Marketing & Strategy – (M.Sc.)

Contents

Our 12-month study programme runs from September each year. Please note that it does not adhere to the University's term dates. It starts with an intensive induction week followed by:

• Six core modules
• Three elective modules
• A project and dissertation.

CORE MODULES:

In order to gain expertise in the core elements in marketing and strategy, you will be required to study five core modules. These are all assessed, by a mix of examinations and coursework.

1. Issues in Marketing: Theory & practice:

This module will give you a thorough grounding in the core theories surrounding marketing.

Looking at key marketing approaches, you will explore contrasting and competing schools of thought. You will also learn to distinguish between managerial, economic, and postmodern models of practice and implementation.

Topics covered include:

• Evolution of marketing thought
• Contemporary issues facing marketing today
• Current trends in society, technology, and markets
• Globalisation and the anti-globalisation movement
• Environmental analysis and turbulence
• Developments in market segmentation
• Issues in innovation and new product development
• Developments in marketing communications
• Managing marketing channels
• Key account management
• Strategic market planning.

By the end of this module you will have:

• A thorough knowledge of the main theories of marketing
• Recognised the strengths and weaknesses of current theory in marketing
• Understood the interactions between external environments and managerial thinking and acting
• Understand key issues in epistemology and ontological assumptions in marketing
• Used case studies to propose potential solutions to marketing problems
• Understood the processes of marketing decision making
• Developed an awareness of conducting research into marketing problem
• Appreciated analytical frameworks and their application.

There is the opportunity to explore further the issues raised in this module in the elective module Strategic Brand Management.

2. Research Methods for Marketing & Strategy:

This module will develop your understanding of the role of research in solving marketing and strategy related problems.

Your focus will be both on the epistemological foundations and design of a research project as well as on the preparation for and execution of valid and reliable business research. This training in research methods will enable you to research a relevant academic or business problem from which to write your dissertation.

Topics covered include:

• Epistemological and philosophical foundations
• Constructing a research problem
• Choosing a research approach
• Research design
• Sampling & data collection
• Validity & reliability
• Analytical approaches
• Writing your dissertation.

By the end of this module you will have:

• Understood the basic philosophical approaches to business research, and their (dis)advantages
• Designed a research project with consideration of issues relating to sampling, data adequacy, validity, reliability, and analytical techniques
• Understood the role of concepts, and methods of linking concepts to data
• Confidence in being able to write your dissertation with appropriate consideration of terminology, argument development, and referencing
• Researched, synthesised, and applied research methods and tools to real and practical examples
• Identified and evaluated key factors affecting the design of a research project
• Communicated research findings using appropriate language/terminologies
• Improved your research presentation skills
• Recognised, analysed, and discussed the merits of various approaches to management research.

3. Economics of the Business Environment:

This module introduces you to the ways macroeconomic and market context is determined and how this changes over time. You will study the macroeconomy and the general business environment as well as firm level decision-making within the macroeconomic and market context.

You will also examine how the context impacts upon organisational decision-making, behaviour, and performance. During the module you will become familiar with major recent national and international economic and business trends.

Topics usually covered include:

• Internal economics of firms
• Industries and markets
• The basics of supply and demand curves
• Pricing and market structure
• Coping with exposure
• The macroeconomy and its impact on business
• Unemployment, labour market and business fluctuations
• Interest rates, monetary and fiscal policies
• International trade and finance
• Current macroeconomic issues.

By the end of this module you will have:

• Increased your knowledge of the global economy and of key current events
• Appreciated the contextual constraints on business decisions
• Increased your awareness of the effects on business of public policy
• Understood why business must cope with uncertainty and risk
• Studied some core elements of economic analysis and be able to use them.

4. Issues in Strategy: Theory & practice:

This module will give you a thorough grounding in the core theories surrounding strategy.

Looking at key strategic management approaches, you will explore contrasting and competing schools of thought. You will also learn to distinguish between strategic positioning models and process models of practice and implementation.

