Marketing BA module details

Year one

Block 1: Fundamentals of Organisations and Markets in a Global Context

The purpose of this module is to introduce students to business and provide a robust understanding of what businesses look like, how organisations operate in a global context, the functions within a business itself and how they inter-relate. Throughout the module we will cover topics such as; the types of businesses, key business functions, what is a market, the macro-economic environment, organisational structure and basic financial management. Students will also be invited to explore the influence of culture on organisational principles and behaviour.

Block 2: Principles of Marketing

The module offers students a comprehensive introduction to the broad subject area that is marketing and is the second key block of learning in which foundation academic and employability skills are embedded to aid transition into HE. The aim is to give students an understanding of the breadth of marketing theory; brought to life by illustrating its practical application. Contemporary challenges facing marketers - e.g., e-marketing, ethics and globalisation will be given particular emphasis.

Block 3: Decision Making for Marketing

Students will develop an awareness of the basic concepts of information and decision-making that are integral to marketing. Students will use these techniques to solve problems and make marketing decisions. The module is based on a hypothetical market (computer-based simulation game) that will allow the students to explore and experiment with various marketing tools in order to achieve a satisfactory business performance.

Block 4: Marketing in Action: Social, Environmental and Digital Impact

This module explores some of the key dynamics of societal and technological change that have profound effects on the context in which marketing happens. The overarching theme is change in the modern world, how change affects society, and how marketers must adapt their approach in order to be successful in a rapidly changing consumer environment.

Students will be introduced to the principles of Sustainability Marketing that aims to market sustainable products and services which “satisfy customer needs and significantly improve the social and environmental performance along the whole life cycle”, while increasing customer value and achieving the company's objectives. On this module students will explore how sustainability principles can be incorporated in to marketing activities and strategies; in order to respond to opportunities and threats that arise from both social, economic and environmental change – such as climate change.

Year two

Block 1: Brand Management

This Brand Management module introduces students to the evolutionary background, managerial intricacies and current developments in branding. The module provides the student, thereby, with a deeper understanding of contemporary brand theory and practices in strategically building, positioning and managing brands. The student is also able to examine the various roles that brands and branding play in our everyday lives and, thus, why a sustainable brand success often depends on fostering, supporting and cherishing consumer-brand relationships.

Finally, the module enables the student to gain theoretical and practical insights into the creative processes involved in creating, designing, developing and managing a brand. In so doing, the module provides the student with a deeper appreciation of the conceptual idea that brands should not be viewed just as names, signs and/or logos but instead as engaging stories, which means that successful brand managers are essentially good storytellers. Since building and managing sustainable brands is so important, the active engagement in and successful completion of this stimulating module will enhance the career prospects of students, whether in specific brand management areas or in the broader areas of advertising, marketing and marketing management.

Block 2: Customer Insight: Consumer Behaviour and Research

Understanding customers is essential for businesses, therefore consumer insight is a key source of competitive advantage for businesses seeking to differentiate and target specific consumer segments. Customer insight refers to a deep understanding of customers: their motivations, their behaviours, their preferences and even their unmet needs to consistently provide them with added value that leads to strong loyalty and long-term relationships.

Students will gain a sound understanding of how customer insight is gained through marketing research and data analysis and how it is used to inform new product development, enhance marketing communications and improve the customer experience across the whole customer journey - online and offline. Students will also learn how to use insights to create sustainable offerings and build meaningful and useful business communications and feasible pricing.

Block 3: Integrated Marketing Communications

Marketing communications is used to engage audiences and is the key to the success of any campaign. In this module students will learn how to apply marketing communications theory and concepts to a company. Based on marketing insight students will create an integrated marketing campaign to improve customer experience and identified business need. (Integration with CIM the pitch)

Block 4: Contemporary Issues in Marketing

This module combines elements of a traditional research methods module and delivers inspiration from research active colleagues contributing to research and innovation in a wide range of disciplinary fields including (but not limited to) Consumer Culture Theory, Critical Marketing, Customer Engagement, Digital Marketing, Marketing Innovation, The Sociology of Consumption and Transformative Consumer Research. In concert with the Customer Insight: Consumer behaviour and research module these two blocks provide an important foundation for students who will go on to conduct their own independent research in their final year.

Students will first gain a thorough understanding of the research process and the conceptual differences between qualitative and quantitative research and the principle methods associated with each approach. Students will be introduced to research active colleagues leading 'miniseries' of research-led seminars delivered by DMU academics whose work is at the leading-edge of new advances in theory, policy and practice.

Year three

Block 1: Marketing Strategy and Analytics

This module is designed to be taken by the final year student who is likely to be pursuing a career in marketing management. Being strategic in nature, it not only pulls together and builds on knowledge gained from other components of their programme, but it encourages the development of a critical approach to discussing the strategies and actions of differing types of firms. Additionally, it uses a theoretical approach to marketing management situations that are taken from a real industry context and replicate the type of marketing reports demanded by small and large companies.

Block 2: Engagement Marketing: Communities, Content and Creativity

This module examines the key determinants of multi-channel engagement marketing before moving on to an exploration of the key direct marketing and customer relationship marketing (CRM) principles and their application across a range of organisations and marketing contexts. Emphasis is placed on the central role of customer information and how databases are built and used to identify, attract and retain profitable consumer groups. Students will be introduced to the engagement marketing toolkit and become familiar with a wide range of engagement platforms. The module encourages students to appreciate and contribute to debate on contemporary digital and social media marketing debates. For example, how should organisations respond to ethical issues like data privacy, bias, and transparency when crafting social media marketing campaigns.

Organisations of all sizes are taking advantage of advances in computing and communication technology to 'move closer' to their customers and consumers. Databases are capable of storing huge volumes of information on current and prospective customers and can be used for highly targeted promotional communications in both business to business and consumer markets.

Block 3: Critical Perspectives in Marketing OR Marketing Innovation

Marketing innovation is the implementation of a new marketing method involving significant changes in product design or packaging, product placement, product promotion or pricing. We are witnessing unprecedented growth in Marketing innovation being driven across all industry sectors by technological advances, changing consumer expectations and the global imperative to enhance marketing sustainability.

Today’s business and marketing professionals are required to have a strong understanding of how technology and innovation must meet with the demand of new products and/or services. This module brings together the fields of marketing and innovation that fosters a detailed understanding of the design, development and management of new product and service innovations, to explore innovation as it pertains both to existing products and services and new product development process. This cutting-edge topic will enhance students ‘skills, from the strategic and creative process of leading and managing innovations through to commercialisation and beyond. They are presented with challenging experiences through a balance of theory and practice by evaluating contemporary case studies.

Block 4: Brand Portfolio OR Dissertation

The marketing dissertation is designed to give students the opportunity to research a topic of their individual interest. Students frequently expand on an area that has been of interest in previous marketing modules, link the study to issues that intrigued them from their work placements, or explore a topic that has not been studied in a formal module, with the guidance of several lectures and appointments with an assigned dissertation supervisor, the dissertation should demonstrate the application of academic theory to actual marketing situations.

The module requires the student to be able to work independently and set their own goals in exchange for the opportunity to research a topic that excites and interest them personally. Recognising the scope of student-led activities required for this module it will run over an extended time period, in parallel with the previous block.