Notes, summaries, assignments, exams, and problems for Vocational training

What is Marketing?

Marketing is fundamentally about identifying and profitably meeting human and social needs. It encompasses the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that hold value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.

Defining Marketing & Management

Marketing management is both an art and a science. It involves choosing target markets and then attracting, retaining, and expanding customer relationships by creating, delivering, and communicating superior customer value.

Marketing vs. Selling: A Key Distinction

Managers sometimes mistakenly view marketing as solely “the art of selling products.” However, many are surprised to learn that selling is... Continue reading "Understanding Marketing: Core Concepts & Applications" »

Passive Voice

This shirt needs to be ironed

This shirt needs ironing

The house needs to be painted

The house needs painting

Both sentences are correct

Both sentences have the same meaning

Instances of Passive Voice

• When the agent is unknown
• When the agent is irrelevant
• When the agent is obvious from the context

Uses of 'Have Something Done'

• A service provided: I had my house painted
• Describe something unpleasant: John had his passport stolen
• Future statements (promises): I will have my homework done for tomorrow

Conditional Sentences

I went to the optician yesterday and I tested my eyesight because you do not test yourself, the optician does it.

Zero Conditional

Also called real factual, is used for general truths

IF + PRES SIMPLE + PRES SIMPLE

First Conditional

Also... Continue reading "English Grammar: Passive Voice and Conditional Sentences" »

Understanding Competences and Skills

Defining Competences

What are competences or skills?

• They are what make people competent: the prerequisites for effective action.
• They should take into account all general and specific knowledge, skills, and motivations needed for effective action.

Action Categories for Graduates

According to Allen, Ramaekers, and van der Velden (2005), higher education graduates may find themselves in nine primary action categories:

• Directing productive tasks
• Directing the work of others
• Planning
• Coordination
• Control
• Innovation
• Information management
• Maintaining relations with personnel
• Maintaining relations with clients

Types of Competences: General and Specific

General Competences Explained

General competences can be applied across a range... Continue reading "Defining Competences: Skills for Career Success" »

Marketing Innovation

Innovation in marketing is critical. Imaginative ideas on strategy exist in many places within a company.

Senior management should identify and encourage fresh ideas from three underrepresented groups: employees with youthful or diverse perspectives, employees far removed from company headquarters, and employees new to the industry. Each group can challenge company orthodoxy and stimulate new ideas.

Scenario analysis: Develop different ideas. “What will we do if it happens?”

Dimensions of Business Innovation

• Offerings (WHAT): Develop innovative new products or services.
• Platform: Use common components or building blocks to create derivative offerings.
• Solutions: Create integrated and customized offerings that solve end-to-

Enhancing Innovation: Beyond Per Capita Income

Innovation is much more than just increasing per capita income.

The role of Entrepreneurial Firms is to promote change and progress in the structure of business and society, thereby promoting innovation.

What Innovation Leads To

• New products
• Stimulating market interest

Economic Effects of Innovation

Supply Side Effect

The new capital created expands the capacity for growth.

Demand Side Effect

An increase in demand for new output.

The Product-Evolution Process

The product-evolution process describes how innovation develops and commercializes through entrepreneurial activity, which consequently stimulates economic growth. It starts with foundational knowledge in the base technology and ends with products or... Continue reading "Innovation Commercialization: Pathways, Types, and Economic Impact" »

Defining Competitive Territory and Boundaries in Mission Statements

• **Industry:** Companies may operate in one or multiple industries, including industrial goods, consumer goods, or services.
• **Products and Applications:** Firms define the range of products and applications they will offer.
• **Competence:** Companies identify their core competencies and leverage them.
• **Market Segment:** The type of market or customers a company targets.
• **Vertical:** The number of channel levels in which a company participates, from raw materials to distribution.
• **Geographical:** The regions, countries, or country groups in which a company operates.

Establishing Strategic Business Units (SBUs)

Companies can define themselves in terms of products or customer-satisfying... Continue reading "Defining Business Scope and Strategic Units" »

COMPANY ORIENTATION TOWARD THE MARKETPLACE

The production concept is one of the oldest concepts in business. It holds that consumers prefer products that are widely available and inexpensive. Managers of production-oriented businesses concentrate on achieving high production efficiency, low costs, and mass distribution. Marketers also use the production concept when they want to expand the market.

The product concept proposes that consumers favor products offering the most quality, performance, or innovative features. A new or improved product will not necessarily be successful unless it’s priced, distributed, advertised, and sold properly.

The selling concept is based on hard selling is risky. It assumes customers coaxed into buying a product... Continue reading "Understanding Marketing Concepts and Holistic Marketing Dimensions" »

The Entrepreneurial Journey: From Idea to Impact

Core Principles of Entrepreneurship

The entrepreneurial process begins with opportunity, not solely with strategy, resources, or planning.

Opportunity recognition stems from creativity, a quality shared by both the entrepreneur and the entrepreneurial team.

Creativity itself arises from the collision between academic learning and real-world practice.

Value creation is the result of integrating identified opportunities with the efficient use of resources.

The successful combination of people, opportunity, and resources, converging at a particular time, often determines the chance for success.

Phases of Business Development

The Entrepreneurial Venture Lifecycle

The entrepreneurial journey can be broken... Continue reading "Entrepreneurial Success: From Opportunity to Market Impact" »

Market Opportunity Analysis (MOA)

A marketing opportunity is an area of buyer need and interest that a company has a high probability of profitably satisfying.

There are three main sources of market opportunities:

1. Offering something that is in short supply. This requires little marketing talent, as the need is fairly obvious.
2. Supplying an existing product or service in a new or superior way.

Methods for Superior Product Supply

To supply an existing product or service in a new or superior way, companies can utilize several methods:

• The Problem Detection Method: Asks consumers for their suggestions.
• The Ideal Method: Has consumers imagine an ideal version of the product or service.
• The Consumption Chain Method: Asks consumers to chart their steps in acquiring,

Value and Satisfaction

The buyer chooses the offerings he or she perceives to deliver the most value, the sum of the tangible and intangible benefits and costs to her. Value is a combination of quality, service, and price (qsp), called the customer value triad. Value perceptions increase with quality and service but decrease with price. (real value - what an enterprise is offering).

Marketing is the identification, creation, communication, delivery, and monitoring in relationship to expectations. If the performance falls short of expectations, the customer is disappointed. If it matches expectations, the customer is satisfied. If it exceeds them, the customer is delighted.

Marketing Channels

To reach a target market, the marketer uses three kinds... Continue reading "Marketing: Value, Channels, and Environment" »