MODULE in Marketing Management - Docx 1

Polytechnic University of the Philippines
QUEZON CITY BRANCH

Don Fabian St., Brgy. Commonwealth, Quezon City
Compiled by: Prof. Doris B. Gatan

Subject Facilitator (dbgatan@gmail.com/09988682548)
1
Table of Contents
Page No.
Introduction of the Course 3

MODULE LESSONS
Lesson 1 Marketing Roles in Today’s Organization 6
Lesson 2 Marketing Environment 8
Lesson 3 the Marketing Management Philosophies 12
Lesson 4 The Marketing Process 18
Lesson 5 Market Segmentation, Market Targeting, Market Positioning, Product 21

Decision and pricing Decision
Lesson 6 The Marketing Planning Process 30
Lesson 7 Developing the Marketing Mix 33
Lesson 8 Managing the Marketing Effort and Product Strategy Case analysis 34
Lesson 9 Designing the business portfolio 35
Lesson 10 Marketing Strategies in the Different Stages of the Product Life Cycle 37
Lesson 11 Creating a Competitive Advantage 39
Lesson 12 Competitor Analysis, Viral Marketing and Consumerism 42
Lesson 13 The Marketing Plan 52
2
INTRODUCTION
Welcome to this course!
This module is designed students from the Polytechnic University of
the Philippines. This course introduces the different areas of
Marketing, their concepts, structures, and functions. It will also equip
the students with the Managerial approach for the analysis of
Marketing problems and prepare them to create strategies and
synergize these functions and activities to achieve corporate goals.
Several platforms will be used in the delivery of the lessons that

students may choose from in order to satisfy the minimum
requirements of the course. But remember, that students are only to
choose one from the options at the onset of this semester, the most
appropriate and applicable to your situation.
One is an online mode of delivery where students are expected to
:
1) attend at least 30% of online lectures. Online Lectures will be posted one week earlier prior to the
next online meeting. This is to provide students ample time to read and understand about the Lesson to
prepare them to participate in the online discussion and the scheduled online Quiz.
Note: The success of this course depends on the ability of the students to have read the assigned
readings closely, to have thought carefully about the points raised or ignored by the participants of the
group provided for the subject, and to bring to the group questions and concerns about their concepts
and positions into the chat or discussion group. Prior to each class, the teacher will post Notes and
outline the focus of the subsequent session and to direct reading or study prior to online class discussion
to ensure students’ productive participation.
2) Online Quiz. This will be facilitated via google forms, which will be provided after the Lesson had
already been discussed to check students’ understanding of the topic (it may consist of 1 to 10 items
only). Or it may also be in the form of an essay to be submitted synchronously or asynchronously by the
students.
3.) Assignment. This is being provided to check an in-depth understanding of the Lesson and identify
some practical ways of applying what take aways students had in the Lesson. This may be returned
asynchronously.
4.) Chat/Forum Participation. This may also be utilized in synchronous or asynchronous way. Also, it is
expected that everyone should practice an appropriate ”NETIQUETTE” for all postings.
5) Proposed Activity/Session: Group Activity. Students will propose and facilitate an online activity based
on the result of the needs analysis conducted through the use of the google form; from which they are
expected to follow the format being provided and be evaluated through the rubrics.
5.) Midterm and Final Examination. This may be taken through a scheduled meeting
REQUIREMENTS PERCENTAGE
Attendance to at least 30% of the 10%
scheduled online meetings (synchronous
and asynchronous)
3
Online Quiz 10%
Assignment 10%
Chat/Forum Participation 10%
Activities/Projects/Assigments/Seatworks/ 30%
Reports/ Feasibility Study
Midterm/Final Examination 30%
Total 100%
However, Online meetings and other online activities may be done through google room, FB room, zoom
and etc.
2. the other mode of delivery to be utilized is the Correspondence mode or the Modular Approach.
Correspondence education is a formal educational process under which the institution provides
instructional materials, by mail or electronic transmission, including examinations on the materials, to
students who are separated from the instructor. Interaction between the instructor and the student is
limited, is not regular and substantive, and is primarily initiated by the student; courses are typically self-
paced.
Hence, at the end of each lesson in this module, there are different activities that student who chose this
approach to provide the following:
1) Assignment. This is being provided to check an in-depth understanding of the Lesson and identify
some practical ways of applying what take aways students had in the Lesson. This may be
returned asynchronously.
2) Feasibility Study. Student is expected to prepare their own needs analysis to a specific group of
teachers or students; in primary or secondary level in 1 or 2 schools of around 50 teacher-
participants or student-participants where any of the topics covered in this module.
Format of submission shall consist of the following:

1. Cover where the title of the said activity is written
2. Acknowledgement
3. Table of Contents
4. Introduction
5. Methodology
6. Results/Discussion
7. Conclusion
8. References
REQUIREMENTS PERCENTAGE
Assignment 30% it is expected that all the lessons’ assignments
will be answered by the students and returned one
week before the end of the semester
Research Output 50% this will be graded on the basis of publication, the
student will get 50% if not, only around 40% graded
base on the rubrics to be provided.
Timeliness of Submission 20% (all these requirements shall be submitted on or
before the date of the final examination)
Total 100%
Class Reminders!!!
4
ONLINE MODE GUIDELINES- keep in mind some basic netiquettes
• Set a respectful tone all the times
• Think before you type, share, post, comment, or react.
• Recommended online platforms (e.g. Google Classroom-, Zoom etc.) must be used for
academic-related discourse only.
• Posts and comments must reflective of the subject topic/s discussed.
• Academic arguments, disagreements are allowed given a certain topic requires for it within a
proper forum/platform provided.
• Avoid sarcastic posts and comments (avoid misguided arguments with classmates)
• Personal issues about the subject must be directly course through the Subject Facilitator
through a private message, text, chat or email.
• All individual assessment must be submitted or posted using his/her
LASTNAME/ASSESSMENT TOPIC (e.g. CRUZ/REACTION 1).
• All group assessment must be submitted or posted using GROUP NUMBER/GROUP WORKS
(e.g. GROUP 1/RESOURCE MODULE).
OFFLINE MODE GUIDELINES
• Be a responsible student, maximize your time by reading the handout/module given and comply
to submit the given tasks on scheduled time.
• In case you have inquiries and clarifications regarding offline tasks/assessments, feel free to
text the Subject Facilitator@________________
• Expect a call from a Subject Facilitator for the details of your inquiry and some clarifications.
Course Outcomes
At the end of the course, the students are expected to:
• Synergize theories and application of Marketing Principles and its Managerial Approach
• Explain the importance of Integration of all the Marketing Functions in the success of the Business
• Develop deeper understanding and appreciation of the field Marketing Management as a tool in
Nation Building
• Develop the skills of the students in formulating successful strategies that will ensure the viability
of the business
5
LESSON 1
MARKETING ROLES IN TODAY’S ORGANIZATION
Introduction
Marketing plays an important role in today’s organization. Too important to be ignored either in
large or small organizations where competition is very much obvious through innovations. Today’s
economy has seen the importance of small orgnaizations vying their existence in the business world
where much needed support to sustain their growth. This resulted survival among large and small
business depending on their wise marketing efforts coupled with financial stability.
Learning Outcomes: at the end of this lesson, the students are expected to:
➢ define marketing management;

➢ identify the role of marketing in today’s organization; and,
➢ provide solutions to the different issues concerning marketing.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 - Marketing Roles in Today’s Organization
Competition has escalated more than ever and as major inroads are achieved in the use of technology,
the situation is not getting any better. Social media avenues have been intruded by organizations
seeking to capture the audience with their product and service offerings. Most of them have indeed
attained much success and customers are more informed than they were a few years back.
Here are few of the roles of Marketing in today’s organization:
1. Establishing relationships between customers and the organizations offering to the market. It
gives us the confidence to want to try a new product in the market as opposed to situations where
the products enter the market without publicity. This makes the marketing function critical in every
organization irrespective of whether the organization is a profit or non-profit centered. Marketing
shapes the image of the organization, how people associate the organizations products or
services and indeed give people the confidence about their products or services.
2. When it come to the profit led organizations, marketing is responsible for the increase in revenue
and by extension increase in the organizations profitability. In addition, the function also helps
growing of the customer/clientele base for the organization. This is especially so when the
organization is dealing with more of corporate customers, and where decisions involve more than
one party.
3. The marketing function is also tasked with branding of the organization, participation in publicity
activities, advertising and customer interaction through feedback collection. Every product launch
starts with marketing and an end with marketing where by the department establishes the needs
of the consumers and after introducing the product, the department seeks to identify whether the
customer’s needs were met.
4. Organizations are competing to be at the top of the customers mind and at the same time trying
to protect their market share. Marketing is at the center of creating customer loyalty and customer
6
retention. As a result, the function carries out promotions, campaigns from time to time and this
has been proved as a successful initiative in also attracting more customers.
5. Without marketing, our brands will not be illuminated and our organizations would be lifeless.
Organization’s success is not only determined by the prudent application of funds to the various
portfolios of investment but also by the relationship established with the customers, which is a
function of marketing.
➢ https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140915080650-84228363-the-role-of-marketing-in-
organizations-by-timothy-
mahea#:~:text=Marketing%20plays%20an%20important%20role,organizations%20offering%2
0to%20the%20market.&text=The%20marketing%20function%20is%20also,customer%20inter
action%20through%20feedback%20collection.
➢ https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/60b8/85d21ce78c64f595c1530fe16542a5f23e21.pdf
➢ http://www.iaeme.com/MasterAdmin/UploadFolder/ROLE%20OF%20MARKETING%20IN%20
MODERN%20ORGANIZATIONS-
2/ROLE%20OF%20MARKETING%20IN%20MODERN%20ORGANIZATIONS-2.pdf
Assessment/Activities
Activity 1. SYNTHESIS: https://www.slideshare.net/ericmoe18/marketing-in-modern-

organisation
- Make a synthesis of the slideshare link; identifying the importance of marketing roles in today’s
organization.
7
LESSON 2
THE MARKETING ENVIRONMENT
Introduction
From a marketing perspective, organizational objectives can not be achieved without a deep
understanding of business environment coordinates. Hence, before entering into business an adept
study should be undertaken taking into account what internal and external factors made up a certain
marketing environment. Understanding the changing marketing environment mixed up with so many
factors in today’s business ventures may help one to succeed.
This Lesson provides an understanding of the marketing environment; its components and nature.
➢ Categorize marketing environment;

