MSK – ACADEMIC CERTIFICATE IN MARKETING LEVEL
- Principles of Marketing
- Understanding the Marketing Environment
- Sales Management
- Business and Customer Communication
COURSE OBJECTIVES
- To provide students with an understanding of the marketing concepts.
- To provide students with an awareness and consideration of the various tools of the marketer and enable them select the most appropriate tools of marketing.
- To ensure students are able to recognize the impact achievable through modifying the marketing mix for (re) positioning the product and service offerings.
- To introduce students to the importance of planning in the management of the marketing of the marketing activity.
- To develop an awareness of the technological advances in marketing and the impact of information technology on the marketing mix decisions.
- Overview of Marketing
- The evolving orientation of organizations and the development of the marketing concept, its distinction from sales and product orientated organizations.
- Future modifications to the concepts as organizations take on board legal and quality issues.
- The implications of marketing orientation. The development and growth of marketing activities within the organizations.
- The Marketing Mix
Product
- The product/service portfolio and the benefits related to functional, physical and symbolic issues. The importance and role of packaging.
- he nature of products and services, characteristics and life cycles.
- New product development and Product Life Cycle (PLC) modification as a way of expanding or extending the offering.
- The role of price and its determinants.
- Pricing models for decisions based on financial, economic and marketing issues. The appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of differing pricing methods.
- Distribution channels and alternative approaches to distribution, including the growth of new direct channels of distribution, such as internet.
- The communication process and the elements of the promotional mix, which includes advertising, sales promotions, personal selling, public relations and direct marketing.
- Consumer behavior
- Consumer and industrial buyer behaviour and the implications on the extended marketing mix elements for services including people, process and physical evidence issues.
- Combining the Marketing Mix
- Consumer and industrial buyer behaviour and the implications on the extended marketing mix elements for services including people, process and physical evidence issues.
- Basic assessment of the differing adaptations of the mix for goods and services.
- Customer Care
- The importance of customers, their decision processes and the implications for monitoring and maintaining levels of customer care and service quality.
- Practical approaches to improving the standard of customer care including service quality, customer satisfaction and retention.
- The Marketing Research
- Overview of the marketing research planning steps and the importance of identifying and analyzing customer needs and target segments.
- The importance of effective marketing data, the role of marketing information systems and new technologies.
- The impact of technological advances to marketing
- An overview of the role of e-commerce and new technologies in the marketing planning process (to facilitate marketing research, identify segmentation bases, direct distribution, promotions and evaluation methods).
- The development of databases to assist in relationship marketing, customer loyalty and retention. (Including an understanding of the internet, Intranet and Extranet and the importance of maintaining information – eg keeping databases/information ‘clean’).
- The use of technology as an effective tool in the promotional mix (for advertising, PR websites and crisis management, direct mail, considering digital communications, internet, mobile technology) and the implications (eg increase in call centres and the reduction in the sales force due to increases in the use of technology).
- The role of technology and its impact on customer care (including consideration of automated customer-handling operations).
COURSE OBJECTIVES
- To enable students to understand the nature of the marketing environment
- To encourage students to recognize the importance of building relationships with relevant stakeholders and publics.
- To enable students to identify and interpret the marketing implications of significant changes in an organization’s wider government
- To appreciate the complex, dynamic and uncertain nature of the external environment and how it might be best managed in marketing terms.
- Understanding the organization
- The internal environment; recognition of various private, voluntary and public sector organizations, their legal status and characteristics.
- The meaning and importance of an organization’s mission, aims, goals and objectives.
- Appreciation of different organizational objectives and the internal and external influences and drivers for change.
- The Micro Environment
- The micro environment within which organizations operate and its importance in the marketing process.
- The stockholder concept and their perceptions of the organization. Assessment of stockholders expectations and the relative importance of different groups and coalitions. Societal marketing, social responsibility and ethical issues.
- The role and importance of suppliers and market intermediaries.
- The significance of partnerships and relationships marketing.
- he variety of publics interested in the organization and potential impacts, particularly pressure groups such as consumerists and environmentalists. Appreciate the role of marketing in communicating with these publics.
- Monitoring competitors and analysis of the industry environment using Porter’s 5 force analysis. Consideration of the impact of competition policies on the marketing/marketing environment.
- The Macro Environment
- The social and cultural environments
- The economic environments.
- The political and legal environments
- Technological environment
- Natural environment
- Competitive environment
- The importance of the macro environment to the marketer.
