Why it Matters
Overview
Teacher resources for Unit 1 can be found on the next page.
Why explain what marketing is and how it’s used?
Resources for Unit 1: What is Marketing?
Slide Deck - PrinciplesofMarketing_01_WhatisMarketing_WbSR6Er.pptx
SDC Principles of Marketing Crosswalk with TN State Standards
Discussion Assignments and Alignment: Self-Introduction
Marketing Plan Resources
Marketing Plan Placement in Course
Pacing
The Principles of Marketing textbook contains sixteen units—roughly one unit per week for a 16-week semester. If you need to modify the pace and cover the material more quickly, the following units work well together:
- Unit 1: What Is Marketing? and Unit 2: Marketing Function. Both are lighter, introductory units.
- Unit 15: Global Marketing and Unit 16: Marketing Plan. Unit 16 has more course review and synthesis information than new material per se.
- Unit 5: Ethics can be combined with any unit. You can also move it around without losing anything.
- Unit 8: Positioning and Unit 9: Branding. Companion modules that can be covered in a single week.
- Unit 6: Marketing Information & Research and Unit 7: Consumer Behavior. Companion units that can be covered in a single week.
We recommend NOT doubling up the following units, because they are long and especially challenging. Students will need more time for mastery and completion of assignments.
- Unit 4: Marketing Strategy
- Unit 10: Product Marketing
- Unit 13: Promotion: Integrated Marketing Communication
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Learning Outcomes
- Define marketing
- Identify evidence of marketing in everyday life
- Demonstrate a clear understanding of the marketing concept
- Describe the role of marketing in building and managing customer relationships
- Describe how different types of organizations, such as non-profits, consumer product (B2C) firms and business-to-business (B2B) organizations, use marketing
- Explain how marketing creates value for the consumer, the company, and society
When you hear the term “marketing,” what comes to mind?
Based on what you know about marketing right now, what one word would you use to describe it? Take a moment to write it down. We’ll come back to it shortly.
Marketing is a tool used by companies, organizations, and people to shape our perceptions and persuade us to change our behavior. The most effective marketing uses a well-designed strategy and a variety of techniques to alter how people think about and interact with the product or service in question. Less-effective marketing causes people to turn off, tune out, or not even notice.
Why should you care about marketing? Marketing is an ever-present force in modern society, and it can work amazingly well to influence what we do and why we do it. Consider these points:
Marketing sells products.
Marketing changes how you think about things.
You can view the text alternative for “Best Commercial EVER!!!” (opens in new window).
Marketing creates memorable experiences.
You can view the transcript for “IKEA BIG Sleepover” (opens in new window).
Marketing alters history.
You can view the transcript for “Reagan 1984 Election Ad (Bear in the woods)” (opens in new window) or the text alternative for “Reagan 1984 Election Ad (Bear in the woods)” (opens in new window).
Marketing can use a variety of elements to shape perceptions and behavior: words, images, design, experiences, emotions, stories, relationships, humor, sex appeal, etc. And it can use a wide variety of tactics, from advertising and events to social media and search-engine optimization. Often the purpose is to sell products, but as you can see from the examples above, the goal of any specific marketing effort may have little to do with money and much more to do with what you think and do.
By the time you finish this course, you will have a broader understanding of marketing beyond TV commercials and billboards and those annoying pop-up ads on the websites you visit. You’ll learn how to see marketing for what it is. You’ll learn how to be a smart consumer and a smart user of marketing techniques when the need for them arises in your life.
Go back to that word you jotted down to describe marketing at the top of the page. Now that you’ve had a little more exposure to the concept, what word comes to mind to describe “marketing”? Is it the same word you chose earlier, or are you starting to think differently?
Stay tuned for more!
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- Why It Matters: What Is Marketing? . Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution
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- People Start Pollution. Provided by: Ad Council. Located at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:People_Start_Pollution_-_1971_Ad.jpg#/media/File:People_Start_Pollution_-_1971_Ad.jpg. License: Other. License Terms: Fair use under United States copyright law
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- IKEA Big Sleepover. Provided by: IKEA UK. Located at: https://youtu.be/YMJD53fxihU. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license
- Commercial - Reagan 1984 Election Ad (Bear in the woods). Authored by: jpspin2122. Located at: https://youtu.be/KQNBNiXGMiA. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license
- Best Commercial EVER!. Authored by: loveallaroundyou. Located at: https://youtu.be/OAlyHUWjNjE. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Standard YouTube license
- Screen shot of Amazon unicorn recommendations. Provided by: Amazon. License: All Rights Reserved. License Terms: Fair Use