Course description
Course Summary
The MSc in Marketing centres on leading edge practice in the areas of marketing strategy and communications, international marketing, e-retail, and sales performance systems. It offers a specialist focus on marketing compared to a more general MSc in management subjects. It is a learning and development programme suitable for those wanting to become professional marketers with expertise and a qualification that supports rapid and sound career progress in this field.
This postgraduate degree has been approved and accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) to provide entry onto the CIM's Professional Postgraduate Diploma in Marketing.
Course Details
The MSc in Marketing centres on leading edge practice in the areas of e-Retail, Internet Marketing, Customer Relationships Marketing and Sales Performance Systems. It offers a specialist focus on marketing compared to a more general MSc in management subjects. It is a learning and development programme suitable for:
* those wanting to become professional marketers with expertise and a qualification that supports rapid and sound career progress in this field.
* those who have experienced some employment in this field and possess a working knowledge of marketing but as yet no formal qualification. The MSc in Marketing will enable you to progress your career in this specialist area.
On completion of the MSc you should have an advanced and applied understanding of:
* marketing concepts, theory and processes and the resourcing of marketing operations with ability to develop proposals and programmes;
* business management and marketing including corporate strategy and enterprise, marketing communications and e-commerce, international marketing, legal and ethical frameworks, finance, environmental and technological change;
* research into markets and customer relationships with the ability to evaluate the development and operation of markets under conditions of uncertainty;
* the development and impact of marketing information systems;
* manage self-development for transferable intellectual and practitioner capacities, both information-based and interpersonal, significant to personal career success.
The course is designed for those wishing to become marketing professionals and/or undertake research in academic, consultancy or commercial settings. Those already in Marketing roles and seeking a master's qualification in Marketing (rather than an MBA) will find great value in the course.
Typical Modules
Core
* Marketing Communications
* International Marketing
* Strategic Marketing Management
* Understanding Business and Management Research Methods
* Managing Retailing and e-Retailing
* Dissertation
Plus One Optional module from the following:
* Small Business and Entrepreneurship
* International Business Ethics, Sustainability and Corporate Governance
* Knowledge, Innovation and Learning
Marketing Communications
Main topics of study include: the process, theory, social impact and ethics of an advertising campaign; the role of advertising in the marketing mix; the key terms and concepts associated with marketing communications and a grounding in its critical and theoretic aspects; knowledge of key characteristics of the target audience, customer dynamics in a given context, marketing information and the influence of product positioning in order to critically discuss how integrated marketing communications campaigns and activities are planned and managed; advertising’s visual phenomenon.
International Marketing
Main topics of study include: international marketing; the potential market assessment; the global strategic position; building and sustaining the global position; the international marketing plan; country selection/target market, branding, e-commerce.
Strategic Marketing Management
Main topics of study include: marketing environment, buyer behaviour, segmenting, targeting and positioning, marketing research, branding, service/retailing, price, place, promotion; marketing strategy process, marketing audit (internal), portfolio analysis, strategic options, PLC and value chain, IMC, innovation, relationship marketing, implementation and control.
Understanding Business and Management Research
Main topics of study include: the notion of research and the issue of knowledge claims; the role of theory in management and business domain; epistemology and ontology assumptions in positivism and social relativism/constructivism; empiricism; research methods and techniques; research designs (i.e. experimental, longitudinal, case studies, comparative); application of qualitative and quantitative methods to management problems; using extant information and data sets to model complex management problems; the potential and limitations of case study research and survey research methods; planning a research project (writing a research proposal; the role of literature review and secondary research); practical considerations for a research epistemology, method, techniques and execution; criticality and ethical issues, trusting the knowledge claims of others.
Managing Retailing and e-Retailing
Main topics of study include: the function of retailing; retail models including the retail life cycle, wheel of retailing, the ‘retail accordion’, ‘generic strategies’, 2-axis positioning maps, and multi-attribute perceptual diagrams. problems in retail location and evaluation; evaluating aids to retail location decision making: checklists, analogues, multiple regression, spatial interaction, central place theory, principle of minimum differentiation, mapping, geo-demographic databases and GIS; the retail and e-retail mix; the communications mix including internet and other interactive communications for retail. bricks and mortar; bricks; clicks and mortar compared; multi-channel retailing; trends in retail and e-retail; retail and e-retail strategy considerations.
Dissertation
There are few prior constraints on the definition of the subject(s) to be researched, provided that it is: amenable to enquiry, with a realistic expectation of reaching a meaningful conclusion; sufficiently focused to allow its completion within the specified timescale; of appropriate intellectual depth; relevant to the Masters programme followed. The project may take a number of different forms, but will need to include appropriate literature survey and an investigation in a specified area or topic. A professional-focused study which aims to draw upon empirical data to assess critically a specified area or topic. The empirical data may be primary, eg derived from an investigation undertaken by the student; secondary, eg derived from analysis of existing data sets; or derived from a combination of primary and secondary research.
Small Business and Entrepreneurship
Main topics of study include: Enterprise and entrepreneurialism, the entrepreneur, opportunity recognition, creativity and innovation, start-up issues, developing a business plan, financing small firms, growth, contemporary issues in small business management and entrepreneurship. Development of enterpreneurship and small business formation across Europe and the US. Theoretical issues to contemporary case studies of entrepreneurship and small business. Complexities and intricacies surrounding enterpreneurship and small business formation across Europe and the US.
International Business Ethics, Sustainability and Corporate Governance
Main topics of study include: the relationship between business and society; foundations of ethical theory; cross-cultural ethics; Theories and concepts of sustainable development; corporate social responsibility; corporate governance; corporate reporting and accountability; sustainable production and extended producer responsibility; employees and ethics; consumer ethics; supply chain ethics; ethical and sustainable consumption; business and environmental justice; business responses to climate change; role and actions of the non-profit sector; role and actions of government.
Knowledge, Innovation and Learning
Main topics of study include: the module will explore learning at the individual, organisational, and societal levels. It will consider issues relating to the management of learning processes, including developments such as the learning organisation, knowledge management, and communities of practice. Following from this, the module will explain some of the basic ideas associated with innovation theory; technological strategy; intra-firm knowledge flows; and the development of networks for the transfer of knowledge. As part of this discussion, the course will reflect upon relatively new developments in the field, including knowledge transfer both in the global and regional economy; disruptive innovation; and the role of epistemic communities.
Assessment
Taught modules are assessed either wholly by coursework or by course work and formal examination.
Examinations normally feature in second term modules only. Dissertation research typically involves original research into a business and marketing policy problem or issue of the student's choice.
