Marketing Fundamentals

This introduction to the “fundamentals of marketing” module will provide you with a basic understanding of the current and emerging marketing principles and techniques within the business environment. It seeks to establish that sustainable market success within a highly competitive environment can only be achieved by developing products or services based upon an understanding of the external environment and customers’ needs and wants. During the module you will not only consider how to add value for customers and other stakeholders but also learn to assess the impact that marketing activities have on consumers’ lives. Your assessment is coursework-based, designed to enable you to demonstrate your ability to approach a business challenge as a marketer and business manager. The assessment methods used on this module will also help you to develop key skills desired by employers, for example digital and visual communication and presentation skills, and business report writing.

Introduction to Digital Marketing

This ‘Introduction to Digital’ module will set the scene, explain the landscape and give students an appreciation of the emerging and unruly world of digital marketing. Students will evaluate best and weak practice in digital marketing and develop an understanding of the process of acquiring, retaining and converting customers in an omni-channel environment. This module will explore underlying concepts and principles of social media and the opportunities and challenges of its use within digital marketing. The assessment will prepare the students for employment by developing key transferable personal skills in responsibility and management of online marketing activities.

Advertising Fundamentals

The module allows students to develop a clear appreciation of the important role of Advertising as a major element of the communications mix and how this needs to be co-ordinated, integrated and managed to deliver effective advertising which satisfies a client’s advertising objectives. The module seeks to expose students to the diversity of advertising approaches and techniques utilised in today’s business environment by allowing them to examine examples in the public and private sectors and there by develop an appreciation of the problems and issues associated with managing and planning advertising output. Students will have the opportunity to visit Advertising Agencies to see at first hand the work of Account Directors, Account Planners, Media Buyers, Creatives and other important functional elements of successful Advertising Agencies.

Managing the Brand

Customers are faced with almost unlimited choice of products and services that are likely to satisfy their needs and wants, coupled with an ever growing number of channels through which to purchase. This makes it increasingly difficult for organisations to cut through the clutter of communication and to make themselves visible to prospective buyers. Developing powerful brands is one such way in which to attract the attention of customers. The branding and popular culture landscape is dominated by the marketers, the promise makers the people who commission the neon lights and the funky adverts. In our consumer society brands have become an obsession. But an often forgotten fact is that the people who make or break brands are the employees, the promise guardians. This module introduces leaners to the elementary concepts and processes involved in designing and maintaining successful brands. It explores the various ‘building blocks’ that make up brands, identifies and evaluates different brand architectures available to organisations and assesses the impact that organisational aims, objectives, culture, behaviour and environment have on customer experiences, brand positioning and brand equity. The module also aims to give an overview over the role that brand managers play in the development and maintenance of brands and provide students with real life experiences of influencing brand developments.

Design and Creativity for Marketers

The aim of this module is to introduce you to visual design as an integral part of marketing communications in the past, present and future. You will examine different concepts, movements, ideas, approaches and ways of using visual communication across a range of media. You will also consider cultural preferences and the increasing need for visual communication to transcend international barriers for global brands. You will explore this through a series of lectures, discussions, activities and visits. You will be introduced to the Adobe Creative Cloud package to help you design a range of marketing materials. The module includes work that will help you gain professionally recognised certificates offered by Adobe and Microsoft should you wish to take these additional exams.

Business Acumen and Entrepreneurship

Understanding the way in which a business works and all the elements that lead to its success are the basis for this module. Whatever your ultimate role in Marketing management, the wider creative industries or as a self-styled entrepreneur, an understanding of fundamental business principles will enable you to devise and execute realistic, successful campaigns. The module provides the opportunity to develop a new business concept from the inception of a company through to the launch of a new product/service idea which requires external investors to take it to the next phase. The module will explore how and why companies are structured as differing legal entities, the need for communication and interaction between departments and other external agencies. It examines broad areas of business which are vital for the business acumen of marketers working within established companies or entrepreneurs developing a new start up company. Business finance, budgeting and costing approaches will be considered. Case studies and business simulation will be used to examine problem-solving and business decision making, bringing an insight into how and why real business objectives are formulated.

