Audience
- Marketing and business development professionals shaping growth decisions.
- Managers evaluating opportunities and challenging marketing plans.
- Business owners and service leaders developing customer insight.
Programme module · Kent Business College
Strategic Marketing
Level 7 module 5: evaluate markets, define customer value and develop a measurable marketing strategy across 14 weekly online sessions.
Learning with a practical purpose.
Three attractive customer groups want different things from the same business. The sales team wants more enquiries, delivery colleagues want a manageable offer and the board wants a credible direction. This module places you in that conversation. You investigate the evidence, choose where the organisation should compete and explain what it must do to earn the customer’s confidence.
Learn through Kent Business College UK across 14 weekly two-hour online sessions, with research, preparation and applied writing between classes. This is an indicative teaching plan connected to Strategic Marketing, an optional OTHM unit selected for KBC’s Level 7 pathway. Workshop activities prepare you for the issued assignment brief, which governs the assessed submission.
Live onlineTeaching through Kent Business College, UK
2 hoursOne live session each teaching week
14 sessionsA semester for each module
28 live hoursPer module, plus independent study
The outline below is a 14-session online module, with one two-hour live session each teaching week. Reading weeks, breaks and additional activities follow the agreed cohort calendar. The cohort syllabus, full route, dates, fees, independent study and assessment requirements are confirmed before enrolment.
Who this module is designed for.
Starting knowledge and preparation
- Bring professional experience of customers, service delivery or organisational planning.
- Be ready to question market evidence and develop a reasoned written argument in English.
- KBC reviews admission to the regulated diploma separately from interest in an individual professional-development module.
What you will work towards.
- Explain the strategic choices hidden within a marketing proposal and their implications for other functions.
- Evaluate market evidence and turn it into priorities that the organisation can act on.
- Defend a target-customer choice and a credible positioning argument.
- Connect the offer, price, access and communication with the intended customer experience.
- Evaluate a brand and design a practical review of strategic progress.
Explore the 14-session learning plan.
Explore the focus and practical output of each teaching session. Open individual sessions below, or expand the complete plan.
Session 01 The customer decision behind the strategy
Examine Meridian’s competing requests for growth and define what the organisation needs marketing to achieve. Compare a proposed activity with the strategic choice it is intended to support.
Practical output: A marketing decision brief and initial questions.
Session 02 Reading the market environment
Investigate a supplied market update and distinguish a relevant change from background noise. Assess competitors, substitutes and wider pressures without assuming that a familiar framework provides the answer.
Practical output: A focused external analysis with implications.
Session 03 Capability and stakeholder expectations
Interview fictional sales, delivery and finance stakeholders. Compare the customer promise with available skills, capacity and service processes, then identify where internal assumptions conflict.
Practical output: An organisational capability and stakeholder map.
Session 04 Customer evidence and digital signals
Review sample interviews, enquiry records and website observations. Test whether the available evidence represents the intended customer and decide what further enquiry would reduce uncertainty.
Practical output: An evidence-quality review and research priorities.
Session 05 Objectives that guide a choice
Translate the diagnosis into a small number of measurable marketing objectives. Explain the baseline, timing and organisational responsibility, and challenge an attractive target with no delivery capacity behind it.
Practical output: A justified objective and measurement sheet.
Session 06 Finding meaningful segments
Group potential customers by needs, buying circumstances and service expectations. Compare alternative segmentation approaches and investigate whether the proposed differences would change a business decision.
Practical output: Candidate segments with supporting evidence.
Session 07 Choosing where to focus
Compare three segments against access, attractiveness and Meridian’s ability to serve them. Explain the work the business would stop or defer if it concentrates on one priority group.
Practical output: A target-market recommendation and trade-off record.
Session 08 Positioning and reasons to believe
Draft competing positioning options for the selected audience. Test whether customers would recognise the benefit and whether the company can substantiate its promise through delivery evidence.
Practical output: A positioning statement and proof requirements.
Session 09 Brand meaning and customer experience
Map the brand’s attributes, benefits and intended meaning. Look for inconsistency between sales language and the customer experience, then propose a specific development priority.
Practical output: A brand evaluation and improvement brief.
Session 10 The offer and its development
Shape a service offer around the chosen customer’s priorities. Consider how its maturity affects marketing decisions and identify the operational support required before making a new promise.
