Marketing Managers are responsible for all aspects of marketing, not just sales (Sales managers deal only with sales). In smaller businesses, the marketing manager may often also be the sales manager, but in large well structured organisations, the Marketing Manager could find themselves in charge of tasks as diverse as stock control and transport, packaging, general promotions, and after sales service, with one or several sales managers heading sales teams working under their direction.

This course aims to train you on a broad basis to undertake anything from a narrow to very broad scope of activities within the realm of business operations, specific to marketing.

 

 

 

Course Code	VBS005
Fee Code	AS
Duration (approx)	1500 hours

Course Structure

You need to complete 15 modules, each nominally 100 hrs of study; as listed below.

• Marketing Foundations
• Business Studies
• Sales Management
• Sales Skills
• Advertising and Promotions
• Marketing Systems
• Publishing I
• Marketing Psychology
• E Commerce
• Statistics
• Project Management
• Event Management
• Research Project I
• Industry Meetings (eg. attending seminars, exhibitions)
• One elective -any module with a code that begins with B or V and does not overlap with above modules

 

 

WHAT YOU WILL DO IN THIS COURSE

To obtain this qualification you need to undertake each of the following modules:

Marketing foundations

The content the ten lessons is as outlined below:

1. Marketing and the Business What is marketing, and its significance, Considering alternative approaches to business & marketing, Alternative enterprises (eg. goods or services based, sole proprietor or partnership etc).
2. Scope of Marketing Understanding basic economics (eg. supply & demand); the difference between the potential market, available market, target market, and penetrated market for a product/service of your choice; Different advertising approaches, Controlling Growth, Improving Results in Business, etc
3. Target Marketing Understanding the market place; Stages that sellers move through in their approach to a market, What is targeting, Advantages of target marketing as compared to mass marketing and product-differentiated marketing
4. The Marketing Mix and Managing the Marketing Effort Product, price, place, and promotion; Affects and interactions between marketing and other operations of a business.
5. Product Presentation and Packaging Importance of product knowledge, Core, tangible and augmented products; Differences in packaging & presentation for different products.
6. Promotion Communication skills, Merchandising, Shop Floor Layout, Displaying Products, Signs, Understanding Selling and Increasing Sales, Sales Methods, Publicity Marketing,
   Structuring an Advertisement or Promotion, Advertising budgets, etc
7. Product Pricing and Distribution Pricing, Profitability Ratios, Increasing Turnover, etc
8. Customer Service Methods of assessing customer satisfaction; Significance of Customer Service; Different types of customers in the market place, and how best to approach each; Difference between selling, publicising, marketing and advertising, etc
9. Market Research The research process, What to research, Surveys, Developing and conducting a market research program, where to find useful statistics,
10. Organisations - Structures and Roles Business law; Financial Management, Business Structures, Business terminology, etc.

Business studies

This course develops the skills necessary for managing a small business, or a department within a larger business. Developed by professionals with many years of experience, it covers a range of topics that will ensure your career in Management has a strong foundation.

There are 8 lessons as follows:

1. Establishment Procedures – aims to teach the student how to select appropriate procedures for the establishment of a small business
2. Management Procedures – teaches the student how to select appropriate procedures for the management of a small business
3. Communication in Business – how to develop procedures for communicating with suppliers and customers of a small business
4. Problem Solving – how to develop procedures for addressing problems in a small business
5. Staff Management – looks at how to plan the management of staff in a small business
6. Productivity – learn how to develop strategies for managing production in a small business or department within a larger organisation.
7. Financial Management – how to carry out different financial management tasks used in small business or department within a larger organisation
8. Marketing Techniques – Evaluation of marketing techniques used in business

Sales management

For any company or organisation to have success financially it must have a desirable product. This product must be of need to a large proportion of the general public. Advertising, using all available media outlets, should get the message across. But the most important link after the manufacturing and advertising (marketing) is the salesperson/sales representative - The person who actually sells the product to the consumer. Without him, the financial/corporate world would come to a halt!

This course will take you from developing a strong personality (confidence and knowledge) through to communication, marketing, dealing with upper management, getting to know your product, the A B C of selling, the opening and closing or a sale, stress management, how to increase your company's profits, etc. The content of the nine lessons is as outlined below:

1. Developing Sales Concepts: Goods & Services, Ways of Managing Sales, Developing a Sales Concept, Planning Ahead, Understanding Selling, Understanding Buyers, Steps in the Sales Order, Increasing Sales

2. Developing Sales Relationships: Sales Methods, Presentation & the Selling Personality (personality traits of a salesperson), Communication skills and conversational selling

3. Sales Ethics: The Law and Ethics, Social Problems, Pricing, Deceit, High Pressure Sales, Poor Quality Products, Predetermined Obsolescence, The Impact of Marketing and Selling on Society, Public Responses to Modern Marketing Trends (eg. Consumerism, Environmentalism etc), Enlightened Marketing

4. Building Product Knowledge: Good & Bad Features (eg. Make/trade name; Model; Purpose or use; How & where it is manufactured; Materials used; Wholesale/retail price; Guarantees; Warranty; Spare parts (availability and location); Service Costs)
Knowing the Competition etc.

5. Developing a Customer Strategy: Types of Buyers, Buyer Motivation, Difficult Buyers, Key Rules for Every Salesperson

6. Presentation Strategy Options: Displays (eg. Locating Your Displays For Best Results), Shop Layout, Trade Displays etc.

7. Closing a Sale: Difficulties with closing a sale & solutions, importance of the personal approach.

8. Managing Yourself: Time management, Territory management, Record Management, Sales Records, Stress Management

9. Managing a Sales Team: Building quality partnerships.


Sales skills

There are twelve lessons in this course; as outlined below:

1. Presentation and selling: Personality. "Never judge a book by its cover." A wise old saying! but people who buy do make judgements especially about sales people. Dress and grooming are top priority in selling. As well you must learn how to develop a selling personality.

2. Communication and Conversational selling: Learn the art of written and verbal communication in easy to understand terms.

3. Marketing (Buyer analysis and motivation): Presentation of products to consumers and motivating them to buy.

4. Management (Hierachy): Dealing with upper management; learn how to get your point across. How to be assertive and positive when dealing with your superiors.

5. Helping the Product Sell Itself

6. Know your product and pre planning: Through observation, reading and listening get to know your products (pre planning is essential in today's complex society).

7. Selling made as simple as A B C: The procedure of selling.

8. "The Opening" (getting the attention of the buyer): Creating the right atmosphere for a sale to take place.

9. "Closing a Sale" (overcoming objections): Buyers will tend to look else where unless a salesman can close a sale in an appropriate amount of time (learn the secrets).

10. "Stress Management": Learn the art of relaxation through stress management techniques.

11. The Law and Selling

12. Report Assessment Writing: The majority of sales persons need to have the ability and skill to write a condensed and accurate report on which management will comprehend and act upon.

Advertising and promotions

There are ten lessons in this course, each requiring about 10 hours work by the student. This course is designed as a program to first help you understand the marketing world, then to assist you in making decisions and developing skills in marketing. Emphasis is placed on profitability and efficiency!

The content the ten lessons is as outlined below:

1. Analysing the Market
2. Target Marketing
3. Display and Display Techniques
4. Advertising and Promotions Strategy
5. New Product Development
6. Sales Techniques - General
7. Writing Advertisement
8. Electronic Marketing -Telephone & Email
9. Direct Mailing
10. Exhibitions & Shows

Marketing systems

There are 10 lessons as follows:

1. Marketing Systems
2. Retailing Systems and Strategies
3. Wholesale Systems and Strategies
4. Product Presentation and Packaging
5. Negotiation Skills
6. Marketing Organisations
7. International Marketing I
8. International Marketing II
9. Analysing the Market
10. The Market Mix

On successful completion of the course you should be able to do the following:

• Explain the difference between the consumer market and other markets.
• Draw a chart showing the market channels followed by a product or service.
• Explain the differences between retailing and wholesaling.
• Explain procedures, stages and concepts involved in retail marketing a product.
• Explain the wholesale marketing system of this business.
• Explain the core, tangible and augmented product of a favourite product which you buy and use frequently?
• Suggest alternative ways that products might be packaged and presented in the retail situation.
• Assess the marketing performance of two different companies.
• Decide What preparatory studies should be made of a country before making a decision about whether to export there or not?
• Explain procedures, stages and concepts involved in the marketing internationally of a product.
• Suggest a product or service which you think has potential for marketing in another country.
• Write a report on the marketing profitability of a business.

Publishing I
The content of each of the ten lessons is as outlined below:

1. The Publishing World: Nature & scope of publishing, types of publishers, how books are published, market research

2. Publishing Procedures & Techniques: Colour or black & white; film or digital imaging, types of printing, alternative ways of doing layout (eg. typesetting, paste up, electronic layout with Adobe products or MS publisher), comparing types of digital graphic files, printing costs, etc.

3. Desktop Publishing: Word Processing, Alternative publishing methods: Printing on a Computer Printer; Supplying a "Master" to a commercial printer, or plublishing electronically (eg. Internet or CD)

4. Desktop Publishing: Software options, use of colour, black and white, use of graphics, putting it together, etc.

5. Illustration - Graphics: Line illustrations, cartoons, photos etc. Freehand work, Computer graphics, etc.

6. Illustration - Photography: Photographic Equipment & Materials; Composition; Development of Photographic Style, Portraiture, Posing for Photographs, Planning a Photo Session, Studio Photography, Fault Finding, etc.

7. Researching: Types of Research (Exploratory, Experimental etc), Primary & Secondary Data sources, Planning a survey, Conducting an interview.

8. Marketing in Publishing: Understanding marketing & publicity –what makes a publication succeed or fail, launches, press releases, etc.

9. Publishing Ethics & The Law: Public attitudes, accuracy of writing, bias, monopolies, media ownership concerns, etc.

10. Publishing Project: Here you actually publish your own work

Marketing Psychology

There are eight lessons in this module as follows:

1. People as Consumers: Understanding the types of psychological “rewards” gained by a person through buying. Distinguishing between consumers, customers and buyers?
   
2. Market Segmentation: Understanding market segments and applying the concept of target marketing.
   
3. Internal Influences –Perception & Personality: Consumer self image, difference threshold, trait theory of personality, etc.
   
4. Internal Influences –Motivation and Awareness: Customer satisfaction, the way complaints are dealt with, stimulus generalisation and stimulus discrimination, etc
   
5. Social Influences: Family Influences, Social groups, Developmental Influences, Peer Group Influences (Work and Leisure), Social Class and Culture
   
6. Consumerism: Deceptive advertising, sensitivity to consumer needs, variation between perception and reality.
   
7. Communication and Persuasion: Message Evaluation, Selection & Execution
   
8. Deciding to Buy: Why people shop, or do not shop; surveying the market place.

Ecommerce

There are eight lessons in this module as follows:

1. Introduction: What is e-commerce, scope of e commerce. E commerce problems & advantages, security, using the internet, contract law, How different electronic payment systems work (eg. credit card, bank transfer etc)
2. Success & Failure: What makes a web site commercially successful? Relaxing with technology, what can go wrong, site visibility, interactivity of a site, etc
3. Promotional Strategies: Internet differences; Internet code of conduct, marketing management, target marketing, categories of url’s (search engines, ffa’s, directories etc)
4. Optimizing Web Site Potential: Monitoring visitors, Ground rules keep changing, Meta tags, Evaluation services, Submission services, etc
5. Increasing Web Site Exposure: Developing a marketing plan, Promoting a site, Forms of advertising, Types of Marketing (Affiliate marketing; Free Content Marketing; Drive in Marketing, Buzz Marketing and User Group Marketing.)
6. Automating Supply of Goods, Services and Cash flow: Ways to process payment; Ways to supply goods or services.
7. Managing Constant Change: Ways to keep information up to date, Resource Planning, Information Currency vs Cash Currency, etc.
8. Dealing with E Commerce Problems: Learning from mistakes (others & yours)

Statistics
Strenghten your scientific and life sciences career with this course in Statistics. If you want to develop scientifically-based research studies, this is your starting point. Learn how to interpret data sets, and how to prove your point based on scientifically proven methods.

There are 10 lessons as follows:

1. Introduction
2. Distributions
3. Measures of central tendency
4. The Normal curve and Percentiles and Standard Scores
5. Correlation
6. Regression
7. Inferential Statistics
8. The t Test
9. Analysis of variance
10. Chi square test

Project Management

Project Management is an invaluable tool used in all industries, and in all sorts of situations. It is relevant to a diverse range of projects, including technical, human resources, marketing, and more.
This is a compressed version of a much longer course, so it is highly informative, and great value for money.
It was developed by highly qualified professionals, with years of experience in their respective fields.

There are nine lessons as follows:

1. Introduction: Understanding what project management is, and what its applications might be.
2. Project Identification: Identification and defining projects which need management.
3. Project Planning: Developing a strategy and framework for the plan.
4. Project Implementation: Managers duties during implementation, developing a Preparation Control Chart, Regulating implementation.
5. Project Completion & Evaluation: Dangers in this stage, Steps in Project completion, Declaring a project sustainable, Developing an evaluation method.
6. Technical Project Management Skills: Preparing a proposal, budget control/management, steps in drawing up a post project appraisal.
7. Leadership Skills: Styles of leadership, leadership principles and methods.
8. Improving Key Personnel Skills: Listening skills, Negotiation skills, Conflict management.
9. Major Assignment: Developing full documentation for a project.

Event Management
This is a course designed to develop knowledge and skills in the planning and management of special events including gallery openings, festivals, exhibitions and sporting events.
It is also a very good starting point for people thinking in developing an Event Management career and wanting to try the waters first.

There are 9 lessons as follows:

1. Scope and Nature of Event Management
2. Developing the Concept
3. Physical an Human Resources
4. Project Logistics
5. Marketing an Event
6. Financial Management
7. Risk Management
8. Staging the Event
9. After the Event

To pass each of the above modules, you must complete all assignments satisfactorily, and sit an exam for each module. If you fail anything you are allowed to repeat the work.

Research project I

There are 7 lessons as follows:

1. Determining Research Needs
2. Searching For Information
3. Research Methods
4. Using Statistics
5. Conducting Statistical Research
6. Research Reports
7. Reporting On A Research Project.

In addition to the above courses, you must complete 100 hrs of relevant work experience or attend 100 hrs of industry meetings. These activities must be verified in writing by a "reputable" third party, and approved as a valuable learning experience by a member of the ACS academic staff.