The “Marketing & Communication – Business Management Toolbox” training programme, organised by the House of Training in Luxembourg, offers a comprehensive and flexible learning experience, empowering participants to master vital marketing and communication skills.

Covering topics from strategic marketing and operational techniques to branding, distribution, pricing, and communication strategies, the programme caters to a diverse audience including company executives, new team managers, middle managers in SMEs, and ambitious employees.

By completing this programme, participants will gain the expertise needed to drive commercial strategies, manage products, optimise branding efforts, navigate distribution channels, implement effective pricing models, and execute impactful communication campaigns, making it an essential resource for success in the dynamic landscape of business management.

Are you interested in these topics? Then register for the training course on 16 October 2023 at 9.30am. The training session will be conducted in English.

Find all the details about the course below.

Description

Objectives

Upon completion of this path, participants will be capable of:

• Setting up a commercial strategy

Learning methods: Virtual class / Autonomous learning

Strategic marketing and operational marketing

• Commercial and non-commercial marketing
• Goods vs services
• The notion of ‘need’
• The notion of ‘client’
• The product
  • Segmentation
  • Targeting and positioning
  • Product lifecycle
  • New products
• Branding
  • The roles of branding
  • Brand name
  • Brand capital
• Distribution
  • Offline, online and multichannel distribution
  • Distributor brands
• Price
  • Choosing a price
  • The price of new products
  • Price positioning and prestige pricing
  • Price according to perceived value
  • Price according to economic advantage
  • Market price and flexible prices
• Communication
  • The objectives of communication
  • Media advertising
  • Digital marketing

Target audience

• Executive of small or medium-sized business
• New manager who has acquired sufficient experience to be responsible for a team; person with more than ten years’ experience but no initial training in management; needs to cope with new responsibilities, and needs to learn everything about this new role
• SME manager in direct contact with the business’s executives
• Young manager in a defined career plan within the business who needs to upgrade and prove his/her knowledge in order to be considered for promotion
• Employee aiming at a managerial position
• Employee with ambitions of promotion who decides on his/her own initiative to train in order to improve his/her skills and prove they have been acquired.
• Self-employed person whose business has developed considerably over the years, and now has to manage people and unite them in respect of his/her vision
• New business manager
• Person who has recently been given responsibility for managing a project, activity, budget, etc. within a large organisation

We visited the House of Training blog to find out more about the future for sales prospecting in the digital age, an insightful article written by Stéphane Etienne.

Interested in this topic, then do sign up to join the training planned on 13 November at 14.00h.

Entitled Sales Prospecting 3.0 – How to sell better in the digital age. The training will be given in French.

https://www.houseoftraining.lu/training/prospection-commerciale-3-0-comment-mieux-vendre-a-lere-du-digital-1597

At the end of the course, participants will be able to :

• Understand how new tools are transforming sales methods
• Adopt a digital prospecting methodology to generate customers or influencers/ambassadors
• Develop visibility through personal branding
• Master online prospecting tools
• Build high-performance emailing campaigns
• Organise online and offline sales prospecting

What is the future for sales prospecting in the digital age?

Social networks are increasingly becoming sales channels, artificial intelligence is revolutionising marketing, and business is set to become virtualised with the metaverse: the sales profession will undergo profound changes in the future. The salesperson will no longer just be a field salesperson, but also a fully-connected strategist. Will this be enough to sell better? No, because people will always have the last word.

Gone are the days when all you had to do was pick up the phone and deliver the same well-honed sales pitch. Today’s customers are connected, mobile, autonomous and demanding. They trust opinions shared on the Internet and social networks more than companies’ sales pitches, however relevant they may be. Their purchasing path has become more complex and omnichannel. Prospecting machines, videoconferencing, online demonstrations and CRMs have become indispensable for any company wishing to increase its sales performance.

Big Data for sales

And this trend towards digitalisation is only just beginning. Already integrated into voice assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant, artificial intelligence is increasingly harnessing large volumes of data to cross-reference and analyse them, and thus achieve more effective prospect follow-up. They can more easily pinpoint the needs of potential customers, find out their degree of interest in a product or service, and determine the level of maturity in their buying journey. Thanks to Big Data, intelligent systems will be able to build increasingly precise and concrete typical profiles (personas), and even anticipate market trends before they are taken over by the competition.

The metaverse: a new virtual dimension

Heralded as the next evolution of the Internet, metavers are expected to represent a $5,000 billion market by 2030. Even if the concept remains nebulous and is still being defined, the possibilities seem endless. Soon, it will be possible to buy digital products and home-delivered goods in virtual boutiques, or try on cars or clothes without leaving home. But before the metaverse becomes mainstream, many hurdles still need to be overcome, including those related to technology, digital identity privacy, social conventions and etiquette standards.

The emergence of social commerce

Social networks are also undergoing major changes that will ultimately influence purchasing behaviour. Decentralised social networks, entirely managed by consumers, are being set up and developed. At the same time, the major social networks are emerging as competitors to e-commerce players. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, SnapChat and Tik Tok are investing heavily in the launch of new shopping functionalities. In China, almost 50% of social network users have already made a social purchase, compared with 44% in the United States.