- Managing the impact of future environment on marketing activities
- The nature of turbulent environmental change
- Appreciate the approaches available to cope with the challenge of environmental change: eg auditing the environment, forecasting; impact analysis; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT), Product Life Cycle (PLC).
- The potential significance of environmental challenges to marketing in the future eg globalization; a single currency; decline; rising competition and a new marketing landscape.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
- To provide students with a good practical knowledge of the importance of selling as an elements of marketing mix.
- To ensure that students gain an adequate practical knowledge of the techniques of making as effective and professional planned sales presentation.
- To develop systematic thinking and critical analysis of selling situations.
- Concept of salesmanship
- Meaning and origin of salesmanship
- Selling environment, selling activities in the selling process
- Characteristics of sales people
- Types of sales people and their roles
- Identifying the characteristics and competencies necessary in the effective sales person
- The sales process
- Overview of the sales process and importance of planning and preparation at each stage
- Prospecting and generating selling opportunities
- Approach, sales presentation, demonstration, overcoming objections, closing sales and follow up
- Sales management
- Meaning of sales management, functions of a sales manager
- Functions of a sales department
- Recruitment of sales people
- Determination of the number of sales people to be recruited. Meaning, objective and procedure for recruitment. Internal and external recruitment. Sources of recruitment.
- Motivation of sales people
- Overview of motivation
- Meaning and objectives of motivation
- Maslow’s theory of motivation and its application in motivating sales people
- Compensation of sales people
- Meaning of compensation
- Methods of compensation
- Calculation of salaries and wages
- Sales force training
- Meaning of sales force training
- Assessment of training programme, procedure for training sales people
- Training needs analysis
- Sales forecasting techniques
- Meaning and objectives of sales forecasting
- Methods of sales forecasting
- Sales organization
- Meaning of sales organization, organization chart, organization of sales department
- Approaches to sales organization – customer, functions, geography and product
- Sales territories
- Designing of sales territories
- Sales territory size and shape
- Sales reports
- Objectives of sales reports
- Types of sales reports
- Preparation of sales reports
- Evaluation of sales people
- Objectives of sales force evaluation
- Factors for assessing sales people
- Merit rating form
- Advantages and disadvantages of merit rating
- Sales control
- Objectives of sales control
- Methods of sales control
- Sales budget
- Bill Donaldson (1998). Sales and Management Theory and Practice, 2nd ed.
- Sales and sales management by Routs and Kouts
COURSE OBJECTIVES
- To apply the basic communications process in the context of marketing.
- To appreciate the importance of the customer when planning communications in marketing.
- To understand why effective communication is vital to all organizations.
- To select and utilise a range of communication media across a variety of target audiences and business settings.
- To utilise data to formulate effective customer communications.
- To explore the changing nature of customer dynamics and technological developments and their impact on customer communications.
- The process of effective communication
- The communication process
- The planning process – identifying the purpose, target audience, message, channel and evaluating objectives.
- The importance of effective body language, tone, verbal and listening skills in communications.
- Barriers to effective communication and how to overcome them.
- Interpreting, summarizing and presenting oral, written and graphical information.
- Running effective meetings.
- The importance of effective oral communications:
- On the telephone
- In negotiations and during interviews
- In presentation delivery
- Understanding the customer
- The meaning of the term “customer”
- Importance of effective internal and external customer communications.
- The changing context of customer needs:
- The importance of good customer relations
- The role of relationships marketing in creating loyalty and customer retention.
- The role of communications in establishing effective customer relationships.
- Dealing with complaints and client feedback.
- Finding out about the customer
- The role of marketing research in customer communications
- Basic marketing research methods and sources of information
- Using data to improve customer communications.
- Communication formats and media
- Using a variety of formats to communicate with internal and external customers.
- Letters
- Memoranda
- Notices
- Reports
- E-mails
- The role of promotion in communicating with external customers.
- The use of above and below the line activities, such as, direct response advertising, direct marketing sales literature, exhibitions, sales promotions, sponsorship, public relations and web sites.
- The role of corporate identity, brand image and logos.
- The appropriate design of media advertising, such as, press adverts.
- Effective news releases.
- Technological developments and trends
- The dynamic communications environment:
- The growth of the internet
- Impact of digital technology, and the fragmentation of media.
- E commerce
- The impact of E commerce on communications
- How Web Sites, E-mail, Intranets and Extranets are used
- On-line shopping
- Business process re-engineering
- The Internet as a promotional tool
- The use of ICT in building customer databases and improving customer communications:
- Determining and creating more personally relevant communications.
- The use of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software programs to improve databases.
- The implications of automated customer-handling operations.