Launching a product is no walk in the park. From identifying the right customer base and pricing strategies to winning over investors, the path is fraught with challenges. To truly excel, professionals need guidance that is rooted in real-world experience.
Cornell’s Marketing Strategy online certificate program – authored by S.C. Johnson Professor of Marketing Stijn van Osselaer – offers a comprehensive approach to launching a product with a customer-centric view.
“What distinguishes this course from other marketing courses is that it’s really built around all the steps you need to go through to market a product, to bring a product to market,” says Osselaer.
At its core, the program emphasizes customer-centricity as an approach to marketing strategy and decision-making. This paradigm shift encourages learners to consistently prioritize and empathize with the customer’s viewpoint. Students in the program learn to calculate metrics such as customer lifetime value and the proper interpretations of such analysis. There are multiple projects at every step of the go-to-market plan, providing participants much-needed experience with authentic scenarios.
“In venture capital, investors place great importance on numerical evidence; getting the right metrics and understanding which ones to highlight in your pitch is critical to securing an investment. The course thoroughly covers the essential metrics venture capitalists will expect founders to know,” says Osselaer.
By integrating customer-centricity into the marketing strategy, professionals can better align their products and services with the market demand, ensuring that their go-to-market plans are successfully implemented and will reach the right target market.
Firms across various sectors seeking a critical competitive advantage can adopt the approach when collecting and analyzing data on customer behavior, preferences, feedback, and satisfaction levels. Companies that successfully implement this strategy can see improved customer retention, increased word-of-mouth advertising and higher returns on marketing investments.
“This program has a lot of useful things that you can take directly to practice. There are a lot of tools and explanatory notes. There are many spreadsheet templates you can take directly into the workplace.”
Ready to improve the odds of success for your next product launch? Enroll in eCornell’s Marketing Strategy certificate program.
