This coursed is designed to prepare you to successfully working in the sales and marketing industry. Topics will include sales strategies and best practices, marketing strategies and best practices, understanding the customer, producing, marketing, and sales off goods and services, and the global marketplace.
Students will:
- Review and comprehend the fundamentals of marketing and analyze how it has evolved over time
- Comprehend factors that influence buyer and seller decisions
- Develop marketing and pricing strategies through the creation of a marketing plan
- Describe and learn various marketing channels that can be used to sell goods and/or services
- Create solid pricing strategies and implement those while engaging customers through advertising and promotional campaigns
- Examine ways marketing can be extended outside of a local or regional market segment
- Describe the concept of sustainable marketing and social responsibilities marketing professionals must adhere to so their actions are ethical and proper
Course Outline:
Lesson 1: Initiating The Marketing Process
What is the true purpose of marketing? That’s a question a lot of people may find hard to comprehend or truly understand. If one is wanting to become a professional in this industry, however, they will need to fundamentally know what this is. This lesson covers marketing and its main purpose: creating customer value and engagement. Additionally, the authors will provide reasoning as to why one should have a marketing strategy so that any marketing effort created is sustainable for some period of time.
Lesson 2: Understanding the Market Environment
Once a sales and marketing professional has fundamental understanding as to what marketing is, the next step in their knowledge journey is to gain comprehension in what the environment may be for their specific product and or service. Learners in this lesson will gain valuable knowledge as to how to analyze the marketing environment and take the information gathered to gain customer insights.
Lesson 3: Understanding Buyers
The customer or client one markets is the primary reason a company is in business. Without them, there truly is nobody to sell to other than oneself. Having an awareness of how consumers behave and the markets they are associated with is the primary topic of this lesson. Students will also gain knowledge as to businesses behave as well. Note that businesses and consumers often behave differently and hence, require different marketing strategies.
Lesson 4: Marketing Strategies
Theoretically speaking, one may have an idea, product, or service that they want to sell to the masses. However, how are they going to achieve that, in truth? They have to develop a marketing plan in order to succeed and have a strategy to do such. The fourth lesson of the course reviews the most commonly-used marketing strategies to create and build value for the customers or clients one serve. Additionally, in this lesson, learners will gain knowledge as to how to develop additional projects to capture customer value for the people they serve.
Lesson 5: Pricing Strategies
Up to this point, the marketing plan has been developed to the point someone has an understanding of the markets they are serving and have an idea that as to what they want to sell consumers. But at what price? The fifth lesson of the course reviews the concept of pricing. Students will not only gain an understanding as to how to capture value but other considerations (e.g. margin) so that the pricing accurately reflects the cost of the product but also gains value for the business generating revenue from it.
Lesson 6: Marketing Channels
Marketing professions are much like a Swiss army knife: they have to be knowledgeable in a number of different subjects in order to be successful in their roles. As time has progressed, the number of marketing channels one can sell through has increased several times. This lesson of the course reviews different ways marketing professionals can deliver value for their clients or customers and reasons why one should choose over another.
Lesson 7: Customer Engagement
Defining what a customer is or isn’t can be difficult if one strictly deals with consumers or business alone or a combination of the two. For the purpose of this lesson, students will gain an understanding of how retailing and wholesaling works. Other topics that are discussed here include how to engage customers and communicate value through relevant marketing strategies.
Lesson 8: Advertising and Promotion
Marketing is more than just price and the product itself. In the eighth lesson of the course, students will learn the concept of advertising and public relations and how it applies to marketing goods and services to others. Advertising is more than just billboards and flashy radio or television commercials. The lesson concludes with a comprehensive overview of different ways one can sell – specifically in-person and online.
Lesson 9: Competitive Advantages & Global Marketing
The final lesson of the course reviews the future of marketing and professionals can create a competitive advantage that is both local and globally-focused. Gone are the days were products and services are often sold to customers in-person and in with new ways and approaches which can be done anytime, anywhere. The authors provide an understanding of the global marketplace and how businesses can remain sustainable in an environment like this. Conclusively, being socially responsible and ethical are topics that round out the course in this lesson which every professional must adhere to regardless of what area of marketing they decide to go in.
