Marketing (MKTG) 420

Overview

There is no doubt that the ability of an organization to communicate effectively and efficiently with its target audiences is critical to its success. Marketing communications, including advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, personal selling, and Internet marketing, are increasingly used to sell products and services as well as to promote causes, market political candidates, and deal with societal problems. With the fragmentation of traditional media, the use of more sophisticated interactive media, and the growing privacy concern for customers, marketers are constantly searching for new alternatives to communicate with their target audiences. This course introduces you to this fascinating field. You will learn how to cope with recent environmental challenges, research and evaluate an organization’s marketing and promotional situation, and use the different elements of promotional mix to develop effective marketing communication strategies and programs. The course is divided into fourteen lessons as described below.

Outline

• Lesson 1: Integrated Marketing Communications
• Lesson 2: Organizing for IMC
• Lesson 3: Consumer Behaviour, Target Audience Decisions, and Brand Positioning
• Lesson 4: Objectives for the IMC Plan
• Lesson 5: Creative Strategy Decisions
• Lesson 6: Creative Tactics Decisions
• Lesson 7: Measuring the Effectiveness of the Promotional Message
• Lesson 8: Media Planning and Budgeting for IMC
• Lesson 9: Broadcast Media
• Lesson 10: Print, Out-of-Home, and Support Media
• Lesson 11: Sales Promotion
• Lesson 12: Public Relations
• Lesson 13: Direct Marketing and Internet Media
• Lesson 14: Regulatory, Ethical, Social, and Economic Issues for IMC

Evaluation

Your final grade in MKTG 420: Advertising & Promotion will be based exclusively on your performance on two assignments and on your satisfactory participation in 10 discussion forums.

There are no examinations in this course.

To receive credit for MKTG 420, you must

• complete the two assignments
• participate in all 10 discussion forums
• achieve an overall course grade of at least D (50%).

Failure to satisfactorily complete an assignment or participate in a discussion forum will result in a failing grade for the entire course.

The weighting of each assessment activity is indicated in the table below.

Course Materials

Textbook

Registration in this course includes an electronic textbook. For more information on electronic textbooks, please refer to our eText Initiative site.

A print version of the eText may be available for purchase from the publisher through a direct-to-student link provided on the course website; you can also acquire the textbook on your own if you wish.

Other Resources

All other learning resources will be available online.