Â鶹ÊÓƵ

• Professor Vasilis Theoharakis

A crucial competence for marketers is marketing strategy: in simple terms, analysing how the target market divides into segments, which of these segments are key targets for the firm, what the firm’s value proposition to each segment is, and what financial results can be expected over a planning period of typically 3 years. This module teaches Â鶹ÊÓƵ’s world-leading step-by-step process for developing such a marketing strategy and documenting it in a marketing plan.

The module enables you to define or refine a marketing strategy aligned with the organisation's purpose, mission, and vision. The strategic marketing plan underpins all aspects of marketing and is concerned about the organisation's impact on stakeholders. For example, the firm’s brand or brands need to be aligned with the value proposition while also delivering on the brand promise. To help you integrate learning across these different marketing disciplines, this module is assessed through an integrated assignment alongside the Consumer Behaviour module.

• Strategic marketing in context
• The strategic marketing planning process
• Purpose, mission and organisational objectives
• The Marketing Audit and analytical tools
• Competitor identification maps and market segmentation
• Marketing capabilities, value proposition and positioning
• Product/Market Portfolio
• Marketing objectives and strategies
• Product and pricing strategy.

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

1. Understand the evolution and role of marketing and be able to evaluate the characteristics of a purposeful organisation.
2. Appreciate a series of marketing strategy tools and techniques and their application in practice.
3. Develop a successful marketing planning process and understand the construction and evaluation of a strategic marketing plan.
4. Structure and prepare a comprehensive customer-centric strategic marketing plan.
5. Evaluate marketing plans prepared by others.

Customer analysis and insight have become very important domains in the marketing domain. Understanding these areas allows senior managers to develop an innovative marketing strategy based on real customer insights that emerge through strong analysis.

The module covers:

• Shaping perceptions, attitudes and intentions
• Understanding the consumer environment
• Affecting behaviour
• Decision-making and choice architecture
• Utilising heuristics & biases
• Analysing changing customer needs and demands
• Segmenting markets
• Generating customer insight

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

1. Critically analyse the behaviour of potential customers in different settings: B2B and B2C settings.
2. Evaluate how marketing stimuli can affect consumer affect, cognition and behaviour across different brands and settings across the globe.
3. Recommend and apply appropriate bases of segmentation to consumer and industrial markets.
4. Devise an attractive target market strategy considering all factors within the decision-making process, including cultural context and settings.

• Professor Catarina Figueira

This module recognises that professional effectiveness is not limited to individual performance. Working with others - leading teams, influencing stakeholders, navigating conflict and building collaborative relationships across diverse cultural and organisational contexts - is at the heart of what employers expect of managers, analysts, finance professionals, supply chain leaders, procurement specialists and marketers. The module accordingly gives substantial attention to leadership development, emotional intelligence, negotiation and the interpersonal dynamics of professional life. Storytelling - the ability to structure and deliver a compelling professional narrative - is treated as a distinct and teachable skill that connects self-awareness to effective communication in interviews, pitches and stakeholder interactions alike.

• Self-assessment, professional identity
• Sector landscape
• Professional application materials
• Navigating the selection process
• Interview excellence
• Leadership, commercial awareness and project management
• Digital professionalism, ethics and inclusion
• Professional communication, negotiation, networking and career planning.

1. Synthesise personal attributes, strengths, values and skill gaps into a coherent professional identity and personal value proposition aligned with their target sector, by constructing a Professional Portfolio with actionable short- and medium-term career goals.
2. Produce professionally targeted application materials and prepare for postgraduate role selection formats, applying structured frameworks to evidence personal strengths and experience.
3. Appraise a range of professional communication techniques and leadership behaviours, to convey information persuasively and enable effective collaboration in diverse team settings.
4. Analyse current trends shaping their target professional sector, using structured problem-solving, decision-making and demonstrating the ethical awareness and principled judgement expected of professionals in their field.
5. Critically reflect on personal professional development needs and commitments to professional conduct, resilience, commercial curiosity and inclusive practice.

• Professor Andrew Angus

This module aims to provide students with the ability to analyse and present relevant data that will support evidence-based decision making.

Business analysts are frequently asked to gather, review and analyse business and industry data to produce robust, meaningful recommendations to senior managers. This requires the combination of a range of knowledge, skills and behaviours. For instance, the selection of quality data, building reliable databases and models, applying statistical models, deriving and communicating meaning from the findings.

The principles of business analytics:

• Research design
• Planning a management project and formulating management questions
• Data analysis using quantitative techniques
• Principles of artificial intelligence, applications and challenges

On successful completion of this module you will be able to:

1. Critically evaluate the theoretical principles that underpin a range of analytical techniques.
2. Appraise the usefulness of different data analytics methods for inferring meaning from business data.
3. Create and communicate robust recommendations based on evidence and a critical assessment of options.
4. Assess the main concepts and paradigms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and critically examine AI-enabled applications in different sectors.

