Marketing Professional Certificate Program with Externship
- Course Duration: 6 Months
- Type: Certificate
- Languages: English
- Certifications : Included
- Course Contact Hours : 375
- Externship : Included
The Marketing Professional
No matter how great the product or how brilliant the management, no good business can succeed without a sound and effective marketing strategy. Professionals in this field understand consumers, how to reach consumers and how to put a product in the best light possible for sales. Anyone can master the fundamentals of business and management, but it’s important to sustain that business by translating your skills into sales through marketing. Successful sales initiatives require sound marketing strategy to effectively explain the benefits of your product or service to exactly the customers who will keep your business going for years to come.
The Marketing Professional Program
The Marketing Professional program outlines for students current theories of marketing,their effective application and concepts important to marketing goods and services,identifying and further defining target customers,targeting those customers and really reaching them through your messaging from both a domestic and global perspective. Students will explore the elements of market research,identifying target customers,branding,pricing,developing product offers,and developing marketing communications for various distribution channels. Students will examine marketing critically from the perspective of the consumer,the overall economy,and technology as well as the legal and ethical issues that arise to ensure responsible marketing. This program provides students with a view of the principle areas of marketing. It explores the factors influencing how marketing decisions are made,including the impact of marketing decisions on an organization and its customers. Students will gain a working knowledge of practical marketing and business vocabulary.
Program Objectives
At the conclusion of this program, students will be able to:
- Evaluate the primary components of a marketing plan from strategic, functional, and operational perspectives
- Analyze how the characteristics of the business environment can impact marketing decisions
- Analyze the possible impacts of marketing research on a business plan
- Evaluate how consumer characteristics and behavior affect marketing strategies
- Compare B2B and consumer markets
- Compare various considerations in product and services marketing
- Analyze how integrated marketing communications (IMCs) are developed and implemented
- Analyze the considerations and process of creating a pricing strategy
- Distinguish marketing channel options, considerations, and interactions
- Use Microsoft Office
INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING
- Define marketing
- Describe the "4 P's" of marketing
- Describe a company's perspective of value
- Describe a customer's perspective of value
- Analyze the role marketing plays in an organization
- Generalize the types of decisions marketers make
- Analyze how ethical considerations impact marketing strategies
STRATEGIC PLANNING
- Analyze the roles and impact of strategic, functional, and operational marketing planning within an organization
- Outline the planning process of creating a marketing plan
- Explain the important considerations in implementing a marketing plan
NYSE: ANALYZING THE BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT
- Interpret how the economic, political, and legal environments could affect a marketing strategy
- Interpret the marketing implications of the technological environment
- Describe how and why the competitive environment drives marketing decisions
- Explain how an understanding of a target customer base affects marketing decisions
- Explain how supplier considerations affect marketing decisions
- Analyze how the internal operating environment of one's own company may affect marketing decisions
MARKET RESEARCH AND INTELLIGENCE
- Define market research and intelligence
- Identify different ways in which market research findings are used
- Describe market research methodology
- Categorize primary and secondary data
- Contrast qualitative and quantitative data
- Describe how marketing research data is analyzed and interpreted
MARKET ANALYSIS AND STRATEGY
- Explain the concept of market segmentation
- Define targeting
- Differentiate various targeting strategies
- Illustrate examples of market positioning and differentiation
- Define positioning and differentiation
- Analyze different approaches to Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Define Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
CONSUMER BEHAVIOR
- Outline the consumer decision process
- Explain each step of the consumer decision process
- Describe how consumers' social and cultural behaviors affect marketing
- Describe how consumers' personal characteristics affect marketing
- Identify product adoption rates and processes
B2B MARKETING
- Describe the B2B market structure
- Distinguish derived, inelastic, fluctuating, and joint demand
- Identify B2B straight rebuy, modified rebuy, and new buy situations
- Describe the importance of buying centers in B2B transactions
- Explain the purchaser decision process in B2B marketing
- Compare how business purchasing decisions are made with how consumer purchasing decisions are made
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT
- Identify the steps in new product development
- Define the stages of the product life cycle
- Compare organizational options for product development and management
- Explain product packaging and labeling considerations
SERVICES MARKETING
- Compare differences in service marketing and product marketing
- Define key characteristics of services in the market
- Identify types of services
- Explain the meaning of "services continuum"
- Contrast core and augmented services
- Produce examples of internet services from both consumer and B2B perspectives
- Articulate how the buyer characterizes services in terms of quality
- Explain the process of quality problem identification
INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATION
- Define integrated marketing communication (IMC)
- Show how advertising can be used as part of a promotion
- Show how PR can be used as part of a promotion
- Show how personal selling, sales promotions, and direct marketing can be used as part of a promotion
- Explain the importance of each phase in the development of an IMC plan
- Explain the use of viral and guerilla marketing
PRICING
- Explain demand, customer value, cost, and competition based pricing
- Outline the pricing process
- Describe considerations for each step of the pricing process
- Describe considerations when developing a pricing strategy for a product line
- Explain price adjustment considerations
- Compare psychological, ethical, and legal considerations in pricing strategies
MARKETING CHANNELS AND SUPPLY CHAINS
- Identify different types of distribution channels
- Describe the concept of a supply chain
- Identify likely members of a given distribution channel
- Show how distribution channels can be organized
- Show how distribution channels can be managed
- Evaluate the effectiveness of a distribution channel strategy
Note: This program can be completed in 6 months. However, students will have online access to this program for a 24-month period.
Education and National Certifications
- Students should have or be pursuing a high school diploma or GED.
- There are no state approval and/or state requirements associated with this program.
- There is a National Certification exam available to students who successfully complete this program:
- Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) Certification Exam
National Certification
Upon successful completion of this program, students would be eligible to sit for the Microsoft Office Specialist (MOS) exam. Although there are no state approval, state registration or other state requirements for this program, students who complete this program will be prepared and are eligible to sit for this national certification exam. Students who complete this program are encouraged to complete the externship option with their program. Students who complete this program can and do sit for the MOS national certification exams and are qualified, eligible and prepared to do so. works with each student to complete the exam application and register the student to take their national certification exam.
Externship / Hands on Training / Practicum
Although not a requirement, once students complete the program, they have the ability to participate in an externship and/or hands on practicum so as to practice the skills necessary to perform the job requirements of a professional in this field. Students will be assisted with completing a resume and/or other requirements necessary to work in this field. All students who complete this program are eligible to participate in an externship and will be placed with a participating organization near their location. works with national organizations and has the ability to place students in externship opportunities nationwide.
Note: No refunds can be issued after the start date published in your Financial Award document.