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Introduction
Why choose this course?
Key features
This course is designed with employability at the centre of the curriculum. Placements are integrated into module assessments; learners will have two short-term placement opportunities.
By integrating the two disciplines of business and marketing, you will learn about both marketing and business subjects giving you an advantage in the global markets.
Learn in innovative ways through our contemporary content and assessment strategy that aim to increase learners' digital and employability skills (from infographics to simulations, TED talks, consultancy reports, and group debates).
The core modules cover a range of business disciplines necessary to provide the knowledge required to succeed in business.
Benefit from placement opportunities with local, national and global companies. You’ll be fully supported on your placement applications and during your placement year. Previous students have landed roles in brand marketing at Goodyear Dunlop and Puma, as a sales intern with Tata Technologies and in product marketing at Vauxhall.
DMU is a Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Accredited Study Centre and an Institute of Data & Marketing (IDM) Key Educational Partner, meaning you can earn exemptions from CIM and IDM professional qualifications in addition to your degree.
Benefit from Education 2030, where a simplified ‘block learning’ timetable means you will study one subject at a time and have more time to engage with your learning, receive faster feedback and enjoy a better study-life balance.
Overview
This course will help you to develop a wide knowledge of the range of business and marketing disciplines, the relationships between them and their application to practice.
Through specific modules, you’ll be taught how to determine the impact of organisational, political, social, technological, cultural and ethical factors on the business and marketing environment.
You’ll examine and prioritise issues associated with management of business and marketing activities in a range of global business, industry and social contexts which will allow you to understand a wide spectrum of opportunities within both the marketing and business world.
This allow you to enhance your knowledge of the methods and techniques that are used to develop evidence-based solutions to contemporary business and marketing challenges.
With that knowledge, you’ll be able to critically interpret business intelligence and apply knowledge of enterprise management, brands and markets to propose, justify and implement effective business and marketing solutions.
Modules such as the 'Business Ethics and Social Responsibility' will help you develop and apply values, skills, knowledge and behaviours that will enable you to contribute to the development of a just, peaceful and sustainable world.
Modules
Year 1
Block 1: Foundations of Global Business in the Digital Age
This module aims to developing students’ interest in, knowledge and appreciation of current global business issues and the challenges that they pose for management. It will be explored how digital technology and social media developments influence business operations of many firms. Students will be introduced to a range of key business functions such as Human Resource Management, Marketing and Finance and Accounting, and identify how these functions contribute to organisational success. The module is designed to be highly contemporary and its content is therefore highly driven by current world events and how they impact upon both the internal and external environment of global businesses.
Block 2: Marketing: Theory and Practice
The module offers students a comprehensive introduction to marketing theory and practice. The aim is to give students an understanding of the breadth of marketing theory; brought to life by illustrating its practical applications. Successful students will be able to demonstrate an ability to work with the following core marketing concepts:
(1) The marketing concept and its functional orientation
(2) The marketing environment and making sense of markets
(3) Marketing research
(4) Market segmentation, targeting and positioning
(5) Marketing mix planning - including products, services, pricing, distribution and communications, and
(6) Contemporary challenges facing marketers - e.g. e-marketing, ethics and globalisation.
The module will provide students with an understanding of how these parts fit together, along with the basic skills needed to get off to a flying start with their studies in the more specialised marketing topics in subsequent years.
Block 3: Essential Business Intelligence and Financial Decision Making
This module is designed to give students an appreciation of the volume of data available to organisations and the opportunity to apply Business Intelligence to such data to analyse, extrapolate and extract further insights, in order to develop meaningful information and knowledge that can be used in a multitude of ways to improve efficiency and enhance organisational performance. In addition, this module concentrates on the use of financial data by introducing students to the basic principles and accounting, financial reporting, business performance analysis, and the use of these by businesses.
Block 4: Entrepreneurship and Business Ventures
This module starts by exploring the concept of entrepreneurship and critically evaluate the similarities and differences between entrepreneurial ventures, SMEs and large enterprises. The aim is to establish an understanding of how entrepreneurship, entrepreneurs, and an entrepreneurial mindset can help economies and individuals prosper. The module introduces students to the Creative Problem-Solving process where they will get to evaluate the world around them and identify societal problems in need for a solution. The objective here is to encourage creativity and push students to think outside the box to build innovative, sustainable and timely businesses. Common challenges and success factors will be explored and students will learn how to transform a business idea into a formal business plan.
A focus of this module is to develop competence in all the areas related to running a business such as finance, operations and teams’ management. However, significant attention will be given to commercialising and marketing entrepreneurial ventures with an emphasis on equipping students with invaluable transferrable skills such as communication skills, adaptability and learning the art of negotiation.
The module concludes in a mock business idea pitch competition where groups will showcase their knowledge and skills in a professional setting.
