BUU22520 Principles of Marketing 2025/26

(5 ECTS)

Lecturer:

Radu Dimitriu

E-mail: radu.dimitriu@tcd.ie 
Office Hours: TBC

Pre-Requisites: 
BUU11570 Enacting Sustainable Development &
BUU11580 Fundamentals of Management and Organisation

Available to Exchange students

Module Description

The aim of this module is to equip students with an understanding of 1) the concept and role of marketing (what is marketing? what is its core purpose?), and 2) an understanding of several important strategic marketing decisions and activities. These include understanding consumer/customer behaviour, the importance of customer segmentation and targeting, the issue of customer value, the core principles of branding and of brand strategy, doing marketing successfully on social media, leveraging sensorial marketing, addressing consumer and brand communities, understanding the principles of developing successful new products and services, and the leveraging pricing as a critical marketing and strategy tool.

Teaching and Learning Approach

This module will be delivered via a ‘hybrid’ teaching and learning approach that will entail both synchronous (face-to-face lectures and tutorials) and asynchronous (reading material and tasks which you must engage with prior to the f2f sessions).

The effective delivery of this module is entirely dependent upon the three pillars of student preparation, attendance and active participation.

Preparation: completing all required pre-requisite reading and tasks, engaging with any recorded lecture content in advance of the weekly f2f lectures and tutorials, and being prepared and willing to actively participate.

Attendance: your presence in lectures and tutorials is necessary for your success in this module (and is the is the best possible preparation for the module assessment). Any absence may impact your engagement with the content and ideas shared in class, so I encourage you to remember this.

Participation: contributing to lecture/tutorial discussions (and activities) e.g. raising your hand, participating in polls, offering contributory comments and point of view, asking/posing questions, and displaying sufficient effort and engagement. We are a very large class, but that does not mean that we will not endeavour to have interactive sessions as much as possible.

In addition, we will work on the basis of due respect for both classmates and the module lecturer. This means:

• Arriving for class/returning from breaks on time.
• Being courteous to others and open to their views and opinions.
• Not disrupting those who are speaking, either the module leader or fellow students- actively listening to each other.
• Electronic devices are welcome (and encouraged) in class, if being used to support learning and participation in the module. Please be mindful that they do not serve as a distraction to you or those around you.
• Taking personal responsibility for your own learning outcomes on this module.

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module, students should be able to:

1. Demonstrate a knowledge of the key tenets of the marketing discipline.
2. Explain the fundamental concepts, frameworks and approaches used for marketing decision making and practice.
3. Understand the core theoretical underpinnings of how consumers behave and how marketing attempts to influence consumer decision making.
4. Consider and discuss some of the key challenges, opportunities and emerging trends in marketing theory and practice.
5. Discern the extent to which marketing theories, principles and tools can be
   applied in an environment becoming more and more digitalized.
   
   

Relation to Degree

The BUU22520 Introduction to principles of marketing module is an essential component of any business students’ learning experience, as marketing is a fundamental element of business that influences strategic decision making within all organizational types. This module provides students with the ability to understand fundamental concepts of business such as markets, customers, perceived value, and communications.

Workload

Required Reading

Required reading for this module is comprised of a core reading list of academic journal articles and of articles from practitioner-oriented journals and web sources, as well as videos and other interactive sources. The reading for each session will be indicated in good time before the start of the respective session. Each reading has been selected to facilitate learning and to encourage engagement with the core concepts covered in the module. Students must read/engage with the assigned material in advance of each session. You will be expected to answer questions, put forward your opinion on the content of these readings during the live session discussions and tutorials. Core readings ( & other assigned content) are examinable material.

Course Communication

All module announcements/communications will be made via the BUU2250 Blackboard (BB) page. You must be enrolled as a student on the module to access the BB page, and to receive all email announcements. Access to the BB page will only be granted to students registered on this module. If you do not have access to the module BB page, but are registered on this module, please email the Undergraduate team at Undergraduate.Business@tcd.ie

Please note that all course related email communication must be sent from your official TCD email address. Emails sent from other addresses will not be attended to.

Assessment

Reassessment: Students who do not obtain an overall pass mark for this module (40), will have the opportunity to be reassessed by a supplemental assessment (weighted at 100% )

Biographical Note

Radu Dimitriu is Associate Professor in Marketing at Trinity College Dublin, who specializes in consumer behaviour and psychology. In recent years, his research has focused on how consumer respond to technology, including AI-enabled technologies such as chatbots and autonomous products, or to sensory-enabling technologies in VR (virtual reality). Other areas of interest are branding, social media marketing, and CSR and consumer prosocial behaviour. His has published in top-tier international journals including Psychology & Marketing, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, European Journal of Marketing, Technological Forecasting & Social Change, and Journal of Business Research. After Radu joined Trinity in 2018, he has held a number of leadership roles, including that MBA Director (Full Time MBA programme), during 2020-2023. He has been teaching on MBA, MSc, BSc and PhD programmes, on subjects including marketing strategy, principles of marketing, branding and experimental methods. Radu completed his PhD in marketing at the Norwegian School of Business BI. Prior to joining Trinity, he worked with Cranfield School of Management in the UK.
His industry experience includes positions in consulting and business analytics. He
speaks several languages including English, Spanish, French, Norwegian, Portuguese
and his mother tongue, Romanian.