BA(Hons) Marketing (with Foundation Year)

Through thematic projects, this module will help you develop the academic, practical and professional foundations needed for undergraduate study in business and law. You'll work collaboratively and independently, using academic theory and professional practice to address relevant problems and societal issues. Indicative themes include a business simulation focused on organisational processes and teamwork, and a societal issue explored through values, research, debate and persuasive writing. Along the way, you'll strengthen your project management, digital, decision-making, presentation, feedback and self-management skills while exploring areas connected with your interests.

This module will support your professional and personal development by helping you evaluate your skills, set meaningful goals and monitor your progress. You'll explore self-management, reflective thinking and writing, wellbeing, resilience, social development and networking. Indicative themes include understanding yourself through skills audits, mindset and goal setting; working in teams through group roles, dynamics, motivation and feedback; and considering your wider context through personal mission, vision, values and future plans. Reflective practice will help you learn from experience, take responsibility for your development and prepare for collaborative project work.

This module will introduce you to the financial information used in marketing and wider business decision-making. You'll explore basic accounting, finance and financial reporting, including why information is produced and how different users rely on it. Topics will include external reporting principles, regulation and responsibility, financial position, performance and cash flows. You'll learn how to read, interpret and evaluate financial statements, consider sources of finance and apply introductory management accounting concepts. This will help you use evidence to address real-world marketing and business problems.

This module will build your foundational understanding of economic principles in relation to marketing and its influence within a changing global environment. You'll explore supply and demand, price elasticity, price discrimination, consumer and producer theory, external trends and contemporary marketing issues. Using real-world examples, you'll learn to apply simple economic concepts, interpret graphical and tabular business data, and engage with debates in the media and academia. You'll also develop skills in evaluating credible marketing information, teamwork, communication, presentation and time management.

This module will introduce key marketing concepts, theories and models while supporting your early professional development. You'll explore definitions and the evolution of marketing, its impact on society, ethical and sustainable approaches, consumer behaviour and market research. The module will cover the strategic marketing planning process, environmental analysis, strategy, segmentation and targeting, the extended marketing mix, branding, communications, customer experience and relationship management. Reflective practice will help you evaluate your professional skills, set development goals and strengthen self-management, collaboration, wellbeing, resilience and networking.

This module will develop the entrepreneurial and data-analysis skills needed to make evidence-based decisions in marketing and events. You'll learn how to find data, assess its credibility, choose suitable analytical tools and present findings for decision-making. Using business and statistical techniques, you'll manipulate and evaluate numerical information, analyse business scenarios and consider models that support managerial choices. Practical, collaborative work with real-world data and a digital simulation will help you understand how organisational goals can be pursued through informed, data-driven decisions.

This module will introduce the role of management and the foundations of organisational behaviour. Through active, practice-based learning, you'll explore how organisations work and what it means to manage people and be managed. Key topics will include leadership, motivation, organisational culture, emotion, teams, power and politics. You'll learn to apply theories to real organisational examples and consider issues critically from both management and employee perspectives, building a foundation for deeper study and future practice in managing people.

In this module, you'll explore the concepts, theories and models that explain consumer behaviour. You'll examine decision-making and involvement, new and repeat purchasing, and the influence of motivation, risk, learning, memory, perception, attitudes and personality. Social factors will include groups, families, culture, identity and symbolic consumption. The module will also consider consumer misbehaviour and sustainable consumption. By applying these ideas to market contexts, you'll learn how consumer insight can inform marketing strategies, plans and decisions.

This module will introduce essential marketing communications concepts, theories and models through contemporary online and offline examples. You'll explore the role of communications across the customer journey and learn how brands use different tools and channels to reach audiences. Applying these principles, you'll develop innovative campaign ideas and build a working knowledge of communications practice. You'll also strengthen your creativity, research, written and verbal communication skills, while learning how to identify and use credible evidence from academic and industry sources.

In this module, you'll develop professional skills through applied market research. You'll learn how to identify a marketing problem, define research objectives and select appropriate methods for gathering and analysing evidence. The module will help you explore customer, market and organisational information, evaluate its quality and turn findings into practical insight. Through a small-scale project, you'll strengthen your research planning, collaboration, self-management and communication. Reflection will support your professional development and help you present recommendations in a form suited to the intended audience.

This module will connect strategy, innovation and operations in a marketing context. You'll explore strategy levels, environmental analysis, the strategy process, the resource-based view and Porter's generic strategies. Innovation topics may include disruptive innovation, blue-ocean thinking, business-model innovation and continuous improvement. Service operations and supply-chain concepts will cover capacity and demand, manufacturing and service design, digitalisation, performance, failure and recovery, and sustainability. By bringing these areas together, you'll learn to analyse organisational choices and recommend coherent approaches to marketing performance and change.

In this module, you'll explore the people-management knowledge needed in marketing roles. You'll examine the employment relationship and the contribution of human resource management to organisational performance. Topics may include resourcing, employee performance, reward, development, equality and diversity, employee relations, workplace conflict and wellbeing. Marketing-focused contexts will help you consider how people practices influence collaboration, creativity and delivery. You'll learn to evaluate management approaches and make informed decisions that support employees, teams and wider organisational objectives.

This module will examine socially responsible marketing practice and the wider effects of marketing decisions on people, communities and the environment. You'll explore ethical issues, stakeholder expectations and the responsibilities organisations face when creating, communicating and delivering value. Topics may include sustainability, inclusion, consumer wellbeing and responsible use of data and communications. Through critical analysis of marketing situations, you'll learn how to identify potential impacts, evaluate competing interests and propose approaches that balance organisational objectives with responsible and transparent practice.

In this module, you'll develop professional skills by exploring the process of creating new products. You'll investigate customer or market needs, generate and refine ideas, and consider how concepts can be evaluated and developed into viable proposals. Relevant theory and practical tools will help you assess value, feasibility and potential implementation. Through collaborative project work, you'll strengthen creativity, research, planning and communication skills while learning how different functional perspectives contribute to product development and reflecting on your own professional contribution.