➢ Describe the components of marketing environment; and,
➢ Relate marketing environment to the present set-up of businesses in the country.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 – Marketing Environment
It’s very obvious that marketing activities of the business are affected by several internal and
external factors. While some of the factors are in the control of the business, most of these are not and
the business has to adapt itself to avoid being affected by changes in these factors. These external and
internal factors group together to form a marketing environment in which the business operates.
Therefore, Marketing Environment is the combination of external and internal factors and forces
which affect the company’s ability to establish a relationship and serve its customers.
The marketing environment of a business consists of an internal and an external environment. The
internal environment is company-specific and includes owners, workers, machines, materials etc. The
external environment is further divided into two components: micro & macro. The micro or the task
environment is also specific to the business but external. It consists of factors engaged in producing,
distributing, and promoting the offering. The macro or the broad environment includes larger societal
forces which affect society as a whole. The broad environment is made up of six components:
demographic, economic, physical, technological, political-legal, and social-cultural environment.
As quoted by Philip Kotler “A company’s marketing environment consists of the actors and forces
outside of marketing that affect marketing management ability to build and maintain successful
relationships with target customers”.
This, therefore provides an understanding of what advantages understanding of marketing
environment can obviously being presented.
Unit 2 - Components Of Marketing Environment
The marketing environment is made up of the internal and external environment of the business. While
the internal environment can be controlled, the business has very less or no control over the external
environment.
8
A. Internal Environment
The internal environment of the business includes all the forces and factors inside the organization which
affect its marketing operations. These components can be grouped under the Five Ms of the business,
which are:
• Men
• Money
• Machinery
• Materials
• Markets
The internal environment is under the control of the marketer and can be changed with the changing
external environment. Nevertheless, the internal marketing environment is as important for the business
as the external marketing environment. This environment includes the sales department, marketing
department, the manufacturing unit, the human resource department, etc.
B. External Environment
The external environment constitutes factors and forces which are external to the business and on which
the marketer has little or no control. The external environment is of two types:
B. 1 Micro Environment
The micro-component of the external environment is also known as the task environment. It comprises
of external forces and factors that are directly related to the business. These include suppliers, market
intermediaries, customers, partners, competitors and the public
• Suppliers include all the parties which provide resources needed by the organization.
• Market intermediaries include parties involved in distributing the product or service of the
organization.
• Partners are all the separate entities like advertising agencies, market research organizations,
banking and insurance companies, transportation companies, brokers, etc. which conduct
business with the organization.
• Customers comprise of the target group of the organization.
• Competitors are the players in the same market who targets similar customers as that of the
organization.
• Public is made up of any other group that has an actual or potential interest or affects the
company’s ability to serve its customers.
B. 2 Macro Environment
The macro component of the marketing environment is also known as the broad
environment. It constitutes the external factors and forces which affect the industry as a whole
but don’t have a direct effect on the business. The macro-environment can be divided into 6 parts.
B.2.1 Demographic Environment

The demographic environment is made up of the people who constitute the market. It is
characterized as the factual investigation and segregation of the population according to
their size, density, location, age, gender, race, and occupation.
B.2.2 Economic Environment

The economic environment constitutes factors which influence customers’ purchasing
power and spending patterns. These factors include the GDP, GNP, interest rates, inflation,
income distribution, government funding and subsidies, and other major economic variables.
9
B.2.3 Physical Environment
The physical environment includes the natural environment in which the business
operates. This includes the climatic conditions, environmental change, accessibility to water and
raw materials, natural disasters, pollution etc.
B.2.4 Technological Environment
The technological environment constitutes innovation, research and development in
technology, technological alternatives, innovation inducements also technological barriers to
smooth operation. Technology is one of the biggest sources of threats and opportunities for the
organization and it is very dynamic.
B.2.5 Political-Legal Environment
The political & Legal environment includes laws and government’s policies prevailing in
the country. It also includes other pressure groups and agencies which influence or limit the
working of the industry and/or the business in the society.
B.2.6 Social-Cultural Environment
The social-cultural aspect of the macro-environment is made up of the lifestyle, values,
culture, prejudice and beliefs of the people. This differs in different regions.
Unit 3 – Importance of Understanding Marketing Environment
Every business, no matter how big or small, operates within the marketing environment. Its present and
future existence, profits, image, and positioning depend on its internal and external environment. The
business environment is one of the most dynamic aspects of the business. In order to operate and stay
in the market for long, one has to understand and analyze the marketing environment and its components
properly.
Essential For Planning

An understanding of the external and internal environment is essential for planning for the future. A
marketer needs to be fully aware of the current scenario, dynamism, and future predictions of the
marketing environment if he wants his plans to succeed.
Understanding Customers
Thorough knowledge of the marketing environment helps marketers acknowledge and predict what the
customer actually wants. In-depth analysis of the marketing environment reduces (and even removes)
the noise between the marketer and customers and helps the marketer to understand consumer
behavior better.
Tapping Trends
Breaking into new markets and capitalizing on new trends requires a lot of insight about the marketing
environment. The marketer needs to research about every aspect of the environment to create a
foolproof plan.
Threats And Opportunities
Sound knowledge of the market environment often gives a first-mover advantage to the marketer as he
makes sure that his business is safe from future threats and taps the future opportunities.
Understanding The Competitors
Every niche has different players fighting for the same spot. A better understanding of the marketing
environment allows the marketer to understand more about the competitions and about what advantages
do the competitors have over his business and vice versa.
➢ https://www.feedough.com/marketing-
environment/#:~:text=Marketing%20Environment%20is%20the%20combination,internal%20and
%20an%20external%20environment.
10
Assessment/Activities:
Activity 1: Comic Strip. Make a story line of an example how important to know the market environment
being in the business set-up.
Quiz 1. Synchronous Short Quiz for the topic.
11
LESSON 3
MARKETING MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHIES
Introduction
This lesson provides the marketing management philosophies that directs business towards a
certain goal, of becoming successful. This will be a good starting point for any students of business
where decisions are anchored from.
➢ Use the concepts of marketing management philosophies in business decision making through
the feasibility studies presented.
➢ Create an infographic of product design with an application of marketing management
philosophies.
Learning Materials
Accordingly, there are five marketing management philosophies as depicted in this illustration:.
The marketing concept is the strategy that firms implement to satisfy customers’ needs, increase
sales, maximize profit and beat the competition. There are 5 marketing concepts that organizations adopt
12
and execute. These are; (1) production concept, (2) product concept, (3) selling concept, (4) marketing
concept and (5) societal marketing concept.
Marketing is a department of management that tries to design strategies that will build profitable
relationships with target consumers.
Marketers must answer 2 important questions.
1. what philosophy is the best for a company in setting marketing strategies?
2. What will be the importance for organization, customers and society’s interests?
To answer these; there are five alternative concepts under which organizations design and carry out their
marketing strategies.
These 5 alternative marketing concepts are also called marketing management philosophies.
Marketing Management Philosophies or 5 Marketing Concepts are;
1. Production Concept,
2. Product Concept,
3. Selling Concept,
4. Marketing Concept,
5. Societal Marketing Concept.
To provide you better idea on what these marketing concepts made up, here are explanations and
samples:
Production Concept- consumer will favor products that are cheap and available. The idea is that
“consumers will favor products that are available and highly affordable.” This concept is one of the oldest
Marketing management orientations that guide sellers.
Companies adopting this orientation run a major risk of focusing too narrowly on their operations and
losing sight of the real objective.
Most times; the production concept can lead to marketing myopia. Meaning It's a theory that states
companies focus on their needs and short term growth strategies. They neglect the needs and wants of
their customers and fail as a result. Management should also focus on improving production and
distribution efficiency.
Although; in some situations; the production concept is still a useful philosophy.
13
Example:
• In the past, during Christmas Season, products coming from Divisoria are being mobbed by
Filipinos who has budgeted expenses for the season. People would not care about the miles
away, heat, crowded place, and etc (the usual connotation about the place) just to be able to buy
toys, clothing and other things with cheaper price.
• With the present situation, You see in Amazon or retail stores; the market is flooded with cheap
products from china. Everything from the cheap plastic product from China is on your cart now.
• The best example of the production concept is Vivo, the Chinese smartphone brand. Their
phones are available in almost every corner of the Asian market. You can walk in any phone shop
in Asia and can walk out with the latest and greatest smartphone from Vivo.
Product Concept
The product concept holds that the consumers will favor products that offer the most in quality,
performance and innovative features.
Here; under this concept, Marketing strategies are focused on making continuous product improvements.
Product quality and improvement are important parts of marketing strategies, sometimes the only part.
Targeting only on the company’s products could also lead to marketing myopia.
For example
• Suppose a company makes the best quality Floppy disk. But a customer does need a floppy
disk?
• She or he needs something that can be used to store the data. It can be achieved by a USB Flash
drive, SD memory cards, portable hard disks, etc.
• So that the company should not look to make the best floppy disk. They should focus to meet the
customer’s data storage needs.
• Logitech makes very high-quality computer products such as keyboard, mouse, and webcams.
These high-quality products are priced higher but people still buy and they get almost free
advertisement from independent reviews.
• When you think of high-quality products; Apple will be one of the top ones. Their products are so
good that they set industry trends and standards.
Selling Concept
The selling concept holds the idea- “consumers will not buy enough of the firm’s products unless it
undertakes a large-scale selling and promotion effort”.
Here the management focuses on creating sales transactions rather than on building long-term,
profitable customer relationships.
14
In other words; the aim is to sell what the company makes rather than making what the market wants.
Such an aggressive selling program carries very high risks.
In selling concept the marketer assumes that customers will be coaxed into buying the product will like
it, if they don’t like it, they will possibly forget their disappointment and buy it again later. This is usually
a very poor and costly assumption.
Typically, the selling concept is practiced with unsought goods. Unsought goods are that buyers do not
normally think of buying, such as insurance or blood donations.
These industries must be good at tracking down prospects and selling them on a product’s benefits.
Example
• Every saw an ad online or TV commercial that you almost can’t escape and hide from? The
Selling Concept is in play.
• Almost all companies eventually fall into this concept. “Mountain Dew” ads are hard to miss. If
people like Mountain Dew or not, that is debatable but you can see that PepsiCo is pushing it
hard using ads.
• Almost all soft drinks and soda drinks follow the selling concept. These drinks have no health
benefits ( actually harm your health more), you can easily replace them with water ( the most
available substances in the earth).
• And the soft drink companies know it, and they run ads 24×7, spending millions,
Marketing Concept
The marketing concept holds- “achieving organizational goals depends on knowing the needs and wants
of target markets and delivering the desired satisfactions better than competitors do”.
Here marketing management takes a “customer first” approach.
Under the marketing concept, customer focus and value are the routes to achieve sales and profits. The
marketing concept is a customer-centered “sense and responds” philosophy. The job is not to find the
right customers for your product but to find the right products for your customers.
The marketing concept and the selling concepts are two extreme concepts and different from each other.
Example
• Restaurants and startups do follow the marketing concept. They try to understand the consumer
and deliver the best product or service, which is better for the competition.
• Dollar shave club is the best example. They changed the Men’s grooming market. They have
understood that people are not happy with their previous grooming products and their prices.
• Where other company’s grooming products will cost hundreds to buy for just one month. Dollar
shave club charges a couple of bucks a month with higher quality products and convenience of
home delivery.
Societal Marketing Concept
Societal marketing concept questions whether the pure marketing concept overlooks possible conflicts
between consumer short-run wants and consumer long-run welfare.
15
The societal marketing concept holds “marketing strategy should deliver value to customers in a way
that maintains or improves both the consumer’s and society’s well-being”.
It calls for sustainable marketing, socially and environmentally responsible marketing that meets the
present needs of consumers and businesses while also preserving or enhancing the ability of future
generations to meet their needs.
The Societal Marketing Concept puts Human welfare on top before profits and satisfying the wants. The
global warming panic button is pushed and a revelation is required in the way we use our resources. So
companies are slowly either fully or partially trying to implement the societal marketing concept.
Example
• While large companies sometimes launch programs or products that benefit society; it is hard to
find a company that is fully committed socially.
• We can see Adidas doing great as they continue to support Colin Kaepernick despite pressure
from various parties. Tesla is promising a big push for green energy with electric cars and solar
roof panels/tiles.
Note: Companies don’t follow a single marketing concept rigidly. The usually follows a mix marketing
concept in real-world of business or change it depending on the market situation, competition and
number of sales.
Let’s overview the difference of the selling concept and marketing concept.
Therefore, the difference between selling concept and marketing concept can be drawn out from the
illustrations below:
16
➢ https://www.iedunote.com/marketing-concepts
Activity 1 – Make an infographic on the application of marketing concepts of your own product.
Activity 2 – Quiz
17
LESSON 4
THE MARKETING PROCESS
Introduction
Marketing is the process by which companies create value for customers and building strong
customer relationships to capture value from customers in return. 5 step process of the marketing
framework wherein value is created for customers and marketers capture value from customers in return.
This lesson provides the 5 steps of marketing process.
➢ Determine the right steps in marketing process; and,

