BSc (Hons) Marketing

This module will introduce you to key theories, insights and methods within Organisational Studies. In particular, it will critically examine different organisational forms, processes and contexts.

The module places an important emphasis on the meaning and content of organisational strategies. It will help you develop the tools you need to analyse an organisation’s positioning within the marketplace, and think/plan strategically in order to make it more competitive.

You'll gain an understanding of strategic management and appreciate the interrelated dynamics of both strategic and organisational research and practice.

This module will give you an introduction to marketing and help you understand the role of marketing within organisations and within society, and it aims at providing principles of marketing management.

The first part of the module focuses on what marketing is and its role within society. You'll be introduced to the definition of marketing, the history of marketing practice and thought, the role of marketing within organizations, the value of marketing within organisations and society, and the role of marketing in constructing the consumer society.  These will be enriched by providing different perspectives of marketing from different schools of thought: the traditional school of thought (an economic perspective of marketing) and the critical/interpretivist school of thought ( psychological, sociological and cultural perspectives of marketing).

In the second part of the module, you'll be introduced to foundational topics in marketing management. In the last five weeks, students will be exposed to topics such as the 4Ps of marketing, the global marketing environment, SWOT Analysis, PESTEL analysis, introduction to marketing planning, marketing research and the marketing information system, understanding consumers (C2C) and buyer behaviour. Finally, you'll be introduced to marketing ethics and sustainable marketing.

This module will introduce you to the key concepts and topics of microeconomics and macroeconomics.

The first part of the module will focus on microeconomics. Specifically, the module will analyse how markets work and what determines the prices and quantities of goods traded in the market. You'll discuss how consumers and firms behave in the market and concepts such as market structure, firm performance, strategic rivalry, and growth strategies will be introduced.

The second part of the module will introduce you to the core of macroeconomic topics. You'll explore concepts such as national income accounting, unemployment; inflation; international trade.

The explanation of microeconomic and macroeconomic topics will be supported by insights from recent history, key economic thinkers, and real-world examples.

In this module, subtitled ‘Everything is a Text’, you will consider the value of different types of texts and ways of imparting knowledge and ideas. You will reflect upon your identities as learners and future professionals in the world, considering a range of contexts: the academic/educational context, personal settings and the eco-systems that you live and work in. These reflections will be used to inform your practices as academic learners.

You will explore academic literacies, different ways of knowing and consider what counts as ‘legitimate’ knowledge. You will engage with critical thinking, making arguments and establishing criteria to defend intellectual positions and these skills will be acknowledged as social practices that produce and reinforce meaning and frameworks of understanding and knowledge.

Furthermore, you will engage with a wide range of academic and non-academic material, individuals and environments in order to contribute to discussions regarding attitudes and assumptions about ideas and experience, including within labour markets, cultural hegemonies, distributions of power and the relationship between the individual and society. In this way, the social interactions, relationships and contexts that underpin academic literacies in higher education will be made explicit.

You will discuss these ideas with students and tutors from the different subjects at Goldsmiths, and learn to be part of the wider university community. You will also be able to submit an assignment which could be a written, graphically designed, audio, video, or negotiated project. You will get to choose the assessment that best shows what you can do.

This module, subtitled ‘Researching Our World & Lives’, builds on the conceptual and contextual foundations of Identity, Agency and Environment 1.

You will learn how to conduct academic research and will be offered the opportunity to broaden and deepen your understanding of the relationship between your own interests, skills, values, career and non-career aspirations, the concepts, theories and contexts of your discipline, and the world.

You will reflect upon your identities as researchers, and learn how the research skills you’ve acquired both within your studies and the world more generally can be related to problem-solving in a wide range of contexts. You will consider your agency as researchers, what you can and cannot research, the ethical issues involved, and think reflexively about your position as a researcher in a range of environments and eco-systems.

Formal conventions of academic research and writing will be integrated into your individualised contexts and goals, enabling the expression of ideas and perspectives that may challenge the status quo. The module will encourage creativity, activism, decision-making and the formation of judgements leading to action-planning in relation to research topics and types of evidence, and professional planning.

You will learn to critique your own subject disciplines. Interdisciplinary sharing of knowledge will ensure that assessment and learning practices provide you with the opportunity to develop new lines of thinking and knowing, within formative collaborative learning and research communities.