This module gives students an understanding of business strategy, competitor analysis, brand development, customer personas, financial forecasting, budgeting and profitability, plus an appreciation of underlying business processes from research and development through to operation and project management. These enable you to develop a new business concept, supported with marketing frameworks in order to establish an investment proposal which could attract external funding.

Core Modules

The Agency Executive

For those who aspire to marketing executives this module will enable you to take your first step. Founded and designed with our business partners, students will have the opportunity to work with organisations and experience first-hand how creative campaign planning combine in practice to achieve profitability. The process will consolidate your learning by its application to current marketing problems faced by organisations in ‘real-time’. The learning, experience and confidence you gain as a result will enable you to become an exceptional executive with marketing skills and knowledge and the personal skills to make an impact. You will be able to implement your proposals within a real organisation giving you the opportunity to build experience, and professionalism that will take you far beyond year two of your studies.

Convergent Media

For companies to compete in today’s increasingly competitive market place, communicating effectively with consumers and stakeholders is essential for survival. Marketing Communications plays a central role in this increasingly dynamic environment where all elements of the marketing mix and the communication of brand values combine to establish competitive advantage. Through this module you will explore why an integrated approach to marketing communications is essential if such communications is to be both efficient and effective. With the continued rise of digital media it is essential to consider how media converge and diverge. The module has been informed by businesses across a wide spectrum of industries who are involved in Marketing Communications, together with current research findings. Incorporation of industry requirements is aimed directly at enhancing your employability post-graduation and students will have the opportunity to experience the role and application of Integrated Marketing Communications through contact with practitioners in both local businesses and communication agencies.

Marketing Research

Modern day businesses depend upon good marketing research to inform decision making in a number of areas from product design and innovation to understanding customer needs and wants. Increasingly organisations are trying to delve deeper into the mind sets of their customers in order to develop products and services which will give them a competitive edge. In this module you learn how to design and carry out research at this deeper level and this will equip you with relevant skills which employers are seeking. The module has been designed after research and consultation with the Chartered Institute of Marketing and with business representatives to ensure it is relevant for meeting the needs of the professional institute and potential employers. The module includes practical skill elements which may be transferred into the workplace; for example use of computer analysis software for conducting research projects; interview and questioning strategies for achieving depth; use of images and social media for detecting future trends. In addition to traditional research methods such as survey, case study, depth interview, the module also covers more modern methods which are becoming popular including; ethnography, emotional scaling, trend tracking, benchmarking, discourse and social media.

Public Relations Practice

Relationship management and its implementation via public relations activities is an increasingly important aspect of corporate communications. Along with marketing communications it remains an area which stimulates wide differences of opinion as to where it lies in relation to the marketing function of organisations. The module is designed to allow you to recognise which is the most appropriate approach given particular business contexts and the issues affecting it. Public Relations is about managing a corporate image and reputation. Deciding which public a company needs to engage with and which media to utilise in delivering the corporate ‘message’ are key issues that the module will equip you to make. With that understanding, you will then be in a position to suggest creative ideas for an optimised PR plan that is likely to optimise a company’s corporate reputation and increase its brand equity. Management of media/press relations plays a central role in the delivery of PR activities and requires sensitive and imaginative management if these channels are to be fully utilised to the organisations benefit. This area will be explored extensively during the module allowing you to fully appreciate the interrelationship between PR and the Media. While doing this, you will develop an understanding that reputation management needs to be an continuous ongoing core activity within a company. You will also see the importance of PR in the management of exceptional (crisis) situations, corporate social responsibility and the needs for all PR activity to fall within acceptable legal and ethical parameters. The module has been formulated with the requirements of the appropriate PR professional body in mind and skills embedded that resonate with those expected by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Your learning will be enhanced through the use of guest lectures by media professionals.

Creative Advertising

In this module, you will learn about one of the most versatile and creative forms of promotion used by marketing professionals around the world. Advertising is used for products and services by commercial and non-profit organizations and in a range of different media. In particular, it will be examined how advertising interacts with other media in the promotion mix, how it leads to the development of a successful brand, how it is used in a wide range of traditional and new digital media, how it is influenced by culture, history and current issues in advertising, such as equality, diversity and inclusion and the popularity of various media.

