Marketing Essentials - Module Overview

The Marketing Essentials module is part of the Professional Certificate in Marketing and aims to provide a detailed explanation of the key theories and practice that make up marketing as an exchange process and a business function as well as a means of creating customer value in the short to medium term.

Students will be introduced to the importance of the marketing planning process and how marketing plays a role across the whole organisation. Students studying the marketing essentials module will be provided with the knowledge of the key marketing tools to support an innovative range of marketing activities. Students will be taught the nature and implications of the use of marketing tools and how these can be used as stand-alone tools but also how they can be used together to maximise the impact of the marketing proposition.

Students that have completed the marketing essentials module will understand and be able to explain how to utilise all elements of the marketing mix and how the elements can be co-ordinated to create a value proposition that reflects the organisation's objectives.

After completing the marketing essentials module students should be able to:

• Explain how marketing has evolved and the importance of marketing orientation in creating customer value
• Assess the importance of marketing, its cross-functional role and the contribution it makes to the organisation and society
• Identify and explain the stages in the marketing planning process
• Assess the key elements of the internal and external marketing environment that impact upon the organisation, its objectives and its activities
• Identify and describe the characteristics and applications of each element of the marketing mix

Section one of the marketing essentials module looks at the nature and scope of marketing and students will look at and be able to explain the evolution of marketing orientation, assess the contribution of marketing as a means of creating customer value and creating and responding to competition. Students will also gain an understanding of the different characteristics of a market-orientated approach to business. This section of the marketing essentials module will be able to identify and evaluate the factors that may make market orientation difficult to achieve within an organisation due to various internal functions and barriers.

Students will also gain a better understanding of the cross-functional role of marketing and its importance to organisational performance, evaluate the impact of marketing actions on consumer, society and the environment and the need for marketers to act in an ethical and socially responsible manner. The final part of the first section will explain the significance of buyer-seller relationships in marketing and students will be able to comprehend the role of relationship marketing in facilitating the attraction and retention of customers.

The second section will explore planning within the marketing context and students will be able to explain the importance of objectives, the process for setting them and the influences that could and have an impact on them. Being able to identify the different types of organisational objectives will form part of this section. Students will also evaluate the importance of the marketing planning process to the market oriented organisation and students will be able to explain the different stages of the marketing planning process.

Studying this section of the marketing essentials module will also teach students the concept of the marketing audit and how this could be used to appraise the internal and external environment, organisational strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats, organisational competencies and capabilities, organisational resource versus an organisation's capacity to deliver and how the audit could be used for competitor analysis.

Moving on to the 3rd section students will learn all about the marketing mix. Students will be able to explain and illustrate the principles of product and planning and will look at branding, product lines or ranges, packaging and service support. This section will also teach students the concept of the product life cycle and its limitations as a tool for assessing the life of the product or service. Students will be able to explain the importance of new products and services into the marketing and the different stages of the process of new product development.

Price plays a big part of the marketing mix and students will learn the importance of price as an element of the marketing mix and will be able to identify and illustrate a range of different pricing approaches that are adopted by organisations as effective means of competition. Students studying the marketing essentials module will then also be able to define the different channels of distribution, and the role they play in a coordinated marketing mix and the factors that influence channel decision as well as the selection of possible alternative distribution channels.

The marketing mix comprises of a range of marketing communications tools and media and students will evaluate and consider their impact in different contexts. Service marketing is then considered and students will be able to explain the importance of a coordinated services marketing mix, its characteristics and implications for the marketing of service products.

Students will then look at and be able to explain the different methods used for measuring the success of marketing activities, explain the process of product and service adoption explaining the characteristics of customers at each stage of adoption and finally students will be able to explain the concept of developing a coordinated approach to the marketing mix, as a means to satisfying customer requirements and competing effectively.