This module covers the core concepts of both finance and accounting. It will introduce students to the important financial and managerial accounting principles that are necessary when running any type of organisation- whether it is manufacturing, merchandising, service, non-profit, or government. It will give students an understanding of how management accounting information is used by managers in their planning and control activities and, is designed to prepare graduates for a variety of professional managerial roles in both the public and private sectors. It covers topics such as financial accounting and reporting, foundation and tools for management accounting, strategy development and using costs in decision making, costing systems and activity-based costing, managing customers, processes and life cycle costs, and using budgets for planning, coordination and control. In the financial component of the module, students will look at the three traditional accounting statements, balance sheet, income statement, and cash flow statement. The module has two distinct elements: managerial finance with a focus on understanding financial statements, and management accounting with an emphasis on costing, budget and control. The lectures in the module will be supplemented by several assignments designed to develop and enhance practical skills.

This module aims at providing a good understanding of core marketing management principles applied in consumers, industrial services and organisation both from a theoretical and a practical standpoint. It seeks to explain the value of a marketing focus to both customer and supplier, and analyses what marketing can do and does contribute to both individual and organisational users.

This module will cover all the topics needed for marketing management and planning. The module will start analysing strategic tools for marketing strategy definition such as segmentation, targeting and positioning. It will then analyse the marketing process through a review of the marketing mix principles i.e. the 4Ps (Product, Place, Promotion, and Price). It will then explore in detail each one of these tactics. Specifically, students will learn about the strategic role of the product within marketing strategy looking at product management practices and the product innovation process. Students will then analyse the elements of the augmented product model with a focus on the role of branding within marketing management and they will be exposed on how to build brand equity within the company. Finally, students will look into differences between the definition of product and services, and they will be introduced to service marketing practices.

The module will then move to analyse other tactics of the marketing mix. Specifically, students will look into pricing strategies as tools for maximising the profitability of the company and as a promotional tool for reaching consumers. The module will then focus on the Promotion tactics. Students will analyse the topic of Integrated Marketing Communications in order to understand how the different promotional practices used by the company do not happen in isolation, but they are the result of an integrated strategies in order to reach the objectives of the company. The module will then investigate the elements of Integrated Marketing Communication (or Marketing Communication Mix) with a particular focus on advertising, digital advertising and PR (from a management perspective). Furthermore, the module will look at the relationship between sales promotion and sales management, with a particular focus on how Integrated Marketing Communications influence the sales of the company.

Finally, the module will investigate the Place tactics looking into distribution strategies. This section will explore both on B2B and B2C distribution tactics. However, the focus will be mostly on retailing practices within the company. The theories presented so far will be complemented with real life examples and exercises. Students will also be exposed to case studies analysis to apply the theory into practice.

This module aims to allow you to explain economic issues through the application of microeconomic and macroeconomic theories, and wherever possible will focus on current public debates and controversies.  

Specifically, the topics explored in this module aim to raise your understanding of the complexity of the economic environment in which individuals, financial institutions, firms and governments operate 

We will analyse some specific case studies in order to connect economic theories to contemporary social and business life. The case studies you examine will relate to a number of important economic and social issues such as business regulation, strategic decision-making by firms and other agents, informational problems and international trade.

This lecture course will introduce you to the fundamentals of consumer psychology and behavioural economics.

It will give you an understanding of the fundamental decision making processes and the factors that influence these processes. It covers topics such as prospect theory and classical economics, brain structures and information processing, heuristics and rules of thumb, and framing and influencing techniques.

It also discloses the various strategies used by marketers to differentiate their products, leverage brands, set strategic prices, reduce the effectiveness of consumer search, and it compares the effectiveness of each.

The course covers topics such as the types and effectiveness of pricing strategies, individual differences in uptake of pricing strategies, value perceptions and subconscious influences (priming), and ethical and legal issues around influencing consumer choice.

The lectures in this course will be supplemented by several assignments designed to develop and enhance practical skills, and further develop familiarity with consumer psychological methods and theories.

This module will provide students with the theories, principles and practice of marketing communications. Students will be exposed to a variety of theories and real life case to learn. They will learn to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the marketing communication campaigns, and how to create their own marketing communications plan. The module covers two areas of study: marketing communications strategy, and the analysis of effective communication.

The first area concerns the marketing communication process and all the different channels and practices used by companies in order to reach the customer. Students will explore integrated marketing communication strategies, learn about the marketing communication mix, study the media planning process, and reflect on how communications relate to the overall marketing strategy of the company. Students will also look into the measures that companies should use in order to evaluate the performance of their communications mix.

The second area will then deepen their knowledge of the different elements of the marketing communications mix, surveying topics such as PR, direct marketing, sales promotion, events management, trade fairs and guerrilla marketing—before focusing on advertising. Students will gain insight on different types of advertising and their impact in consumer behavior, as well as develop tools for the analysis of their effectiveness.

