Best Free MOOCs In Business In September

Positioning: What You Need For A Successful Marketing Strategy

School: IE Business School

Platform: Coursera

Registration Link: REGISTER HERE

Start Date: September 4, 2017

Workload: Not Available

Instructors: Ramon Diaz-Bernardo, Teresa Serra and Ignacio Gafo

Credentials: The three instructors are professors of marketing at IE Business School. Diaz-Bernardo is an expert in the area of tourism and hotel marketing strategy who has consulted for companies ranging from Ford to AC Nielsen. Serra has taught at the school since 1984 and has headed its marketing area for the past decade. Her expertise lies in product distribution and store setup. Ignacio focuses on category management, channel development, and international marketing. Along with being an associate dean at the dean, he has also been a marketing manager for the Vodafone Group.

Graded: Students can choose to explore course videos, discussions, and ungraded assignments for free, but they won’t be able to submit graded assignments, earn a certificate, or complete a specialization without paying a $79 fee per course.

Description: Most brands conjure up images. For example, many might associate sentiments like “young,” “upbeat” and “vibrant” with Pepsi. And that’s not by accident. Behind every brand is a strategy rooted in psychology, market research, and competitive differentiation.

To appeal to the right audience and amplify its uniqueness, brands rely on a three step structure: “Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning (STP).” In this course, IE Business School defines these segments as follows:

• Segmentation: Find groups of consumers who have a common need and common buying behavior.
• Targeting: Pick the segment (or segments) of consumers that are more willing to buy the brand and where you should focus your marketing resources.
• Positioning: Design your company’s offering and image so that these occupy a meaningful and distinctive competitive position in the target’s mind.

After learning the techniques in each step, students will understand how to develop the right messaging and positioning for a brand that distinguishes them in the consumer’s minds and helps provide “a long-term competitive advantage.”

Review: “Professor Gafo did a great job establishing the importance of positioning and how it is fundamental to the success of a marketing strategy. I feel much more confident about implementing a positioning assessment or shift for my organization’s products and services.” For additional reviews,

click here.

Additional Background: This course is part of IE Business Schools’ “Marketing Strategy” specialization, a five course series that also covers conducting market research and developing a marketing plan. To learn more about this specialization and register for it, click here.