Intro to Marketing Primer 158

Chapter 1:A general introduction to thesubject guide

Welcome to the unit

141 Principles of marketing

. As the title of thesubject indicates, the emphasis in this guide is on the principles(that is, themodels, theories, concepts, frameworks) rather than the practice, of marketing.The predominant theoretical insights will be drawn from several disciplinessuch as management, economics and psychology (although attention willalso be paid to exclusively marketing-based concepts). Because of thisfocus, the applicability of what you will learn in this guide to many areas of marketing and management will be extremely high. The approach of thissubject guide can be described as primarily deductive.This focus, of course, will come at a cost; that of ‘apparent’ realism. We say apparent because what people often call the ‘real world’ of marketing isalso an apparent reality. Practitioners and many business school coursestend to lack rigour, and they claim that models and principles are neverable to capture the complexities and the multi-dimensional nature of themarketing framework. This may be true only to the extent that ‘models’ ortheoretical understanding can never tell you how to do your job as amarketing manager or consultant. Indeed, when one enters the world of work, long-term planning practically involves (at most) only a few months’time horizon. But theoretical understandings of the world tend to have alonger shelf life. The value of a principles-based marketing course, or any theoretically grounded study, is how well it can explain the most importantevents and behaviours in a given field. The particular, the small, the ‘howto’ as opposed to the ‘why to’ – that is the job of intuition and ‘rule of thumb’ heuristic

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thinking and not the job of a university course of study.Having said that, there are some deficiencies with a programme of study that is solely devoted to abstract theory. As we said, a price is paid in termsof realism, but also in terms of internalisation. By internalisation we meanthat students tend to forget what they learn once the course is finished if only abstract concepts are employed. That is why the subject guide andreadings will often contain short cases in order to apply what has beenlearned. This application of marketing theory will take the form of mini-cases, activities and appropriate readings.

The structure of the guide

This subject guide has three main areas of study:1.A general introduction to marketing giving the historical foundationsof the subject as well as the scope of what marketing is all about.2.A focus on understanding consumer and buyer behaviour. This is anessential element, since the hallmark of marketing, as opposed toother management disciplines, is the belief in the sovereignty of theconsumer and ultimate advisability of structuring managerialstrategies around the end user.3.A focus on the organisation and understanding its particularmarketing behaviour.

Chapter 1:A general introduction to the subject guide

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‘Heuristic – enabling a person to discover or learn something for themselves; in computing,proceeding to a solution by trial and error or by rules that are only loosely defined’,

OxfordDictionary

. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).

Aims and objectives

This subject guide’s aim is to introduce you to the fundamental principlesof marketing. Topics covered in the unit include:•origins of marketing theory and practice•consumer theory •product development•promotion strategy •pricing strategy •distribution strategy •marketing ethics and corporate social responsibility.The introductory and theoretical approach taken in this guide will enable you to gain a broad understanding of consumers and the marketingbehaviour of firms, especially those operating in an internationalenvironment.Marketing can only be properly understood through the various disciplinesthat support it (i.e. economics, psychology, sociology and strategy). Thissubject guide will do its best to explore the relevance of these academicsubjects to marketing. Throughout the guide, you are encouraged toquestion the limitations of marketing management and to suggest ways of overcoming its many problems.Through the use of short case studies, you will also be able to develop yourpractical skills by applying learned theories to real-world organisationalproblems.

Learning objectives

The subject is ideally suited to those who wish to develop a sophisticatedand critical understanding of marketing theory. Specifically, you will beexpected to:•describe the behaviour of consumers from several perspectives,including an economic and psychological perspective•discuss the function and effect of advertising/promotion from both anorganisational and market-wide perspective•describe the pricing behaviour of firms in an uncertain environment where information may be limited or wrong•develop a basic knowledge and ability to analyse the marketingbehaviour of firms and consumers; and make predictions regardingsuch events as the success or failure of a new product launch oradvertising campaign.These themes run throughout the unit. You will be expected to acquire aknowledge and critical understanding of these and other important themesas well as the sub-topics that form a part of each major theme.

Syllabus

Exclusions: This subject has replaced

36 Marketing

and may not betaken if a student is taking or has passed

36 Marketing.Part A. Understanding consumer and buyer behaviour

1.Overview of marketing: history and theoretical approaches used inmarketing

Principles of marketing

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2.Introduction to consumer and buyer behaviour3.Introduction to market segmentation4.Customer relationship marketing5.Introduction to demand analysis and estimating market potential6.Organisational buyer behaviour.

Part B. Understanding organisational marketing behaviour

7.Introduction to promotion strategy 8.Branding and product development9.Product life-cycle theory and competitor analysis10.Introduction to pricing strategy 11.Introduction to placement/distribution analysis12.The ethical, social and economic implications of organisationalmarketing behaviour.

Prerequisites

If you are taking this unit as part of a BSc degree, the prerequisites areeither: unit

10 Introduction to sociology

or unit

21 Principles of sociology

or unit

79 Elements of social and applied psychology

or unit

02 Introduction to economics

.Therefore this subject guide is written with the assumption that you havesome background in one of the above three foundations of marketing(sociology, psychology or economics).In this subject guide you will find footnote references to some of the topicsand concepts in units

21 Principles of sociology

and

79 Elements of social and applied psychology

, which relate to those being discussedhere. These cross-references are not exhaustive and should notdisadvantage you if you have not studied those units. However, we havementioned the links so that you can see how your existing knowledge canhelp inform your study of this unit.

Reading advice

There are many textbooks that cover most of the major themes related tothe principles of marketing found in this guide. However, the Kotler and Armstrong (2004) text, listed under essential reading, is the book mostoften used in university programmes around the world. It also has the virtue of having a dedicated international edition and one of the longestprint runs in academic history. As such, although our guide is structuredthematically quite differently from the essential reading, all the chapters of the subject guide have corresponding ones in the textbook. Our subjectguide is therefore a complement and not a substitutefor this essential text.

Essential reading

Kotler, P. and G. Armstrong

Principles of marketing.

(Upper Saddle River, NJ:Pearson, Prentice Hall, 2004) tenth international edition[ISBN 0131212761].

Chapter 1:A general introduction to the subject guide

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