• Dr Matthias Nnadi

The aim of the Accounting and Finance module is to introduce a number of traditional and contemporary accounting approaches that will increase the visibility of financial information and support management decision making. It aims to integrate basic financial knowledge in the management of a business organisation.

• Accounting rules and preparation of a company balance sheet
• Income statement and adjustments
• Statement of cashflows
• Measuring financial performance using ratio analysis
• ESG reporting
• Company budgets
• Variance analysis
• Sources of finance
• Cost of equity/debts
• Capital investment decisions

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

1. Explain fundamental accounting rules and their applications in the management of a business organisation.
2. Apply financial principles in the decision-making process.
3. Measure financial performance using ratio analysis.
4. Prepare organisational budgets and analyse any variances.
5. Examine the cost and sources of business finance and their implications in investment decisions.

• Dr Tamira King

The aim is for students to understand the role of CRM and CE in the overall business strategy as well as the marketing mix. As a result of this Module students will be confident in their ability to conceive a CRM and or CE programme.

The module covers:

• Key concepts of CRM and CE
• Customer profitability – theory, measurement and practice thereof
• Customer experience – definition, management, the critical role of employees
• CRM programme management – design, business processes, technology, capabilities, governance and implementation
• Learning – data analysis, learning from customers
• Measurement and evaluation of CRM

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

1. Implement CRM and CE key concepts.
2. Evaluate and critically assess the relationship between CRM and CE to the rest of the business activities of the firm.
3. Develop and propose a strategic approach to CRM and CE for their firms.
4. Propose, devise and improve CRM and CE practices within their firms.

• Dr Sharifah Alwi

In many businesses, from consumer goods to industrial services, the primary assets are increasingly intangible. First amongst these is the brand, whether this consists of a portfolio of branded businesses or the corporate brand itself. In both instances, the brand asset needs to be managed to build customer loyalty and resourced so that the competitive advantage it generates can be sustained.

Similarly, one way the equity that lies in the brand can be leveraged is by appropriately extending the brand. Managing the brand, therefore, requires insights into brand preferences and repeat purchasing patterns. It also requires a clear understanding of the levers of successful brand strategies and the tenets of managing brands in the new digital world. The course covers each of these aspects, and brand management is discussed both in a national and international context.

• Product, service, and corporate brands
• Brand equity and the value brands create for customers and companies
• Brand equity concepts (awareness, identity, image, loyalty) and brand positioning across entities, industries, cultures, and contexts
• Brand strategies and brand differentiation
• Brand architecture and brand extensions
• Brand building in the digital age
• Sustainability, diversity, equality, and inclusivity (DEI) brands
• Brand measurement
• Rebranding and brand challenges

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

1. Apply skills and critical knowledge for successfully managing branded products, services, and corporations.
2. Critically make the case for brand investment and strategies to be implemented in diverse settings and entities across geographic regions.
3. Evaluate how the new digital world, sustainability, diversity, equality, and inclusivity are changing the practice of brand management.
4. Develop, design and recommend the brand identity and strategy as a foundation for successful brand positioning.

• Andrew Hough

The purpose of this module is to provide students with concepts and tools that are critical for B2B customer management. It will benefit those who aspire to work in B2B marketing or sales (which includes advertising agencies and other professional services), and also those who aspire to B2C marketing roles, where an understanding of supply chain collaboration will be helpful.

• Professional selling theory and practice
• Sales management theory and practice
• Buyer behaviour and its impact on buyer-seller relationships
• Sales strategy and Key Account Management
• Live client briefing

On successful completion of this module you should be able to:

1. Select appropriate sales theories, tools, and frameworks to apply to business problems and opportunities.
2. Develop ethical and sustainable solutions to sales-related problems and opportunities.
3. Critically appraise a real-world sales-related problem or opportunity and compose a written plan presenting recommendations for a senior management audience.

• Dr Marwa Tourky

The aim of the module is to enable students to understand and critically apply the various aspects of marketing communications from initial analysis of the market through to the development of strategies incorporating an expanding range of communications techniques. As a result, they will be able to write their own marketing communication plans and critically debate contemporary issues in marketing communications.

The subjects covered are communications theory, communication campaigns, marketing communications planning, implementation and evaluation, and coordination, integration and orchestration of the marketing communications mix with particular reference to advertising, publicity and digital media (i.e. paid, earned and owned media). The module may incorporate an industry guest speaker.

This module covers the following topics:

• An introduction to communications theory and integrated marketing communications (IMC)
• Marketing communications decision making process.
• The role of traditional paid communications, such as advertising, endorsement and sponsorship.
• Creativity in advertising.
• The role of earned media communications, including public relations and crisis management.

On successful completion of this module you will be able to:

1. Demonstrate a systematic and comprehensive understanding, interpretation and application of the theory and practice of marketing communications in contemporary commercial and non-commercial across various audiences.
2. Demonstrate a critical appreciation of the validity of a variety of consumer-based models relating to the development of effective promotional activities and the use of persuasion tools in different scenarios.
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of various communications tools and appraise marketing communications mediums and creative executions.
4. Critically evaluate key marketing communications challenges facing organisations and develop critical awareness of the associated ethical issues and the interrelationships with media and society, and propose customer focused solutions.
5. Express personal ideas and analytical ability in relation to case-based material and apply knowledge of marketing communications by justifying and developing an integrated communications plan as part of an overall strategic marketing plan.

