Description

Before beginning work on this week’s discussion forum, please review the link “Doing Discussion Questions Right,” the expanded grading rubric for the forum, and any specific instructions for this week’s topic.
• By the due date assigned, respond to the assigned discussion questions and submit your responses to the appropriate topic in this Discussion Area.
• Respond to the assigned questions using the lessons and vocabulary found in the reading.
• Support your answers with examples and research and cite your research using the APA format.
• Start reviewing and responding to the postings of your classmates as early in the week as possible.

Select any one of the following starter bullet point sections. Review the important themes within the sub questions of each bullet point. The sub questions are designed to get you thinking about some of the important issues. Your response should provide a succinct synthesis of the key themes in a way that articulates a clear point, position, or conclusion supported by research. Select a different bullet point section than what your classmates have already posted so that we can engage several discussions on relevant topics. If all of the bullet points have been addressed, then you may begin to reuse the bullet points with the expectation that varied responses continue.
• The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines marketing as “the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.”
o Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this definition.
o Defend how you would change the definition.
o Assess whether the definition is clear, accurate, relevant, and current in today’s organizations and society.
• Many people think of marketing as only promotion. However, marketing is much more. A common way of understanding the essentials of marketing is using the 4Ps model—product, price, place, and promotion.
o Analyze each of the 4Ps and explain how they create value for organizations. Remember, value creation is any type of activity or outcome that will add to the long-term success of the organization. It is more than simply economic value and includes enhancements such as customer good will, employee satisfaction, supplier networks, managerial skills and experience, and ethical or community factors. Creating value can include intangible as well as tangible assets, such as intellectual property and a business plan.
o Justify which of the four functions (4Ps) seems to provide the most value to organizations.
• Marketing has evolved into a major business function that crosses all areas of an organization. For example, marketing may advise production about how much of the company’s product to make and then may tell logistics when to ship it. Accordingly, marketing influences business practices and it may also have wider influence on society.
o Assess the importance of marketing to society.
o Evaluate how marketing has changed society.
o Analyze how marketing has impacted today’s lifestyle.
• A SWOTT analysis helps evaluate current performance and future potential, especially in relation to competitors. Organizations use SWOTT to assess strengths and weaknesses within the organization, threats and opportunities from outside the organization, and trends that might have long-term consequences for the organization and the industry as a whole.
o Perform a brief SWOTT analysis on a company of your choice as seen through the eyes of a marketing manager.
o Justify some recommendations for overcoming factors that might impede progress of the organization and for taking advantage of factors that could benefit the organization.
• Market growth is accomplished by one or more of the following strategies: Market Penetration (increasing market share), Market Development (new markets), Product Development (new products or services), and Diversification (promoting new or expanding existing products to reach a new market). Remember, the diversification strategy stands apart from the other three strategies. The first three strategies are pursued with the same technical, financial, and merchandising resources used for the original product line, whereas diversification usually requires a company to acquire new skills, new techniques, and new facilities.
o Assess each of these strategies and provide an example for each category.
o Out of the four strategies, choose a strategy that best suits growth in a company of your choice and justify how you would use this strategy.
Respond to your peers throughout the week. Justify your answers with examples, research, and reasoning.
Your initial posting should be the equivalent of 1.5 single-spaced pages (700 to 800 words) in length. Be sure to cite your sources using APA format.