Marketing BA (Hons) (with Foundation Year)
UCAS Code: N501|Duration: 4 years|Full Time|Hope Park|UCAS Campus Code: L46Accredited|Work placement opportunities|International students can apply|Study Abroad opportunities
About the course
Marketing is one of the most challenging, fast-moving and exciting disciplines in the world of business. Our Marketing degree has a theoretical focus that is combined with practical examples of how companies apply the theory on a day-to-day basis, meaning that what you learn is not only academically sound but also rooted in the realities of today’s dynamic marketplace.
During your degree, you will be provided with the key skills and knowledge that will enable you to understand the marketing context, marketing research and the discipline’s central role to business success, while allowing you to reflect on the moral and ethical implications of marketing behaviour. The ever advancing fields of Social Media and Digital Marketing run through the Marketing curriculum as central themes and allow you to reflect on the many challenges and opportunities that these technological and cultural changes provide. We believe your ability to gain meaningful employment after you graduate is really important, so there is a strong focus on helping you to develop your employability skills.
The degree is accredited by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) under their CIM Accredited Degree programme. This means that our graduates will receive significant exemptions from the institute’s professional membership examinations. It has been designed so that you learn from research-active staff while at the same time being mentored and given masterclasses by industry leaders. Marketing focuses on a wide range of organisations, from SMEs to global multinational organisations and across all sectors. Studying such a comprehensive view of the marketing world prepares you for a career in organisations of any type and size.
Course structure
Teaching on this degree is structured into lectures, where all students are taught together, and smaller groups of seminars and tutorials. The lectures will provide you with a general framework in Marketing, whilst the seminar activities and discussions, help your understanding and application of the subject. In tutorial sessions you will not only develop your understanding of Marketing further, but at times, work together in student-led activities. Seminars and tutorials are also designed to enhance your employability skills.
If you study Marketing as a Single Honours degree, in your first year of study there are approximately 12 teaching hours each week, which reduces to approximately 10 teaching hours in your second and third years. If you study Marketing as a Combined Honours degree, in your first year of study there are approximately 6 teaching hours each week, which reduces to 5 teaching hours in your second and third years. On top of teaching hours, you are also expected to spend approximately 15 hours studying independently each week. This could include additional research and reading, attendance at guest lectures and industry related events, preparation or completion of set tasks for taught sessions, revision for exams, work for your assessments and participation in group work.
Assessment and feedback
You will have a number of assessments throughout your studies, including multiple choice exams, group presentations and reports, individual academic reports, and written exams. The assessments have been designed to develop your knowledge and skills in multiple ways and provide experience of gaining key skills needed in the competitive world of business. Written feedback will be given to you within four working weeks of the deadline for submission of coursework.
If you would like feedback on your written exams, you can request this from your tutors once exam results have been released. You are also encouraged to make an appointment to personally discuss your feedback with your tutor.
Curriculum overview
Please note topics marked with a * are studied by Single Honours students only.
Foundation Year
The Foundation Year is a great opportunity if you have the ability and enthusiasm to study for a degree, but do not yet have the qualifications required to enter directly onto our degree programmes. A significant part of the Foundation Year focuses upon core skills such as academic writing at HE level, becoming an independent learner, structuring academic work, critical thinking, time management and note taking.
Successful completion of the Foundation Year will enable you to progress into the first year (Level C) of your chosen honours degree. Further details can be found here.
Year One
Introduction to Marketing
You will be introduced to the underlying principles of Marketing and the relationship between Marketing and the global business context. Study of this relationship can help to contextualise Marketing theory and practice and further help you understand the dynamics of contemporary marketing management, as you explore concepts such as the marketing mix, segmentation, targeting and positioning, and consumer behaviour.
You will also be introduced to the broader underlying principles of Business Management. You will study four component parts (4Cs) to understanding what a business is (the Company), how it interacts with its environment (the Context), how it serves its customers (the Customers) and how it manages its competition (the Competition). Additionally, in your first year, you will gain an appreciation of fundamental business structures and functions and the management challenges posed by the contemporary and ever complex business environment.
Topics typically studied in this year are:
- The Marketing Mix: (7 Ps: Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, Physical Evidence)
- Customer segmentation
- Introduction to Business Management Theory & Practice (Major and Single hons)
- Economics
- Analysing Business and Marketing environments
- Introduction to Organisational Behaviour
- Understanding Buyer Behaviour*
- Introduction to Quantitative Research Methods*
In order for you to gain a clear understanding of the applicability of the theoretical marketing knowledge from the very beginning of the academic year, industry speakers and up-to-date organisational applications of marketing will be part of the curriculum. This allows clear links between theory and practice to be made from the very start of your studies.
Year Two
Explorations in Marketing
Building on your first year, the curriculum in year two explores key issues and marketing concepts in greater depth, advancing your knowledge and understanding to an intermediate level. You will become adept at the use of a number of marketing tools such as the Marketing Plan, Ansoff’s Growth Matrix, The Boston Consultant Group Grid, as well as statistical tools such as SPSS.
