CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing

What do I learn by studying the Professional Diploma in Marketing?

There are four modules at the Professional Diploma level. They are:

* Marketing Planning Process
* Delivering Customer Value through Marketing
* Project Management in Marketing
* Managing Marketing

By the end of the Marketing Planning Process module, students should be able to evaluate the role of the marketing planning process and the marketing plan implementation in a range of marketing contexts including that of the organisation’s strategy, culture and broader marketing environment. In addition, they must be able to evaluate the interconnectivity between corporate, business and marketing objectives and consider the impact of the external marketing environment and the organisation’s resources on their development and achievement.

The module also teaches the importance of conducting a marketing audit including a detailed analysis of the internal and external marketing environments. Assess the findings of the audit and develop a marketing plan that is responsive to market and organisational changes and underpins the organisation’s marketing strategy. Students must be able to determine the importance of segmentation, targeting and positioning and their relative interdependencies and develop effective segmentation, targeting and positioning strategies which are innovative, cost effective, valuable and maximise the potential marketing opportunities successfully. Utilise a range of positioning platforms including price, quality, service and brand perception, to establish an organisation’s marketing positioning strategy. Recognise the significance of retaining existing customers through relationship marketing when developing strategies to achieve marketing objectives.

In Delivering Customer Value through Marketing, students should be able to develop and manage a brand and product portfolio in the context of the organisation’s marketing strategies and objectives and develop and implement an effective and efficient channel management strategy which reflects the needs of stakeholders and considers the impact of the external environment. Develop an effective and innovative communications strategy and plan which clearly delivers the organisation’s proposition to the market, through effective segmentation and targeting of internal and external markets.

In addition, a student ought to be able to utilise an innovative and effective integrated marketing mix to reinforce the organisation’s brand values and overall marketing proposition and competitive advantage. Finally, to determine customer requirements for product and service delivery to ensure the marketing proposition is customer-focused.

In Project Management in Marketing, the student must be able to identify the organisation’s information needs, scope of research projects and resource capability to underpin the development of a business case to support marketing projects. Also, develop an effective business case, complete with justifications, financial assessments and consideration of the organisation’s resource capacity and capability to deliver. In addition, students will be able ti undertake a risk assessment programme with suggestions on how to mitigate for risks facing the organisation and the achievement of its business and marketing objectives and design, develop and plan significant marketing programmes, using project management tools and techniques, designed to deliver marketing projects effectively, in terms of quality, resource and delivery. Integrate a range of marketing tools and techniques to support the development and implementation of a range of marketing projects and monitor and measure the effectiveness and outcomes of marketing projects through the end-to-end project process are also skills that the student will learn.

In Managing Marketing students should be able to recommend how a marketing function should be structured to deliver competitive advantage, marketing and organisational success and assess a range of approaches that can be used to manage the marketing function on a day-to-day basis. They will also be able to prepare plans for showing how a team should be structured, selected, formed, managed and developed to demonstrate effective performance against objectives. Critically assess the organisation’s resource needs and capabilities for the marketing team and manage its marketing activities effectively and efficiently. Lastly, students should be able to prepare appropriate budgets and accounting documentation to support the financial management of the marketing function and associated marketing activities. Finally, they must be able to critically assess the ongoing financial situation including manageability of the budget, financial stability and success of the marketing function.