Optional Modules

Consumer Behaviour

Satisfying customers, consumers and clients is a priority for all organisations if they wish to survive and prosper. This can only be achieved if organisations are able to see the world through their customers’ eyes, understand the often seemingly irrational nature of their purchasing behaviour and respond with appropriate products, services and processes. This module provides you with the opportunity to apply and further develop some of the knowledge and skills you have acquired in previous modules to delve into consumers’ conscious and unconscious motivations for their purchases and consumption behaviour. It provides a foundation for analysing and evaluating customer needs and wants. Working with organisations, you will assess the extent to which they do meet customers’ needs and wants, or to establish where greater customer satisfaction might be achieved. Your learning will be enhanced through self-analysis and through applications in case studies, visits and contributions by guest speakers from industry.

The Corporate IT Landscape

Many contemporary business firms rely heavily on the adoption and use of a portfolio of IT applications and information assets (e.g. database, transaction-processing and decision support systems, web-based interfaces and e-business platforms). This diverse portfolio of systems and data, together with the various groups of staff who maintain or manage them, collectively comprise the corporate ‘IT landscape’ of the firm. A systematic understanding of this multifaceted landscape, and the way it is resourced, organised and developed, is important for the practice of developing an IT architecture. An IT architecture is an enterprise-wide framework (or strategy) which provides coherence, coordination, risk-mitigation and agility for the various technology, information and human elements that make up the IT landscape. An architectural approach is required to ensure the adoption of new systems or processes is done in such a way that permits smooth integration with older legacy systems within the landscape. A balance has to be negotiated between various aspects of technical design, business processes, staff behaviour & viewpoints, company structure and strategy, in order to evolve the applications portfolio for the benefit of the business. The architectural function is therefore quite complex, as it involves aligning the current or planned IT landscape against diverse and often conflicting considerations, at different levels of granularity. This requires holistic thinking based upon a range of business, technical, project and inter-personal concepts & skills. The aim of this module is to enable you to identify high-level architectural issues and solution requirements relevant to the corporate IT landscape of contemporary firms. You will draw upon various concepts and principles of systems architecture, organisational architecture, information architecture, and IT governance that will enable you to achieve a well-grounded understanding of the IT landscape. You will learn about important issues and challenges that may arise when architecting a portfolio of IT applications to deliver business benefits around efficacy, integration or agility. Examples will be drawn from a wide variety of system types, such as databases, workflow, groupware, document management systems, internet & ERP software. Frameworks or techniques for architectural modelling and IT governance will also be covered. This module has an applied orientation, linking theoretical ideas with practice.

Digital and Social Media

This module will give you the tools, techniques and theory behind how digital marketing works within a business environment. During this module you will learn about best practice and key elements of managing digital marketing in an ‘always on’ 24/7 environment. You will learn how to audit and evaluate competitors’ digital footprints as well as understand how to gain consumer insights using digital techniques. Your assessment is coursework-based, designed to provide practical life and employment skills, developing an outline digital marketing plan. This assessment will contribute towards key skills sought by employers, including: evaluation, understanding of digital tools, presentation and business report writing.

Core Modules

Marketing Strategy

Developing Marketing Strategies that focus on customers are often stated as priorities for modern day businesses. However in practice this is difficult to achieve and may require business leaders to significantly change their mindsets to deliver effective and sustainable change, which engages both employees and customers. In this module you will be able to examine the marketing strategies of those organisations that are thriving and successful and those that are failing. The module will go beyond the traditional models of market analysis and planning. We will be seeking to look at strategy from a creative point of view (and not just as an analytical approach taken by some). We will look at how organisations develop unique positions and brands by identifying and developing value propositions which appeal to customers. We will particularly seek out contemporary issues in marketing and see how strategy may need to be adapted to accommodate trends. The focus of the module will be to seek out winning and losing strategies in the modern market place and seek to assess the underlying reasons for success or failure. Particular attention will be paid to breaking news; organisations being featured in news and current events. The design of the module has been informed after consulting with the Chartered Institute of Marketing and other business professionals to ensure that it is up to date and relevant for meeting the needs of the professional institute and potential employers. The module will involve external guest speakers with specialist expertise and current practice from marketing agencies and industry. On completing this module you will feel confident that you can enter the workplace and quickly develop and present your ideas for improving your organisations marketing strategy.

