This is the fourth and final open learning workbook in the Open BTEC/Macmillan course "Making Sense of Marketing". The series has been written to support the BTEC Continuing Education unit "Making Sense of Marketing", and, together with tutor assignments, makes up a course of 60-90 hours of study. Successful completion of the course through a BTEC-approved centre can lead to the award of a BTEC Continuing Education Certificate. Open BTEC courses are all about improving the skills you need to be more effective in your job - to update where necessary, perhaps to refresh your knowledge, or to acquire new skills which will enable you to develop your role at work. Above all, they aim to encourage you to apply what you are learning to your own particular place of work, and to the strengths, weaknesses, problems and people that you face in your everyday life at work.
"Making Sense of Marketing" aims to encourage you to "think marketing" by: developing an understanding of marketing as an organizational philosophy, both for profit and non-profit organizations; developing an understanding of the roles of people involved in marketing; developing practical skills which you will be able to use in your current and future jobs. The learning in the course is based on the achievement of the following six objectives: to use marketing research as a basis for marketing decisions; to make market-oriented product decisions; to assess the distribution strategy of a specific organization or industry; to devise an effective marketing communication plan for a specific organization; to contribute to the design of a marketing plan for a specific organization.