What is Marketing - Module Overview 

This units forms part of the Introductory Certificate in Marketing and the aim of the What is Marketing unit is to provide the student with the backdrop to the importance of marketing in terms of what marketing is and how it is defined. Students studying this unit will look to broaden their knowledge on the role of marketing, its cross functional importance and its contribution to business success. Students will also look at the role of marketing as a service provider within the organisation.

Students will also gain a basic understanding of the internal and external marketing environment and the marketing mix, with consideration of how these factors differ from one sector to another.

After completing this module, students should be able to demonstrate a thorough knowledge and understanding of marketing and how marketing contributes to organisational success.  

By the end of this module students should be able to:

1. Define marketing in the context of an exchange process
2. Determine the importance of marketing as a cross-functional activity contributing toward business success
3. Explain the importance of understanding the organisations marketing environment and the impact it has upon an organisations ability to satisfy customer needs and wants
4. Identify each element of the marketing mix (7 P's) in the context of customer needs and achieving customer satisfaction
5. Apply the marketing mix to a range of different organisational sectors and contexts

Sections of the What is Marketing Module:

1. This module has four distinct sections and the first section will ensure that students understand the role and function of marketing as    an exchange process. Further to this, students will learn how marketing plays an important role in achieving customer satisfaction right through from the analysis and planning process in organisations to the final delivery of products or services. This section will also look at the importance of making customer satisfaction a business objective. Students studying the what is marketing module will then look at how marketing works with other departments in organisations and how this cross-functional role links the marketing department with other departments such research and development, human resources, and various other departments. Students will also learn the difference between internal and external marketing as well as how marketing can be seen as an internal service provider within the organisation.

2. The second section looks at what the marketing environment is and will explain the importance of understanding the organisations marketing environment in order to effectively manage the marketing process and then how to satisfy customer needs. Students will also look at the concept of the PESTEL model and show how each of these factors impact the organisation. Within this section students will also look at the key characteristics of the micro-environment. Students will look at customer, stakeholders, competitors, suppliers, distributors and employees and how these fit into the micro-environment. And finally students will look at the processes that can be used to monitor the marketing environment including market scanning and collection of secondary data through journals, websites and various other sources.

3. Students will then move onto the third section that will look at the seven elements that is the marketing mix. These are product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence. Students will be able to explain the importance of the marketing mix as a series of tools and how a well developed co-ordinated mix can help the organisation deliver customer satisfaction, needs and wants.

4. The final section of the what is marketing module will look at the way in which marketing is applied and approached in different organisational contexts. Students will look at how buying decisions differ between business to business and business to consumer and how the marketing mix has to be adjusted to meet the different needs of these two groups.

The second and final module for the Introductory Certificate in Marketing is called Understanding Customer Relationships.