➢ Give important values to customer amidst the marketing process.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 – 5 Steps of Marketing Process
As illustrated marketing process has the following steps to be followed:
Step 1. Understanding the Marketplace and Customer Needs and Wants
It is important to understand customer needs, wants and demands to build want- satisfying market
offerings and building value-laden customer relationships. This increases long-term customer equity for
the firm.
18
To be clarified, Needs – States of felt deprivation. This includes the physical need for necessities like
food, clothing, shelter, warmth, safety and individual needs for knowledge and self-expression. These
needs cannot be created by the marketers as they are a basic part of human markup.
While, Wants – The forms of human needs take as shaped by culture and individual personality.
Hence, Wants are shaped by one’s society and are described in terms of objects that will satisfy needs.
For example; During the pandemic people needs basic necessity such as food; having McDonalds just
to satisfy your crave in this time will now form as Wants.
Demands – Human wants that are backed by buying power. Given their wants and resources, people
demand products with benefits that add up to the most value and satisfaction.
Step 2: Designing A Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy
Focus areas for designing a marketing strategy:
• Selecting customers to serve -defining the target market
▪ Deciding how to serve customers in the best way – choosing a value proposition
Selecting customers to serve. Means the company first decides who it will serve and divides the
market into segments of the customer. Then it goes after specific sections of the market or its target
market. They target customers based on their level, timing, and nature of demand.
Choosing a value proposition
They decide how it will serve their customer that is how it will differentiate and position itself in the market.
A brand’s value proposition is the set of values and benefits that it promises to deliver its customers.
Companies need to design strong value propositions to give them the greatest advantage in their target
markets
5 alternative concepts for designing a customer-driven marketing strategy, are;
1. Production concept: Consumers will favor products that are available and highly affordable.
Management should focus on improving production and distribution efficiency.
2. Product concept: Consumers will favor products that offer most in quality, performance and innovative
features. Focus on making continuous product improvements.
3. Selling concept: Consumers will not buy enough of the firm’s products unless it undertakes a large-
scale selling and promotion effort. It is typically practiced with unsought goods that the company needs
to sell and generally results in aggressive selling practices. The company sells what it makes rather than
what the market wants.
4. Marketing concept: Organizational goals are achieved by knowing the needs and wants of the target
markets and delivering the desired satisfactions better than competitors do.
5. Societal concept: Marketing strategy should deliver value to customers in such a way that improves
both customers as wells as society’s well being and long-run interests.
Step 3: Constructing an integrated marketing plan that delivers superior value
The company’s marketing strategy outlines which customers the company will serve and how it will create
value for these customers. Then the marketer develops integrated marketing plans that will the intended
value to target customers.
19
It consists of the firm’s marketing mix (4Ps), the set of marketing tools the firm uses to implement its
marketing strategy.
The marketing program builds customer relationships by transforming the marketing strategy into action.
For this, it needs to blend all of these marketing tools into a comprehensive integrated marketing program
that communicates and delivers the expected value to the customers.
Step 4: Build Profitable Relationships
Customer relationship management is the overall process of building and maintaining profitable customer
relationships by delivering superior customer value and satisfaction.
Customer relationship management aims to produce high customer equity, the total combined customer
lifetime values of all of the company’s customers.
The key to building lasting relationships is the creation of superior customer value and satisfaction.
Companies today not only want to acquire profitable relationships but also to build relationships that will
increase their share of the customer portion of the customers purchasing that a company gets in its
product categories.
Step 5: Capturing Value From Customers
The ultimate aim of customer relationship management is to produce high Customer equity – total
combined lifetime values of all of the company’s current and potential customers.
More loyal to the company’s profitable customers, higher are the customer equity. Customer equity may
even be a better way to measure the company’s performance than market share or current sales.
Marketers cannot create customer value and build customer relationships by themselves. They need to
work closely with other company departments and with partners outside the firm.
In addition to being good at customer relationship management, they also need to be good at partner
relationship management.
➢ https://www.iedunote.com/marketing-process
Activity 1 – Group Output. Product Presentation. Make a product presentation following marketing
process.
20
LESSON 5
MARKET SEGMENTATION, MARKET TARGETING, MARKET POSITIONING,

PRODUCT DECISION AND PRICING DECISION
Introduction
There are many things to be considered if one wishes to be in the area of marketing management.
The market segmentation, market targeting, market positioning, product decision and pricing decision.
These are the things very important in the marketing area that will be discussed under this section.
➢ Define market segmentation, market targeting, market positioning, product decision and pricing
decision; and,
➢ Identify importance of standardization versus adaptation product decision process.
➢ Describe the principle elements of "the product" and provide examples;
➢ Describe, with examples, the five major product strategies available to global marketers.
➢ Apply the knowledge learned from identified terms in the product presentation.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 – Market Segmentation
Market segmentation is the research that determines how your organization divides its customers or
cohort into smaller groups based on characteristics such as, age, income, personality traits or behavior.
These segments can later be used to optimize products and advertising to different customers.
At its core, market segmentation is the practice of dividing your target market into approachable groups.
Market segmentation creates subsets of a market based on demographics, needs, priorities, common
interests, and other psychographic or behavioral criteria used to better understand the target audience.
The Basics of Segmentation
Understanding segmentation starts with learning about the various ways you can segment your market.
There are four primary categories of segmentation, illustrated below.
Types of Market Segmentation
With segmentation and targeting, you want to understand how your market will respond in a given
situation, like purchasing your products. In many cases, a predictive model may be incorporated into the
study so that individuals can be grouped within identified segments based on specific answers to survey
questions.
➢ Geographic Segmentation
While typically a subset of demographics, geographic segmentation is typically the easiest. Geographic
segmentation creates different target customer groups based on geographical boundaries. Because
potential customers have needs, preferences, and interests that differ according to their geographies,
understanding the climates and geographic regions of customer groups can help determine where to sell
and advertise, as well as where to expand your business.
21
➢ Demographic Segmentation
Demographic segmentation sorts a market by demographic elements such as age, education, income,
family size, race, gender, occupation, nationality, and more. Demographic segmentation is one of the
simplest and most commonly used forms of segmentation because the products and services we buy,
how we use those products, and how much we are willing to spend on them is most often based on
demographic factors.
➢ Firmographic Segmentation
Firmographic segmentation is similar to demographic segmentation. The difference is that demographics
look at individuals while firmographics look at organizations. Firmographic segmentation would take into
consideration things like company size, number of employees and would illustrate how addressing a
small business would differ from addressing an enterprise corporation.
➢ Behavioral Segmentation
Behavioral segmentation divides markets by behaviors and decision-making patterns such as purchase,
consumption, lifestyle, and usage. For instance, younger buyers may tend to purchase body wash, while
older consumer groups may lean towards soap bars. Segmenting markets based off purchase behaviors
enables marketers to develop a more targeted approach.
➢ Psychographic Segmentation
Psychographic segmentation takes into account the psychological aspects of consumer behavior by
dividing markets according to lifestyle, personality traits, values, opinions, and interests of consumers.
Large markets like the fitness market use psychographic segmentation when they sort their customers
into categories of people wwho care about healthy living and exercise.
How to Get Started with Segmentation
Market segmentation doesn’t need to be complicated to be effective. There are five primary steps of
segmentation.
1. Conduct Preliminary Research – Get to know your customers better by asking some initial,
open-ended questions.
2. Determine How To Segment Your Market – Decide which criteria (i.e.

