BU3510 Marketing Management
(10 ECTS credits)
Module Content/Outline:
This module concerns the intersection of marketing and consumer behaviour – the products and services people buy, why they buy them, how they fit into their lives, how they dispose of them, and why this is of strategic interest to marketing. In order to be successful, an organisation must understand the lifestyles, personalities, values and contradictions inherent in its consumers. This module is designed to give a practical and theoretical primer to these issues, addressing important work on consumer memory, learning and decision-making, sustainable consumption, brand communities and children’s consumption. The second term of this module focuses on the completion and presentation of viable marketing plan by students encompassing the main elements of matching marketing objectives to marketing strategies and driving business growth.
Lecturer(s):
Professor Norah Campbell and Profesor Mairead Brady
Learning Outcomes:
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
- Explain the basic psychological and psychoanalytical processes that make the consumer a perceptive, learning, decision-making individual
- Analyse and critically assess the strategic importance of consumer behaviour and the challenges it poses to marketing
- Plan practical, high-level consumer research of a quantitative or qualitative nature, and extrapolate these findings to organisational strategy
- Demonstrate the ability to complete a marketing plan for a company of their choice
- Apply the theoretical aspects of the core elements of marketing including segmentation, targeting positioning and the 7 elements of the marketing mix within a marketing planning framework
- Evaluate the merits and challenges of implementing marketing plans within contemporary business.
Lectures &Tutorials/Contact hours:
- One 2-hour lecture per week
- Tutorials at advised times
Essential Texts/Key Reading:
Core Reading:
Kotler, P, Keller, K., Brady, M., Goodman, M., and Hansen, T., (2012) Marketing Management (European Edition), 2nd Edition, Pearson, London
Michael R. Solomon (2007) Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having, and Being, Prentice Hall
Assessment
(I) Group Assignment = 30% - conducting consumer research and presentation of findings
(II) End of year examination (3 hours, 4 questions) = 70%
Dates for submission
To be advised
Penalties for late submission
Students unable to submit a term assignment must produce a medical certificate to the School of Business Studies office within three working days of the missed submission date. Submission deadlines are strict: a project submitted 24 hours after the submission time will be graded out of 80%, and out of 50% within a week of submission. Assignments will not be accepted after this seven-day period.
Examination
3 hr examination (4 questions) 70%