Weekly online
Join interactive online teaching, with guided reading, practical activities and assessment work around the live sessions. Your written course plan confirms the timetable, learning hours and masterclass arrangements for this module.
Professional learning · Executive Leadership
Strategic Marketing.
Build a marketing strategy that makes a defensible choice about customers and value.
A marketing strategy should explain which customers matter, why they should choose the organisation and how the business will deliver that promise. This module develops those decisions through market analysis, segmentation, positioning, the marketing mix and brand evaluation. KBC’s proposed project asks you to move beyond a list of campaigns and construct a coherent plan for an organisation. You will examine evidence, compare options and show how commercial objectives influence the choices you make. The result is a persuasive strategic argument connecting customer needs, organisational capability and the activities required to create and communicate value over time.
Weekly route3 months
Live online2 hours a week
Module startsOctober · February · June
Learning structure1 module
The professional challenge
Make the next decision with more confidence.
An organisation is trying to serve several customer groups with an increasingly complicated offer. Campaign activity is busy, but its position in the market is unclear. You must decide where to focus, explain the value promised to a chosen audience and align the marketing mix with that strategic choice.
Who will benefit
For marketing professionals, business development managers and leaders responsible for growth, customer value or market direction. It also suits experienced general managers who need to scrutinise a marketing plan. You should be ready to examine market evidence, challenge assumptions and explain why selected customers and priorities deserve organisational attention.
What you take back to work
Practical capability, built through learning.
- Evaluate marketing’s strategic contribution in an organisational and market context.
- Develop a market analysis and objectives that guide strategic choices.
- Justify target segments and a distinctive, credible market position.
- Align marketing-mix and brand decisions with the chosen strategic direction.
Inside the course
A connected learning journey.
KBC’s published route is a three-month module within the 18-month diploma programme. These learning blocks connect the unit outcomes with reading, discussion and practical application. A full OTHM unit includes 100 guided learning hours and 200 total qualification hours; your learning plan explains the allocation across teaching, directed activities, study and assessment.
01Connect marketing with organisational strategy
Examine how marketing contributes to organisational purpose, customer value and longer-term direction. Distinguish an operational activity from the strategic decision it serves. Learners assess an existing plan, identify its underlying assumptions and explain how marketing should interact with other functions when the organisation makes choices about growth, service or resource allocation.
Apply it at work: Write a critique of marketing’s role in the chosen organisation.
02Turn market analysis into priorities
Build a focused analysis of customers, competitors and the wider environment. Choose tools that reveal a decision-relevant issue, then evaluate the quality and limits of the available evidence. Learners translate the findings into measurable objectives, ensuring that targets reflect both the opportunity in the market and the organisation’s ability to respond effectively.
Apply it at work: Create a market audit and a reasoned set of objectives.
03Choose customers and establish a position
Explore segmentation and targeting as choices about where to concentrate effort. Assess the attractiveness of potential groups alongside the organisation’s capabilities and existing relationships. Learners develop a value proposition and positioning argument, then test whether it offers a meaningful customer benefit, a credible reason to believe it and enough distinction to guide practical decisions.
Apply it at work: Prepare a target-market recommendation and positioning statement.
04Build a coherent marketing mix
Connect product or service design, price, distribution and communication with the intended market position. Examine how changing one element affects the others and what operational capabilities are needed to keep the promise. Learners challenge a proposed campaign that does not fit the underlying offer, then design an integrated set of choices with clear resource implications.
Apply it at work: Develop a marketing-mix plan linked to the chosen customer promise.
05Evaluate the brand and strategic performance
Investigate how a brand supports customer expectations and organisational value. Consider consistency across communications and the experience customers actually receive. Learners assess a brand in its market context and recommend a development priority, then identify measures that would help managers review both near-term delivery and whether the strategic position is becoming more credible.
Apply it at work: Produce a brand evaluation and a strategic marketing review plan.
Learn around your working life
Time to understand. Space to apply.
Online or in a city near you
Face-to-face delivery can be arranged in London, Maidstone, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and Liverpool. Your course offer confirms the venue and teaching dates.
A London masterclass to start your module
Meet your tutors and fellow professionals at an optional full-day London event. KBC covers the event, agreed transportation, refreshments and an open buffet dinner. Confirm arrangements with the team before booking travel.
Support between sessions
Return to class recordings and learning resources, bring questions to your tutor and use free one-to-one tutoring and coaching support. Your course plan sets out the guided reading and practice needed alongside live teaching.
Your route to recognition
Know what the assessment involves.
On the OTHM route this optional unit uses coursework, with approximately 4,500 words indicated in the current specification. KBC’s proposed preparation project develops an organisational marketing strategy through market analysis, objectives, targeting, positioning, the marketing mix and brand evaluation. The issued assignment brief determines the final tasks and criteria. Assessment is conducted by the centre and externally verified by OTHM. Workshop outputs should strengthen the evidence and coherence of your final argument rather than become disconnected sections assembled at the end.
Your written offer records the award or course completion requirements, any examination fees included, and the relevant eligibility checks.
The professional knowledge behind the course
Explore the books and standards.
The learning themes above bring together the relevant guide, syllabus and workplace practice. KBC’s teaching sequence connects these ideas through discussion and application.
- OTHM Level 7 Diploma in Strategic Management and Leadership — qualification specification ↗OTHM · Current linked file: July 2025; document retains May 2020 footers
Official qualification structure and Strategic Marketing learning outcomes, assessment criteria and coursework guidance. Full specification read.
- Marketing Management — Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller and Alexander Chernev ↗Pearson · 16th edition; © 2022
Recommended reading: market research, segmentation, positioning, pricing, brands and customer loyalty.
Your investment
Get a course offer that fits your route.
Request the standalone fee for your chosen format, including the teaching, reading materials, assessment and membership arrangements relevant to this course.
Standalone professional development is self-funded or employer-funded. The agreed course offer explains any available support and the costs included.
Your questions, answered.
Is this a campaign-production course?
Its main purpose is strategic choice. Campaign decisions are considered in relation to customers, positioning, the offer and organisational objectives.
Can I analyse a service business?
Yes. A service organisation can provide a strong setting for evaluating value, positioning, delivery and brand experience.
How does it fit the Level 7 pathway?
Strategic Marketing is an optional OTHM unit selected for the proposed KBC management and leadership pathway.
What would this help you achieve?
Talk to KBC about your experience, your goals and the right learning route for you.