BSc (Hons) Marketing

What you'll study Year 1 (credit level 4)

In your first year, you will take the following modules along with the choice of a 15 credit option module.

Year 1 modules Module title Credits. Introduction to Marketing Introduction to Marketing 15 credits

This module is an introduction to marketing. By the end of the module you will have a knowledge of the role of marketing within organisations and within society, and of the principles of marketing management.

Conceptually, the module is divided in two sections. The focus of the first section is to understand what marketing and its role within society. In the first five weeks, you will be introduced to the definition of marketing, the role of marketing within organisations, the value of marketing within organisations and society, the history of marketing, the role of marketing in constructing the consumer society, and the relationship that marketing has with society (i.e. marketing ethics, and sustainability).

We will study both traditional and critical/interpretativist theories of marketing.

In the second half of the module, you will be introduced to foundational topics in marketing management. You will also be introduced to marketing strategy through an brief overview of the 4Ps of marketing - Product, Place, Promotion and Price.

15 credits. Marketing Management Marketing Management 15 credits

This module will give you a good understanding of core marketing management principles and how these are applied to consumers, industrial services and organisations, both from a theoretical and a practical standpoint.

By the end of the module you'll understand the value of a marketing focus to both customer and supplier, and analyse what marketing can contribute to both individual and organisational users.

This course will cover all the topics needed for marketing management and planning. You'll start by analysing strategic tools for marketing strategy definition including segmentation, targeting and positioning.

You'll then analyse the marketing process through a review of the marketing mix principles i.e. the 4Ps (Product, Place, Promotion, Price). You'll also explore in detail each one of these tactics.

Theory will be complemented with real life examples and exercises. You'll also be exposed to case studies analysis to apply the theory into practice.

15 credits. Introduction to Market Research Introduction to Market Research 15 credits

This introductory module will give you the basic tools for conducting market research.

By the end of the module you'll be able to define market research, understand it's strategic role in marketing and design research questions and qualitative and quantitative studies.

In the first part of the module, you'll explore both qualitative and quantitative research designs, data collection methods and sampling used in marketing (i.e. interviews, focus groups, surveys, experiments). You'll learn how to organise data collection (be it with interviews, focus groups, surveys, experiments) based on a research question and the research design.

In the second part of the module, you'll be introduced to foundational topics in quantitative data analysis and statistics.

15 credits. Foundations of Economics Foundations of Economics 30 credits

This module introduces students to microeconomics, macroeconomics and the context of economic analysis. Students will get a good grounding in microeconomic theory and will understand the principles used in mainstream rational choice and perfect competition theory.

The course will cover preference theory, demand and supply, income and substitution effects, cost and revenue curves, perfect competition and partial equilibrium theory. The focus here is the internal consistency of neoclassical microeconomics as exemplified in rational choice theory and competitive markets, and its use of logic. Arguments showing the context and limited nature of neoclassical economic tools in explaining the economic and social reality will be discussed throughout these weeks.

Then students will be taught topics of macroeconomics. In this section, the focus will be on the following specific concepts: national accounting, inflation, unemployment and business cycles. The analysis of these concepts will be through the use of contemporary schools of economic thought (New Classical, New Keynesian, Post Keynesian, and Monetarist) and their analytical frameworks. By viewing these concepts through these different frameworks, the student is introduced into open-ended discussions on these topics as different answers are equally valid as long as students can clearly identify the theoretical frameworks that he/she is using.

Finally, students then will learn about the social, political and business context of economic theory through the discussion of case studies and real-world examples.

30 credits. Organisations and Organisational Strategy Organisations and Organisational Strategy 15 credits

This module will introduce you to key theories, insights and methods within Organisational Studies. In particular, it will critically examine different organisational forms, processes and contexts.

The module places an important emphasis on the meaning and content of organisational strategies. It will help you develop the tools you need to analyse an organisation’s positioning within the marketplace, and think/plan strategically in order to make it more competitive.

You'll gain an understanding of strategic management and appreciate the interrelated dynamics of both strategic and organisational research and practice.

