Marketing is a core function of any organization, be it a business, NGO, school, or even a government agency. It is through marketing that we learn about customer needs, identify solutions, and capture value. Sophisticated businesses today realize that they must define themselves not by what they make, but by the benefits they deliver to customers.
Using the What is Marketing textbook, case studies, articles, videos, and guest speakers, the course will provide an introduction to the fundamental concepts of marketing that will be of value to all managers. Students will then be able to go into additional depth through other courses, self-study, and on-the- job training.
A well-established discipline, Marketing has formulas and frameworks that we will study in the class. We will learn about the five C’s – customers, company, competitors, collaboration, and context – and the four P’s – pricing, product/service, promotion, placement/distribution. We will learn basic quantitative tools for making marketing decisions, including market size, profit margin calculation, break-even analysis, churn rates, and pricing methods. We will explore key marketing concepts, including product positioning, new product introduction, advertising, the product life cycle, ethics, and customer relationship management.
It is difficult to market a product or service without some understanding of the selling process. We will look at basic sales models and explore what motivates customers to make a purchase decision.
In the last 10 years, marketing has been transformed by widespread access to the Internet. We will explore digital marketing and how social media have empowered the customer to promote products they love and destroy products that fail them.
