Marketing - BA (Hons)

We live in a world where we are surrounded by brands – from the everyday objects used daily to the more prestigious and opulent products and services on offer. In today’s highly competitive and fast changing business environment, building and sustaining brands is essential for attaining a sustainable competitive advantage and ensuring long term profitability for organisations. It is therefore imperative that as a student on a marketing course, you should be able to appreciate and apply the concepts of branding as they relate to contemporary products and services.  

Data is everywhere, but how do we know what is relevant and what is not in order to understand it and make effective decisions?  This module will allow you to examine the growth in volume, velocity and variance of marketing data, marketers are increasingly faced with the challenge of the optimum method of evaluating marketing decisions. 

Marketing communications is a key strategic area for any business as it gives visibility and understanding of an organisation’s products and or services.  It utilises a variety of techniques, communication tools and media to deliver these messages, designing campaigns that drive the desired behavioural responses.   

In today’s competitive business climate, it is getting more and more difficult for businesses to differentiate themselves from their competitors. A competitive advantage is essential and customer experience is perhaps the most important aspect of a successful business. Optimising customer experience has been identified as one of the most important tools to help a business stand out from the competition. Prioritising the customer experience ensures that customers are enjoying every interaction with your business, and 50% of consumers are more likely to do business with you again in the future after a positive customer experience. 

This module, where a programme of study enables it, is open to Business School students, who choose to undertake an international Study Abroad mobility experience within their second year of study. The aim of this module is to enable you to explore your mobility experience through a cross-cultural lens that focusses on the key themes of your discipline in an international context, together with your personal development. This is achieved by activities that draw on research enquiry, creativity, culture, reflection and professional development.    

Visual Communications are probably the dominant aspect of most marketing communications campaigns.  Marketing professionals are increasingly expected to be multi-skilled individuals, capable of thinking and operating at a tactical and operations level as well as strategically. Even where high-level technical skills are not expected, it is expected that marketers have a high degree of visual literacy and can use a practical knowledge as well as a theoretical understanding of visual communications to brief, evaluate and assess the work of contributing specialists, such as designers, art directors, photographers, illustrators, copywriters, video makers etc. A firm grasp of visual communications is also necessary to understand and predict the effects of communications on customers as well as to defending, criticising and justifying creative decisions to colleagues, mangers, partners and clients. 

Channel management is the place part of the marketing mix, dealing with how manufacturers ensure products and services reach the target end consumer most effectively and efficiently.   This module aims to equip you with the skills to plan and implement a channel strategy that is appropriate to the product or service, including critiquing and selecting relevant intermediaries, developing channel support plans including brand activation, account management and negotiation techniques. This module demonstrates how marketing links to other areas of business such as sales and category planning and focusses on both the business-to-business and business to consumer relationships both domestically and internationally. 

Behavioural science is a methodical study of human behaviour that combines elements of psychology, sociology, economics and neuroscience. It helps us better understand how individuals make decisions, particularly the ones that are not seen as rational decisions. Addressing most issues in society requires an understanding of how and why people behave the way they do. In recent years, this greater understanding has enabled organisations to systematically consider how they might change behaviour, and in particular, the behaviour of consumers. 

Digital communications is a key component of any marketing strategy with influencer marketing having emerged as a cornerstone of brand engagement. The vehicle enabling influencers to drive sales is the emergence of the social media platform. The skill of those influencers in promoting the brands has led the influencer to become a major driver of brand revenue and profits. 

The aim of this module is to provide you with ‘real world’ event management experience. Integral to the module will be a focus on group work, enabling you to utilise your event management skills accrued at level 4 to exhibit decision making skills when choosing a viable event to execute, selecting an appropriate venue and promoting the event, and ultimately running their chosen event. The relevant literature is explored, but with a consistent view of the importance of applying theory and planning in practical business contexts.  

Marketing by its very nature is a commercial management role. Marketers analyse data, launch new products, devise communication campaigns and manage brands, all to specific deadlines, targets and budgets. This Commercial Management module focuses on key commercial skills needed for a successful marketing career. 

This module will continue to develop key transferable skills from level 4 such as group discussion and debate, critical evaluation and evidence-based reasoning. There will be research-led teaching which will explore key debates and methodologies used in neuropsychology and cognitive Psychology. The GBC area of biological Psychology and cognitive Psychology will be supplemented through this module. 

This module aims to equip you with the conceptual knowledge needed to develop your understanding of contemporary technologies available to be leveraged by digital marketers. It explores a diverse range of activities including the use of automation tools as they specifically pertain to Digital Marketing campaigns in order to enable you to appreciate the major differences between traditional and Digital Marketing at an operational level. 