And what about the human element?

Does this mean that tomorrow’s salesperson will be nothing more than a “geek” capable of mastering new technologies? No, quite the contrary! To convince prospects and customers, whether B2B or B2C, salespeople will also need to show empathy, understand their specific needs and expectations, develop a relationship of trust with them, and propose solutions rather than products. This is no easy task. According to a recent Salesforce survey of 15,000 consumers and business buyers worldwide, companies in all categories are falling far short of expectations!

Using storytelling as part of your marketing strategy offers numerous advantages, as it taps into the fundamental way humans connect and engage with information. Here are some key benefits of using storytelling in marketing:

1. Emotional connection: Stories have the power to evoke emotions, and emotions play a significant role in decision-making. By crafting compelling narratives, marketers can connect with their audience on a deeper level, building trust, empathy, and loyalty.
2. Memorable content: People tend to remember stories much better than dry facts or product features. A well-told story sticks in the mind of the audience, making the marketing message more memorable and increasing brand recall.
3. Differentiation: In a crowded marketplace, storytelling helps brands stand out by creating a unique identity and voice. A compelling story can differentiate a brand from its competitors and make it more memorable and appealing to customers.
4. Engaging and entertaining: Traditional advertising methods are often seen as intrusive, leading to ad fatigue among consumers. Storytelling, on the other hand, is entertaining and engaging, capturing the audience’s attention and keeping them interested in the brand’s message.
5. Simplified complex ideas: Many products or services have intricate features or technical details that might be challenging to explain directly. Through storytelling, marketers can simplify complex ideas, making them more accessible and understandable to the average consumer.
6. Building brand personality: Stories allow brands to create a personality and character that consumers can relate to. This humanizes the brand, making it easier for customers to connect with and develop a sense of loyalty towards.
7. Conveying values and beliefs: Storytelling is an effective way to communicate a brand’s values, beliefs, and mission. Consumers are more likely to support brands that align with their own principles and convictions.
8. Call to action: When a story resonates with an audience, it can inspire them to take action. Whether it’s making a purchase, sharing the story, or engaging with the brand on social media, storytelling can lead to increased conversions and customer engagement.
9. Cross-platform adaptability: Stories can be adapted to various marketing channels, including social media, websites, videos, and more. This versatility allows brands to convey consistent messages across different platforms, reinforcing the overall marketing strategy.
10. Long-term impact: Stories have a lasting impact on audiences. A powerful story can be retold and shared by consumers, extending the reach of the marketing campaign beyond its initial launch.

In conclusion, storytelling in marketing is a powerful tool that helps create a deeper connection with the target audience, enhances brand perception, and drives engagement and conversion rates. By tapping into the innate human love for stories, marketers can leverage storytelling to build stronger and more meaningful relationships with their customers.

Read more on the House of Training blog. Storytelling: A skill every entrepreneur should practice..

https://www.houseoftraining.lu/en_GB/blog/actualites-1/storytelling-a-skill-every-entrepreneur-should-practice-193

Check out the up and coming training courses on offer.

The ChatGPT phenomenon

In early 2023, the ChatGPT phenomenon took the news and debate by storm. On its own, this Artificial Intelligence succeeded in bringing back into the spotlight a subject that had been sidelined by new topics such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs. But why? This subject is not new (1956, almost 70 years old) and its current version (GPT-4) is not even connected to the Internet, and “only” has a database as of the end of September 2021.  So why not ask ChatGPT?

Here is the answer we received back, condensed into in 5 key points:

1. Answer a variety of complex questions.
2. Multi-language capability to interact with a global audience.
3. Provide accurate and relevant information.
4. Growing popularity of chatbots and virtual assistants.
5. Open-source for use and continuous improvement.

As you can see, ChatGPT was able to give us an answer that was complete, concrete, in English, in the desired format and, above all, an answer that made sense. And that’s one of the main reasons for ChatGPT’s success: relevance, quality and speed.

And if we zoom in on digital marketing, ChatGPT is just the tip of the iceberg. Some AIs can generate designs (Midjourney or Dall-E), create content, write mails or posts for social networks (Kasper or ChatGPT), conduct market research and even develop an end-to-end marketing too, and even develop a piece of code, for example.

AI remains just a tool

At this point, you’re probably thinking “Ah, this will quickly replace a graphic designer, content writer, marketer or developer!”

Well, no! Or at least not right away, and not the best. Despite all the quality answers and ease of use, AI is still just a tool! A tool that can boost your productivity with the right prompts (the way you go about asking questions) by giving you access to key information very quickly. However, this tool, like any tool, has its own limitations.

Creativity, empathy and context are very important assets in digital marketing that AI can’t (yet?) replicate.

So why all the excitement? Because AI enables 2 important things in digital marketing:

1. Make low-value-added tasks accessible to everyone.
2. Create more quality content for the most creative people.

In both cases, it drives the production of more value and therefore better quality.