demographics/firmographics, psychographics, or behavior) you want to segment your market by.
3. Design Your Study – Ask a mix of demographic/firmographic, psychographic, and behavioral

questions. Be sure to make your questions quantifiable.
4. Create Your Customer Segments – Analyze your responses either manually or with statistical
software to create your segments.
5. Test and Iterate – Evaluate your segments by ensuring they are usable and helpful. If they aren’t,
try segmenting based on other criteria.
Ensuring Effective Segments
After you determine your segments, you want to ensure they’ll be useful. A good segmentation analysis
should pass the following tests:
22
• Measurable: Measurable means that your segmentation variables are directly related to
purchasing a product. You should be able to calculate or estimate how much you segment will
spend on your product. For example, one of your segments may be a coupon maven, who is
more likely to shop during a promotion or sale.
• Accessible: Understanding your customers and being able to reach them are two different
things. Your segment’s characteristics and behavior should help you identify the best way to meet
them. For example, you may find that a key segment is resistant to technology and rely on
newspaper or radio ads to hear about store promotions, while another segment is best reached
on your mobile app. One of your segments might be a male retiree who is less likely to use a
mobile app or read email, but responds well to printed ads.
• Substantial: The market segment must have the ability to purchase. For example, if you are a
high-end retailer, your store visitors may want to purchase your goods but realistically can’t afford
them. Make sure, an identified segment is not just interested in you, but can be expected to
purchase form you. In this instance, your market might include environmental enthusiasts who
are willing to pay a premium for eco-friendly products, leisurely retirees who have can afford your
goods, and successful entrepreneurs who want to show off their wealth.
• Actionable: The market segment must produce the differential response when exposed to the
market offering. This means that each of your segments must be different and unique from each
other. Let’s say that your segmentation reveals people who love their pets and people who care
about the environment have the same purchasing habits. Rather than have two separate
segments, you should consider grouping both together in a single segment.
Market segmentation is not an exact science. As you go through the process, you may realize that
segmenting based on behaviors doesn’t give you actionable segments, but behavior does. You’ll want
to iterate on your findings to ensure you’ve found the best fit the needs of your marketing, sales and
product organizations.
➢ https://www.qualtrics.com/au/experience-management/brand/what-is-market-segmentation/
Unit 2 – Market Targeting
Market targeting is a process of selecting the target market from the entire market. Target market consists
of group/groups of buyers to whom the company wants to satisfy or for whom product is manufactured,
price is set, promotion efforts are made, and distribution network is prepared.
A company cannot concentrate on all the segments of the market. The company can satisfy only limited
segments. The segments the company wants to serve are called the target market, and the process of
selecting the target market is referred as market targeting. Market segmentation results into dividing total
market into various segments or parts.
Such segments may be on the basis of consumer characteristics or product characteristics or both. Once
the market is divided into various segments, the company has to evaluate various segments and decide
how many and which ones to target. It is simply an act or process of selecting a target market.
Definitions:
Market is segmented using certain bases, like income, place, education, age, and life cycle, and so on.
Out of them, a few segments are selected to serve them. Thus, evaluating and selecting some market
segments can be said as market targeting. The quoted definitions are not available.
23
However, we can define the term as:
1. We can define the term as: Market targeting is a process of selecting the target market from the entire
market. Target market consists of group/groups of buyers to whom the company wants to satisfy or
for whom product is manufactured, price is set, promotion efforts are made, and distribution network
is prepared.
2. It involves basically two actions – evaluation of segments and selection of the appropriate market
segments. In this relation, market targeting can be defined as: Market targeting is an act of evaluating
and selecting market segments.
3. Finally, we define market targeting as: Market targeting consists of dividing the total market into
segments, evaluating these segments, and selecting the appropriate segments as the target market.
Procedure of Market Targeting:
Market targeting procedure consists of two steps:
1. Evaluating Market Segments:

Evaluation of market segments calls for measuring suitability of segments. The segments are evaluated
with certain relevant criteria to determine their feasibility.
To determine overall attractiveness/suitability of the segment, two factors are used:
i. Attractiveness of Segment:
In order to determine attractiveness of the segment, the company must think on
characteristics/conditions which reflect its attractiveness, such as size, profitability, measurability,
accessibility, actionable, potential for growth, scale of economy, differentiability, etc. These
characteristics help decide whether the segment is attractive.
ii. Objectives and Resources of Company:

The firm must consider whether the segment suit the marketing objectives. Similarly, the firm must
consider its resource capacity. The material, technological, and human resources are taken into account.
The segment must be within resource capacity of the firm.
2. Selecting Market Segments:

When the evaluation of segments is over, the company has to decide in which market segments to enter.
That is, the company decides on which and how many segments to enter. This task is related with
selecting the target market. Target market consists of various groups of buyers to whom company wants
to sell the product; each tends to be similar in needs or characteristics. Philip Kotler describes five
alternative patterns to select the target market. Selection of a suitable option depends on situations
prevailing inside and outside the company.
Alternative Strategies (Methods) for Market Targeting:

Basically five alternative patterns/strategies are available.
Company may opt for any one of the following strategies for market targeting based on the
situations:
1. Single Segment Concentration:
It is the simplest case. The company selects only a single segment as target market and offers a single
product. Here, product is one; segment is one. For example, a company may select only higher income
24
segment to serve from various segments based on income, such as poor, middleclass, elite class, etc.
All the product items produced by the company are meant for only a single segment.
Single segment offers some merits like:

(1) Company can gain strong knowledge of segment’s needs and can achieve a strong market position
in the segment.
(2) Company can specialize its production, distribution, and promotion.
(3) Company, by capturing leadership in the segment, can earn higher return on its investment.
It suffers from following demerits like:

(1) Competitor may invade the segment and can shake company’s position.
(2) Company has to pay high costs for change in fashion, habit, and attitude. Company may not survive
as risk cannot be diversified.
Mostly, company prefers to operate in more segments. Serving more segments minimizes the degree of
risk.
2. Selective Specialization:
In this option, the company selects a number of segments. A company selects several segments and
sells different products to each of the segments. Here, company selects many segments to serve them
with many products. All such segments are attractive and appropriate with firm’s objectives and
resources.
There may be little or no synergy among the segments. Every segment is capable to promise the profits.
This multi-segment coverage strategy has the advantage of diversifying the firm’s risk. Firm can earn
money from other segments if one or two segments seem unattractive. For example, a company may
concentrate on all the income groups to serve.
3. Product Specialization:
In this alternative, a company makes a specific product, which can be sold to several segments. Here,
product is one, but segments are many. Company offers different models and varieties to meet needs of
different segments. The major benefit is that the company can build a strong reputation in the specific
product area. But, the risk is that product may be replaced by an entirely new technology. Many ready-
made garment companies prefer this strategy.
4. Market Specialization:
This strategy consists of serving many needs of a particular segment. Here, products are many but the
segment is one. The firm can gain a strong reputation by specializing in serving the specific segment.
Company provides all new products that the group can feasibly use. But, reduced size of market, reduced
purchase capacity of the segment, or the entry of competitors with superior products range may affect
the company’s position.
5. Full Market Coverage:

In this strategy, a company attempts to serve all the customer groups with all the products they need.
Here, all the needs of all the segments are served. Only very large firm with overall capacity can
undertake a full market coverage strategy.
Methods of Full Market Coverage:
Philip Kotler identifies two broad ways for full market coverage strategy as under:
Undifferentiated Marketing:
25
Company sells the same products to all the customer groups. It does not consider difference among
buyers. Product and marketing programme remain common for all the segments. The firm relies on mass
production, mass distribution, and mass advertising. So, it can considerably reduce production,
distribution, and promotional costs. Similarly, reduced costs result into low price and the price-sensitive
consumers can be attracted. This method is followed by pharmaceutical companies.
However, many experts and practicing managers have expressed strong doubts about the strategy. It is
erroneous to believe that all the segments have similar needs. It is a rare case. Such strategy may invite
competition to serve larger groups of buyers, and smaller groups are neglected. People, in different
segments, differ significantly in terms of needs, preference, and advertising appeal
.
Differentiated Marketing:
Here, company operates in several segments and designs different marketing programmes for each of
the segments. Various groups of customers are targeted by several types of products and marketing
strategies. It is based on the notion that each group needs different products. This strategy is used by
the most of automobile companies. This strategy creates more total sales, but costs of doing business
also on increase.
Following costs are likely to be higher in differentiated marketing strategy:
i. Marketing research cost

ii. Administrative costs
iii. Manufacturing costs
iv. Inventory costs
v. Promotional costs
vi. Product modification costs
Here, costs and sales both increase. So, profitability is doubtful. However, it is less risky. Loss in one
segment can be offset against profitable segments. Most of companies prefer this option. Thus, market
targeting is an essential aspect of marketing programme. A manager needs a lot of experience,
knowledge, and expertise to take decision on target market. The alternative to be used depends upon a
large number of internal and external variables. Careful and objective analysis of these variables can
assist in selecting target market.
➢ https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/economics/market/market-targeting-introduction-definition-
procedure-and-
methods/48609/#:~:text=Market%20targeting%20is%20a%20process,and%20distribution%20n
etwork%20is%20prepared.
Unit 3 – Market Positioning
What is Market Positioning?
Market Positioning refers to the ability to influence consumer perception regarding a brand or
product relative to competitors. The objective of market positioning is to establish the image or
identity of a brand or product so that consumers perceive it in a certain way.
For example:
• A handbag maker may position itself as a luxury status symbol
• A TV maker may position its TV as the most innovative and cutting-edge
26
• A fast-food restaurant chain may position itself as the provider of cheap meals
Types of Positioning Strategies
There are several types of positioning strategies. A few examples are positioning by:
• Product attributes and benefits: Associating your brand/product with certain characteristics or
with certain beneficial value
• Product price: Associating your brand/product with competitive pricing
• Product quality: Associating your brand/product with high quality
• Product use and application: Associating your brand/product with a specific use
• Competitors: Making consumers think that your brand/product is better than that of your
competitors
A Perceptual Map in Market Positioning
A perceptual map is used to show consumer perception of certain brands. The map allows you to identify
how competitors are positioned relative to you and to identify opportunities in the marketplace.
An example of consumers perception of price and quality of brands in the automobile industry are
mapped below:
How to Create an Effective Market Positioning Strategy?