15 credits. Finance and Accountancy for Managers Finance and Accountancy for Managers 15 credits

• Learn the basics of accounting and financial terminology and financial analysis techniques
• Understand financial reporting and standardised disclosures
• Understand the importance of financial strategies, cash flow, and capital budgeting
• Appreciate the strengths and weaknesses of different types of financial data
15 credits. Year 2 (credit level 5) Year 2 modules Module title Credits. Consumer Behaviour Consumer Behaviour 15 credits

This lecture course will introduce you to the fundamentals of consumer psychology and behavioural economics.

It will give you an understanding for the fundamental decision making processes and the factors that influence these processes. It covers topics such as prospect theory and classical economics, brain structures and information processing, heuristics and rules of thumb, and framing and influencing techniques.

It also discloses the various strategies used by marketers to differentiate their products, leverage brands, set strategic prices, reduce the effectiveness of consumer search, and it compares the effectiveness of each.

The course covers topics such as the types and effectiveness of pricing strategies, individual differences in uptake of pricing strategies, value perceptions and subconscious influences (priming), and ethical and legal issues around influencing consumer choice.

The lectures in this course will be supplemented by several assignments designed to develop and enhance practical skills, and further develop familiarity with consumer psychological methods and theories.

15 credits. Organisational Behaviour Organisational Behaviour 15 credits

This module will introduce you to the psychological theories and research on how organisational, team-level and individual characteristics affect productivity and mental health. This module will also consider the limitations of our understanding of these issues and how occupational psychology theory and research is trying to overcome them.

15 credits. Product Innovation and Management Product Innovation and Management 15 credits

This module will investigate product management and product innovation strategies within the marketing process.

You will learn the importance of product management and new products within companies, practical approaches to product and innovation management and the core principles of new product development.

We will look at different theories about innovation and new product development. Theories will be complemented with real life example and case studies to put the knowledge acquired with these theories into practice.

15 credits. Brand Management Brand Management 15 credits

The management of a company's brand is crucial for their success. Brands are strategic assets, and as such a marketing manager should acquire the implicit and explicit skills that can help him/her to maximise the profitability of a brand.

This module will provide a holistic approach to brand management based on both theory and practice.

You will be introduced to brand management, the strategic role of brand within the company, the role of brand within organisational strategy, marketing strategy and communication strategy. You will also explore how to manage multiple brands, adopting a brand portfolio perspective. You will analyse three different brand strategies and analyse mindshare, emotional and cultural branding. You will theen learn how to evaluate these brand strategies.

You will be exposed to the different techniques of brand evaluation and brand audit that will help them to assess the success of brand strategies and how to feedback these results into your strategy. All these concepts will be approached both from a theoretical and practical standpoint. Case studies and examples will be used to show how these theories work in practice.

15 credits. Marketing Communications Marketing Communications 15 credits

This course will provide you with the theories, principles and practice of marketing communications. You will be exposed to a variety of theories and real life case studies and will learn to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of marketing communication campaigns and create your own marketing communications plans.

The course is divided into three sections. The first section will explore the marketing communication process and all the different channels and practices used by companies in order to reach the customer.

You will then explore the integrated marketing communication strategies and the marketing communication mix in order to understand how the communication process happens as in integration of strategies, content and channel. In this first section, the students will also investigate the relationship that exist between marketing communications and branding.

The second section will then explore the different elements of the marketing communications mix. The first element, and the most famous one, is Advertising. The module will differentiate between online and offline adverting, and it will investigate both of them separately and together. This section will explore different types of advertising and their impact in consumer behaviour. Specifically, it will look at different strategies of persuasion within the communication process.

Second, you will be exposed to other forms of marketing communications such as PR, direct marketing, sales promotion, events management, trade fairs and guerrilla marketing. In the last part of this section, you will look into digital marketing and social media marketing.

The third section will look into marketing communications planning and evaluation. In this section, you will look specifically into the media planning process and how it relates to the overall marketing strategy of the company.

Then you will look into the measures that companies should use in order to evaluate the performance of their marketing communications strategy. You will also be exposed to an overview of how the marketing communications industry works, and the major players in the marketing communications chain.

