Marketing
Strategy

Marketing professionals rely on clearly defined goals to determine the course of action when placing a product in the market. Leveraging research to learn more about your target audience is the main subject of this third online course in the Marketing Strategy certificate program. In this course you will learn how to be an intelligent consumer of information when it comes to marketing research and analysis, so you can become a more effective decision maker. You will first look at marketing research, including the purpose and goals of research, how to balance the ideal with reality in doing research, and how to apply the six stages of research to a marketing situation.

Next you will examine different ways to analyze the data acquired through marketing research. Using formulas to determine how cannibalization affects the profitability of new products and the value of a long-term customer, you will perform a basic sensitivity analysis to assess the robustness of your results.

Exploring the reasons why brands are so valuable and the factors that contribute to that value is a key part of developing a comprehensive marketing strategy.

This course is the fourth online course in eCornell's Marketing Strategy certificate program, and is based on the Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University MBA marketing content.

Participants will examine the concept of branding through a strategic lens to understand why brands are so valuable, and explore the many factors that contribute to that value. You'll learn that creating a memorable brand takes much more than just developing a strong image. Through the concept of brand equity, you will explore the various aspects of a brand's success that are created internally, and influenced externally by consumers.

You will evaluate the value brands provide to both the firm and the consumer, and identify the qualities that create an effective brand image. Real-world examples will illustrate how marketing communication tools and techniques that can be used to build brand equity.

Adding new products to a company's portfolio keeps revenues up and promotes innovation in the market. And offering products that follow a logical cycle matched to consumers' needs will help promote "lifetime customers," a concept closely tied to "lifetime value." However, innovation alone will not determine the success or failure of a product.

This fifth online course in eCornell's Marketing Strategy certificate program examines the psychological and sociological systems in which customers choose whether to adopt new products and services, and how the product lifecycle is connected to new-product diffusion. You will apply the concept of a marketing continuum to develop an effective marketing program, leverage an understanding of social systems to improve new product diffusion, and develop strategies to increase product adoption and sales.

In the first course (LSM521) you reviewed "The Four P's of Marketing." In this sixth course in eCornell's Marketing Strategy certificate program, you dive deeper into the "Forgotten P" Place.

In marketing, this "place" is the marketing channel. Channel function, design and strategy will all be explored and applied to real-life cases. You will define marketing channels and learn how to leverage them to deliver messaging to potential consumers.

Finally, you will dive into the world of international marketing and distribution through the use of channel expansion strategies. Discover the nuances of global markets, recognizing and identifying the types of global organizations and exploring the pros and cons of globalization.