Topics covered include:

• Introduction to strategy
• Theories of positioning and implementation
• Strategy as process regarding finance and economics
• Ontological and epistemological assumptions in the field
• Strategy as ethos
• Strategy as decision making
• Implementation and change
• Risk, uncertainty and complexity
• Performance, metrics and mythologies.

By the end of this module you will have:

• A thorough knowledge of the main theories of strategy
• Recognised the strengths and weaknesses of current theory in strategy
• Understood the interactions between external environments and strategic thinking and acting
• Understand key issues in epistemology and ontological assumptions in strategy
• Used case studies to propose potential solutions to strategic problems
• Understood the processes of strategic decision making
• Developed an awareness of conducting research into strategy
• Appreciated analytical frameworks and their application.

5. The Diffusion of New Products & Technologies:

In this module you will take a multi-disciplinary approach to the understanding and forecasting of the growth in demand for new products.

This is a growing field within marketing, and there is a parallel but often unconnected literature in economics and corporate strategy. This module will help you explore the links between the fields to help you address various issues including: the adoption and spread of new technologies in consumer and producer markets, forecasting and prediction of the growth of markets, and other related strategic issues.

Topics covered include:

• Diffusion phenomena
• Bass type models and variants
• The technology readiness model, analogical learning, and search models
• Strategic implications for marketing
• Inter firm vs intra firm
• Epidemic models, other information based models, and rank based models
• Stock and order models
• Evolutionary approaches
• Supply side factors, normative issues, forecasting and prediction
• Practical issues in the modelling of diffusion phenomena.

By the end of this module you will be able to:

• Apply different approaches to analysing particular diffusion phenomena
• Express considered opinions regarding forecasting and predictive accuracy
• Understand how forecasting and prediction flow from diffusion analysis.

6. Advanced Marketing & Strategy:

In this module you will study strategic marketing issues in a cross-functional context, and explore ways of integrating theoretical and practical perspectives on strategy.

The module will give you a detailed understanding of the economic and organisational analyses that contribute to strategic management. It will also help you develop a strategic management view of strategic decisions and decision-making.

Topics covered include:

• Economics of competitive relationships
• Organisation structure, resource allocation systems and management processes
• Designing the strategic pathway to market
• Market sensing and knowledge management capabilities
• Value-based strategy
• Strategic relationship management and implementation.

By the end of this module you will have:

• Identified and analysed the nature of strategic advantage, and of strategic process issues
• Explored strategic decisions with reference to risk uncertainty and decision techniques
• Studied strategic issues in managing the strategic marketing process
• Related organisational context issues to implementation and change in the strategic route to market
• Used case studies to propose potential solutions to strategic marketing problems
• Understood the processes of strategic marketing decision making.

There is the opportunity to explore further the issues raised in this module in the elective module Strategic Brand Management

ELECTIVE MODULES:

To complement your core studies, you will select three modules from a wide range on offer. The modules listed below are offered as a guide to the range likely to be available to you.

1. Dynamics of Strategy:

This module will help you appreciate strategy as as a dynamic process.

Learn to see strategic management as a rational activity which relates means, firm´s resources and capabilities, to ends, firm´s strategic objectives. Examine how strategic rationality is different from operational or administrative rationality.

Strategic management consists of collaborative and competitive relationships between actors inside and outside the firm. Inside the firm, managers collaborate around projects and also compete between them for scarce resources, promotion, or visibility. Outside the firm, companies exist in a complex competitive landscape of firms competing within markets and industries.

Using real-life detailed case study materials, simulations and models, and academic literature, explore how to take into account the rationality of allies and competitors. Interdependent rationality, which constitutes a distinctive feature of strategic management, makes decisions condition and be conditioned by that of allies and opponents. Strategic initiatives from the different actors are responded by initiatives from other actors making strategic management a dialectic process.

