MKTG90004 Marketing Management
The Complete Exam Bible · S1 2026MKTG90004 Overview
- University of Melbourne
- S1 2026
- 9 chapters
- Marketing
Marketing Management is the University of Melbourne's postgraduate strategic-marketing subject — how a manager understands, creates and delivers customer value, then plans for it.
- Assessed by Final examination 50% · Marketing Plan Part B 20% · Marketing Plan Part A 10% · Group presentation 10% + 1 more
- Key terms Marketing concept, Customer-delivered value, STP, Marketing mix (7Ps)
- How to prepare Treat every framework as a procedure, not a name to recall: know its inputs, its steps, its output, and the one decision it informs &mdash…
- Most asked What is on the MKTG90004 final exam?
How MKTG90004 is assessed
| Component | Weight | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Final examination | 50% | 2 hours · individual · spans the whole subject — application, not recall |
| Marketing Plan Part B | 20% | Group · recommendations (~4000 words) — STP, the 7P mix & metrics for a live client |
| Marketing Plan Part A | 10% | Group · situation analysis (~2000 words) — PESTLE, micro, Porter & SWOT |
| Group presentation | 10% | Mid-semester client / challenge checkpoint |
| Weekly quizzes | 10% | Best 5 of 8, in-seminar (10 questions / 10 min) — confirm the exact split in your subject guide |
What MKTG90004 covers
Nine teaching topics → one exam-ready map. Each links to its free chapter guide.
Marketing Management Foundations
The marketing concept · the core process · customer-delivered value · buyer behaviourStrip away the campaigns and the logos and marketing is one job: understand value, create it, and deliver it to chosen customers profitably. This foundational chapter sets the definition every later framework hangs on.
- 2.1 The marketing concept & market orientation
- Production / product / selling / marketing / holistic orientations
- 2.2 The New Marketing Realities (technology, connectivity, globalisation, responsibility)
- The Core Process of Marketing — the five-stage loop
- 2.3 Customer-delivered value = total benefit − total cost
- 2.4 Strategy vs tactics — and the value proposition hinge
The Marketing Environment
Micro vs macro · PESTLE · SWOT · Porter's Five Forces · the competitor tableBefore any strategy, a manager diagnoses the situation: the forces acting on the firm, the structure of its industry, and its own strengths and gaps.
- 3.1 Two layers: micro (internal/controllable) vs macro (external/uncontrollable)
- 3.2 PESTLE — scanning the macro layer (and turning each force into an O or a T)
- SWOT — the synthesis (internal vs external, helpful vs harmful)
- 3.3 Inside the "Company" box: marketing agility & market-shaping
- Porter's Five Forces — structural attractiveness of a segment
- The weighted competitive-strength table — quantifying "who's stronger?"
Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
Ad-hoc vs feral segmentation · targeting · personas · POP/POD · perceptual mapsSTP is the heart of marketing strategy and of your Marketing Plan Part B.
- 4.1 Ad-hoc (top-down) segmentation — four bases & the 5-step process
- What makes a useful segment (measurable, substantial, accessible, differentiable, actionable)
- Feral segmentation (bottom-up) — cultural groups named by intermediaries; the 4-step process
- Targeting — the three lenses (Gupta, 2014) & the breadth spectrum
- 4.5 Personas — the poster child of a segment
- Positioning — POP / POD, perceptual maps, the positioning-statement template, repositioning
Product and Branding
The 7P cake · 5 product layers · the product mix · PLC · Keller's pyramidThe marketing mix is the tactical layer that executes the strategy STP set, and Product is its first and most consequential element — everything else prices, distributes and communicates the product.
- P1 The 7Ps and the "cake" interaction model
- P2 The 5 product layers (core → basic → expected → augmented → potential)
- P3 The product mix — width, length, depth, consistency
- P4 Line decisions — stretching, filling, flanker brands
- P5–P6 The Product Life Cycle + strategy matrix; Diffusion of Innovation
- P7–P9 Brand identity vs image; Keller's Resonance Pyramid; the Distinctive Assets Grid
Services Marketing
IHIP · the servicescape · the services triangle · the experience economy · service recoveryA service is a deed, performance or experience — you cannot put it in a box, and that intangibility breaks several assumptions of goods marketing and forces the +3 Ps (People, Process, Presence).
- S1 The 4 service characteristics — IHIP (each with its marketing response)
- S2 The Servicescape (Bitner 1992) — ambient, layout, signs → approach/avoid
- S3–S4 The services marketing triangle & the Service-Profit Chain
- S5 Service blueprint (firm-side) vs customer journey map (customer-side)
- S6–S7 The Experience Economy ladder; touchpoints & pain points
- S8–S9 Service failure & recovery — the paradox and the 3 justices
Pricing
The 6-step process · pricing methods · TEV vs perceived value · break-even · the 6 mix-pricing typesPrice is unique among the Ps: every other element costs money to deliver value; price is where the firm captures it back, and a 1% price improvement typically beats a 1% volume or cost improvement on profit.
