Basics of Marketing Concepts and Principles training was held between the 18^th to the 26^{th of} April 2022, for three northern provinces for the Promotion of Export Competitiveness and Sustainability Support to Public-Private Dialogue in Northern Lao PDR (ECL) project.

The participating groups were maize processors from Oudomxay, rice millers from Luangnamtha, and tea processors from Phongsaly province.  The training enabled the maize processors to understand the importance of a market and the application of marketing principles. By the end of the training, the participants applied the tools to develop marketing ideas and understood different types of costs in operating a business and how to calculate them. Meanwhile, the training courses for the rice millers and tea processors were provided with similar training but gravitated more towards exploring different types of branding and packaging.

 Since the products of our participants are a commodity that is mostly aimed at the export market, there were not many promotional efforts. The recommended methods from the trainers included advertising through radio and Facebook, running a promotion campaign in Vientiane in the form of a Tea Festival, and/or setting up a tea tasting table in coffee shops or supermarkets in Vientiane seasonally. The trainers brought a variety of rice and tea packaging designs from various brands to provide examples and inspire participants to create their own innovative designs. The examples were used during the mini-market simulation game where participants had opportunities to explore different types of packages of rice for Luangnamtha and tea for Phongsaly. Participants voted the marketing topic, market analysis (SWOT and Five-Forces), and Packaging to be the most useful topics.