Marketing - MSc

This module advances students' knowledge on core innovation management theories and new product development practice. It is based around understanding of the nature of sustainable innovation and ability to identify the relevance and potential for sustainable innovation in value-creating, consumer-driven businesses. Indicative topics may include:

a) Innovation Management (e.g. innovation typologies / degrees of innovation, models of innovation and innovation management)

b) Innovation Systems (e.g. people, leadership and organisation structures for innovation)

c) Innovation Performance (e.g. determining how innovative an organisation is)

d) New Product Development (e.g. how to define and quickly implement concepts for new products, services and processes)

According to the traditional marketing concept, the Consumer is at the heart of all marketing activities. Thus, how consumers and organisations buy, own, consume and dispose of products, brands, marketplace communities, and experiences is the heart of marketing. Consumption is researched by a diverse array of disciplines including economics, anthropology, psychology, sociology and cultural studies, (human) geography, history and linguistics and political science. This interdisciplinarity has brought great depth and complexity to marketing's understanding of consumption.

Although the focus of this module is consumer behaviour, organisational behaviour will also be explored. Students will develop an understanding of how theories relating to consumer and organisation decision-making, and buyer behaviour inform marketing practice. There will be an emphasis on (i) a micro-level analysis, which relates to more immediate or individual aspects of Consumer and organisational buying behaviour; and (ii) the macro-level, relating to how the broader environment and cultural issues influence consumption.

This module provides an overview of key topics within the domain of marketing research and will provide students the platform to understand the importance and use of information for making marketing decisions. While this module will cover concepts in marketing research, its focus will be on i) providing students with an understanding of how marketing research fits into the contemporary marketing framework, and ii) understanding and interpreting the use of marketing research information and tools for the purposes of understanding information use.

Indicative topics may include:

• What is marketing research
• Buyers and sellers in the research process
• The marketing research industry
• Qualitative and quantitative techniques in marketing research
• Secondary data and marketing intelligence
• Observational techniques in marketing research
• Experiments and test marketing
• Questionnaire design and implementation
• Cross cultural issues in marketing research
• Communicating marketing research results

This module will combine lectures and seminars to present, transfer, discuss and summarise intercultural marketing concepts and frameworks. Indicative topics are:

• Analysis of cultural conditions in global markets
• Cross-cultural Marketing research
• Identification of International segments and niche markets
• Executing marketing mix strategies across different cultures
• Consumer Behaviour across cultures
• Making ethical decisions across cultures

Employers are in search for individuals who possess logical thinking, analytical capability, leadership, communication and the ability to work under pressure. This module develops the necessary research knowledge and skills for students to be able to successfully complete a piece of research in industry or consultancy contexts or academia. Indicative topics are:

• Choosing the topic of interest and literature review
• Research process and Ethics in in business research
• Choosing your research design
• Preparing the research proposal
• Communicating the Research

Topics are:

• Marketing planning
• The market: understanding and analysing the marketing environment
• Segmentation, targeting and positioning
• Marketing research
• Understanding customers and buyer behaviour
• The organisation: marketing strategy and ethics
• The marketing mix (goods and services)
• New product development
• Marketing communications
• Pricing
• Marketing channels
• Contemporary issues in marketing

The module examines the main methods of marketing communications. Strengths and weakness of marketing communications channels will be analysed as well as their suitability and effectiveness. The module systematically evaluates the principles, methods and strategies of marketing communications. The role of message content, format and source will be discussed as well as psychological processes involved in consumers' processing of and response to advertising. The module will discuss how different marketing communications platforms can be combined to reach specific objectives. Indicative topics are:

• The communications process
• Advertising
• Strategy and media planning
• Image, brand management and packaging
• Direct marketing
• Digital and interactive media
• Sales promotion, merchandising and point of sale
• Public relations and corporate identity
• Exhibitions, trade shows, product placement and sponsorship
• Personal selling and sales management
• The implications of digital marketing communications are included in the above topics

The module aims to equip students with the knowledge to participate in the digital marketing efforts of organisations. Topics are:

• The digital marketing environment
• Enabling technologies for digital marketing
• Website design, implementation and analysis
• Social media
• Customers in the Internet age: knowing, reaching & retaining the customer
• Network effects and versioning; Internet marketing strategy
• Loyalty, Customer Relationship Management and Data Mining
• Brands in the Internet age
• Data protection, privacy and legal issues
• Digital marketing and globalisation

TBC

Business failures in the global financial sector, and the subsequent repercussions for a range of different groups, not just shareholders, have put the spotlight on the role of business and the behaviour of managers. Is business just responsible for maximising profit for its owners, or does it have responsibilities to other groups? This raises a number of difficult questions; which groups? responsible for what? And if so, how to discharge these responsibilities?

The aim of this highly practical module is to give students an intensive grounding in analytics modelling and hands-on experience in using industry-standard spreadsheet software (Microsoft Excel) to structure, analyse and solve a variety of problems encountered in business and management.

Students will learn how to build practical analytics models using descriptive analytics techniques to visualise and interpret data; predictive analytics techniques to predict future outcomes and trends; and prescriptive analytics techniques, such as optimisation and decision analysis, to support decision making in complex situations.

Students will be exposed to a variety of case studies that will prepare them to be data-driven managers and executives capable of utilising analytics for business value creation. Practical demonstrations will include examples in finance (e.g., optimal investment strategies, portfolio optimisation), human resources (e.g., staff scheduling, workforce planning, employee performance management), marketing (e.g., product development, customer classification, marketing campaigns optimisation), supply chain management (e.g., optimal transport routing, production scheduling) and project management (e.g., task scheduling, resource planning, project completion time optimisation).

This module introduces students to the area of global value chain (GVC) and its implications for different types of business enterprises (multinational enterprises (MNEs), suppliers, small, large), with a special focus on key theoretical and empirical academic publications as well as available datasets. GVCs are transforming the nature of trade, and it has brought both opportunities and challenges for business enterprises around the world. Such an understanding of GVCs is vital for managers to develop optimal relationships with their value chains partners, adapt to changing business circumstances, and make responsible decisions.

In today's competitive and global economy, companies are turning to project management to consistently deliver business results. Increased number of international and complex projects brings with it a growing demand for project management specialists, according to Project Management Institute (PMI). This module introduces the principles and practice of project management in a global context. The module aims to:

• Equip you with project management tools, techniques and management issues, focusing on key challenges that arise from managing complex projects, such as with regards to project time, quality and cost, resource constraints, stakeholder analysis, cultural diversity and teamwork.
• Analyse contemporary project management issues and employ a range of established and innovative methodologies for adequate project plan, execution and control.
• Critically analyse risks in projects, develop sustainable contingency plans and demonstrate ability to set reasonable and achievable deadlines and milestones across different project tasks with due consideration to economic, social, and environmental aspects surrounding a project.