The third section will look into marketing communications planning and evaluation. In this section, you will look specifically into the media planning process and how it relates to the overall marketing strategy of the company.

Then you will look into the measures that companies should use in order to evaluate the performance of their marketing communications strategy. You will also be exposed to an overview of how the marketing communications industry works, and the major players in the marketing communications chain.

This module will help students to develop a career plan and prepare for their employment search. It will cover practical aspects such as writing a CV, a cover letter and application forms and developing an internet presence through websites such as Linkedin. It will give students the tools to prepare for interviews, including case interviews, assessment centres, and psychometric tests. It will cover the development of soft skills such as leadership and networking skills as well as the development of commercial awareness through business case studies. The students will also be introduced to current theories of career development and employability.

The management of brand is a crucial component of marketing management and it is a strategic decision for the success of a company. Brands are strategic assets, and as such a marketing manager should acquire the implicit and explicit skills that can help him/her in maximise the profitability of a brand. This module aims at providing a holistic approach to brand management both based on theory and practice. The module will be divided into 5 sections according to different brand approaches within marketing literature.

In the first section, students will be introduced to brand management, the strategic role of brand within the company, the role of brand within organisational strategy, marketing strategy and communication strategy. They will also explore how to manage multiple brands adopting a brand portfolio perspective. In this section they will also be introduce to three different brand strategies to be unpacked in the following section: mindshare, emotional and cultural branding.

In the second section, the module will look into mindshare branding more in detail. This section will focus on how to build customer-based brand equity, and it will explore concepts such as brand image, brand identity, brand awareness, brand value etc. This section will then investigate how all these elements together help in building customer based brand equity and how these decisions can be translated into marketing strategies.

In the third section, the module will look to emotional branding as a complementary strategy to brand management. Specifically, it will look how consumer can build relationships with brand, and it will look at constructs such as brand personality, brand relationship and brand communities. These strategies will be linked then to the second section analysing how emotional branding could contribute to the creation of brand equity and brand value.

In the fourth section, students will look at cultural branding strategies. Specifically, they will analyse the role of branding within culture and society, and how brands become icons within the consumer society. In these section, students will also be exposed to contemporary issues to branding such as how to build a global brand, or how branding works within social media.

In the fifth section, students will learn how to evaluate brand strategies. They will be exposed to different techniques of brand evaluation and brand audit that will help them to assess the success of brand strategies and how to feedback these results into their strategy.

All these concepts will be approached both from a theoretical and practical standpoint. Case studies and examples will be used to show how these theories work in practice.

Lots of students join Goldsmiths because they want to make a difference in society, to bring about positive change and develop skills and experiences which will allow them to access exciting careers. Goldsmiths’ Social Change module will allow you to do work on group projects with students from other departments to bring about change. You’ll be introduced to the UN’s Sustainable Development goals and core project management theories and practices allow you to work across a number of weeks towards a final Festival of Ideas where you’ll report work back to the academic and local community.

This module will provide you with the tools you need to conduct both qualitative and quantitative market research and to translate this research into consumer insight.

After reviewing well known data collection methods and distributions, the module will be divided into three sections. The focus of the first section is quantitative data analysis. Specifically, the module will look into inferential statistics such as hypothesis testing, correlations, T-Test, ANOVA, regression, factor analysis, and cluster analysis. You will learn how to use SPSS to conduct inferential statistics.

In the second part, you will learn qualitative data analyses. Specifically, you will learn different coding techniques used in the market research industry, and how to use qualitative data to extrapolate broader insights into your markets.

Finally, you will learn how to translate both qualitative and quantitative market research outputs into consumer insights. The overall aim is to enable you to evaluate different types of market research, and be able to understand and use research output for solving marketing problems such as segmentation, targeting, positioning, marketing strategy and consumer behaviour.

The objective of this module is to equip students with some of the knowledge and tools to analyse the internal and external business environment and devise marketing strategies that help to distinguish businesses from their key competitors whilst adding value to the product/service offering. The module will be divided into two section: one more theoretical and one more practice. The module will start defining the role of marketing strategy within the business strategy and the corporate strategy of the company. It will also help to differentiate the three levels, and it will highlight the relationships between these three levels of strategy. The module will then look into the process of creation of a marketing plan as a core tool for the definition of the strategy. The marketing planning process will start from understanding the market opportunities of the company, through the identification of attractive market segments, to the differentiation and brand positioning. The module will then move on the formulation of marketing strategies such as marketing strategies for new market entries, growth markets strategies, mature and declining markets strategies. Finally, students will learn how to implement and control strategy, and to measure effectively the performance of a specific strategy. In the second section, students will be required to complete a business simulation. In order to show a practical understanding of the concepts of the first part, students will be divided into teams and will be asked to complete in a simulation related to marketing strategy (i.e. Markstrat). This simulation will allow students to draw a parallel between marketing strategy and marketing tactics (4Ps). This will also allow them to apply the knowledge about other elements of marketing management that they have been studying in other modules.

