Principles of Marketing

Units

1. 1

   Marketing and customer value

   4 lessons

   1. The marketing processDefine marketing as creating customer value and capturing value in return, walk Kotler's five-step marketing process, and compute whether a campus café's pre-order offer earns more than it costs.
   2. Needs, wants, demands and exchangeTell a need, a want and a demand apart, describe a market offering, judge satisfaction as performance against expectations, describe an exchange, and spot marketing myopia.
   3. Marketing management orientationsIdentify and justify which of five orientations guides a firm’s decision.
   4. Customer lifetime valueCalculate future-purchase customer lifetime value (CLV) from annual contribution margin, retention, and discount rates; explain share of customer and customer equity.
2. 2

   Strategic planning and the marketing environment

   4 lessons

   1. Mission and business portfolioWrite a market-oriented mission statement, compute relative market share, place four businesses on the BCG growth-share matrix, and decide how to allocate cash among them.
   2. Growth strategies and the Ansoff matrixPlace a growth idea in Ansoff's product-market expansion grid, compute its sales gain, and compare the four strategies by how risky they are and what each is expected to add.
   3. The marketing plan and SWOTOutline the sections of a marketing plan, build a SWOT for a sample brand, and carry it through a measurable objective, a budget check and a control check.
   4. The micro and macro environmentSeparate the microenvironment's actors from the macro forces, and compute how a change in each reaches a brand's unit contribution.
3. 3

   Marketing research and analytics

   4 lessons

   1. The marketing research processWalks through defining the problem and objectives, choosing exploratory, descriptive or causal research, collecting data, analyzing it and reporting findings.
   2. Primary and secondary dataCompares secondary data sources with primary methods: observation, ethnography, surveys, focus groups and experiments, judging each on cost, speed and validity.
   3. Sampling and questionnaire designExplains probability and nonprobability samples, sample size, and writing questionnaires with closed and open questions and Likert scales while avoiding biased wording.
   4. Marketing analytics and CRMExplains customer relationship management systems, big data, A/B testing and marketing dashboards, and how firms turn customer data into insights.
4. 4

   Consumer and business buyer behavior

   4 lessons

   1. The buyer decision processDiagrams the five stages: need recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, purchase decision and postpurchase behavior, including cognitive dissonance.
   2. Influences on consumer behaviorExplains cultural, social, personal and psychological influences, including reference groups, opinion leaders, lifestyle, motivation, perception, learning, beliefs and attitudes.
   3. Adoption and diffusion of innovationsDraws Rogers' adopter categories curve (innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggards) and the product traits that speed adoption.
   4. Business buyer behaviorExplains business markets, derived demand, the buying center, straight rebuys, modified rebuys and new task buying, and the stages of the business buying process.
5. 5

   Segmentation, targeting and positioning

   4 lessons

   1. Bases for segmenting marketsExplains geographic, demographic, psychographic and behavioral segmentation, and the requirements that segments be measurable, accessible, substantial, differentiable and actionable.
   2. Choosing target marketsCompares undifferentiated, differentiated, concentrated and micromarketing strategies and how to evaluate segment size, growth and attractiveness.
   3. Positioning and perceptual mapsBuilds a perceptual map on two attributes, writes a positioning statement and explains value propositions such as more for more and same for less.
   4. Differentiation and competitive advantageExplains product, service, channel, people and image differentiation, choosing which differences to promote, and avoiding underpositioning, overpositioning and confused positioning.
6. 6

   Products, services and brands

   4 lessons

   1. Product levels and classificationsDraws the three levels of product (core value, actual product, augmented product) and classifies consumer goods as convenience, shopping, specialty and unsought.
   2. Services marketingExplains the four service characteristics (intangibility, inseparability, variability, perishability), the service profit chain and service quality.
   3. Brands and brand equityExplains brand equity and Keller's brand pyramid, brand positioning, name selection, sponsorship options and brand development strategies such as line and brand extensions.
   4. New product development and the life cycleWalks the new product development stages from idea generation to commercialization, then draws the product life cycle with strategies for each stage.
7. 7

   Pricing

   4 lessons

   1. Major pricing strategiesCompares customer value based pricing, cost-based pricing (cost-plus markup) and competition based pricing, with a worked markup on cost and on price.
   2. Break-even analysis for pricingComputes break-even volume as fixed costs divided by price minus unit variable cost and draws the break-even chart at several candidate prices.
   3. Demand and price elasticityExplains the demand curve facing the firm and price elasticity of demand, computing elasticity from two price points and showing its effect on revenue.
   4. New product pricing and price adjustmentsExplains market skimming and penetration pricing, product mix pricing, discounts, segmented, psychological, promotional, dynamic and international pricing.
8. 8

   Marketing channels and supply chains

   4 lessons

   1. Channel functions and levelsShows how intermediaries cut the number of transactions, and draws direct and indirect channel levels for consumer and business products.
   2. Channel design, conflict and systemsExplains intensive, selective and exclusive distribution, horizontal and vertical channel conflict, and corporate, contractual and administered vertical marketing systems.
   3. Retailing and wholesalingClassifies retailers by service level, product line and pricing, explains omni-channel retailing, and the roles of merchant wholesalers, brokers and agents.
   4. Marketing logisticsExplains supply chain management, warehousing, inventory management, transportation modes and third party logistics, and the tradeoff of cost against customer service.
9. 9

   Integrated marketing communications

   4 lessons

   1. The communication process and IMCDiagrams the communication model and the promotion mix, and explains integrated marketing communications, push versus pull strategy and setting the promotion budget.
   2. AdvertisingExplains setting objectives, message strategy, media selection by reach, frequency and impact, CPM calculations and measuring advertising effectiveness.
   3. Public relations and sales promotionExplains PR tools and earned media, and consumer and trade sales promotion tools such as coupons, rebates, samples, contests and trade allowances.
   4. Personal selling and sales managementWalks through the selling process (prospecting, preapproach, approach, presentation, handling objections, closing, follow-up) and designing and compensating a sales force.
10. 10

    Digital, global and sustainable marketing

    4 lessons

    1. Digital, social media and mobile marketingExplains owned, paid and earned media, search engine marketing, social media, content and influencer marketing, mobile marketing and direct marketing.
    2. Digital funnel metricsDraws the conversion funnel and computes click-through rate, conversion rate, cost per click, customer acquisition cost and return on ad spend from sample numbers.
    3. Global marketingExplains the global marketing environment, entry decisions, standardized versus adapted marketing programs, and the five global product and communication strategies.
    4. Sustainable marketing and ethicsCovers social criticisms of marketing, consumerism and environmentalism, sustainable marketing principles and ethical issues such as deceptive pricing and targeting vulnerable groups.
11. 11

    Customer analytics

    3 lessons

    1. Cluster-based segmentationSegments customers with k-means clustering on variables like spend and frequency, choosing k and profiling clusters, shown as a scatter plot with colored clusters, centroids marked and a profile table.
    2. The Bass diffusion modelModels adoption with innovators and imitators, n(t) = (p + q N(t)/m)(m - N(t)), and forecasts the peak, drawn as S shaped cumulative adoption curve beside a bell shaped sales per period curve.
    3. Advertising response and marketing mix modelsFits sales response to advertising with diminishing returns and a regression of sales on price, media and promotion, drawn as a concave response curve with the saturation point and a contribution waterfall of drivers.