Course overview
Marketing emphasizes satisfying needs and wants through the facilitation of the exchange process between and among organizations and customers. Marketing concepts and techniques apply to all types of organizations, whether they are for-profit or non-profit and whether providing goods, services, experiences or ideas to their customers. An organization’s long-term success is determined by understanding customer preferences and perceptions as well as how they change. Marketing is also a critical link between organizations and their environment. The topics studied include gathering and interpreting market information, understanding customer decision processes and the influencers of these processes, target market decisions involving segmenting markets and positioning market offerings, marketing promotion and advertising, product design and modification, pricing, distribution of products, and effective managerial decision-making and planning. Marketing is an essential, universal activity common to all individuals and organizations around the world, whether pursuing personal employment, seeking clients for an accounting firm, or in marketing supertankers or soap. Marketing knowledge and skills may lead to challenging and satisfying careers in nearly any field including such activities as sales and sales management, advertising and promotion management, retail management and buying, product development and management, public relations, industrial marketing, marketing research, and international marketing.
