Marketing cheat sheets

Review the core decision rules by subject. Open a topic for its worked Indian case and interview question.

Marketing foundations

Essentials of Marketing Management: Start with the customer, the objective and contribution after marketing spend.
Marketing Management: Set a goal, coordinate the mix, assign owners and review results.
Strategic Marketing: Make choices about which customers to serve, how to win and what to measure.
Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning (STP): Segment by needs, target for fit and economics, then position against a real alternative.
4Ps Framework: Product, price, place and promotion must fit the same buyer and occasion.
Customer Value Creation: Value is perceived benefits minus monetary and non-monetary costs.
Market Opportunity Analysis: Size demand, test how much you can reach and assess profitability.
Core Marketing Mix Dynamics: Changes to one element of the mix can change the economics of another.
Low-Income Market Penetration: Design for cash flow, access and functional value. Evaluate unit economics at the smaller pack size.
Go-To-Market (GTM) Strategy: Define the initial segment, offer, route to market, launch sequence and success gates.
Marketing of Financial Services: Market financial services through plain language, trust and suitable customer journeys.

Research & consumer behaviour

Marketing Research: Translate the decision into a research question and triangulate behavioural and stated evidence.
Consumer Behaviour: Separate motivation, opportunity and constraints before proposing a message.
Consumer Behavior: Map triggers, evaluation, purchase and use to explain actual customer choices.
Conjoint Analysis: Conjoint analysis estimates trade-offs from choices among product profiles.
Perceptual Mapping: A perceptual map shows how customers see alternatives on measured dimensions.
Focus Groups & Qualitative Methods: Focus groups explore language and reasons. Use individual interviews for sensitive or conformity-prone topics.
Consumer Decision-Making Models: Use the decision journey to identify where uncertainty changes behaviour.
Behavioral Economics in Marketing: Defaults, framing and friction influence behaviour. Test them without obscuring choice.
Perceptual & Cognitive Processing: Attention, comprehension and recall are distinct outcomes.
Culture and Consumption: Study consumption rituals in context before generalizing from broad demographics.
Qualitative & Ethnographic Research: Ethnography studies behaviour in context. Triangulate observation with interviews and records.
Quantitative Survey Design: Start with the target population, sampling frame, question design and analysis plan.
Structural Equation Modeling (SEM): Structural equation modeling combines a measurement model for latent constructs with a structural model for relationships.
Primary and Secondary Market Research: Secondary data frames the question. Primary data fills gaps specific to the decision.
Survey Design: Use neutral wording, mutually exclusive options and an analysis plan.
Cognitive & Social Determinants of Buying: Separate how people process choices from how peers and social norms shape them.
Consumer Ethnography & Cultural Insights: Observe cultural practices and verify whether the insight predicts purchase.

Brand & communications

Integrated Marketing Communication: Give every channel a distinct job and one consistent promise.
Brand Management: Manage what customers recognize, associate and expect from the brand.
Brand Equity Models: Choose an equity model appropriate to the decision.
Brand Architecture: Balance how much equity brands share against reputation and confusion risks.
Advertising Briefs & Creative Strategy: A brief specifies audience, problem, single promise, proof, deliverables and measures.
Public Relations (PR) & Direct Marketing: Use public relations for credible coverage and direct marketing for an identifiable response.
Media Planning & Reach/Frequency Analysis: Reach counts unique people. Average frequency is impressions divided by unique reach.
Brand Identity Prism: The prism links physique, personality, culture, relationship, reflection and self-image.
Brand Associations & Equity Valuation: Measure associations separately from the financial value attributable to a brand.
Brand Positioning Process: Positioning starts with a segment and a real alternative, then defines benefit and proof.
Brand Wheel Framework: A brand wheel progresses from attributes to benefits, values, personality and essence.
Kapferer's Brand Identity Prism: Kapferer’s prism compares the brand’s expression and the customer’s side of the relationship.
Brand Essence & Resonance: Essence is the core meaning. Resonance is expressed in active, durable customer relationships.
Brand Architecture & Portfolio Management: Assign a role and audience to each portfolio brand and track overlap.
Brand Extensions & Ansoff Grid: Use the Ansoff grid to distinguish product and market novelty, then assess extension fit.
Brand Licensing: Licensing trades royalties and reach for dependence on partner quality and governance.
Co-branding Strategies: Co-brand when each partner contributes a credible, distinct benefit.
Brand Equity & Awareness KPI Metrics: Track unaided awareness, aided recognition, relevant associations and behavioural loyalty.
Narrative Structures & Storytelling Frameworks: A marketing story gives a customer a goal, a tension, a resolution and credible proof.
Semiotic Analysis of Visual Communication: Semiotics asks what visual cues denote and what meanings audiences infer in context.
Strategic Media Mix & Allocation: Allocate media by objective, incremental reach and marginal contribution.
Digital Media Buying & Reach/Frequency Metrics: CPM is spend per thousand impressions. It does not capture frequency distribution or outcomes.
Agency Pitching Mechanisms: Give agencies the same brief and score insight, feasibility, team and fees transparently.
Client-Agency Relationships: Define decisions, approvals, timelines and rights at the start of an agency relationship.
Crisis Communication & Stakeholder Mapping: In a crisis, confirm facts, prioritize affected customers and assign update owners.
Earned/Owned/Paid Media Strategy: Paid buys distribution, owned serves your audience directly, and earned comes through independent attention.
Luxury Brand Exclusivity & Experience Design: Luxury experience depends on credible scarcity, service and brand codes.