Topics covered include:

• How power and influence affect our ability to 'make things happen'
• How executives need to act as corporate entrepreneurs when trying to get support for their initiatives inside big firms
• How successful organisations must 'reinvent themselves' as they go across different stages of their development
• How firms need to adapt their organisation structures, metrics, and reward systems to reflect their strategic needs
• How firms need to act taking into account the actions of their competitors
• What strategies should be executed in order for firms to navigate a constantly changing competitive landscape.

By the end of this module you will have:

• Understood the dynamics of the dialectic processes that characterise strategic management
• Appreciated the diferences when acting as a manager inside a firm and when interacting with competitors outside the firm

This module is assessed by one two-hour exam.

2. Global Business:

This module will help you develop a critical awareness of major issues and problems associated with the development of international business strategy.

Topics covered include:

• Globalisation
• Foreign direct investment
• International competitive advantage: nations and firms
• The role of culture in international business strategy
• Emerging market economies: risks and strategies
• Multinational enterprises strategies and structure
• International joint ventures.

By the end of this module you will have:

• An understanding of major trends in globalisation and the factors influencing international investment
• Evaluated ideas about the internationalisation process
• An awareness of the problems of formulating and implementing successful international business strategies
• Understood and applied concepts and skills relevant to the problems of managing overseas operations.

This module is assessed 30 percent by group work and 70 percent by individual assignment.

3. Marketing Across Cultures:

This module presents the mains aspects of international marketing. You will consider the impact of local habits in the marketing of goods and services worldwide, and appreciate how cultural aspects influence dealing habits and negotiation techniques.

Topics covered include:

• Economic and politico-legal environment
• Socio-cultural environment
• International marketing research
• International segmentation, targeting and positioning
• Marketing strategy across cultures
• International product/service strategy
• International pricing strategy
• International distribution strategy
• International marketing communications strategy
• The future and careers in international marketing.

By the end of this module you will have:

• Tackled strategic marketing problems facing industries in the international environment
• Familiarised yourself with the tools and techniques required in a complex and changing context
• Understood the relevance of properly measuring intangibles, e.g. innovation, exporting potential, brand image, service quality, at the international level.

This module is assessed entirely by a 4,000 word individual brand equity analysis report.

4. Marketing and the Creative Industries:

Explore how to approach marketing and strategy in and for the creative industries. Study the distinctive characteristics of the creative industries, focusing especially on industry structure, consumer behaviour and the nature of symbolic goods.

The creative industries are associated with unpredictability and individualism. New technologies have reconfigured the relationships between producers and consumers, while the gap between 'traditional' and 'creative' goods appears to be narrowing.

Topics covered include:

• Creative industries: definitions and context
• Industry structure: new intermediaries and the changing value chain
• Market structure: from blockbuster marketing to the long tail
• 'Free content' and new business models
• Individualised consumption, the 'market of one' and market segmentation
• Consumer creativity and user-generated content
• Unpredictability, risk and strategy in the creative industries.

This module is assessed by a coursework essay and a group presentation.

5. Marketing Communications:

Explore how to convey your marketing message in the most approriate way for business benefit.

Topics covered include:

• Effective communication
• Buying behaviour and branding
• The communications process
• The creative process
• The nature of advertising
• Sponsorship and product placement
• Business-to-business communications
• Publicity and PR
• Managing Word-of-Mouth communication and opinion leadership
• Interactive communications
• Ethics in marketing communications.

By the end of this module you will have:

• Understood how communication works
• Gained sound knowledge of concepts, theories, techniques, processes and terminologies relevant to integrated marketing communications
• Developed a marketing communications campaign, including media selection and creative execution, through response to a 'live brief'
• Evaluated the role of communications within an organisation.

This module is assessed coursework and a group presentation.

6. Strategic Brand Management:

This module builds on the core modules Issues in Marketing Theory & Practice and Advanced Marketing & Strategy.

Successful branding adds customer value and can provide protection from price competition and pressures towards commoditisation. In this module you will explore the phenomenon of branding through the concept of brand equity and examine models for measuring and managing this core area of marketing practice.

