marketers, channel members, and customers. Major gains in logistical efficiency have come from advances in information technology.

M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

Lesson Learning Objectives By the conclusion of this lesson you should be able to:

• Describe a marketing channel system and a value network • Relate what decisions companies face in managing their channels

• Plan how to integrate channels and manage channel conflict

• Articulate the key issues with e-commerce

• Characterize the major types of marketing intermediaries and what marketing decisions

they make

• Articulate the important issues in logistics

Reading Study Chapters 17 & 18 of the text View the PowerPoints for Chapters 17 & 18 Assignment The follow ing Assignm ents should be com pleted and subm itted to the course faculty via the learning platform for evaluation and grading. Subm it your responses to these questions in one W OR D docum ent. List the question first, and then your response. Y our response m ust adequately cover the question w ithout being w ordy or relying on “yes” or “no” responses. Marketing Plan - Step 6: Marketing Channels and Sales Logistics Submit your responses to the following. Also, incorporate them into your evolving Marketing Plan. Adjust the plan to incorporate any feedback from your previous assignment, and modify the Table of Contents as necessary.

1. What decisions must you make to develop the five marketing flows (physical product, title, payment, information, and promotion) for product(s) or services? How many levels would be appropriate for the consumer and business markets you are targeting? Should you plan for exclusive, selective, or intensive distribution? What decisions must you make to develop the five service outputs (lot size, waiting time, spatial convenience, product variety, and service back up?

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Course Syllabus

Outline your channel decisions for getting your product(s) or services to the consumer considering the questions above.

2. What types of retailers will be most appropriate for distributing your product(s) or

services? What are advantages and disadvantages of selling through these types of retailers? What role should wholesalers play in your distribution strategy? Why? What market logistics issues must you consider before you launch?

Given the questions above, outline the retailing, wholesaling, and logistical marketing plans for your product(s) or services. Those who are acting in the role of providing a new “service” should include their plans for locations, hours of operations, and how their “service” plan is managing demand and capacity issues.

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Course Syllabus

Lesson 7 – Com m unicating Value

Introduction Modern marketing calls for more than developing a good product, pricing it attractively, and making it accessible to target customers. Companies must also communicate with present and potential stakeholders, and with the general public. The marketing communications mix consists of eight major modes of communication: advertising; sales promotion; public relations and publicity; events and experiences; direct marketing; interactive marketing; word-of-mouth marketing; and personal selling. The communications process consists of nine elements: sender, receiver, message, media, encoding, decoding, response, feedback, and noise. To get their messages through, marketers must encode their messages in a way that considers how the target audience usually decodes messages. They must also transmit the message through efficient media that reach the target audience and develop feedback channels to monitor response to the message. In identifying the target audience, the marketer needs to close any gap that exists between current public perception and the image sought. Communications objectives may involve category need, brand awareness, brand attitude, or brand purchase intention. Formulating the communication requires solving three problems: what to say (message strategy), how to say it (creative strategy), and who should say it (message source). Communications channels may be personal (advocate, expert, and social channels) or nonpersonal (media, atmospheres, and events). The objective-and-task method of setting the promotion budget, which calls upon marketers to develop their budgets by defining specific objectives, is the most desirable. Measuring the effectiveness of the marketing communications mix involves asking members of the target audience whether they recognize or recall the communication, how many times they saw it, what points they recall, how they felt about the communication, and their previous and current attitudes toward the product and the company. Advertising is any paid form of nonpersonal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor. Advertisers include not only business firms but also charitable, nonprofit, and government agencies. Sales promotion consists of mostly short-term incentive tools, designed to stimulate quicker or greater purchase of particular products or services by consumers or the trade. Sales promotion includes tools for consumer promotion, trade promotion, and business and sales force promotion (trade shows and conventions, contests for sales reps, and specialty advertising). In using sales promotion, a company must establish its objectives, select the tools, develop the program, pretest the program, implement and control it, and evaluate the results. Events and experiences are a means to become part of special and more personally relevant moments in consumers’ lives. Involvement with events can broaden and deepen the relationship of the sponsor with its target market, but only if managed properly.

