Marketing Lesson Plans for High School Students

The main objective when you are teaching marketing in a high school is for the learner to be able to define and explain core marketing terms and understand how these terms relate to the realm of business. Another objective is for the learner to show basic knowledge of marketing and how it can be valuable to a business. When teaching high schools students, lesson plans for marketing should cover definitions of basic concepts in marketing and practical projects to teach the concepts.

Introduce students to the concept of marketing and the “marketing mix." Marketing is defined as a process of planning and implementing promotion, pricing and distribution of a product (in the form of goods, services or ideas) in order for an "exchange" to take place between the seller and the purchaser. The marketing mix is a concept that includes the "four P’s": product, promotion, price and place, which are combined in a distinct way in order to reach a target market (a particular group of consumers who are likely to buy the company’s product).

Within your lesson you can include a diagram of the four Ps with an arrow leading to the target market to make the process clear to high school students. Alternatively, place "marketing mix" in the middle of a circle with the four Ps around the outside. You can teach the marketing mix concept using the analogy of a cake mix. Every cake contains milk, flour, eggs and sugar, but the final cake can be individualized by altering the exact amount of each element. Marketing mixes are similar, and the mix can be altered depending on the target audience. For a good marketing mix example, show students how Ryanair market.

Ask students to brainstorm as to the target markets of different companies. For example, fast food chains will have different target markets than health food shops. Ask students what companies they buy products from and who these companies may be targeting. The key points to teach students are that successful firms use different marketing mixes for various products, that marketing is a vital part of a company’s success as customers will only buy a product once they have learned about the product through marketing and that a key to successful business is identifying target audiences and marketing to them.

These projects may be carried out individually or within groups. For the first project, ask students to choose a company that they buy products from. Ask students to distinguish what the target market and marketing mix of their company is. Alternatively, have students create a company of their own, with a particular product. Ask students to identify the components of a suitable marketing mix for their company. This can be an ongoing project that runs for a series of weeks, depending on how much detail you ask students to produce.