Public Relations and Social Media

This module will enable you to appreciate and become part of a communications industry that is data-driven and works in real-time. We will allow you to focus on the specialist sector of your choice and nurture your skills to become an opinion former through social media infrastructure with a strategic eye on the media landscape to react, shape and manage your messages. Of all the media industries in the communications toolkit – PR has been massively changed by the advent of digital and social media. PR practitioners have had to embrace it from the start quite simply because much of social media is done by the public, consequently opinion forming, influencing, managing reputation and crisis are all in the social media spotlight and amplified accordingly. Recent history shows how social media has changed brand perceptions and has the power to de-rail planned communications campaigns. Apple’s labour relations practices, may not have been blown by social media, but it has kept the story relevant and in our newsfeeds and - in our lives. There has never been such a time for professional communicators to craft statements but also understand and manage reaction from the traditional media, but also an empowered public through blogs, tweets, and posts. The reality of being a PR practitioner today is to become an effective community manager. Understanding customer service, communications and business strategy whatever sector you may favour. Be it sport to fashion, not-for-profit to public affairs – adapting and responding in ‘super-quick’ time is the way in which we have to shape favourable coverage for individuals, organisations or the public we may represent. This module will enable you to appreciate and become part of a communications industry that is data-driven and works in real-time. We will allow you to focus on the specialist sector of your choice and nurture your skills to become an opinion former through social media infrastructure with a strategic eye on the media landscape to react, shape and manage your messages.

Content, Copywriting and Creativity

Copywriting and creativity are key skills in the world of advertising and marketing. Whether you are writing the copy, designing the text or producing the artwork, the art of getting the message across to the target market is crucial. Not all of us are artists and designers; not all of us are creative, but we may have to brief, manage and feedback to those who are and it is therefore necessary to understand what they do. This module examines creativity in advertising and marketing and allows you to experiment with different kinds of copywriting for different media, ranging from traditional print and broadcast to ambient and social media. You will explore the different audio, visual and written devices used to deliver marketing messages to target audiences and discover the power of creative imagery to achieve lasting impacts on customers. The practical nature of the module will give you the opportunity to write in different styles and learn how to approach different media in different ways in order to make them work effectively as marketing tools. The module makes use of the experience of professional copywriters, giving you the opportunity to work on genuine copywriting contracts.

Optional Modules

Services and Experiential Marketing

This module assesses the importance of designing and delivering marketing which effectively applies an understanding of customer expectations (and beyond) . The module will highlight the impacts of service variability, perishability and demand fluctuation on marketing. It will also consider the measurement of customer expectations and perceptions and satisfaction monitoring. The need for and process of resource planning and the management of service encounters will also be encountered. The importance of the service sectors is growing in all national economies and is increasingly provides the basis for national comparative advantage. Tourism, leisure, retail, entertainment, sport and events are just some of the big services sectors represented in the Derbyshire region. Services are also increasingly employed to differentiate tangible products and provide competitive advantage for organisations. Services marketing represent significant challenges for organisations and marketers, simply because the service element is itself intangible. At a great concert, the ticket, programme, facilities are all tangible, but the service itself, the music, is intangible. Furthermore, the service cannot occur without a customer being present. (The concert can be rehearsed, but it isn’t a service without a customer.) It is due to this intangibility of the service which makes services management so difficult to assure and services marketing such a challenging and exciting topic to study. How can an experience be promoted? What are the elements of the marketing package –from researching customer needs, wants and expectations through to promoting something which cannot be easily captured in a promotion. This module assesses the importance of designing and delivering marketing which effectively applies an understanding of customer expectations (and beyond) . The module will highlight the impacts of service variability, perishability and demand fluctuation on marketing. It will also consider the measurement of customer expectations and perceptions and satisfaction monitoring. The need for and process of resource planning and the management of service encounters will also be encountered.