15 credits. Market Research and Consumer Insight Market Research and Consumer Insight 15 credits

This module will provide you with the tools you need to conduct both qualitative and quantitative market research and to translate this research into consumer insight.

After reviewing well known data collection methods and distributions, the module will be divided into three sections. The focus of the first section is quantitative data analysis. Specifically, the module will look into inferential statistics such as hypothesis testing, correlations, T-Test, ANOVA, regression, factor analysis, and cluster analysis. You will learn how to use SPSS to conduct inferential statistics.

In the second part, you will learn qualitative data analyses. Specifically, you will learn different coding techniques used in the market research industry, and how to use qualitative data to extrapolate broader insights into your markets.

Finally, you will learn how to translate both qualitative and quantitative market research outputs into consumer insights. The overall aim is to enable you to evaluate different types of market research, and be able to understand and use research output for solving marketing problems such as segmentation, targeting, positioning, marketing strategy and consumer behaviour.

15 credits.

You will also take 30 credits of optional modules. Examples of year 2 optional modules include:

Year 2 option modules Module title Credits. History of Economic Ideas History of Economic Ideas 15 credits

This module builds on the first year module, Introductory Economics, by discussing key theoretical insights in depth, from alternative schools of economic thought. It traces the evolution of the ideas emanating from, or strongly related to key texts, through time.

The five main texts analysed are: Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, David Ricardo’s Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, Alfred Marshall’s Principles of Economics, Wicksell’s Interest and Prices and John Maynard Keynes’ The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money. Each text is used as a starting point for a discussion on the evolution of the following economic concepts: specialization and gains from trade, distribution theory, theory of the firm, theory of money, and the theory of aggregate macroeconomic relationships.

Finally, the course discusses the link between past and contemporary economic thought, contextualizing it within a broader perspective that includes points of view such as those of feminist economics and from geographically diverse traditions, and the use of these theoretical structures in analysing contemporary economic problems.

15 credits. Sociology of Culture and Communication Sociology of Culture and Communication 15 credits

This begins by focusing on how culture has been conceived in the major traditions of sociological thought and moves on to consider the significance of the development of mass communications research and cultural studies for a sociology of culture

15 credits. International Trade International Trade 15 credits

This course introduces students to the study of international trade. Topics covered include the basics of classical and neoclassical trade theory, economies of scale, international factor mobil-ity, firms in the global economy, and the effect of trade on wages and income distribution.

We will also discuss the tools used by governments to conduct trade policy (e.g. tariffs and quo-tas) and their impact on trade volumes and welfare. Finally, we will turn our attention to the experience of developing countries in the global economy in order to examine key debates on trade and development, trade liberalisation, trade policies and development strategies.

The course is designed as a mixture of lectures, tutorials, and seminars.

*Please note that students must have taken Economics modules at level 4 in order to enrol on this module.

15 credits. Mathematics for Economics and Business Mathematics for Economics and Business 30 credits

This module introduces the mathematical methods used in the analysis of modern economics. This module does not require an A Level in Mathematics (or equivalent) and is suitable for students both with and without an A Level in Mathematics as it teaches the use of mathematics in relation to economic theory and application.

Students will revise and apply basic concepts of mathematics to relevant economic problems. Furthermore, they will learn partial derivatives and second partial derivatives of functions of two or more independent variables, constrained and unconstrained optimisation. These mathematical tools will be taught with special emphasis on how they are used in economic applications and real life examples.

30 credits. Year 3 (credit level 6)

Students will take the following core modules:

Year 3 core modules Module title Credits. Digital Marketing and Social Media Digital Marketing and Social Media 15 credits

Digital Marketing (DM) and Social Media Marketing (SMM) are two areas of marketing that are growing, and where there is big potential for future employment.

While advertising spending on traditional media has started to decline, firms spend increasing amounts on online communication and public relations. This course will provide you with the theories, principles and practice of digital marketing and social media.

You will look into web-psychology and viral content, the role of microblogging for launching and developing new products, and the role of social networks for emotional contagion. These topics will be updated according to the latest research in the field.

We will also discuss how you can combine different social media (i.e. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Youtube, Instagram) to reach your strategic objectives, and explore the topic of social listening, and how this practice is important in