Are you looking for a new challenge? Are you interested in a change of pace? Have you decided that you want to further your education? You can start your college search with confidence knowing that you have found the right website. Here you can find the complete online syllabus for Columbia Southern University’s Bachelor of Science in Marketing degree. You can access this information easily which will save you considerable amounts of time and money. Hopefully, this page will answer all of your questions concerning studying in Columbia Southern. If not, feel free to contact the university directly for more information.
Introduction To Marketing
Marketing is the activity of identifying and fulfilling consumer needs and wants. The practice of marketing includes developing marketing goals and a marketing plan to achieve them, gathering and analyzing marketing data, and measuring the effectiveness of past marketing efforts and the plan as a whole. The main purpose of marketing is to guide a business’s decisions about what products to make, how to price those products, and which markets to enter or exit.
Every business, large or small, will benefit from some sort of marketing. The more specific the better. Knowing what your customer wants and needs can help you create products that they will love, remember, and tell their friends about. Developing a strong marketing department is extremely beneficial to any business.
Theories Of Marketing
Consumer behavior theory explains that a buyer’s psychology determines their preferences and influences their decisions making process. In other words, what makes a buyer buy something does not necessarily have to do with the product itself but rather with the person or group of people selling it. For example, when faced with a product they know nothing about, most people will choose the option that they feel most comfortable with or that they have heard about, even if it’s not particularly good. Social media marketing theory builds on behavioral marketing and ties the purchase decision to a consumer’s social media behavior, their peers’ influence, and the business’s marketing messages. A/B testing examines whether changes to a website’s content, format, or both can increase or decrease a sale. Finally, digital marketing theory emphasizes the use of technology and data to achieve marketing objectives.
Elements Of A Marketing Plan
A marketing plan is a road map for a business; the plan will determine what to do and when to do it. The plan should include what products you will promote, how you will sell those products, and when you will launch the campaign. The marketing plan also needs to include a marketing budget and how you will measure the success of the plan.
Marketing Research
Marketing research is the process of collecting and analyzing data to create a better understanding of consumer behavior. The goal of marketing research is to provide data that can be used to formulate marketing strategies and plans as well as to identify marketing opportunities. Marketing research can be divided into three sub-disciplines: (1) market segmentation, (2) market sizing, and (3) market share analysis. Market segmentation looks to identify the parts of the market that the business needs to focus on, including the type of customers they are looking for, their behavior, and the circumstances under which they will buy. Market sizing looks at the size of the market as a whole, identifying key industry metrics such as penetration, growth, and so on. Finally, market share analysis examines how much of the market a business controls. The sub-disciplines of marketing research can be combined using a variety of tools, such as spreadsheets, to create a more comprehensive report.
Marketing Channels
There are four basic channels through which a business can promote and market its products and services: (1) Personal selling, (2) Public relations, (3) Advertising, and (4) Online marketing.
Personal selling is the most traditional form of marketing and involves interaction between a salesperson and potential customer. The salesperson is in direct communication with the consumer and is able to provide personalized assistance and information on the products or services being offered. While personal selling can be effective, the high-cost of customer acquisition and the associated time commitment make it more of a choice for businesses when compared to some of the other marketing channels.
Public relations is the process of creating favorable public opinion or interest in a product or service by manipulating the media. This media manipulation can be through advertising or news articles. To succeed, businesses need to target the right audiences through the use of metrics such as demographic analysis, psychographic analysis, and more.
Key Players In Marketing
There are several critical players that a business needs to have in place to succeed in marketing. These key players include: (1) a chief marketing officer (CMO), (2) a brand manager, and (3) a marketing strategist. A CMO is responsible for the creation and implementation of a marketing strategy as well as the analysis of marketing data. A brand manager is responsible for the creation of a business’s identity and overseeing its marketing initiatives, including advertising and public relations. Finally, a marketing strategist is responsible for devising long-term growth plans, defining key performance indicators (KPIs), and analyzing market data.
These roles are typically filled by a business’s senior management team. Once these positions are in place, the CMO can begin to develop a marketing strategy and the team can begin to execute this strategy. As the marketing strategist, you’ll be in charge of formulating the plan and making certain it is being followed and implemented properly. As the brand manager, you’ll be in charge of creating a business’s identity and marketing messaging.
Strategic Marketing
Strategic marketing is the practice of planning, executing, and fine-tuning marketing activities consistently across platforms, channels, and regions to ensure that the business’ goals are being met.
The main purpose of strategic marketing is to provide a business with the best possible chance of accomplishing its goals. To do this, you must (1) analyze the past performance of different marketing campaigns to identify opportunities for improvement and (2) set new goals and a new direction for the business.
Activities In A Strategic Marketing Plan
A strategic marketing plan will include a list of all of the activities that the business will undertake to market its products and services. This list will include everything from marketing research to public relations. Each activity should be carefully thought out and include a purpose and a strategy for achieving that purpose.
Marketing Research For Decision-Making
Decision-making is a continuous process that feeds back into marketing research and then into future planning. Decision-making begins with the analysis of past performance. For example, you’ll want to examine the ROI (return on investment) of a marketing campaign that you launched last year to determine if it was worth the effort. You can track the results of your campaign in Google Analytics or another web analytics tool.
Past performance is crucial because it provides businesses with the raw material needed to determine what will work best going forward. A decision-maker needs to examine different scenarios and outcomes and choose the best option. The analysis of past performance will form the basis for the decision-maker’s choice.
Launch Plan For New Products/Services
Every business has products that it offers for sale, either on the company’s own website or in retail stores or both. Some businesses may even manufacture their own products or purchase them from third parties. Launching a new product or service is the act of making that product or service available to the public for the first time. When developing a launch plan for a new product or service, you’ll want to perform market research, determine your target audience, and develop the marketing strategy, all with the goal of driving as many sales as possible.
The objective is to get as many people as possible into your arms through the use of marketing, whether that’s digital marketing, social media marketing, or a combination thereof. Sometimes this may mean using traditional methods, such as advertising, to get the word out.
Marketing Research As A Business Planning Activity
Marketing research is an essential tool for any business, whether you’re a small business or a large corporation, a solopreneur or part of a team. When a business plans to undertake a marketing initiative, they will begin to develop the practice of marketing research. This will involve setting quantifiable goals and milestones, analyzing traffic and conversion data, and making careful note of all marketing and planning activities.
The benefits of marketing research are several. First, marketing research allows a business to objectively examine its current practices and determine if they are effective or need to be changed. Second, the practice of marketing research provides a business with the material needed to thoroughly examine key performance indicators, such as ROI, and to track the success of its marketing efforts and strategies.