Marketing Strategy

This course will provide you with a comprehensive introduction to contemporary marketing theory and practice. During your studies, you will become familiar with the importance and the fundamental thinking of this core management function.

You will use a wide range of concepts and techniques to analyse the external environment and to develop practical and creative strategies to meet its challenges.

Senior managers operate in a complex environment of rapid change both within and outside their organisations. Organisational life is full of messy problems that cannot be neatly compartmentalised into one specific management function and decisions may need to be made at short notice with incomplete or even conflicting information.

As a manager, the quality of your decision making will depend on your ability to select and combine the best and most appropriate ideas and techniques from a range of management functions and know how to use them.

So whether you are a marketing manager or work in another function, such as finance or human resources, you will need to understand the language used by marketing practitioners and have a sound grasp of the concepts and approaches that marketing offers.

This course will provide you with a toolbox of ideas and methods to help you make sense of your organisation's complexity. Through the six study units we build the basic principles and provide comprehensive coverage of the main theories of marketing set in the context of modern business practice.

You will learn how to understand your customers' needs; how to focus scarce resources most effectively though marketing segmentation and targeting; brand building through the right marketing mix; as well as the development and implementation of marketing plans. This is reflected in the more specific unit objectives.

Syllabus

Unit 1: Introduction to Marketing

Introduction

Objectives

Key Issues

The buyer-seller relationship

Marketing as an attitude of mind

Marketing creates customer value

Marketing approaches

The marketing mix

Marketing as a process

The marketing environment

Summary

References

Unit 2: Understanding the Market

Introduction

Objectives

Key Issues

Understanding the customer

How do consumers make decisions?

How do organisations buy?

Market segmentation

Segmentation process

Target marketing

Positioning

Marketing research

The research process

Applying research

Summary

References

Further reading

Unit 3: Product and Services Management

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Products

Services

Branding

Product life cycle

New product development

Summary

References

Unit 4: Pricing and Distribution Management

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Why is price important?

Pricing methods

Impact of the euro on price

Why is place important?

Who uses distributors?

Summary

References

Unit 5: Promotion Management

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Development of marketing communications

Defining marketing communications

The communication process

Communications planning

Marketing strategy

Message development

Communications mix decisions

Evaluating effectiveness

Summary

References

Further reading

Unit 6: Marketing Planning

Introduction

Objectives

Key issues

Planning or strategy?

Marketing audit and strategic focus

Marketing objectives

Marketing strategy and competitive behaviour

Implementing the marketing plan

Marketing organisation

Marketing control

Summary

Sample Course Materials

Please click on the logo below to view a few sample pages of the course materials we provide. Whilst this is only a few sample pages, we do hope that it will give you some idea of the quality of the materials we provide. If you have anymore queries in relation to the course materials, please feel free to contact one of our friendly course advisors who will be more than happy to deal with any queries that you may have.

Click to View

Qualifications

On completion of your course, you will receive the dual award:

Award 1 is issued by Stonebridge Associated Colleges: Marketing Strategy Diploma

Marketing Strategy Diploma issued by Stonebridge Associated Colleges, to view a sample of the college’s award, please click here.

Requirements for Entry

There is no experience or previous qualifications required for enrolment on this course. It is available to all students, of all academic backgrounds.

Study Options

In order to offer our students the most convenient and flexible distance learning courses, Stonebridge Associated College offers you the option to study for your course via two methods:

• 1. Via the traditional paper-based method.
• 2. Through the online method via ElearnUK.

If you do not have Internet access, or would prefer to study this course via the traditional paper/postal based study method, you can find more information on the course by clicking on the link below.

Stonebridge Prices

Studying by Post. If you would like to pay by instalments, we do offer an affordable interest free payment plan scheme which allows you to spread the cost of your course over a number of months. However, to use this option you will need to study for your course using the traditional paper-based method. For more information on our payment plans please visit our website at www.stonebridge.uk.com

The reason why the course fee is less if you choose to study online, is because with online study there are no costs associated with postage and printing etc. and thus we are able to offer the course at a reduced rate.

The total amount payable over the term's period, is no more than the total cash price of the course.
(APR = 0%). Written quotations are available on request.

Study Hours

This is only an approximate figure and is dependant upon how much time you can dedicate to your studies and how well you grasp the learning concepts in the course material. Furthermore, at the end of each lesson there is a question paper that needs to be completed and returned to your tutor. You should allow at least 1 - 2 hours of study to complete each question paper.

The approximate amount of time required to complete the course is: 108 hrs.