Create a positioning statement that will serve to identify your business and how you want the brand to
be perceived by consumers.
27
For example, the positioning statement of Volvo: “For upscale American families, Volvo is the family
automobile that offers maximum safety.”
1. Determine company uniqueness by comparing to competitors

Compare and contrast differences between your company and competitors to identify opportunities.
Focus on your strengths and how they can exploit these opportunities.
2. Identify current market position

Identify your existing market position and how the new positioning will be beneficial in setting you apart
from competitors.
3. Competitor positioning analysis

Identify the conditions of the marketplace and the amount of influence each competitor can have on each
other.
4. Develop a positioning strategy

Through the preceding steps, you should achieve an understanding of what your company is, how your
company is different from competitors, the conditions of the marketplace, opportunities in the
marketplace, and how your company can position itself.
What is Market Repositioning?

Market repositioning is when a company changes its existing brand or product status in the marketplace.
Repositioning is usually done due to declining performance or major shifts in the environment.
Many companies, instead of repositioning, choose to launch a new product or brand because of the high
cost and effort required to successfully reposition a brand or product.
Example of Market Repositioning
The example below describes Coca-Cola’s repositioning of Mother Energy Drinks:
The Coca-Cola Company launched Mother Energy Drinks in 2006 into the Australian market. The launch
campaign was professionally executed, and Coca-Cola was able to leverage its distribution channels to
get the product into major retailers. However, the taste of Mother Energy Drink was subpar and repeat
purchases were very low. Coca-Cola was faced with a decision: to improve and reposition the product
or withdraw it and introduce a new brand and product. The company ultimately decided to reposition the
product due to already high brand awareness. The biggest challenge faced by Coca-Cola was to
persuade consumers to try the product again. The company changed the packaging, increased the size
of the can, and improved the taste of the product. The relaunch of the product featured a new phrase –
“New Mother, tastes nothing like the old one.” Ultimately, Coca-Cola was able to successfully reposition
Mother Energy Drinks and the brand today competes with the two leading energy drinks in the market –
V and Red Bull.
➢ https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/knowledge/strategy/market-positioning/
Unit 4 – Product Decision
The marketing mix, which is the means by which an organization reaches its target market, is made up
of product, pricing, distribution, promotion and people decisions. These are usually shortened to the
anacronym "5P's". Product decisions revolve around decisions regarding the physical product (size,
style, specification, etc.) and product line management.
28
Product decisions are based on how much the organization has to adjust the product on the
standardization - adaptation continuum to differing market conditions. This results in the evolution of five
basic strategic alternatives - extension; extension, adaptation; adaptation, extension; adaptation and
invention. Extension is the nearest to a standardized product, communications strategy and Invention at
the other end of the continuum, that is, an adaptation strategy. The more adaptive the policy the more
costly it will be for the organization.
Here are thorough discussion of the product decision in the following links for your reference.
➢ https://www.slideshare.net/mimieazhar/product-decision-in-marketing-206209374
➢ https://www.coursehero.com/file/24192765/6-PRODUCT-DECISIONS-pptpdf/
Unit 5 – Pricing Decision
"Price decision and management of the price variable is a crucial task, that confronts a marketer. In order
to take correct decisions, it is important that he understands the concept and its influence on pricing
decisions (Saxena, 2009)."
The concept provides an overview of Pricing - one of the most important marketing mix decisions. It
offers a full description of the six steps which can be used as guidelines for implementing pricing
decisions, and also offers well-documented examples.
The link below will provide you discussion on pricing decision, be able to study the different concepts
related to the topic as described in this slideshare.
➢ https://www.slideshare.net/amkrisha/pricing-decision-53719196
Activity 1 – Guide Questions. Answer the following questions:

1. What factors are important in the standardization versus adaptation product decision process?
2. Describe the principle elements of "the product". Give examples.
3. Describe, with examples, the five major product strategies available to global marketers.
Activity 2 - Long Quiz
29
LESSON 6
THE MARKETING PLANNING PROCESS
Introduction
Nowadays, it is a must for every business to make it successful. The marketing process deals with
strategies like the selection of the target market and how to enter that market with your product. Besides
all this, the management must foresee the market trends and try to achieve assigned targets in the given
time frame.
➢ Define marketing planning and marketing planning process; and,

➢ Executive a product evaluation using SWOT analysis.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 – The Marketing Planning Process
A systematic approach to the achievement of marketing goals. Steps in the process include
situation analysis; setting of objectives; strategy formulation; development of action programs;
implementation; and control, review and evaluation.
While, market planning is the process of organizing and defining the marketing aims of a company
and gathering strategies and tactics to achieve them. A solid marketing plan should consist of the
company’s value proposition, information regarding its target market or customers, a comparative
positioning of its competitors in the market, promotion strategies, distribution channels, and budget
allocated for the plan. All relevant teams in the organization should refer to the marketing plan.
The Marketing Planning process outlines the plan of a company as to how they will make their product
successful. Some of the important points are mentioned below:
• The company checks the market condition.

• Define targets where they want to see their product by making analysis and adopting different
marketing techniques.
• How to create a road map for the product becoming popular in the market?
• To select the best options through extensive brainstorming
• This process also helps you to stay in the market even in peak business time.
The Need For The Marketing Planning Process
The marketing planning process was introduced as “to provide the companies with strategies as to where
they want to see their business in future“. It gives you an overview of the target market and market
segmentation. The most important part of this process is to maintain proper documentation of your
strategies.
If you want your product to survive in the market, you need to plan your marketing strategies and its strict
compliance is implemented. Since the competition in the market has become so tough, it will not be
possible for you to survive without proper planning.
30
The planning process of Marketing makes it important for the management to invest some of their time
in attaining the opportunities for the firm by utilizing the resources in a productive way. Currently, the
trend of digital marketing is at a pace so it is important to emphasize the proper planning of marketing in
order to cover the major market. But implementing a proper plan, the risk of failure can also be avoided
and the target market can easily be satisfied.
Steps For Market Planning Process
The steps of the planning process are usually similar for every business with minor changes according
to the conditions:
1. Developing the action plan

• Setting up the goals and vision
• Setting up the mission statement
• Objectives of the firm
The first and foremost step towards making a product successful is to make a careful observation of the
objective of the firm. Hence the first stage of the planning process of marketing is to set the goal which
you like to accomplish. One should be aware of your final goal, the vision of the company regarding the
product depicts what the company is for and where they want to reach.
2. Monitor your current position
• Through marketing audit and monitoring

• SWOT analysis
The second step entails the observation of the current situation. This is a subset of long term and
strategic planning processes in order to observe the current situation, the resources company holds
depict the direction in which the company is moving.
Draw the layout of the resources; assess the in addition to assessing the internal and external factors.
Identify the risk and favors associate with introducing the product. Review the market, target the
appropriate one and divide it into different segments through resources so that you can penetrate the
product in the market more clearly.
Conduct a SWOT analysis of the business which involves different internal and external facets involved.
Through this, you can analyze and improve the current situation. Design the inner view of the firm which
will define that you understand the need of your customer; you know whom you are targeting.
Perform market research to understand your competitor and understand the fact that which needs of the
consumer are necessary to be fulfilled, what depreciation is connected to it and how much needs will
change with the passage of time.
While implementing the planning process you have to observe the current situation in order to consider
certain external facets that are directly linked to the internal possibilities and performance of the firm.
Such external facets are directly connected to the internal facets and the level of the business which are
legal aspects, political scenario and competition in the market while we are moving, economy, culture
and various demographics.
3. Developing a strategy for Marketing

• Marketing Mix
• Designing objectives and strategy for marketing
• Vehicles and sources of communication
31
• Observe the alternative strategies and processes for marketing available
This involves making the marketing strategies and objectives in order to gain the overall objective of the
firm. This involves observing the marketing tactics which fit the best for the promotion of the business.
This step will be useful in making the selection of various strategies that will be helpful in approaching
the target market.
This will help you in guiding you towards the segment of the market which you have selected to reach.
This will also guide you to how you will reach the desired market by selecting the most appropriate type
of communication means and way of positioning your product.
Hence through properly involving the marketing efforts of all the known marketers such as Kotler, Porter,
Ansoff one can design a single market report in which they have monitored how they will introduce the
product and the vehicle they will be utilizing.
With the help of the components of the marketing mix, one can design the marketing strategy in order to
gain a successful competitive advantage. Relying on the core competencies of the company one decides
their needs to be the first-mover advantage or incorporate any strategy and how you will implement your
marketing efforts in order to target the desired customer.
4. Employing, executing and evaluating the planning process
• Make the budget

• Define the resources and implement
• Analyzing and overviewing
This is the milestone of every planning process which involves the operational level activities. In this, you
will allocate the resources, design the budget for implementation of the discussed processes and design
some action plans. One has to monitor the process consistently and observe the plan based on the
opinion and feedback of the customer. Hence make a regular review of the promotional plan.
➢ https://www.businessstudynotes.com/marketing/international-marketing/explain-steps-
marketing-planning-process/
Activity 1 – SWOT Analysis: Execute a product evaluation using SWOT analysis.
32
LESSON 7
DEVELOPING THE MARKETING MIX
Introduction
In the previous lesson, marketing mix has already been touched in the discussion, hence, in this lesson,
a full-blown discussion will be provided together with the incorporation of strategies in implementing
marketing mix.
➢ Develop the marketing mix strategies in product presentation; and