This module looks at consumers from a social, cultural, and anthropological point of view. The assumption is that brands are cultural icons and as such they have meanings that go beyond their economic value. As such, this module will look at products, services, branding, retailing, and advertising from sociological, anthropological and cultural perspectives.

Your existing understanding of marketing will be challenged, and you will develop a critical view on contemporary marketing issues. You will also be challenged to explore more complex topics in consumer research and to develop a critical perspective on the taught topics.

Digital Marketing (DM) and Social Media Marketing (SMM) are two areas of marketing that are growing, and where there is big potential of future employment of graduates. While advertising spending on traditional media has recently declined, firms spend increasing amounts for online communication and public relations. This module will provide students with the theories, principles and practice of digital marketing and social media. Conceptually this module is divided into 3 sections: digital marketing and social media theories, digital marketing communications mix, and social media practice.

Since DM and SMM are strongly characterised by practice and by the latest trends, some advanced theories within marketing management and consumer behaviour will be introduced and applied to social marketing and social media in this section. For example, students will be introduced to theories of content marketing, consumer engagement, viral marketing, community marketing and brand public. This section will also touch upon the role of branding within digital environment, and the relationship between branding and culture. These theories will be adjusted according to the latest research to keep the module up-to-date with trends.

The second section will specifically look at the digital marketing communications mix (DigMarcom Mix), and the relationship between the DigMarCom Mix and the whole marketing strategy. Student will be exposed to how to build the DigMarCom strategy, and to how to evaluate the impact of these strategies through several metrics. Student will then focus on some digital marketing tactics such as viral marketing, mobile marketing, email marketing, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), Pay Per Click (PPC), etc.

In the third section, the module will specifically focus on Social Media showing the latest trends in research and practice in these area. For example, students will look into web-psychology and viral content for sharing website (i.e. Youtube), the role of microblogging (i.e. Twitter) for launching and developing new products, and the role of social networks (i.e. Facebook) for emotional contagion. These topics will be updated according to the latest research in the field as well. This section will also discuss how you can combine different social media (i.e. Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Youtube, and Instagram) for reaching strategic objectives both. Finally, this section will explore the topic of social listening, and how this practice is important for the development of key strategic objectives in terms of positioning and branding.

Students will also be challenged to use different social media, and digital marketing tools throughout the module in order to combine theory with practice.

This module will introduce you to the basics of programming languages that are in widespread use in marketing applications. You'll gain the knowledge and vocabulary needed to understand the technologies underpinning digital marketing practices and collaborate with developers and IT specialists. You'll have hands-on experience with completing simple but common tasks in the service of marketing practice, from simple file manipulations to marketing-oriented data analysis. Finally, you'll be equipped with the knowledge needed to continue your skill development beyond the course. 

Throughout the sessions, you'll develop an appreciation for the principles of coding, including logic, the distinctiveness of various programming languages, the various platforms and components involved in its applications, and best principles. 

The sessions will combine learning to perform small tasks in a specific language (e.g., Python, R). The specific tasks will see you extract and clean data, analyse data, and visualise data. This module will also discuss ethical principles for data mining.

This module gives you the opportunity to investigate the role of innovation and new product/service development strategies (NPD/NSD) within the marketing process. You'll learn the importance of product management and new products within the company, present a practical approach to product and innovation management and investigate the principles of new product development. 

You'll explore the basic concepts and theories, learn to differentiate between concepts such as “invention” and “innovation”, encounter different types of innovations, and learn about the origins of modern innovation scholarship grounded in classic economic thought such as Schumpeter’s notion of “creative destruction” and theories of growth and prosperity.

You'll also consider theories and models on new product development and new service development. Creative techniques such as “design thinking” will be touched upon to illustrate the NPD/NSD process ranging from initial ideation to mass-market product/service launch, and the monitoring and incremental improvement of products and services within a product/service portfolio. You'll learn how innovation and NPD/NSD processes interlink with organisational functions such as knowledge management, strategic partnerships and alliances.

You'll benefit from real-world examples and case studies to underpin your learning.