Topic 1: Introduction to Marketing

Topic 2: Strategic Planning and The Marketing Management Process

1. Marketing Management is a process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of goods, services and ideas to create exchanges with target groups that satisfy customer and organisational objectives.

2. Marketing Mix is the set of controllable variables that must be managed to satisfy the target market and achieve organisation objectives.

3. Marketing Planning process produces three outputs establish marketing objectives, selecting target market and developing the marketing mix.

4. Strategic Planning provides a blueprint for management actions for the entire organization. It includes all the activities that lead to the development of a clear organizational mission, organizational objectives and appropriate strategies to achieve the objectives for the entire organization.

Topic 3: Consumer Behaviour & Organisational Buyer Behaviour

1. Consumer behaviour is a marketing concept that emphasizes that profitable marketing begins with the discovery and understanding of consumer needs and then develops a marketing mix to satisfy these needs.

2. The Buying Behaviour process will be reviewed in terms of social, marketing and situational influences on a consumer decision making.  This provides information that can influence consumers’ thoughts and feelings about purchasing various products and brands.

3. A review of marketing strategies is designed to influence consumer decision making and lead to profitable exchanges.

4. Situational influences can be defined as all the factors particular to a time and place that have a demonstrable and systematic effect on current behaviour in terms of purchase situations.

5. Organisations are major customers for many marketers and hence a general discussion of buying behaviour model will be an essential context for marketers to be well aware of considering the complexities faced.

Topic 4: Market Segmentation

1. Market segmentation is a process of dividing a market into groups of similar consumers and selecting the most appropriate group(s) for the firm to serve.

2. The group or segment that a company selects to market is called a target market.

3. Market segmentation analysis is a cornerstone of sound marketing planning and decision. .

4. Priori Segmentation approach is one in which the marketing manager has decided on the appropriate basis for segmentation in advance of doing any research on a market. Post hoc segmentation is an approach in which people are grouped into segments on the basis of research findings.

Topic 5: Product and Brand Strategy

1. Product strategy is a critical element of marketing and business strategy, since it is through the sale of products and services that companies survive and grow.

2. A product classification scheme can be useful to the marketing manager as analytical device to assist in planning marketing strategy and programs.

3. A critical focus in marketing strategy is on building the company’s brand and brand equity.

4. A firm’s product strategy must take into account the fact that products have a life cycle.

Topic 6: Integrated Marketing Communications/Personal Communications

1. Marketers seek to communicate with target customers for the obvious goal of increasing sales and profits. Thus, they seek to accomplish several strategic goals with their marketing communication efforts. 

2. The goal of integrated marketing communications is vital in strategic goals development especially in today’s crowded marketplace

3. Both non-personal communication and personal communication will be used as a basis for discussing the various elements of the marketing communication mix.

4. The importance of personal selling function depends partially on the nature of the product, as goods that are new and different, technically complex, or expensive require more personal selling effort.

5. Personal selling is as much as art as it is a science due to its highly creative in nature.

6. The new age personal selling embraces the long-term relationship building process as thus considered as partnerships as each party having concern for the other party’s wellbeing .

Topic 7: New Product Planning and Development

1. New products are a vital part of a firm’s competitive growth strategy.

2. Many new products are failures. Estimates of new product failures range from 33 percent to 90 percent depending on industry.

3. A major obstacle to effectively predicting new product demand is limited vision.

4. Common elements appear in the management practices that generally distinguish the relative degree of efficiency and success between companies.

Topic 8: The Marketing of Services

1. Services is the term used to describe activities performed by sellers and others that accompany the sale of a product and that aid in its exchange  or its utilization as such it is either presale or post-sale and supplement the product but do not comprise it

2. More and more manufacturers are also exploiting their service capabilities as standalone revenue producers i.e. General Motors, Ford all offering financial services.

3. Current trends and strategies of innovation in services marketing will be explored to see its growth and viabilities in major industries.

Topic 9: Distribution Strategy

1. Channel of distribution decisions involve numerous interrelated variables that must be integrated into the total marketing mix.

2. The development and management of channels of distribution is complex and highly competitive, hence need to understand the causes and solutions to overcome.

3. Thus, an efficient channel process will be looked at to ensure that it delivers the product when and where it is wanted at a minimum total cost.

Topic 10: Pricing Strategy

1. One of the most important and complex decisions a firm has to make relates to pricing its products and services.

2. Pricing is affected by demand, supply and environmental influences that enable a firm to decide through planning its short-term and long-term strategy.

3. Demand influences on pricing decisions concern primarily the nature of the target market and expected reactions of consumers to a given price or change in price, with three primary considerations: demographic factors, psychological factors and price elasticity.

Various types of pricing strategies will be discussed to enable the evaluation of the appropriate pricing for specific situations in the appropriate times in the product life cycle.

Topic 2: Marketing Research: Process and Systems for Decision Making

1. Marketing Research is the process by which information about the environment is generated, analysed and interpreted for use in marketing decision making. Most often consumers or organisational buyers are the subject of the research.        

2. The research plan spells out the nature of the research to be conducted and includes explanation of such things as the sample design, measures and analysis techniques to be used.

3. Performance of the research involves preparing for data collection and actually collecting them. The task of this stage depends on the type of research that has been selected and the type of data needed.

4. Preparation of data analysis and the actual analysis include such things as editing and structuring data and coding them for analysis. Hence identifies both qualitative and quantitative analysis of data.

Topic 11: Global Marketing

1. Although the development of a marketing program may be the same in either domestic or nondomestic markets, special problems may be involved in the implementation of marketing programs in nondomestic markets.

2. The abovementioned mentioned problems often arise because of the environmental differences that exist among various countries that marketing managers may be unfamiliar with.

3. With proper adaptations, many companies have the capabilities and resources to compete successfully in the global marketplace.

4. The role of the distribution network in facilitating the transfer of goods and titles  and in the demand stimulation process is as important in foreign markets as it is at home market.

5. A major decision facing companies that desire either to enter a foreign market or pursue growth within a specific market relates to the choice of entry or growth strategy.