The School of Commerce & Enterprise · business, money & management
Marketing & Sales
Why people buy, how they hear of you, and what to say when they finally call.
Segmentation, positioning, and the four Ps — the whole discipline in one honest survey.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~28 hours
Unit I — The Market and the Customer
Needs, wants, and demand · Segmentation: slicing the market usefully · Targeting and the positioning statement
Unit II — Product and Price
Product levels: core, actual, augmented · The product lifecycle, launch to decline · Price: the only P that earns revenue
Unit III — Place and Promotion
Channels: direct, retail, wholesale · The promotion mix surveyed · Integrated campaigns: one message, many doors
Unit IV — Marketing in Practice
The marketing plan on five pages · Budgets and simple measurement · Ethics: persuasion versus manipulation
Motivation, habit, and social proof — the psychology underneath every purchase.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~18 hours
Unit I — The Buyer's Mind
Needs and motives: Maslow to jobs-to-be-done · Perception: attention is the scarce good · Memory and brand recall
Unit II — Decisions, Fast and Slow
Habitual versus considered purchases · Heuristics buyers actually use · Post-purchase: satisfaction and regret
Unit III — The Social Buyer
Reference groups and word of mouth · Culture and category norms · Reviews, ratings, and manufactured proof
Being findable, worth following, and welcome in the inbox — measured honestly.
Syllabus · 4 units · ~20 hours
Unit I — Search
How search engines rank pages · Keywords: intent before volume · Writing pages that answer the query · Paid search: auctions and quality scores
Unit II — Social
Choosing platforms by audience, not fashion · Posts that earn attention without begging · Paid social: targeting and creative
Unit III — Email
Permission: the list you own · Welcome series and newsletters · Deliverability and the spam folder
Unit IV — Measurement
Click-through, conversion, and cost per sale · Attribution and its honest limits · A weekly report worth reading
What a brand is when the logo is removed, and how to build one deliberately.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~14 hours
Unit I — What a Brand Is
Brand as reputation with reach · Positioning: the space you claim · Equity: what the name alone is worth
Unit II — Building the Brand
Naming and the promise behind it · Identity: voice, look, behavior · Consistency versus staleness
Unit III — Keeping the Brand
Extensions and dilution · Crises and the repair of trust · Measuring brand health
Prospecting, discovery, and the close — selling as service, not pressure.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~12 hours
Unit I — Finding Buyers
Prospecting: lists, referrals, cold outreach · Qualifying: budget, authority, need, timing · The pipeline as a discipline
Unit II — The Conversation
Discovery questions that earn honesty · Presenting to the problem, not the brochure · Handling objections without flinching
Unit III — Closing and Keeping
Asking for the order plainly · Negotiating without the discount reflex · After the sale: referrals and renewals
Surveys, interviews, and market sizing you can run yourself before spending real money.
Syllabus · 3 units · ~12 hours
Unit I — Questions First
What decision will this research change · Secondary research: what is already known · Sizing a market from public numbers
Unit II — Asking People
Interviews: script, probe, then be quiet · Survey design: questions that do not lead · Sampling, and how few is too few
Unit III — Making Sense
Coding interview notes honestly · Reading survey results without wishcasting · Writing the one-page findings memo