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4.1 The role of marketing

4.1 The role of marketing

Learning outcomes

“People rarely buy what they need. They buy what they want.” – Seth Godin (b.1960), American entrepreneur and best-selling author

Marketing is often described as a management process of identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements in a profitable way. It is also about managing customer relationships, which benefits numerous key stakeholder groups such as customers themselves, employees, managers, suppliers and the government.

There are many aspects to marketing, and this section of the syllabus discusses the role that marketing plays as a key function in any business organization, irrespective of their legal status or organizational objectives.

For teachers new to IB Business Management, please note that this unit is relatively large and broad in content, so you will need to plan the learning outcomes (see below) very carefully. Given the strategic nature of marketing, it is important that students are able to link the content of Unit 4.1 not only with the rest of the marketing module but also the other business functions studied in this course (namely human resource management, finance and accounts, and operations management).

Try to create more opportunities for students to make connections between these four functional areas of an organization - using your school as an example, and how its marketing strategies work in practice, often helps students to apply theory to practice.

The learning outcomes (or assessment objectives) for this section of the IB Business Management syllabus are:

  • Marketing and its relationship with other business functions (AO1)
  • The differences between marketing of goods and marketing of services (AO2)

    Note, this means that both SL and HL students need to understand the difference between the 4Ps of marketing (for physical goods) and the 7Ps of marketing (for intangible services). There is a common misconception that the extended marketing mix (Unit 4.6) only applies to HL students. Whilst this is technical the case, this particular learning outcome in Unit 4.1 implies that SL students need to be aware of the 7Ps of the marketing mix in order to understand the differences between marketing of goods and marketing of services (AO2).

  • Market orientation versus product orientation (AO2)
  • The difference between commercial marketing and social marketing (AO2)
  • Characteristics of the market in which an organization operates (AO1)
  • Market share (AO4)
  • The importance of market share and market leadership (AO3)
  • The marketing objectives of for-profit organizations and non-profit organizations (AO3)
  • How marketing strategies evolve as a response to changes in customer preferences (AO3)
  • How innovation, ethical considerations, and cultural differences may influence marketing practices and strategies in an organization (AO3)

InThinking Business Management resources

Click the hyperlinks below to access the InThinking resources for this particular section of the IB Business Management syllabus.

ATL Activity (Thinking skills) - Vocab Quizlet

To review all the various sections of Unit 4.1, take a look at this useful set of flash cards from Quizlet. The source is from Paul Hoang’s IB Business Management Study & Revision Guide, published by Hodder Education.

Click the link here to access the Quizlet.

Return to the Unit 4 Marketing homepage

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