- P1 The 6-step pricing process (the price corridor: cost floor, demand ceiling)
- P2 Pricing methods — cost / customer / market / product
- P3 TEV vs perceived value (Dolan & Gourville) — the comms gap
- P4 Break-even analysis (units & dollars; target-volume)
- P5 Product-mix pricing — the 6 types
- P6–P8 Three levels of price management; TCO; price customisation & consumer surplus
Place and IMC
5 distribution decisions · omnichannel · coverage · the 8 IMC tools · the effects ladder“Place creates value” — how and where a customer can buy is itself part of the offer — and IMC is how the firm turns every message into one coherent voice.
- D1 The 5 distribution decisions; D2 channel levels (reach vs control)
- D3 Single / multi / omni-channel + the 3 omnichannel strategies
- D4 Coverage intensity — intensive / selective / exclusive (must match positioning)
- D5 Channel systems (VMS/HMS), power & stewardship; resolving conflict
- C1–C2 The 8 IMC tools; the 6-step IMC process
- C3–C5 The objectives/effects ladder; budget approaches; appeals, source & media timing
Research and Metrics
Research design · qual vs quant · ROMI · CLV · NPS · vanity vs value · SMART objectivesWeek 11 closes the planning loop: research feeds the front of the plan (the situation analysis) and metrics check the back (did it work).
- Marketing research vs market research; what makes research "good"
- Research design — exploratory / descriptive / causal; the secondary-vs-primary sources tree
- Qual / quant / mixed methods; ethnography & netnography; the 5-step process
- The four metric families & the key formulas (ROMI, CLV, NPS, market share)
- Vanity vs value metrics; brand equity & power; SMART objectives
- Contemporary themes — AI (the double-edged sword) & sustainability/ethics
Marketing Planning
Part A situation analysis · Part B recommendations · analyse → conclude → recommend → justifyThe whole subject is scaffolding for one deliverable: a group Marketing Plan for a real client, built in two written parts plus a pitch. This chapter is the spine.
- 1 The shape of the plan — presentation + Part A + Part B; same client, same challenge
- 2 Strategy vs tactics — STP (what & why) vs the 7P mix (how); the value-proposition hinge
- Part A — PESTLE, micro, Porter's Five Forces, competitor & customer analysis, SWOT synthesis
- Part B — SMART objectives → STP → marketing-mix actions → implementation & metrics
- Two positioning statements (current vs proposed) and the repositioning move
- What distinguishes a strong plan; the section-level move (analyse → conclude → recommend → justify)
It teaches every framework from the marketing concept and customer-delivered value, through the situation-analysis toolkit (PESTLE, SWOT, Porter's Five Forces), the strategic core of segmentation, targeting and positioning (STP), the 7P marketing mix, and on to research, metrics and the client marketing plan.
Your subject mark comes from two missions: a 2-hour final exam (50%) that can ask about any week, and a group Marketing Plan (40% across three deliverables) applied to a live client. This guide teaches each framework as a procedure — its inputs, its steps, its output, and the one decision it informs — which is exactly the level postgraduate answers are marked at.
Worked example · free
Segmentation, targeting & positioning — the signature applied question, step by step
- +2Segment. Carve the market on appropriate bases (demographic / geographic / psychographic / behavioural), and consider a bottom-up feral segment — a cultural group already named in the wild (e.g. a “clean-beauty” community surfaced by influencers). Check each candidate is measurable, substantial, accessible, differentiable and actionable.
- +2Target. Choose using the three lenses — segment attractiveness (size, growth, profit), competition, and company fit — then name the breadth (here, concentrated on one niche). Say what you are not serving and why.
- +2Position. Identify the points of parity (table stakes to be credible) and the point of difference the brand can own; place it on a perceptual map against rivals to find clear space.
- +2Write the statement to the template: “For [target], [brand] is the [category] that is the [POD] so they can [end benefit] because [reason to believe].” Then show one or two 7P moves that deliver that positioning.
Key terms
- Marketing concept
- The philosophy that a firm achieves its goals by being better than rivals at creating, delivering and communicating superior customer value to chosen target markets — an outside-in view that starts with the customer's needs, not the product.
- Customer-delivered value
- Total customer benefit (product, service, personnel, image) minus total customer cost (monetary, time, energy, psychological). Value is the whole equation, not the price tag — which is why a premium brand can still win on value.
- STP
- Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning — the strategic core of marketing. Carve the market into groups, choose which to serve, and design a distinctive, valued place in the target's mind.
- Marketing mix (7Ps)
- The tactical toolkit that executes the strategy: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, plus People, Process and Presence (physical evidence). The unit's ‘cake’ framing stresses the Ps are interdependent — change one and mind the rest.
- ROMI
- Return on Marketing Investment = (revenue from marketing − marketing expense) ÷ marketing expense. It reframes marketing as an investment rather than a cost and is the metric that wins or loses the budget argument.
MKTG90004 FAQ
Is MKTG90004 hard?
It is conceptually broad rather than mathematically hard: the challenge is breadth and application. The exam hands you a fresh brand or scenario and asks you to pick the right framework, apply it and justify the call — so the difficulty is using a wide toolkit precisely under time, not memorising it.
How is MKTG90004 assessed?