Growth & digital

Digital Marketing: Map the funnel from qualified reach to retained contribution.
Social Media Marketing: Choose social formats by audience behaviour and the outcome you need.
Digital Marketing Strategy: Define target, funnel objective, channel roles and measurement before committing spend.
Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) vs. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): Compare acquisition cost with discounted contribution over an explicit customer horizon.
Social Media Marketing ROI: Measure incremental contribution after social costs, with an explicit baseline.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & Search Engine Marketing (SEM): SEO builds organic discoverability. Paid search buys eligible auction traffic.
Attribution Modeling: Attribution allocates credit. Experiments estimate incremental impact.
GenAI-driven Personalized Copywriting & Content Generation: Define segments and claims, use generation for drafts, and validate with human review and experiments.
Mobile Ad Architecture & In-App Marketing: Choose mobile placements and events by user journey, consent and experience.
Digital Media Mix: Assign each medium a funnel job and account for overlapping audiences.
Performance Marketing: Optimize toward profitable outcomes and monitor volume, quality and lag.
Content Marketing Lifecycle: Plan, create, distribute, measure and refresh content by intent and usefulness.
GenAI in Creative & Analytics: Use AI to draft and summarize, then verify provenance, numbers and business claims.
Digital-First Campaign Optimization: Set a decision cadence, use consistent cohorts and test the biggest constraint first.

Pricing & product

Pricing: Compare willingness to pay, variable costs, volume and competitor alternatives.
Product Management: Prioritize a product problem, validate demand and track adoption through use.
Marketing Innovation: Innovation must solve a customer problem and survive operational economics.
Pricing Products and Services for Profitability: Profit depends on realized price and incremental variable costs.
New Product Development & Innovation: Validate the problem, prototype alternatives, run a pilot and decide by evidence gates.
Value-Based Pricing: Value pricing compares economic benefit to the customer’s best alternative.
Dynamic Pricing Models: Dynamic prices respond to demand, capacity or timing within clear rules.
Promotional Elasticity: Elasticity is percent change in quantity divided by percent change in price.
Value-Based Pricing Frameworks: Build a value metric, a comparison baseline, a price corridor and a validation plan.
Product Lifecycle Management (PLM): Manage products across introduction, growth, maturity and retirement.
Frugal Innovation: Frugal innovation removes cost while preserving the critical job and serviceability.

B2B & sales

Business to Business Marketing: In B2B, understand the buying group, commercial outcome, procurement and implementation.
Marketing for Business Markets (B2B): Business market segmentation uses firmographics, use case, urgency and ability to buy.
Industrial Buying Behavior: Industrial buyers evaluate technical fit, supply reliability, risk and total ownership cost.
Key Account Management (KAM): Manage key accounts with shared outcomes, executive alignment and a renewal plan.
Channel Partner Incentive Design: Reward incremental sell-through, service and healthy stock alongside sell-in.
Sales Force Automation: Automate repeatable sales tasks and preserve reliable activity and opportunity data.
Sales Territory Planning & Quota Allocation: Set territories and quotas from opportunity, capacity and coverage needs.
Incentive Alignment: Incentives should align with outcomes and limit predictable gaming.
Sales Force Structure, Pipeline Management & Territory Design: Design roles, stages and territories around customer needs and selling capacity.
Enterprise Selling: Enterprise selling requires discovery, a buying coalition and a mutual action plan.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM): ABM focuses coordinated marketing and sales on named accounts and buying groups.

Retail & services

Services Marketing: Services need visible proof, consistent delivery and management of demand and capacity.
Retail Marketing: Retail decisions combine assortment, availability, location and experience.
E Commerce and D2C Marketing: D2C economics include acquisition, fulfilment, returns, support and repeat.
Omnichannel Retail Strategy: Omnichannel retail requires shared inventory and clear service ownership.
Trade Promotions vs. Consumer Promotions: Trade promotions reward intermediaries. Consumer promotions change the buyer’s offer.
Customer Journey Mapping: Map customer goals, touchpoints, friction and handoffs before redesigning the journey.
Omnichannel Value Delivery: Omnichannel value comes from completing a customer task across touchpoints.
Channel Design & Structure: Choose direct or intermediary channels based on coverage, control, margin and service.
Retail Logistics: Retail logistics balances service levels, inventory and fulfilment cost.
7 Ps of Services Marketing: The 7 Ps add people, process and physical evidence to product, price, place and promotion.
Service Gaps Model: Compare expected service with perceptions and locate the gap in delivery, design or communication.
Service Recovery Frameworks: Recover service with acknowledgment, remedy, follow-up and prevention.

CRM & analytics

Customer Relationship Management: CRM coordinates customer data, lifecycle triggers and service across channels.
Business Analytics for Marketing: Connect an analysis to a specific decision and check data quality first.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) & Customer Lifetime Value: CLV estimates expected discounted contribution across customer life.
Marketing Analytics: Use leading metrics for diagnosis and incremental contribution for budget decisions.
Customer Churn Dynamics: Define churn by product and interval, then compare cohorts with similar exposure.
Regression & Clustering in Marketing: Regression estimates conditional relationships. Clustering groups observations by chosen features.
Market Share & Share of Wallet Analysis: Market share uses category-wide sales. Share of wallet uses a specific customer’s category spending.