Strategic Marketing for Growing Businesses
This programme gives organisations the chance to develop a practical marketing plan grounded in real data, customer insight and creative strategy.
Overview
In a landscape where customer expectations shift quickly and digital channels multiply by the day, small and scaling businesses often struggle to build marketing strategies that feel both ambitious and achievable. This programme gives organisations the chance to develop a practical marketing plan grounded in real data, customer insight and creative strategy.
What you’ll learn
Across a series of focused sessions, participants will build a clear, actionable understanding of modern marketing practice, including:
- Brand Competitive advantage & Positioning: How competitive advantage is built, sustained and leveraged for growth.
- Marketing Strategy, Objectives setting & Planning: Conducting situational analysis, market landscaping and identifying strategic themes that can be converted into objectives, goals and strategies.
- Customer Insight & Behaviour: Understanding psychology, attitudes and decision-making and mapping customer journeys and touchpoints.
- Media Planning & ROI: Evaluating media channels, working with and understanding how different investments interplay with reach, frequency, performance and return.
- Product & Experience: Applying the 4Ps and 7Ps frameworks, developing value propositions and creating cohesive customer experiences.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: Using market share data, analytics and insight tools to inform strategy and optimise activity.
By the end of the programme, participants will have developed a structured marketing plan tailored to their organisation, alongside a deeper understanding of the tools and processes that underpin effective, scalable marketing.
Who it’s for
This programme is designed for leaders, founders and managers within SMEs looking to scale, particularly those who want to apply marketing disciplines more commonly used by larger firms. It is also suited to professionals seeking to build stronger analytical, strategic and creative capabilities within their marketing function. No prior formal marketing training is required, just a business challenge you’re ready to work on.
Who leads it
The programme is led by Alex Pickering, Lecturer in Marketing at Ó£ÌÒÊÓÆµ and former Marketing Director for De’Longhi and Kenwood. Alex’s career spans FMCG, retail and premium consumer goods, with roles at Boots and Kimberly-Clark, where he specialised in category management, customer experience, media planning and product development. His teaching covers marketing strategy, experiential marketing and the full marketing mix.
Grounded in industry experience and informed by current academic practice, Alex’s approach ensures that participants leave with frameworks they can apply immediately and confidently within their own organisations.