➢ Provide improvements as being indicated in the score card.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 – Presentation of the Development of Marketing Mix
The link below provides a sufficient discussion on the development of marketing mix underscoring
on the different strategies a business should be anchored from.
➢ https://www.slideshare.net/ugik013/marketing-mix-development
Activity 1 – Group Work. Prepare your product feasibility study. This will be graded in accordance to
the rubrics that will be provided by the facilitator. Remember to use the marketing mix strategies learned
from the lesson.
33
LESSON 8
MANAGING THE MARKETING EFFORT AND PRODUCT STRATEGY CASE ANALYSIS
Introduction
In Lesson 7, your feasibility study was undertaken following the marketing mix strategy by which from
this lesson, managing of marketing effort will be undertaken and product strategy case analysis will also
be studied.
➢ Identify strategies on managering the marketign effort; and

➢ Prepare a case analysis.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 – Managing the Marketing Effort
The link below provides a sufficient discussion on managing the marketing effort, take time to
study this link to understand marketing effort.
➢ https://www.slideshare.net/ANNIEJAN/managing-the-marketing-effort
Unit 2 – Product Strategy Case Analysis
An example of a product strategy case analysis is provided in the link below for your analysis of
the content.
➢ https://www.slideshare.net/CatherineABQ/product-strategy-case-study
Activity 1 – Online Quiz (Synchronous)
Activity 2 – Case Analysis. Form a group of 6-8 students and prepare your product strategy case
analysis to be presented using powerpoint presentation.
34
LESSON 9
DESIGNING THE BUSINESS PORTFOLIO
Introduction
In this lesson, students will have the opportunity to design their own business portfolio. Business portfolio
use to speak about what about the business itself, the product it serves and the services it provides for
the customers.
➢ design and prepare their business portfolio; and,

➢ present business portfolio for critiquing.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 – Business Portfolio Management
➢ Business portfolio management is a process that enables organizations to manage multiple

projects or individual projects for optimal results. The business portfolio management process
works by identifying an organization's best project managers and using best management
practices, strategic priorities, and valuable lessons learned in a project management office.
Business portfolio management allows the organization to evaluate and balance conflicting
demands for project resources. By aligning with organizational strategies and prioritizing the
work, business portfolio management helps manage risk and provides cost-effective allocation of
resources to the most deserving projects.
➢ https://study.com/academy/lesson/business-portfolio-management-definition-example.html
Unit 2 – Designing Business Portfolio
The third step in the strategic planning process is designing the business portfolio.
* The business portfolio is a collection of businesses and products that make up the company.
* The best business portfolio is the one that best fits the company's strengths and weaknesses to
opportunities in the environment.
In order to design the business portfolio, the business must:
* Analyze its current business portfolio and decide which business should receive more, less, or no
investment.
* Develop growth strategies for adding new products or businesses to the portfolio.
➢ https://www.slideshare.net/MannikaSolanki/designing-the-business-portfolio
35
Activity 1 – Design your own Business Portfolio. Plan with your groupmates, the design of your
business portfolio. Be able to present it using Powerpoint Presentation next meeting.
Activity 2 – Online Quiz
36
LESSON 10
MARKETING STRATEGIES IN THE DIFFERENT STAGES OF THE PRODUCT LIFE CYCLE
Introduction
In this lesson, the students will learn marketing strategies used in different stages of the product life cycle.
This is of course, to minimize loses and to continuously innovate
➢ Use marketing strategies in designing a product; and,

➢ Examine the different stages of own product life cycle and allowing the use of marketing strategies
learned from the lesson.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 – Marketing Strategies
Product Life Cycle

The product life cycle contains four distinct stages: introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Each stage
is associated with changes in the product's marketing position. You can use various marketing strategies
in each stage to try to prolong the life cycle of your products .
Product introduction strategies
Marketing strategies used in introduction stages include:

• rapid skimming - launching the product at a high price and high promotional level
• slow skimming - launching the product at a high price and low promotional level
• rapid penetration - launching the product at a low price with significant promotion
• slow penetration - launching the product at a low price and minimal promotion
During the introduction stage, you should aim to:
• establish a clear brand identity

• connect with the right partners to promote your product
• set up consumer tests, or provide samples or trials to key target markets
• price the product or service as high as you believe you can sell it, and to reflect the quality level you
are providing
Product growth strategies

Marketing strategies used in the growth stage mainly aim to increase profits. Some of the common
strategies to try are:
• improving product quality

• adding new product features or support services to grow your market share
• enter new markets segments
• keep pricing as high as is reasonable to keep demand and profits high
• increase distribution channels to cope with growing demand
• shifting marketing messages from product awareness to product preference
37
• skimming product prices if your profits are too low.
Growth stage is when you should see rapidly rising sales, profits and your market share. Your
strategies should seek to maximize these opportunities.
Product maturity strategies

When your sales peak, your product will enter the maturity stage. This often means that your market will
be saturated and you may find that you need to change your marketing tactics to prolong the life cycle
of your product. Common strategies that can help during this stage fall under one of two categories:
• market modification - this includes entering new market segments, redefining target markets, winning
over competitor’s customers, converting non-users
• product modification - for example, adjusting or improving your product’s features, quality, pricing and
differentiating it from other products in the marking
Product decline strategies

During the end stages of your product, you will see declining sales and profits. This can be caused by
changes in consumer preferences, technological advances and alternatives on the market. At this stage,
you will have to decide what strategies to take. If you want to save money, you can:
• reduce your promotional expenditure on the products

• reduce the number of distribution outlets that sell them
• implement price cuts to get the customers to buy the product
• fin another use for the product
• maintain the product and wait for competitors to withdraw from the market first
• harvest the product or service before discontinuing it
Another option is for your business to discontinue the product from your offering. You may choose to:
• sell the brand to another business

• significantly reduce the price to get rid of all the inventory
Many businesses find that the best strategy is to modify their product in the maturity stage to avoid
entering the decline stage.
➢ https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/product-life-cycle-
strategies#:~:text=Marketing%20strategies%20used%20in%20introduction,low%20price%20wit
h%20significant%20promotion
Activity 1 – Group Presentation. Provide a product design, assign a rapporteur for the presentation of
the output with an integration of what particular marketing strategies.
38
LESSON 11
CREATING A COMPETTIVE ADVANTAGE
Introduction
Creating a competitive advantage with other manufacturers, business competition will always
warrant the best for the customers. Innovative ideas and best possible outcome of the product will be at
the advantage of the consumer.
It is very important for marketing students to learn how to create a competitive advantage
particularly within the same line of business industry.
➢ Present a product competitive advantage as compared to other products; and,

➢ Prepare a creative strategies that may help realized the competitive advantage of the product’
presented.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 – Creating a Competitive Advantage
6 Ways to Gain Competitive Advantage (https://www.gavelintl.com/6-ways-to-gain-competitive-

advantage/)
In today’s hyper competitive market, every business strives to gain an advantage over the
competition. It’s getting harder too, thanks to buyer’s becoming more savvy. Studies show that buyers
investigate more online. In fact, 86% of buyers are likely checking out your competitors right now.1
What can businesses do to earn a competitive advantage, and keep it? Here are a few strategies that
will differentiate your business as well as retain your customers throughout their entire buying lifecycle.
1. Create a Corporate Culture that Attracts the Best Talent
Finding the best people isn’t just important for productivity and cost reduction. It’s also important
because having happy workers means that your customers have better experiences. Customers
know the difference between buying from a company where workers aren’t happy. They know
that when workers are supported, the quality of care is better and products have fewer
issues. Customers want to buy from companies that take care of their people because this means
that they take care of their customers. This provides you with a competitive edge.
2. Define Niches that are Under-serviced
In fishing, there are two types of fish. Those you find in oceans and those you find in lakes or
rivers. For obvious reasons, fish that grow in oceans are bigger, but they take much more effort
to catch. Fish that grow in lakes and rivers are easy to catch but tend to be smaller compared to
their ocean counter-parts. It’s the same with customers. When looking to gain a competitive
advantage, it can be easy to go after known niches where customers are easy to find. However,
looking for niches where customers are under-serviced can provide you with a market
advantage. There are often few competitors, plus you can tap a market an establish brand
recognition early.
3. Understand the DNA Footprint of Your Ideal Customer
Customers aren’t all the same. In fact, just because someone is willing to buy from you, doesn’t
make them the best customer. Targeting the right customer, being aware of the buying process,
who is involved in decision-making, what information is needed and at what time, and so forth
39
can help your sales team (and post-sales support teams) win business and retain lifelong
customers. When customers feel that you understand them, truly are in tune with their needs,
serve them exactly what they need at the very time that they need it, they will place you far above
the competition.
4. Clarify Your Strengths
Your business, just as any other, has core strengths and competencies. Perhaps these are
processes, or technology, or knowledge/expertise/experience. Whatever they are, these offer
value to your customers and are what customers what to buy from you. Consider how you can
use these strengths in innovative and creative ways to gain new business, tap new markets,
etc. Additionally, how can you use your core competencies to create value for your
customers? These are key factors you should explore to create a clear market advantage.
5. Establish Your Unique Value Proposition
Many companies often use common value propositions such as pricing, service levels, quality,
brand recognition, etc. to create a competitive advantage. While this can and often is a great
beginning, continue to ask the “so what” question until you have a much more unique, special
and competitive statement than that of others in your market. For example, if everyone in your
market is talking about the quality of their customer service, ask yourself “so what” about your
customer service. In other words, what makes your service and support better? How is it more
valuable? What does it offer that your competition does not? Don’t stop until you can come up
with a single statement such as “Our 24/7/365 customer service provides you with guaranteed
on-site care within 2 hours, or we replace the product free of charge within 24 hours.”
6. Reward Behaviors that Support Corporate Mission and Value
Whether you seek to reward top performers in your organization, or to acknowledge customers
who have been your best buyers, rewarding behavior has many benefits. First and foremost,
rewards such as travel incentives, provide opportunities to combine leisure with business and
build relationships outside of the office environment. In fact, of top performing companies, 90%
of them use rewards.2
Even when faced with stiff competition, having a competitive advantage provides you with greater
opportunities to close more business. More importantly, the stronger your competitive advantage, the
greater your ability to sustain a position of strength in the market no matter its conditions or level of
competition.
Following the link below, will show you the importance of creative a competitive advantage, be
able to analyze them as you prepare your own product competitive advantage.
➢ https://www.slideshare.net/EmDangla/creating-competitive-advantage-41606394
Unit 2 – Marketing Mix (Product, Price, Place & Promotion)
The marketing mix refers to the set of actions, or tactics, that a company uses to promote its brand or
product in the market. The 4Ps make up a typical marketing mix - Price, Product, Promotion and Place.
However, nowadays, the marketing mix increasingly includes several other Ps like Packaging,
Positioning, People and even Politics as vital mix elements.
What are the 4Ps of marketing?
Price: refers to the value that is put for a product. It depends on costs of production, segment targeted,
ability of the market to pay, supply - demand and a host of other direct and indirect factors. There can
be several types of pricing strategies, each tied in with an overall business plan. Pricing can also be used
40
a demarcation, to differentiate and enhance the image of a product.
Product: refers to the item actually being sold. The product must deliver a minimum level of performance;
otherwise even the best work on the other elements of the marketing mix won't do any good.
Place: refers to the point of sale. In every industry, catching the eye of the consumer and making it easy
for her to buy it is the main aim of a good distribution or 'place' strategy. Retailers pay a premium for the
right location. In fact, the mantra of a successful retail business is 'location, location, location'.
Promotion: this refers to all the activities undertaken to make the product or service known to the user
and trade. This can include advertising, word of mouth, press reports, incentives, commissions and
awards to the trade. It can also include consumer schemes, direct marketing, contests and prizes.
Importance of the marketing mix?
All the elements of the marketing mix influence each other. They make up the business plan for a
company and handled right, can give it great success. But handled wrong and the business could take
years to recover. The marketing mix needs a lot of understanding, market research and consultation
with several people, from users to trade to manufacturing and several others.
Activity 1 – Watching youtube presentations of marketing mix implementation
The Marketing Mix - YouTube
www.youtube.com › watch
13:
The Marketing Mix - The product concept - YouTube

www.youtube.com › watch
2:19
Taken this as sample, make a presentation through youtube of marketing promotion of the product you
developed for submission at the of the semester.
2:27
41
LESSON 12
COMPETITOR ANALYSIS, VIRAL MARKETING AND CONSUMERISM
Introduction
The need for competition in business is just a normal thing to discover, it is herein that the
product continuously developing and improving to be always on top. That is precisely the goal of any
business venture. Some other techniques that one should study is the use of viral marketing and
applying the theory of consumerism.
These are just a few of the reasons why business firms are still in demands and be wanted to
exist by the consumer.
➢ conduct a competitive analysis as the students learn to understand market trends;

➢ make a competitive report analysis; and,
➢ produce/create a viral marketing strategy for the product being endorsed.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 - Conducting A Comprehensive Competitive Analysis
You will learn how to conduct a competitive analysis using this framework: understand market trends,
identify your competitors, evaluate opportunities, analyze threats to your organization, and adjust your
go-to-market and positioning strategy accordingly .
42
Your business will always have competition. And if you don’t know what that competition is up to, you
could be missing out on huge opportunities.
That’s why a competitive analysis is so crucial to your success as a business. It gives you the tools to
quickly adapt to any changes in the competitive landscape and potentially capitalize on industry trends
that your competitors haven’t even noticed.
A competitive analysis report outlines the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors compared to
those of your own business.
Typically, a competitive analysis report will contain:
• A description of your business’s target market

• Details about the features of your product compared to your competitors’ products
• A breakdown of current and projected market share, sales, and revenues
• Comparisons of pricing models
• An analysis of marketing strategy and social media strategy
• A description of customer ratings of the features of each competitor
Whether you’re a startup trying to break into the marketplace, a consultant trying to get results for your
client, or an established company looking to cement your foothold against the competition, a well-
researched competitive analysis gives you the tools you need to make strategic decisions.
Your competitive analysis should inform your marketing plan, your business plan, your consultant
report and every part of your high-level business strategy.
But how do you actually create a competitive analysis report?
How to create a competitive analysis report ?
1. Start with a competitor overview

A strong report shows exactly what a company must out-compete to be successful.
Meaning you must audit any product or service that currently solves the problem your business is trying
to solve for customers and write a quick profile for each competitor.
Like the template below, each competitor profile might include:

• The company’s revenue and market share
• The company’s size and information about their management team
• A broad description of the company’s strengths and weaknesses
• An overview of how the company is perceived by customers
This overview will help your readers get a big-picture view of the market landscape.
43
2. Conduct market research to uncover customer personas and industry trends
You can’t create a competitive analysis report without doing extensive market research, which is all
about gathering information to understand your customers, identify opportunities to grow, and
recognize trends in the industry.
This research can help you put together the customer personas that will guide business and marketing
decisions down the line, and allow you to plan for any shifts that might disrupt the marketplace.
You can conduct primary market research, with:
• Customer interviews
• Online surveys or questionnaires
• In-person focus groups
• Purchasing a competitor product to study packaging and delivery experience
Or secondary market research, by:
• Reading company records

• Examining the current economic conditions
• Researching relevant technological developments
When assembling your market research you may just want provide a high-level summary of the
industry trends, like this competitor analysis example shows:
44
Or you may want to dive into detail on the demographics of a particular consumer segment, like this:
45
But if you’re a consultant or advisor struggling to get buy-in from skeptical stakeholders, the report below
would be ideal. Covering everything from market forecasts to consumer profiles, it can help you get
clients and decision-makers on board.
3. Compare product features in a feature comparison matrix

The feature comparison is arguably the most important part of the competitive analysis. Breaking down
your product and your competitors’ products feature-by-feature will allow you to see what really sets
everyone apart.
In addition to specific product features, here are some attributes that you might include in a
feature comparison matrix:
• Price
• Service
• Product quality
• Number of features
• Ease of use
• Warranties
• Customer support
• Brand/style/image
The most common format for a features analysis is a simple matrix with you and your competitors along
one side and all of the relevant features along the other. You can check off or rate how you perform in
each area:
46
But these tables can get pretty long. Another approach is to focus on the things that provide the most
value to the user, like in this competitor analysis example from Mint. It only includes ease of use, costs,
and benefits:
If you want to visualize your comparisons in an engaging way, you could use a comparison
infographic.
Great resources for this section of your competitive analysis report are product rating sites
like Capterra and G2Crowd. They’ll give you an unbiased view of your company and your competitors.
And as with any market research, it’s critical that you speak with real people who use your product and
your competitors’ products. That’s the only way to get an accurate picture of how your target customers
rate the competition.
4. Summarize your strengths and weaknesses in a SWOT analysis

When you’re conducting research for your competitive analysis, it’s going to be messy. You’ll have a lot
of data and it’ll be hard for an outsider to understand.
That’s what makes the SWOT analysis so essential.
A SWOT analysis is a framework for evaluating your competitive position by listing your key
strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
It can act like a short summary of the rest of your competitive analysis report for anyone who doesn’t
have time to dig into the details.
47
Here are some questions to kickstart your SWOT analysis:
• Strengths: What are we doing really well (in terms of marketing, products, sales, branding, technology,
etc.)?
• Weaknesses: What are we struggling with? What’s holding us back?
• Opportunities: What’s the weakest area for our biggest competitor? Are there any gaps in the market
that aren’t current being addressed? What has recently changed in our business or the market?
• Threats: What is our biggest competitor doing much better than us? What new products/features are
they working on? What problems aren’t we currently addressing?
In your report, you could arrange your SWOT analysis in a simple list, but it can be helpful to use color-
coded quadrants, like the competitor analysis example below. Note how each quadrant is paired with an
icon:
5. Show where you fit in the competitive landscape
After summarizing your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, it’s time to look at the bigger
picture. It’s time to figure out where every major competitor currently fits into the competitive landscape.
The most popular way of doing this is to identify the two dimensions that are most important for being
competitive in your industry and plot them on a matrix, like this one from the Boston Consulting Group:
48
You may want to focus on where you fit in the market landscape based on your own biggest strengths
and weaknesses, or the biggest threats and opportunities you identified in the SWOT analysis.
Or, it may be enough just to summarize in words the features and benefits that set your apart from your
competitors (which is a great way to end your report on a high note).
➢ https://venngage.com/blog/competitor-analysis-template/
Unit 2 – Viral Marketing
Viral marketing is a business strategy that uses existing social networks to promote a product. Its name
refers to how consumers spread information about a product with other people in their social networks,
much in the same way that a virus spreads from one person to another.
The basis of viral marketing is in the spread of information by word-of-mouth (see Word-of-Mouth
marketing), but modern technology has allowed the viral effect to include many Internet-based platforms
as well.
Viral marketing typically supplies its audience with something of value for free. This can be something
as simple as an amusing song or game. Whatever the viral content is, it must encourage people to share
with others so as many people as possible receive the content's message.
49
Who Uses Viral Marketing?
Viral marketing is useful as a stand-alone marketing tool or as a part of a larger campaign that uses
multiple kinds of marketing. It is especially attractive to smaller businesses or companies because viral
marketing can be a cheaper alternative to traditional marketing efforts.
A new energy drink company, for example, could create an Internet video featuring a person who
consumes the energy drink before performing a seemingly impossible bicycle jump. If the video is made
to look real, it may encourage people who see it to share it with others. After the video receives enough
views, the company could reveal its true purpose, convincing its viewers to seek out more information
about the drink without ever using a traditional advertisement.
Viral marketing is often used in conjunction with other methods of marketing, such as in the case of the
Blair Witch Project. The viral aspect of the campaign generated buzz about the story long before the
release of commercials, trailers, posters, and other forms of traditional marketing. This caused many
people to already talk about the movie before it was officially announced to the public.
Content does not have to be covert to be viral. Political campaigns often create videos featuring sound
clips of an opposing candidate saying something people may find offensive. Politicians hope that by
pointing out an outrageous statement, the video will go viral and cause others to develop a negative
attitude toward the targeted opponent.
Implementing Viral Marketing Techniques
There is a common misconception that viral marketing depends on the ability to reliably create something
extremely popular. In reality, a successful viral marketing campaign rests more on understanding how to
connect with specific demographics by presenting them with valuable content.
Viral marketing is a customer-focused approach, so the first step is to identify the target demographic for
a product and what they value the most in products, requiring marketers to research and analyze
demographic data. During the Blair Witch campaign, the filmmakers and main marketing agents for the
movie were accomplished film students. They examined what made horror movies compelling for the
demographic of teens to young adults they were targeting, as well as explored how that demographic
shared information. They used this information to focus on their product's mystery, and they concentrated
their early efforts on the Internet where they knew they would have the best chance of reaching a younger
audience.
➢ https://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/viral-marketing.html
Unit 3 – Consumerism
Consumerism is the belief that personal wellbeing and happiness depends to a very large extent on the
level of personal consumption, particularly on the purchase of material goods. The idea is not simply that
wellbeing depends upon a standard of living above some threshold, but that at the center of happiness
is consumption and material possessions. A consumerist society is one in which people devote a great
50
deal of time, energy, resources and thought to “consuming”. The general view of life in a consumerist
society is consumption is good, and more consumption is even better.
A detailed discussion on consumerism can be seen in the link below:
➢ https://www.slideshare.net/s5750369s/consumerism-42593549
Activity 1 – Group Activity. Think of a future product and make a list of competitors and provide your
own competitor report. Make a viral marketing of that product.
Online Quiz
51
LESSON 13
MARKETING PLAN
Introduction
As the students, learned about the marketing strategies, competitive strategies, analysis and etc,
marketing plan will be realized. Like any other plans, marketing plan includes the things the business
owner vision, mission and strategies to fulfill that mission.
In this lesson, exploring the marketing plan of a product being created is expected.
➢ Make a marketing plan; and,

➢ Implement a marketing plan.
Learning Materials
Unit 1 – Marketing Plan
From the illustration above, here are a few of the questions one may have when creating a marketing
plan.
52
A marketing plan is a report that outlines your marketing strategy for the coming year, quarter or month.
Typically, a marketing plan includes: An overview of your business's marketing and advertising goals. A
description of your business's current marketing position.
Typically, a marketing plan includes:

• An overview of your business’s marketing and advertising goals.
• A description of your business’s current marketing position.
• A timeline of when tasks within your strategy will be completed.
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) you will be tracking.
• A description of your business’s target market and customer needs.
How to create a marketing plan:
The scope of your marketing plan varies depending on its purpose or the type of organization it’s for. For
example, you could create a marketing plan that provides an overview of a company’s entire marketing
strategy
1. Simple Executive Summary

Starting your marketing plan off on the right foot is important. You want to pull people into your amazing
plan for marketing domination. Not bore them to tears.
One of the best ways to get people excited to read your marketing plan is with a well written executive
summary. An executive summary introduces readers to your company goals, marketing triumphs, future
plans, and other important contextual facts.
Basically, you can use the Executive Summary as a primer for the rest of your marketing plan.
Include things like:
• Simple marketing goals

• High-level metrics
• Important company milestones
• Facts about your brand
• Employee anecdotes
• Future goals & plans
• And more
53
Try to keep your executive summary rather brief and to the point. You aren’t writing a novel, so try to
keep it under a three to four paragraphs.
The executive summary is only two paragraphs long–short but effective.

The executive summary tells readers about the company’s growth, and how they are about to overtake
one of their competitors. But there’s no mention of specific metrics or figures–that will be highlighted in
the next section of the marketing plan.
An effective executive summary should have enough information to pique the reader’s interest, but not
bog them down with specifics yet. That’s what the rest of your marketing plan is for!
The executive summary also sets the tone for your marketing plan. Think about what tone will fit your
brand–friendly and humorous? Professional and reliable? Inspiring and visionary?
2. Metric-Driven Marketing Goals
After you perfect your executive summary, it’s time to outline your marketing goals.
This is one of the most important parts of the entire marketing plan, so be sure to take your time and to
be as clear as possible.
As a rule of thumb, be as specific as possible. The folks over at VoyMedia advise that you should set
goals that impact website traffic, conversions, and customer success — and to use real numbers.
Avoid outlining vague goals like:
• Get more Twitter followers

• Write more articles
• Create more YouTube videos
• Increase retention rate
• Decrease bounce rate
Instead, identify key performance metrics you want to impact and the percentage you want to increase
them by.
They not only identify a specific metric in each of their goals, they also set a timeline for when they will
be increased.
The same vague goals listed earlier become much clearer when specific numbers and timelines are
applied to them:
• Get 100 new Twitter followers per month

• Write 5 more articles per week
• Create 10 YouTube videos each year
• Increase retention rate by 15% by 2020
• Decrease bounce rate by 5% by Q1
• Create an online course and get 1,000 new leads
You can dive even deeper into your marketing goals if you want (generally, the more specific, the
better). Here’s a template for outlining your growth goals:
3. Target User Personas
54
Now, this may not seem like the most important part of your marketing plan, but I think it holds a ton of
value.
Outlining your user personas is an important part of a marketing plan that should not be overlooked.
You should be asking not just how you can get the most visitors to your business, but how you can get
the right visitors.
Who are your ideal customers? What are their goals? What are their biggest problems? How does your
business solve their problems?
Answering these questions will take lots of research, but it’s essential information to get.
Some ways to conduct user research are:
• Interviewing your users (either in person or on the phone)

• Conducting focus groups
• Researching other businesses in the same industry
• Surveying your audience
4. Accurate Competitor Research

Next, on the marketing plan checklist, we have the competitor research section. This section will help
you identify who your competitors are, what they’re doing, and how you could carve yourself a place
alongside them in your niche–and ideally, surpass them. It’s something you can learn to do with a tool
like GrowthBar.
Competitor research is also incredibly important if you are starting a blog.
Typically, your competitor research should include:
• Who their marketing team is

• Who their leadership team is
• What their marketing strategy is (this will probably revolve some reverse-engineering)
• What their sales strategy is (same deal)
• Social Media strategy
• Their market cap/financials
• Their yearly growth (you will probably need to use a marketing tool like Ahrefs to do this)
• The number of customers they have & their user personas
Also, take as deep a dive as you can into the strategies they use across their:
• Blog/Content marketing
• Social media marketing
• SEO Marketing
• Video marketing
• And any other marketing tactics they use
Research their strengths and weaknesses in all parts of their company, and you will find some great
opportunities. Bookmark has a great guide to different marketing strategies for small businesses, if you
need some more information there.
5. Key Baselines
It’s pretty hard to plan for the future if you don’t know where your business stands right now.
55
Setting baselines will allow you to more accurately track your progress. You will also be able to better
analyze what worked and what didn’t work, so you can build a stronger strategy. It will definitely help
them clearly understand your goals and strategy as well.
Because data can be intimidating to a lot of people, visualizing your data using charts and
infographics will help demystify the information.
6. Actionable Marketing Strategy
After pulling all the contextual information and relevant metrics into your marketing plan, it’s time to break
down your marketing strategy.
Once again, it’s easier to communicate your information to your team or clients using visuals.
Mind maps are an effective way to show how a strategy with many moving parts ties together. For
example, this mind map shows how the four main components of a marketing strategy interact together:
➢ https://venngage.com/blog/marketing-
plan/#:~:text=A%20marketing%20plan%20is%20a,your%20business's%20current%20marketin
g%20position.
Activity 1 – Group Activity. Presentation of a Marketing Plan of the product produced.
56
57

MODULE in Marketing Management - Docx 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

MODULE in Marketing Management - Docx 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Polytechnic University of the Philippines

QUEZON CITY BRANCH

Compiled by: Prof. Doris B. Gatan

Introduction of the Course 3

Lesson 2 Marketing Environment 8

Lesson 3 the Marketing Management Philosophies 12

Lesson 4 The Marketing Process 18

Lesson 5 Market Segmentation, Market Targeting, Market Positioning, Product 21

Lesson 6 The Marketing Planning Process 30

Lesson 7 Developing the Marketing Mix 33

Lesson 9 Designing the business portfolio 35

Lesson 11 Creating a Competitive Advantage 39

Lesson 12 Competitor Analysis, Viral Marketing and Consumerism 42

Lesson 13 The Marketing Plan 52

Several platforms will be used in the delivery of the lessons that

Format of submission shall consist of the following:

MARKETING ROLES IN TODAY’S ORGANIZATION

➢ define marketing management;

Unit 1 - Marketing Roles in Today’s Organization

Activity 1. SYNTHESIS: https://www.slideshare.net/ericmoe18/marketing-in-modern-

THE MARKETING ENVIRONMENT

➢ Categorize marketing environment;

Unit 1 – Marketing Environment

Unit 2 - Components Of Marketing Environment

B.2.1 Demographic Environment

B.2.2 Economic Environment

Essential For Planning

Quiz 1. Synchronous Short Quiz for the topic.

MARKETING MANAGEMENT PHILOSOPHIES

Here marketing management takes a “customer first” approach.

Societal Marketing Concept

THE MARKETING PROCESS

This lesson provides the 5 steps of marketing process.

➢ Determine the right steps in marketing process; and,

Unit 1 – 5 Steps of Marketing Process

As illustrated marketing process has the following steps to be followed:

Step 1. Understanding the Marketplace and Customer Needs and Wants

Step 2: Designing A Customer-Driven Marketing Strategy

Focus areas for designing a marketing strategy:

• Selecting customers to serve -defining the target market

Choosing a value proposition

5 alternative concepts for designing a customer-driven marketing strategy, are;

Step 3: Constructing an integrated marketing plan that delivers superior value

Step 4: Build Profitable Relationships

Step 5: Capturing Value From Customers

MARKET SEGMENTATION, MARKET TARGETING, MARKET POSITIONING,

Unit 1 – Market Segmentation

The Basics of Segmentation

Types of Market Segmentation

How to Get Started with Segmentation

2. Determine How To Segment Your Market – Decide which criteria (i.e.

3. Design Your Study – Ask a mix of demographic/firmographic, psychographic, and behavioral

Ensuring Effective Segments

Unit 2 – Market Targeting

Procedure of Market Targeting:

Market targeting procedure consists of two steps:

1. Evaluating Market Segments:

To determine overall attractiveness/suitability of the segment, two factors are used:

ii. Objectives and Resources of Company:

2. Selecting Market Segments:

Alternative Strategies (Methods) for Market Targeting:

Single segment offers some merits like:

It suffers from following demerits like: