Build a Powerful Marketing Strategy--Self-Directed


Full Description
Build a Powerful Marketing Strategy--Self-Directed


A Trump U Course

Imagine trying to sell footballs to nursing home residents or life insurance to teenagers. Your chance of succeeding in either case would be pretty low. Now, reverse the scenario and try to sell the footballs to the teenagers and vice versa. Your chances have just increased. You could try increasing them even further through communications. What if you decided to tell the teenagers that using the football would decrease the national statistics for high-school drop-out rates? The message is noble and potentially appealing to teenagers, but probably not enough to encourage them to spend their allowance on your product. Now, add another element to the equation: try to sell the footballs to parents of teenagers. Perhaps the message would be more effective.

These are extreme examples of mistakes that could easily be avoided by employing common sense, but they illustrate two fundamental tenets of marketing: Target the right group of customers, and communicate the right message to that group. These simple rules are critical to any business`s success, yet few small businesses apply them effectively.

This course will show you how to systematically approach the two most important questions you need to ask in your business’s operation: what’s the best target market, and what message do I want to communicate to that market? Once you learn how to think according to this rubric, running a successful business becomes a whole lot easier. This course will guide you through the process of making these decisions, allowing you to develop a marketing strategy that will help your business succeed.

Enroll in this online course if you:
  • Want to increase your company`s sales
  • Plan to launch a new business someday
  • Need to reposition or change a business in trouble


Outcomes:


This course will teach you how to:
  1. Position your product competitively to gain a significant advantage over the competition
  2. Target your efforts at the right customers focus is key
  3. Reality-check your basic marketing strategy for any product
  4. Analyze a market segment`s potential before you jump in
  5. Communicate the right message to your customers learn to tailor your marketing for effectiveness


Assessment:


Assessment is based upon satisfactory completion of three assignments with a total estimated completion time of 9 – 12 hours. Upon successful completion of these assignments, the student will gain a deep knowledge base covering the most important aspects of building a powerful marketing strategy and receive a certificate of completion signed by Don Sexton.


Course Information (see above or below lessons, outlines, activities, etc.)
Complete Course Outline


This course is made up of three assignments. Each of your assignments consists of four steps.
  1. Learn about your job
    • Email: The email tells you which task you''re expected to carry out, and it provides the information necessary for its completion. Oftentimes, it contains attachments that you should download and save to your desktop.
    • About this assignment: Gives you an overview of the task.
    • What''s involved in...?: This section provides principles and techniques relevant to your assignment.
    • What do the experts have to say about...?: Here you will find instructional videos of the course experts.
  2. Do your work
    • Step-by-step guide: This step-by-step walk-through is designed to assist you in carrying out your assignment.
    • Open assignment worksheet: This link opens a pop-up window which contains the worksheet in which you will record your answers to the assignment questions. You will submit the worksheet for peer review.
    • View and rate peers'' work: This link opens a pop-up window in which you can read your peers'' responses, rate them, and offer comments.
  3. Submit your work
  4. Receive feedback
    • Read Expert Answer: In this section you will read Don Sexton''s comments about the assignment.
    • View and rate peers'' work: This is another opportunity to read, rate, and comments on your peers'' responses.
    • Open assignment worksheet: Here you can review your own answers.
    • Hear additional advice from experts: There may be more videos here relating your work in the assignment to the real world.
    • Take it to the real world: This important section provides more information about the subject, as well as advice about how to apply the lessons learned in the assignment to the real world.
    • Your toolbox: This section is where you''ll access take-away tools such as forms, tables, and spreadsheets.

Assignments


In each of the three assignments below, you will be faced with a real-world problem and be asked to solve it.

Assignment 1:Critique Marketing Failure

One of the most effective ways to learn about marketing, or almost any subject for that matter, is to study and critique other people’s mistakes. In this assignment, your job is to analyze several short case studies that are based on real-life marketing failures. Your task is to figure out what went wrong when companies brought their products and services to market, but the market didn''t respond.

Assignment 2: Help Save a Failing Business

Part 1: Identify Potential Markets

Part 2: Choose the Best Market

Assignment 3: Position Your Business for Success

In Assignment 3 you will learn to implement a business positions considering several key aspects.

This assignment will address:

Contact Hours: 12