Marketing Essentials and Branding Strategy

Course Overview

Marketing is essential to all types of businesses - so much so that marketing is a discipline in and of itself. It can effectively be described, as identifying your customers and then how to address what they, a unique group of customers, wants.

Additionally, through our Marketing Essentials program you will learn how to more effectively communicate with your target customers. The methods of communication you chose in today’s technology driven business environment can be vitally important to reaching your audience. Also, can you position in your brand and identify your customers in the global landscape? With a little bit of training in marketing your company could better reach its potential in the cross-cultural platform that is today’s market.

We also must address the paradigm shift that has taken place in the last two decades from traditional marketing to Internet or E-marketing. We will examine how these methods differ and which suits your industry better. Do you know how to “Blog?” How about post a new thread on a message board? What is a “viral video” and how does it relate to marketing? Every marketing professional in the 21st century must address the issues surrounding marketing over the Internet. However you also need to determine if E-Marketing is right for your business and if it is, what techniques you will employ. Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Point-Per-Click campaigns, and Viewer Databases are all marketing concepts that are unique to the new way a business interfaces with its customers. We will also see how the paradigm shift has affected different industries. It is important to note that in the new E-Marketing model, the customer is looking for you. How you take advantage of this is wholly dependent on your level of marketing expertise.

The question remains, how in today’s market does a company measure and deliver customer satisfaction, while managing their brand and expanding profitability? Some may choose to devote marketing dollars to a Point-Per-Click Campaign with a major search engine. Another may engage their forecasted customer base in a Direct Marketing effort. What is best for your business and how should it be enacted? After all, this is what you are here to learn from Manhattan Review.

With our course you will learn the theories behind marketing techniques as well as their practice so you will not only be able to make educated choices but also will be able to defend those choices. But since business is above all about practice as opposed to theory, you will take part in group projects, presentations, and study specifically chosen real world scenarios. In the scenarios, you will have the opportunity to implement the marketing concepts and techniques that you learned in the first part of the course. We will cover the basics of market research, brand management, advertising, and different aspects of communication including the visual identity of your brand or company. As stated earlier, these concepts will be illustrated through different scenarios either developed by your instructor or taken from the rich history of marketing issues in business.

In addressing some tasks and in answering questions that may arise from case studies throughout the course, you may be asked to assume the role of marketing manager. You will learn how to pinpoint who the target customer group is, how a company plans on reaching them, and what the overall strategy of their marketing campaign is. You are encouraged to develop novel product or service ideas because we believe this will further encourage you to be more creative about how you market your product and in turn, you will learn more about marketing concepts and strategy.

Some if not many of the key concepts you will learn in this course will apply not only to your newly developed knowledge of marketing, but other aspects of your career in business like decision making, problem solving, analysis, and communication skills.

Summary of Some Topics Covered

• What is the role of a Marketing Campaign Manager
• Planning a marketing campaign/developing a strategy
• Identifying your customers
• Measuring customer satisfaction
• Brand Management in a cross cultural market
• “Customer Focused” vs. “Market Driven”
• Demand Forecasting
• Internet and Web 2.0 Marketing vs. Traditional Marketing
• Paradigm Shifts in the practice of marketing