On successful completion of this year, you will have developed a critical knowledge and understanding of marketing communications, stakeholder marketing, marketing information and research. In particular, you will have gained a critical understanding of what shapes consumers buying behaviour and how companies harness and exploit these forces to create and capture value from their customers.
Single Honours students will develop a deeper understanding of social media and critically examine the increasingly current area of social marketing and how marketing can be used to influence and change behaviour of both individuals and companies. The areas of retail and relationship marketing will also be investigated.
What you will study:
- Social Media and Social Marketing*
- Strategic and Operational Marketing
- Planning within the Marketing Context
- Factors influencing Consumer Behaviour
- Marketing Communications: Advertising; PR; Direct Marketing; Selling
- Marketing Research – Primary and Secondary Sources
- Quantitative, Qualitative and mixed Research Methods
- Evaluation of Marketing Success
- Preparation for Final Year Dissertation/Research Project
- Store Design, Layout and the use of colours, music and scent by retailers*
- Digital Marketing and the “Fluid Web”*
- Attack and Defence Strategies of Market Leaders and Challengers*
- Relationship Marketing *
- Sales Concepts and Strategies*
Year Three
Advanced Studies in Marketing
Building on previous years, the curriculum in the final year investigates key advances in the academic and professional marketing literature. You will deepen your knowledge and understanding of contemporary issues facing marketers today, as well as increase your knowledge of the leading edge theory and practice being developed for the future.
Examples include the move towards smart living and smart cities, mobile marketing, Big data, developments in conceptualisation of brands, usage and social media influence, and neuro-marketing. Single Honours students also consider how societal and business innovations such as 3D imaging and drone technology will impact on marketing and communications. In order to apply knowledge and skills developed to date on the degree and to allow you to explore an area of marketing that is of particular interest to you, a marketing research project is undertaken. This requires you to become an active researcher, applying the marketing research theory covered in the second year and exploring in detail a specific area of marketing.
What you will study:
- Advanced Marketing Research and employing Data-led Decision-Making
- Delivering Customer Value & Achieving and Exceeding Expectations
- New Product and Technology Development and Brand Management
- Managing Sales and Marketing Teams
- Neuro-Marketing
- Final Year Dissertation/Research Project
- Strategic Marketing and Planning*
- Social Media Analytics and the Mobile Revolution*
- Experiential and Sensorial Marketing*
- Contemporary Product and Technology Development and Brand Management*
- Marketing DNA*
Entry requirements
There may be some flexibility for mature students offering non-tariff qualifications and students meeting particular widening participation criteria.
Careers
Past graduates of our Marketing degree have gone on to have careers such as Marketing and Communications Coordinator, Marketing Assistant, Marketing Manager, Assistant Commercial Product Manager, and Advice Centre Manager.
The Marketing degree has been designed so progression can be made to Masters or Doctoral studies. Graduates who successfully gain a degree can apply to become full members of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) or the Marketing Research Society.
A number of other professional bodies will also accept holders of a first degree that includes Marketing on to their qualifications at an advanced level, including the Chartered Management Institute’s Diploma in Management Consultancy and the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators’ (ICSA) Postgraduate Certificate in Charity Management.
Enhancement opportunities
Work Placement Opportunities
The Marketing team works very closely with the University’s Business Gateway to source robust and exciting student placement opportunities, along with a wide range of company visits and other events where you come face-to-face with professional practitioners.
Hope Solutions
Since 2016, the Marketing team has facilitated a wide range of student-led live marketing consultancies. A number of local companies have benefited from the support of small groups of Business School students who have addressed real business issues and helped the companies to improve performance. Projects have included social media campaigns, communications enhancements and competitor audits.
SALA
The Service and Leadership Award (SALA) is offered as an extra-curricular programme involving service-based experiences, development of leadership potential and equipping you for a career in a rapidly changing world. It enhances your degree, it is something which is complimentary but different and which has a distinct ‘value-added’ component. Find out more on our Service and Leadership Award page.
Study Abroad
As part of your degree, you can choose to spend either a semester or a full year of study at one of our partner universities as part of our Study Abroad programme. Find out more on our Study Abroad page.
Tuition fees
The tuition fees for the 2023/24 academic year are £9,250 for full-time undergraduate courses.
If you are a student from the Isle of Man or the Channel Islands, your tuition fees will also be £9,250.
The University reserves the right to increase Home and EU Undergraduate and PGCE tuition fees in line with any inflationary or other increase authorised by the Secretary of State for future years of study.
Additional costs
On top of tuition fees, you also need to consider the cost of core textbooks, which we estimate to be around £100.
You will also need to consider the cost of your accommodation each year whilst you study at university. Visit our accommodation pages for further details about our Halls of Residence.
Scholarships
We have a range of scholarships to help with the cost of your studies. Visit our scholarships page to find out more.
International tuition fees
The International Tuition fees for 2023/24 are £12,500.
Visit our International fees page for more information.
Course combinations
This course is also available with Foundation Year as a Combined Honours degree with the following subjects: