Marketing Plan Fundamentals Course

Lesson 1 • Aligning Marketing with Business Strategy

Explores how marketing objectives derive from corporate strategy. Students learn to translate business goals into actionable marketing direction.

Lesson 2 • Defining Marketing and Its Purpose

Covers the definition, scope, and business value of marketing. Establishes shared vocabulary used throughout the entire course.

Lesson 3 • Understanding the Marketing Environment

Introduces internal and external forces that shape marketing decisions. Provides context for the situational analysis covered in later chapters.

Lesson 1 • Synthesizing Insights into a Situation Summary

Guides students in consolidating research findings into a concise situation summary. This summary becomes the evidence base for all strategic choices ahead.

Lesson 2 • Market Sizing and Trend Analysis

Teaches quantitative and qualitative techniques for estimating market size and identifying trends. Outputs anchor realistic goal-setting in later chapters.

Lesson 3 • Analyzing the Competitive Landscape

Covers methods for identifying and profiling direct and indirect competitors. Findings feed directly into positioning and differentiation decisions.

Lesson 4 • Conducting a SWOT Analysis

Teaches the SWOT framework as a synthesis tool for internal and external findings. Students learn to generate actionable insights, not just lists.

Lesson 1 • Principles of Market Segmentation

Explains why segmentation improves marketing efficiency and effectiveness. Introduces the criteria that make a segment viable and worth pursuing.

Lesson 2 • Building Customer Personas

Teaches how to synthesize research data into vivid, actionable customer personas. Personas become the reference point for messaging and channel selection.

Lesson 3 • Segmentation Variables and Approaches

Covers demographic, psychographic, behavioural, and geographic segmentation bases. Students apply multiple variables to create richer, more precise segments.

Lesson 1 • Developing a Value Proposition

Distinguishes a value proposition from a tagline and explains its strategic role. Students build a value proposition grounded in customer needs and competitive advantage.

Lesson 2 • Communicating Brand Identity Consistently

Covers brand voice, visual identity guidelines, and messaging consistency. Ensures the positioning is expressed coherently across all marketing activities.

Lesson 3 • Crafting a Positioning Statement

Walks through the classic positioning statement formula and common pitfalls. Students draft and critique positioning statements for real-world clarity.

Lesson 1 • Selecting Key Performance Indicators

Teaches how to choose KPIs that genuinely measure progress toward each objective. Distinguishes leading indicators from lagging indicators for better decision-making.

Lesson 2 • Writing SMART Marketing Objectives

Applies the SMART framework specifically to marketing contexts with worked examples. Students practice rewriting vague goals into precise, measurable objectives.

Lesson 3 • From Business Goals to Marketing Objectives

Shows how corporate revenue and growth targets cascade into specific marketing goals. Prevents the common mistake of setting marketing objectives in isolation.

Lesson 1 • Pricing Strategy and Tactics

Introduces major pricing strategies and the factors that influence price-setting. Students select and justify a pricing approach consistent with their positioning.

Lesson 2 • Integrated Promotion Strategy

Introduces the promotional mix and the principle of integrated marketing communications. Students allocate promotional effort across channels based on audience and objectives.

Lesson 3 • Distribution and Channel Strategy

Examines how products and services reach customers through direct and indirect channels. Students map a channel strategy aligned with target segment behavior.

Lesson 4 • Aligning the Marketing Mix Internally

Ensures all four mix elements reinforce each other and the overall positioning. Students audit their mix for consistency and strategic coherence.

Lesson 1 • Budgeting Approaches and Methods

Compares common budgeting methods including percentage-of-sales, objective-and-task, and competitive parity. Students select the most appropriate method for their context.

Lesson 2 • Estimating Costs and Building a Budget Model

Covers practical cost estimation for common marketing activities. Students build a simple budget model with line items, totals, and assumptions documented.

Lesson 3 • Return on Marketing Investment Basics

Introduces ROMI concepts and how to project and measure marketing returns. Connects budget decisions back to the objectives and KPIs set in the previous chapter.

Lesson 1 • Building the Marketing Action Plan

Converts strategic decisions into a detailed activity schedule with owners and deadlines. Ensures every objective has corresponding tactics and assigned responsibility.

Lesson 2 • Establishing a Measurement Framework

Designs a systematic approach to tracking KPIs and reporting on plan performance. Students build a measurement cadence that enables timely course corrections.

Lesson 3 • Presenting and Gaining Approval for the Plan

Prepares students to present the plan persuasively to decision-makers and address objections. Covers stakeholder management techniques specific to plan approval.

Lesson 4 • Risk Management and Contingency Planning

Identifies common marketing plan risks and builds mitigation strategies. Students add a risk register and contingency options to their plan.