M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

Public relations (PR) includes a variety of programs designed to promote or protect a company’s image or its individual products. Marketing public relations (MPR), to support the marketing department in corporate or product promotion and image making, can affect public awareness at a fraction of the cost of advertising and is often much more credible. The main tools of PR are publications, events, news, community affairs, identification media, lobbying, and social responsibility. Online marketing provides marketers with opportunities for much greater interaction and individualization through well-designed and executed Web sites, search ads, display ads, and e- mails. Social media offer marketers the opportunity to have a public voice and presence online for their brands and reinforce other communications. Marketers can build or tap into online communities, inviting participation from consumers and creating a long-term marketing asset in the process. Social media are rarely the sole source of marketing communications for a brand. Word-of-mouth marketing finds ways to engage customers so they will choose to talk positively with others about products, services, and brands. Viral marketing encourages people to exchange online information related to a product or service. Mobile marketing is an increasingly important form of interactive marketing by which marketers can use text messages, software apps, and ads to connect with consumers via their smart phones and tablets. Direct marketing is an interactive marketing system that uses one or more media to effect a measurable response or transaction at any location. Direct marketing, especially electronic marketing, is showing explosive growth. Major channels for direct marketing include face-to-face selling, direct mail, catalog marketing, telemarketing, interactive TV, kiosks, Web sites, and mobile devices. Customer relationship management often requires building a customer database and data mining to detect trends, segments, and individual needs. A number of significant risks also exist, so marketers must proceed thoughtfully. Salespeople serve as a company’s link to its customers. The sales rep is the company to many of its customers, and it is the rep who brings back to the company much-needed information about the customer. Designing the sales force requires choosing objectives, strategy, structure, size, and compensation. Objectives may include prospecting, targeting, communicating, selling, servicing, information gathering, and allocating. Selecting strategy requires choosing the most effective mix of selling approaches. Structuring the sales force entails dividing territories by geography, product, or market (or some combination of these). To estimate how large the sales force needs to be, the firm estimates the total workload and how many sales hours (and hence salespeople) will be needed. Compensating reps requires identifying the types of salaries, commissions, bonuses, expense accounts, and benefits to give and how much weight customer satisfaction should have in determining total compensation.

M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

Effective salespeople are trained in methods of analysis and customer management as well as the art of sales professionalism. No single approach works best in all circumstances, but most trainers agree that selling has six steps: prospecting and qualifying customers, preapproach, presentation and demonstration, overcoming objections, closing, and follow-up and maintenance.

Lesson Learning Objectives By the conclusion of this lesson you should be able to:

• Characterize the role of marketing communications and the major steps in developing effective communications

• Describe an effective integrated marketing communications program

• Explain how marketers choose advertising media and measure their effectiveness

• Assess how companies can exploit the potential of public relations

• Analyze how companies can carry out effective social media campaigns

• Analyze how companies can conduct direct marketing for competitive advantage

• Propose the decisions companies face in designing, managing and improving a sales force

Reading Study Chapters 19, 20, 21, & 22 of the text View the PowerPoints for Chapters 19, 20, 21, & 22 Assignment The follow ing Assignm ents should be com pleted and subm itted to the course faculty via the learning platform for evaluation and grading. Subm it your responses to these questions in one W OR D docum ent. List the question first, and then your response. Y our response m ust adequately cover the question w ithout being w ordy or relying on “yes” or “no” responses.

M K T5 1 1 – M ark eting M anagem ent

Course Syllabus

Marketing Plan - Step 7: Communications, Advertising, Promotions and PR Submit your responses to the following. Also, incorporate them into your evolving Marketing Plan. Adjust the plan to incorporate any feedback from your previous assignment, and modify the Table of Contents as necessary. 1. Integrated marketing Communications

Every marketing plan must include a section showing how the company will use marketing communications. The question is not whether to communicate, but rather what to say, to whom, how to say it, how often, and which promotional tools to use. Review the strategies you previously documented in the marketing plan for the targeting, positioning, branding, product management, pricing, and distribution. Consider these questions:

• What audience(s) should you target in your integrated marketing communications plan?

• What objectives are appropriate for your initial communications campaign?

• What message design and communication channels are likely to be most effective for the target audience?

• Which promotional tools would be most effective in your promotional mix? Why?

• How should you decide the amount to allocate to your marketing communications budget?