Practical output: An offer design and lifecycle rationale.
Session 11 Price, access and commercial fit
Compare ways of pricing and delivering the service. Test how channel choices, convenience and sales support interact, then explain the implications for the intended market position.
Practical output: An integrated pricing and access proposal.
Session 12 Communication and relationship building
Plan messages and digital touchpoints for different buying stages. Choose where human follow-up adds value and check whether each claim is supported by the service the customer will receive.
Practical output: A communication and relationship plan.
Session 13 Implementation and strategic review
Allocate ownership and resources across the proposed actions. Select measures that show customer response and delivery quality, and agree what evidence would trigger a change of direction.
Practical output: An implementation roadmap and review framework.
Session 14 Defending the marketing recommendation
Present the complete argument to a simulated leadership team. Answer a challenge about the target segment, revise weak evidence and check how the preparation work supports the issued assessment brief.
Practical output: A revised strategy pack and submission plan.
Apply the learning
A market choice for Meridian
The fictional Meridian Business Services is developing an AI-assisted service for organisational customers. Its possible audiences include manufacturers, education providers and professional firms. You decide which opportunity deserves attention using supplied teaching evidence. Create a coherent offer and market approach, including the operational conditions needed to keep the customer promise. All case assumptions remain clearly labelled as fictional.
Your project evidence can include
- A concise market diagnosis, evidence review and objectives.
- Segment comparison, target choice and positioning rationale.
- A brand evaluation and connected marketing-mix proposal.
- An implementation and review plan with accountable owners.
Use anonymised, public or suitable synthetic material where workplace information is confidential. The issued assessment brief confirms the required evidence.
Assessment, feedback and certification.
- Use short critiques, case discussions and peer questions to test the quality of the argument before developing the final submission.
- Build an individual evidence trail showing how research influenced your choices. Cite sources, identify assumptions and explain your contribution to any workplace material.
- The OTHM route is assessed through coursework. The centre makes the assessment judgement and OTHM externally verifies it; the issued brief and unit criteria govern achievement.
- Your tutor confirms the required submission format and scope. Workshop outputs are preparation and do not replace the complete assessed argument.
KBC course completion and OTHM qualification achievement are distinct. Your enrolment offer confirms registration, assessment and certification arrangements. Attendance alone does not establish an OTHM unit pass.
Make room to investigate and develop the argument
The online timetable provides 28 live teaching hours. This selected OTHM unit carries 20 credits, with 100 guided learning hours and 200 total qualification hours. Your KBC learning plan explains how supported activity, independent enquiry and assessment fit around the classes.
- Prepare one question about the case evidence before each session.
- Use discussion to test a competing explanation for customer behaviour.
- Revise the recommendation after feedback and preserve the reason for the change.
Build confidence through a coherent customer promise
A strong proposal makes its choices visible. If the company changes the target customer, examine what must also change in the service, price, delivery arrangements and communication. Ask the sales and operations perspectives to challenge each other, then explain the compromise in the final plan.
Keep observed findings separate from hypotheses. A handful of positive comments can suggest a question to investigate, but they do not establish demand across a market. Record whose views are missing and propose a proportionate way to learn more. Your recommendation can include a limited pilot with explicit review conditions.
A useful challenge
Would the plan still make sense if the preferred segment bought more slowly than expected? Identify which assumptions need testing, which activities could be staged and what evidence would justify proceeding.
Questions worth asking.
Will I create a real advertising campaign?
The proposed exercises develop strategic decisions and a practical implementation plan. Any live campaign, expenditure or customer research needs a separately agreed scope and organisational authorisation.
Can I use a service or public-sector organisation?
Discuss the context with your tutor. The key is having enough appropriate evidence to examine customer or stakeholder value, strategic choices and implementation against the issued assignment requirements.
How is this different from learning a marketing platform?
You will evaluate the role of digital channels within a wider decision about customers and the offer. The module’s purpose is to develop strategic judgement that can inform tool and channel choices.
Can this contribute to the Level 7 diploma?
Strategic Marketing is one of KBC’s selected optional OTHM units. Your registered route and successful assessment determine its contribution; the module alone does not award the complete diploma.
Programme references.
Further reading and programme references · reviewed 18 October 2026