BUS203: Principles of Marketing

In this course, you will learn about the marketing process and examine the range of marketing decisions that an organization must make in order to sell its products and services. You will also learn how to think like a marketer, discovering that the focus of marketing has always been on the consumer. You will begin to ask, "Who is the consumer of goods and services?” What does the consumer need? What does the consumer want? Marketing is an understanding of how to communicate with the consumer, and is characterized by four activities:
Creating products and services that serve consumers
Communicating a clear value proposition
Delivering products and services in a way that optimizes value
Exchanging, or trading, value for those offerings
Many people incorrectly believe that marketing and advertising are one in the same. In reality, advertising is just one of many tools used in marketing, which is the process by which firms determine which products to offer, how to price those products, and to whom they should be made available. We will also explore various ways in which marketing departments and independent agencies answer these questions – whether through research, analysis, or even trial-and-error. Once a company identifies its customer and product, marketers must then determine the best way to capture the customer’s attention. Capturing the customer’s attention may entail undercutting competitors on price, aggressively marketing a product with promotions and advertising (as with "As Seen on TV” ads), or specifically targeting ideal customers. The strategy a marketing firm chooses for a particular product is vital to the success of the product. The idea that "great products sell themselves” is simply not true. By the end of this course, you will be familiar with the art and science of marketing a product.