Considering the questions above, outline and define your integrated marketing communications matrix. Include advertising programs complete with objectives, budget, advertising message, creative strategy, media decisions, sales, and promotional materials. Ensure the continuity of the message across all possible communication media. If you intend use a direct sales force, outline the specifics (including financials) for this option.

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Course Syllabus

Lesson 8 – Long-Term Grow th

Introduction The modern marketing department has evolved through the years from a simple sales department to an organizational structure where marketers work mainly on cross-disciplinary teams. Some companies are organized by functional specialization; others focus on geography and regionalization, product and brand management, or market-segment management. Some companies establish a matrix organization consisting of both product and market managers. Effective modern marketing organizations are marked by customer focus within and strong cooperation among marketing, R&D, engineering, purchasing, manufacturing, operations, finance, accounting, and credit. Companies must practice social responsibility through their legal, ethical, and social words and actions. Cause marketing can be a means for companies to productively link social responsibility to consumer marketing programs. Social marketing is done by a non-profit or government organization to directly address a social problem or cause. A brilliant strategic marketing plan counts for little unless implemented properly, including recognizing and diagnosing a problem, assessing where the problem exists, and evaluating results. The marketing department must monitor and control marketing activities continuously. Marketing plan control ensures the company achieves the sales, profits, and other goals in its annual plan. The main tools are sales analysis, market share analysis, marketing expense-to-sales analysis, and financial analysis of the marketing plan. Profitability control measures and controls the profitability of products, territories, customer groups, trade channels, and order sizes. Efficiency control finds ways to increase the efficiency of the sales force, advertising, sales promotion, and distribution. Strategic control periodically reassesses the company’s strategic approach to the marketplace using marketing effectiveness and marketing excellence reviews as well as marketing audits. Achieving marketing excellence in the future will require a new set of skills and competencies.

Lesson Learning Objectives By the conclusion of this lesson you should be able to:

• Describe the important trends in marketing practices

• Explain the keys to effective internal marketing

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• Articulate how companies can be socially responsible marketers

• Assess what tools are available to help companies monitor and improve their marketing activities

• Propose what marketers need to do to succeed in the future

Reading Study Chapter 23 of the text View the PowerPoint for Chapter 23 Assignment The follow ing Assignm ents should be com pleted and subm itted to the course faculty via the learning platform for evaluation and grading. Subm it your responses to these questions in one W OR D docum ent. List the question first, and then your response. Y our response m ust adequately cover the question w ithout being w ordy or relying on “yes” or “no” responses. Marketing Plan - Step 8: Adoption, Global Markets and Holistic Marketing Submit your responses to the following. Also, incorporate them into your evolving Marketing Plan. Adjust the plan to incorporate any feedback from your previous assignment, and modify the Table of Contents as necessary.

1. How will the consumer learn about your offering and how quickly will they adopt it? Will it be targeted to the heavy users and early adopters’ first, then early and late majorities? What is your estimated time for full adoption? Considering the questions above, compose a brief write up addressing the consumer- adoption process for your product(s) or services.

2. The complexities of global marketing demand careful planning and implementation.

If you intend for your product(s) or services to be exported to another country, then identify which of the five international product strategies (straight extension, communication adaptation, product adaptation, dual adaptation, product/forward invention), is most appropriate and why? Identify one international market that seems most promising for your offering. Why did you select this market as most promising?

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3. Take time now to review your entire comprehensive Strategic Marketing Plan. Go back through each of the components and ensure you have communicated a complete, organized, and coherent picture. The end result should be a cohesive and well formatted package that you could present to a potential investor or CEO/Board of Directors for your fictitious company. If done correctly, this completed project is something you can use as a marketing strategy template for any product or service.

Submit your completed Marketing Plan for final review. Lesson Quiz Take the quiz for this lesson. Your results on the quiz do not affect your grade for the course. Quizzes are designed to help you to learn important concepts in the lesson and prepare you for the Final Examination. You may take the quiz as many times as you wish.

Introduction

Final Examination
Academic Integrity
Evaluation
Lesson Quiz
Lesson 2 – Capturing Marketing Insights
Lesson 3 – Connecting with Customers and Markets
Lesson 4 – Building Strong Brands
Lesson 5 – Creating Value
Lesson 6 – Delivering Value
Lesson 7 – Communicating Value
Lesson 8 – Long-Term Growth