Topics covered include:

• The social psychology of brands
• The symbolic meaning of brands
• Cultural meaning systems
• Concepts and approaches to brand equity
• Auditing brand equity
• Brand strategies: symbolic brands
• brand strategies: low-involvement brands, brand stretching, international branding
• Empirical patterns in branded markets
• Multi-brand buying
• Partitioning and segmentation in practice
• Duplication of purchase.

By the end of this module you will be able to appreciate :

• The components of brand equity and apply brand equity analysis
• The psychological, sociological, and anthropological aspects of branding
• The empirical regularities which exist in markets, despite differentiated brand competitive structure
• The importance of applying both symbolic and empirical models into brand strategies
• The issues and principles of managing brands over time in global markets.

This module is assessed entirely by coursework.

7. Strategy in Practice:

This module will help you develop the skills and abilities associated with the practice of strategy.

Topics covered include:

• Strategy as knowledge management I: the old vs. the new economy
• Strategy as knowledge management II: revisiting the strategy toolkit
• Strategising in teams I: working within and across teams
• Strategising in teams II: leading teams and dealing with conflict
• Organising in Practice
• Consulting I: Issues in consulting
• Consulting II: Working for a strategy consultancy
• Learning from failure.

This module is assessed 55 percent by a 2,000 word written assisgnment. The rest of the marks come from a group presentation, an individual report,and a strategy case and action plan.

DISSERTATION:

You must complete a satisfactory dissertation of around 15,000 words to be awarded your MSc in Marketing & Strategy. This piece of work, undertaken in your third term and over the summer, gives you the opportunity to apply the techniques and theories you have learned during the taught modules.

From May onwards the focus of the programme is your dissertation. Dissertations can be based around your own research interests, be supporting a staff member's research, or be team-based undertaking applied studies for corporate partners. These have previously included Procter & Gamble, IBM, Pentland Brands, Cadbury World, and E.ON.

You will have a member of staff as a supervisor for the duration of the project. You will present your proposal in term three and will be expected to demonstrate consideration of the purpose, method and presentation of the results. You will submit a draft report by the beginning of September, and your final report must be presented by mid-September.

Funding details

We strongly advise you to arrange funding for your time at WBS as early as possible.

Scholarships

In 2011-2012, we are offering more than 80 WBS scholarships for UK/EU students,
worth over £400,000. We automatically consider all eligible applicants to WBS courses, while funds are available.

We strongly recommend that you apply for a place on your chosen course as early as possible if you'd like to be considered.

WBS Scholarships

WBS Scholarships are intended for participants who are likely to be in the top 20 percent of their class. You must bring both outstanding experience and diversity of background to the class, and be a successful ambassador for WBS following graduation.

Warwick Scholarships

The University of Warwick Graduate School also offers some scholarships which may be available to applicants. You will generally need to apply for these separately.
Scholarships are usually awarded towards payment of your academic fee. Some funding sources have deadlines, some closing as early as February in the year of entry.

Banks & loans

Your bank might be able to offer you preferential borrowing rates on a loan, or an interest-free overdraft. You might want to make an early appointment with a bank representative to discuss your requirements.

Some United Kingdom banks may offer you a Career Development Loans (CDL), backed by the Government. The scheme is available to those intending to work in the United Kingdom or European Union countries. It can help fund up to two years of study.

Overseas students

There is some funding available for overseas students who are studying in the UK. However, available funding is usually awarded on a competitive basis and there are often many applicants for few awards.

The University of Warwick International Office's web site holds lots of information on funding for overseas students.

It may be possible to apply in your own country for British government awards. Talk to your local British Council office. In particular, overseas students are able to apply for a British Chevening Scholarship.

Check the conditions of eligibility in the booklets produced by the different grant-awarding bodies to see if you are eligible. Sometimes you may be able to put together small grants from different agencies, one paying fees alone while another contributes to your living expenses or travel.