This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to undertake a credit bearing, 40- week Professional Placement as an integral part of your Undergraduate Degree.    The purpose of the Professional Placement is to improve your employability skills which will, through the placement experience, allow you to evidence your professional skills, attitudes and behaviours at the point of entry to the postgraduate job market.  Furthermore, by completing the Professional Placement, you will be able to develop and enhance your understanding of the professional work environment, relevant to your chosen field of study, and reflect critically on your own professional skills development within the workplace. 

Marketing is usually involved in providing information used in strategic decision-making and is often in the forefront of executing such decisions. It is very important for marketers to have an understanding of strategy and planning as it enables marketing activities to be directed to the specific needs of that organisation. You must appreciate the complexities of preparing and implementing longer-term, customer-focused plans and the significant role of marketing and management in contributing to the core vision of the organisation and the achievement of its plans.

Let me ask you something... Could you tell me the main benefits of the next smartphone that you're hoping to buy? Is it the 256GB of storage? The HD retina display? Perhaps the pixel resolution on the camera? Now, could you tell me the impact that the production of that phone has on the environment and on society? Would you consider giving up your smartphone for the greater social good?

Contemporary Advertising, will explore best practice advertising techniques, In this field creative, marketing communication tools and techniques are continuously evolving. Current examples pulled from real-world experiences, will be analysed from the view of a practitioner’s perspective. Taking a comprehensive view of the industry, advertising will be analysed from the creative standpoint and continuing to address the importance of integrated marketing communications in the field of advertising and how it impacts advertising strategy through featured campaigns.

As a level 6 module, ‘Creativity, Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ contributes to the course core philosophy by providing you with the opportunity to enhance your skills and develop your creativity, open your mind to innovation and understand the entrepreneurial opportunities these could afford you. This will enable you to compose and construct a series of relevant materials to effectively communicate your ideas and apply your professional skills to develop an entrepreneurial idea.

To successfully market products and services, it’s never been more important to apply the science of how people make decisions. However, marketing goes beyond the purchase decision, the ultimate destination for any organisation is the creation of loyal customers that repeat purchase and advocate the brand/organisation.

This module aims to equip you with the conceptual knowledge needed to develop your understanding of Digital Analytics for Marketing. It explores a diverse range of activities that comprise Marketing Analytics as it pertains specifically to Digital Marketing campaigns in order to enable you to appreciate the major differences between traditional and Digital Marketing analytics at a strategic level.

Public relations is a strategic asset of any firm or organisation and the ability to appraise and analyse the characteristics of a successful PR strategy is fundamental to a successful practitioner. PR utilises a variety of techniques and skills to create the compelling content and word of mount media coverage that makes this PR, after personal recommendation, the most effective marketing channel.

This module provides you with a thorough grounding in the techniques of sales and business development needed to achieve organisational objectives. Whilst the module focuses primarily on the sales process within business to business manufacturing and retail contexts, it also explores business to consumer contexts. Employment in sales related careers within the business to business sector represents 8% of total UK employment – one of the UK’s largest sectors of employment and is forecast to grow by 12% by 2020.

Culture is generally accepted by marketing researchers as one of the most important underlying determinants of consumer behaviour. Geert Hofstede has stated that if there is one aspect of business that is culture-dependent, it is consumer behaviour. Considering that marketing is about consumers to begin with, it is crucial for marketers to understand and predict the behaviour of consumers in all markets they serve. As businesses expand into new national and international markets, dealing with differences in cultural values amongst consumers can be quite challenging, which in turn has implications on the development of viable marketing strategies.

As a level 6 module, Digital Enterprise contributes to the course philosophy by providing you with the opportunity to apply all of the skills developed to date to a digital enterprise of your making. This will enable you to compose and construct a series of relevant materials to effectively communicate your ideas and apply your professional skills to develop digital artefacts that can be potentially monetised.

The aim of this module is to provide insight into the methodological foundations of business research, which will enable you to conduct a substantial piece of disciplinary research. 

The aim of this module is to provide a framework for you to undertake a significant piece of disciplinary-relevant accounting, business or management research. It is founded upon Birmingham City Business School’s teaching and learning philosophy which integrates theory and practice, in this case research practice. A Business Research Project presents a short academic piece of work based, delivered in a “letters” journal article format, which is relevant to your degree programme.  

*Students can choose the project module if Business Research Methodology and Practice is studied