By a 2-hour final exam (50%, individual, spanning the whole subject) plus a group Marketing Plan worth 40% across three deliverables (Part A situation analysis ~10%, Part B recommendations ~20%, and a group presentation ~10%), with weekly in-seminar quizzes (best 5 of 8) making up the rest. Confirm this year's exact split in your subject guide.
What is on the MKTG90004 final exam?
Application across the whole subject: run a situation analysis (PESTLE / SWOT / Porter), segment, target and position a brand, defend a 7P marketing-mix decision, and judge the ethical dimension of a manager's choice. Expect to be handed a fresh brand or scenario and asked to choose a framework, apply it and justify it.
Do I need maths for MKTG90004?
Only light arithmetic. A few topics carry simple calculations — a break-even, a ROMI percentage, a weighted competitor score, an NPS — but the subject is conceptual and strategic, not quantitative. The marks are in the reasoning around the numbers.
Is using AskSia for MKTG90004 cheating?
No. AskSia is a study reference written in our own words — we host none of your lecturer's files, and Sia teaches you the method to earn the marks; it does not complete or sit your assessments.
Questions students ask in each MKTG90004 chapter
- Isn't marketing just advertising?
- No — this is the myth the subject debunks first. Advertising is one of eight communication tools inside one P (Promotion). Marketing is the whole job of understanding, creating, delivering and capturing value; done well it surfaces and serves real needs and is data-, platform- and metrics-heavy, not fluffy. Chapter 01 · Marketing Management Foundations
- What's the difference between PESTLE, Porter and SWOT — don't they overlap?
- They sit at three distinct levels and must be kept apart. PESTLE = wide external macro trends. Porter's Five Forces = the structure of the specific industry the firm competes in. SWOT = the synthesis that pulls micro (internal) and macro (external) into one picture. The classic error is double-counting — putting a competitor in PESTLE, or a macro trend in Five Forces. Chapter 02 · The Marketing Environment
- What's the difference between ad-hoc and feral segmentation?
- Direction of travel. Ad-hoc is top-down: the firm builds the boxes with variables and statistics. Feral is bottom-up: it recognises that cultural groups already exist and are named by cultural intermediaries (influencers, bloggers). Examiners love the contrast — the firm constructs vs the segments emerge in culture; named by the marketing team vs by intermediaries; consumer treated as a stranger vs as a living cultural group. Chapter 03 · Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning
- What is the "cake" model and why does it matter?
- It's the unit's framing that the 7Ps are interdependent ingredients, not a checklist: change one P and there are implications for the others (a premium price demands a premium product, selective place and prestige promotion). A mismatched mix tastes wrong however good each ingredient is, and Part B is marked on whether every mix decision traces back to the positioning. Chapter 04 · Product and Branding
- What is IHIP and why does each letter matter?
- IHIP names the four ways services differ from goods, and the exam tests the marketing response to each, not the list: Intangibility → add tangible cues (servicescape, reviews, guarantees); Inseparability → train the frontline and manage co-creation; Heterogeneity → standardise via process/blueprint; Perishability → manage demand and capacity (pricing, booking). Chapter 05 · Services Marketing
- What are the six steps of the pricing process?
- (1) Define the price objective (short-term profit, market penetration, market skimming, or quality/price leadership); (2) determine demand — the ceiling, gauging price elasticity; (3) estimate costs — the floor; (4) analyse competition; (5) select a pricing method (cost / customer / market / product); (6) select the final price, layering in psychology, fairness, brand fit and the rest of the mix. Chapter 06 · Pricing
- What's the difference between multi-channel and omni-channel?
- Integration. Multi-channel runs several channels separately (silos — the customer can feel like a different brand per channel). Omni-channel integrates them — shared cart, stock, profile and history — so buy-online-pickup-in-store just works and the customer experiences a brand, not a channel. The leap from multi to omni is the integration. Chapter 07 · Place and IMC
- What's the difference between marketing research and market research?
- Marketing research (Hunt 2013) is the broad discipline — the systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data to advance marketing knowledge. Market research is the narrower commercial slice: insight into a specific market, customer or competitor for a decision. All market research is marketing research; not all marketing research is market research. Chapter 08 · Research and Metrics
- What's the golden rule of the marketing plan?
- Part B must trace every recommendation back to evidence in Part A — nothing comes from nowhere. The two most common failures are description without implication (a beautiful PESTLE that never says "so what for the client") and recommendations from nowhere (a Part B tactic with no thread back to Part A). Both lose the same way: the marker can't see the reasoning. Chapter 09 · Marketing Planning
How to study for the exam
Treat every framework as a procedure, not a name to recall: know its inputs, its steps, its output, and the one decision it informs — that is the level postgraduate answers are marked at. Because both the exam and the plan reward applying frameworks to a live case, drill the recurring chain: environment → STP → mix → ethics.
The two highest-yield zones are STP (the densest exam topic — know feral segmentation cold, write a positioning statement to the template) and the situation-analysis toolkit (PESTLE / SWOT / Porter, kept at distinct levels so you don't double-count).
For every section use one move — analyse → conclude → recommend → justify — and name the framework explicitly; that signposting is what tells the marker you can do strategy, not just describe it.
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