Marketing Across Cultures

As a student of Marketing and a future Marketing professional, you must have a thorough understanding of the added complexities involved in global marketing and how these impact on the formulation of marketing plans and strategies. Organisations in all sectors and industries face increasing international competition; this could be from multi-nationals or competitors establishing themselves in their domestic environment, the need for foreign suppliers or indeed when they seek to establish operations abroad. This module seeks to build on the knowledge and concepts you will have encountered at earlier stages of the programme. It aims to familiarise you with a range of issues and concepts encountered by international marketers and to provide the theoretical framework that will enable you to analyse and implement these in a real-life business situation. Your assessment is coursework-based, designed to enable you to demonstrate your ability to approach a business challenge as a marketer and business manager. The assessment methods used on this module will also help you develop key skills desired by employers, for example, critical analysis, business report writing and presentation skills.

Independent Study

This module gives you the opportunity to make a personal choice regarding the topic and format of your study. You may wish to extend aspects of your final and previous year subjects to more depth along with refining your research skills by means of a traditional research project. Alternatively you may choose to examine a business situation in depth, develop a creative advertising campaign or develop a marketing plan with ideas for creative execution. You could analyse and test the theories, principles and concepts addressed in the classroom environment in the reality of a private, public or community sector organisation by means of a pathway related report. The independent study is an individual piece of work completed under the guidance of an academic supervisor. The subject of study will normally be in your particular area of specialism, and this is an important opportunity to build your expertise and knowledge in that area. In the course of your studies, you may discover an area that is of particular interest to you, or which has specific relevance to your intended professional orientation. This module gives you the opportunity to extend aspects of your coursework or professional interests in more depth, including topics that have not otherwise been available as formal modules. You will also refine and develop your skills in research, critical evaluation, analysis and production of professional documents. This module differs from other modules because it relies on independent study rather than formal classes, and the initiatives to choose a topic and organise the study come from you. The skills you develop during this module will prepare you not only for future employment but for higher-level study. If you choose to work with a particular organisation then the opportunity for engaging with that organisation will provide insights into professional practice. If you choose to work in a more academic or creative setting your work will align with the recommendations of professional bodies in your field.

Brand Impact and Popular Culture

This module has been developed in response to demand from employers for graduates who understand the importance and complexity of branding for 21st-century marketing. One of the key challenges for organisations and individuals (eg celebrity) is to create distinctive, sustainable and differentiated identities and positions for themselves in an increasingly cluttered marketplace. Developing celebrity and brands based on other forms of popular culture that accurately and effectively reflect their goals, values, personality and aspirations on the one hand and benefits and satisfaction sought by a variety of customers on the other is one way in which organisations can increase their visibility, desirability and constructive advantage. Successful alignment of brand goals with the satisfaction sought by diverse customers also acts as a platform from which to generate customer engagement and brand loyalty in the form of co-creation and brand (re)development. Maintaining successful popular culture brands is equally challenging and imperative in order to balance product/ service portfolios and so ensure investment funds for future development and growth. You will develop a thorough understanding of the role of branding in positioning from a unique and interesting context of celebrity and popular culture. It further provides you with an opportunity to evaluate branding strategies and tactics and, using existing research and frameworks as underpinning, to acquire the insights, skills and competences necessary to develop brands in a range of popular culture settings.

Ethics and Sustainability

This module aims to provide you with knowledge of ethical issues involving business, in particular it is concerned with the implications for marketing. The module aims to develop your capacity to critically engage with issues such as human rights, environmentalism and sustainable development, consumerism and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Ultimately, the aim of the module is to enable you to recognise and reflect upon complex ethical problems with a view to enhancing your analytical and decision-making skills which are valuable for employability in international businesses. The role of sustainability as an integral component of business strategy is becoming more common. A number of factors seem to be important in helping to explain this trend including the need to comply with a growing volume of environmental and social legislation and regulations. The concern about the cost and scarcity of natural resources, additionally a greater public and shareholder awareness of the importance of socially responsible financial investments, the growing media coverage of the activities of a wide range of anti-corporate pressure groups and finally more general changes in social attitudes and values within modern capitalist societies. Your assessment is coursework-based, designed to enable you to demonstrate your ability to approach a community challenge as a marketer and business manager. The assessment methods used on this module will also help you to develop key skills desired by employers, for example critical analysis, business report writing, presentation and strategic marketing skills.