• Dr Marwa Tourky

The aim of this module is to enable you to understand why digital marketing is critical to all organisations and to investigate how this is constructed. On completion of this module, you will be able to competently create a digital marketing plan for organisations.

• The digital marketing toolbox (email, websites, social media, search engine optimisation, paid search).
• Digital marketing frameworks.
• Ethical issues in digital marketing.
• Sustainability issues in digital marketing.

On successful completion of this module a student should be able to:

1. Investigate digital marketing frameworks applied by an organisation.
2. Critically evaluate the digital marketing applied by an organisation.
3. Create an integrated strategic marketing communications plan.

• Dr Joshua Haist

The module is primarily designed to provide you with an understanding of what is required to undertake successful academic studies and to conduct research in business contexts considering that todays’ managers:

• are paid to make decisions
• are expected to make ‘informed’ decisions (i.e. based on evidence)
• are evaluated on the basis of the outcomes from their decisions

Therefore, understanding the process of producing evidence will ensure you have the core skills to inform management decisions.

Introduction to evidence-based management

• Study skills
• The elements of evidence-based management
• Uses and misuses of generative AI

Conducting research in management

• Defining management problems
• Reviewing the literature

Understanding and evaluating qualitative research methods

• Interviews and focus groups in qualitative research
• Qualitative data analysis

Understanding and evaluating quantitative research methods

• Designing questionnaires and conducting surveys
• Quantitative data analysis
• Presenting research evidence & academic writing
• Translating data into information to support management decisions

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:

1. Critically evaluate evidence to inform management decisions.
2. Assess and select appropriate methods of qualitative and quantitative data collection to gather a varied range of evidence to support decision.
3. Choose and apply appropriate methods of qualitative and quantitative data analysis to gain insights from data and explore the implications of decisions.
4. Access different sources of evidence to gain a comprehensive and critically reflective understanding of organisational issues.
5. Design and formulate high quality academic and business documents employing critical, evidence-based thinking.

• Professor Vasilis Theoharakis

This is an integrative module allowing you to apply that which you have learnt to date in a practical manner. You will work in your learning teams and role-play a management consulting team competitively against the other learning teams. All teams will address the same brief: a genuine business opportunity for a particular company. You will have one week to understand the brief, gather the relevant data, use appropriate tools / frameworks and generate innovative, pragmatic and achievable recommendations. Your presentations will be judged by a panel that includes a company marketing executive dealing with the problem.

This is a simulation exercise based around participants providing consultancy to a company based on a real-live problem.

Therefore, module content is integrative, pulling together themes and techniques from other modules.

1. Select and justify what marketing theories, frameworks and perspectives are applicable and to deploy this methodology intelligently to a real-life situation.
2. Clearly develop a capacity for problem solving and creative thinking through addressing a real marketing problem.
3. Work with colleagues in a competitive situation, under time pressure and with incomplete access to information, people and data.
4. Develop management consulting skills by providing expert and credible advice, and presenting a solution in a very succinct and compelling manner.
5. Demonstrate the application of sound financial analysis to marketing recommendations.

• Dr Sharifah Alwi

The aim of the individual project is to train you to undertake a major marketing, retailing or sales-related research project independently and to present an individual project, which meets university requirements. This will require you to demonstrate project management abilities, develop skills in critical appraisal and research methods, as well as the ability to present your thoughts clearly.

Each student is allocated an individual project supervisor (either Â鶹ÊÓƵ staff or Â鶹ÊÓƵ registered teacher).

The individual project can have one of three possible formats:

• An empirical individual project
• A company-sponsored (empirical) individual project
• A systematic review of a suitable area of the marketing, sales or retailing literature

On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:

1. Scope a marketing, retailing or sales research project and develop an appropriate set of research questions/project objectives.
2. Plan and execute a long-term research project work programme with reference to the key project management processes (time, risk management, contingency, resourcing).
3. Select and justify methodologies and analytical tools appropriate to the task and apply them correctly to a live marketing, retailing or sales problem.
4. Collect, review, analyse and critically evaluate literature, data, and information to make evidence-based decisions which lead to justified conclusions/ recommendations.
5. Design and critically reflect on learning and activities over the time of the internship and/or the refinement of individual’s career plans.
6. Write and communicate concisely, informatively and persuasively in order for reports/presentations to achieve their intended effect.

The Strategic Marketing MSc is currently the only Master's degree in the UK that is accredited by the MRS for its Certificate in Market Research). This means that while studying for your Master's in marketing, you also have the opportunity to work towards achieving the MRS Certificate in Market Research. This qualification and with appropriate work experience – gained either before or after being awarded the MRS Certificate – means you will be eligible to join the Market Research Society.