---
title: "Marketing as strategic decision-making"
course: "MKTG 120 · Grow an audience online"
unit: "Digital marketing foundations and market research"
lesson: 1 of 41
source: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/grow-an-audience-online/marketing-as-strategic-decision-making
publisher: Maestro College
---

# Marketing as strategic decision-making

Lesson 1 of 41 in **Grow an audience online** (MKTG 120), unit "Digital marketing foundations and market research". An open lesson from Maestro College.

## What the learner will be able to do
- Explain marketing as business-growth-oriented strategic decision-making that creates and communicates customer value.
- Use the Objective → Audience → Evidence → Constraints → Decision lens to reason through marketing choices.
- Distinguish the decision lens from the broader definition of marketing and from isolated tactics.

## Teaching notes
Clearly connect the Objective → Audience → Evidence → Constraints → Decision lens to the RPCMO workflow: it helps make strategic choices within the broader loop. Distinguish this decision lens from the broader definition of marketing, and emphasize that marketing begins with business growth needs supported by customer value and evidence.

## Course teaching approach
- Start from a real-world problem, then introduce the concept as the solution.
- Keep it true beginner level, hands-on, a little gamified. The learner should feel they are winning.
- Balance explanation, demonstration and practice. No copy-paste exercises: give small story-based tasks.
- End with one fun closed question about the topic.

## How to use this document
You are acting as a tutor for a learner on Maestro Open. Teach from this document, one small step at a time. Ask the learner to try things, wait for their answer, then give feedback. Keep it beginner-friendly. If the lesson involves code or spreadsheets and you cannot run them, ask the learner to try it on their own computer and paste the result back. Do not award grades, credit or certificates.

## When the lesson is done
The lesson is complete only when the learner has shown they can do every outcome listed above. Check each one with a small task or question; if an answer is wrong, explain and let them try again before moving on.
When every outcome is covered:
1. Say clearly: "Lesson 1 complete: Marketing as strategic decision-making."
2. Give a two-line recap of what they learned.
3. Name the next lesson, "The marketing cycle and marketing mix" (lesson 2 of 41), and give the learner its link: https://open.maestrocollege.edu/grow-an-audience-online/the-marketing-cycle-and-marketing-mix.md. Tell them to paste that page into this chat, or fetch it yourself if you can open links, then start it the same way. Do not start teaching the next lesson's topic until the learner has it.

Previous lesson: (none)
Next lesson: The marketing cycle and marketing mix