Introductory Certificate in Marketing

Course Overview

The CIM Introductory Certificate in Marketing course answers the question: What is marketing? But it also aims to develop knowledge and skills for people who are working to support others in basic marketing tasks.

Pre-requisites

This is an open access qualification – no qualifications or marketing experience are required, although if you are working or have some business experience, this will certainly help you put your learning into context.

Students must be over the age of 16 years old.

Qualification

CIM Level 3 Introductory Certificate in Marketing

Support and Benefits

• Gain a nationally recognised standard qualification that will help open doors
• Unlimited access to a dedicated and well qualified tutor throughout the duration of your course
• Stepping stone to move on in your career
• Confidence building
• Gaining marketing ‘know-how’
• Better grasp of marketing language and terminology
• Better interaction with the world of marketing
• Improved business skills

Key Topics

The course is divided into two separate units, each comprising of 4 modules, as follows:

a) What is Marketing?

• Understanding the Role and Function of Marketing
  • Examine the role of marketing. Consider the links between marketing and other activities within an organisation.
  • Explore the differences between internal and external marketing.
• Understanding the Marketing Environment
  • Consider how the marketing process can effectively be managed.
  • Examine the PESTEL model.
  • Explore the micro-marketing environment.
  • Learn processes that can be used to monitor the marketing environment.
• The Marketing Mix
  • Examine the 7 Ps of the marketing mix: product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.
• How Marketing is Applied in Different Organisational Contexts
  • Explore the different ways in which customers and consumers make their buying decisions.
  • Examine the different ways in which the marketing mix is used within different types of organisations to influence the buying-decision.

b) Understanding Customer Relationships

• Understanding Customers
  • Examine the importance of collecting information to gain a better understanding of customers’ needs, and learn how this information can be collected and stored.
• Building and Maintaining Effective Internal and External Customer Relationships
  • Examine ways of developing and sustaining customer, supplier and distributor relationships.
  • Explore the relationships within an organisation, and consider potential areas of conflict between the different functions of an organisation. Discover solutions to these conflicts.
• Communicating with Internal and External Customers
  • Examine the various business formats for communicating with customers both internally and externally.
  • Explore the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of promotional activities.
  • Discover the processes involved in undertaking a range of marketing campaigns.
  • Learn how to measure the success of both internal and external tactical communication campaigns.
• Providing Customer Service for Internal and External Customers
  • Examine the different stages of a customer care programme.
  • Discover methods of obtaining both formal and informal customer feedback.
  • Learn how to measure the success of a customer care service.

Course Code

V08

Hours of study

It is estimated that the course should take approximately 90 hours of study in order to complete the full syllabus. This is supported by 9 months of tutor support by telephone and email.

This works out as about 2.5 hours of study per week.

Technical requirements and fees

Although no there are no technical requirements in order for students to complete the course, access to the internet will prove to be beneficial.

Exam and CIM registration fees are additional to the course fees.

Outline

Two assessments must be achieved successfully in order to gain the Level 3 Introductory Certificate in Marketing.

Assessment Breakdown

Unit 1 - What is Marketing?

The assessment is an online question paper. The MCQ online examination lasts one hour and has 50 questions. The examination comprises multiple-choice/multiple-answer questions that are drawn randomly from a bank of questions. You will experience a different set of questions during the examination and the order of the multiple choice answers will also vary.

Unit 2 - Understanding Customer Relationships

Student’s are required to take a written assignment. The assignment is designed to assess the extent to which you have acquired understanding and skills in marketing. You are required to demonstrate an understanding of the practice of marketing and identify situations when your marketing skills and knowledge can be put into practice.

Note

The online test for Assessment 1 will be sat at your local authorised testing centre.