Year 2
Block 1: Contemporary Issues in Strategic Marketing
This module builds on prior marketing knowledge and applies it in the context of a specific organisation addressing issues related to both consumer and business markets. It encourages the development of a critical approach to discussing the strategies and actions of differing types of firms and the impact of those strategies on various stakeholder groups. The content may include, but not be limited to: marketing analysis; trend analysis; strategic relationships; social and cultural impacts; strategies for competitive advantage; forecasting and managing change. In particular it will identify, analyse and make strategic recommendations on contemporary issues, for example the growing impact of and reactions to sustainability and climate change.
Block 2: Brands and Consumer Behaviour
The module provides students with an understanding of contemporary brand theory and practices in building, positioning and managing brands. Student will examine the various roles that brands and branding play in consumers’ everyday lives with a particular focus on brand-consumer relationships. The module enables students to gain theoretical and practical insights into the creative processes involved in creating, designing, developing and managing a brand. Moreover, students will get an understanding on how consumers navigate modern society by exploring the psychological processes that occur before, during and after a product/service is consumed. As such, the module investigates how internal factors (e.g. motives, attitudes, perceptions, personality, self-concept) and external factors (e.g. culture, reference groups) drive consumer behaviour, and the symbiotic relationship between consumers and society at large
Block 3: Marketing Practice and Industry Insights
The intended purpose of this module is to introduce students to the world of marketing intelligence: competitive and market understanding. The focus around marketing intelligence is on the related business practices such as marketing and value metrics, marketing research, data analysis and data mining. With the help of this knowledge students will be able to manage the market and customer insight. Students will understand the importance of internal and external data, how to collect it and how to turn the data to actionable marketing insight for marketing decision making.
Industry insights provides much of the information that allows the insight-driven marketing concept to be put into practice in different industries from tourism to fashion and different environments from retail to manufacturing. The module aims to improve analytic skills, data skills and insight driven marketing strategic thinking through case studies and best practices from both the multinational corporations and the SME sector.
Block 4: Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
Recognising that managers shape, and are shaped by, organisational processes this module focuses on responsibility and ethics at both the organisational and managerial level. It will equip students with a sound grasp of key concepts in corporate social responsibility and their application within business practice. It will also explore ethical issues that corporate decision-makers face and the causes and consequences of (un)ethical decision-making.
Year 3
Block 1: Marketing, Society and Global Impact
The module is designed to provide students with a critical lens through which they can understand and critique contemporary consumer contexts. The course content is driven by the need to address the impacts of marketing as a system upon consumers, the environment and society. Taking lead from Critical Marketing and the Transformative Consumer Research (TCR) movement, the module will look to focus on consumer well-being in a holistic sense, through an examination of social issues in context. The course content follows an inter-disciplinary approach, drawing on theories from sociology, public policy, cultural studies and psychology. This research-informed module aims to facilitate critical thinking on the subject area through the utilisation of case studies (e.g. Oxfam discussion papers), educational documentaries (e.g. the Media Education Foundation) and policy studies (e.g. UN SDGs). Through the integration of disciplines and supporting material, the module aims to encourage students to develop pragmatic ways of approaching the problems and opportunities of well‐being most relevant to consumers and their environments, with the aim of producing positive and uplifting change.
Block 2: Digital Marketing for Business Managers
The module introduces students to digital marketing with a particular focus on social media. Students will be encouraged to appreciate and contribute to debate on contemporary digital marketing issues. For example, how should organisations respond to the growth and increasing influence of social media networks that are rapidly catching up with search engines as leading 'go to' web resources. This module also explores the key digital marketing principles and their application across a range of organisations and marketing contexts. Emphasis is placed on the central role of customer information and how databases are built and used to identify, attract and retain profitable consumer groups. Students will have the opportunity to gain hands on experience of proprietary social media management tools e.g. Hootsuite and supported to achieve internationally recognised standards of competency
OR
Crisis and Business Continuity Management
The module challenges participants to take a counter-intuitive but important step in their business education - to consider how organisations are exposed to, and deal with, crises and business interruptions. The module synthesises two essential components, each of which have underlying theory and practice - crisis management and business continuity management.
Through the duration of the module, students will immerse themselves in crisis and business continuity management theory and practice, having an opportunity to demonstrate their fomentation of knowledge and skills in critical, applied and real-time manners.
Block 3: Managing Customer Relationships
This module provides a comprehensive review of customer relationships in B2B and B2C contexts. It explains why businesses should aim to develop long term relationships with their customers, whether this is beneficial or viable for all business types, the costs it creates and the benefits it delivers along with insight into how sustainable customer relationships can be implemented. Students will be introduced to various CRM practices and technologies that are used by businesses to enhance the achievement of marketing, sales, and service objectives throughout the customer lifecycle stages of customer acquisition, retention and development.
OR
Creative Leadership and Business Thinking
This module aims to help you enhance your creative leadership skills, in particular, to become more self-aware of your personal leadership model, and to strengthen your capabilities at influencing others. The module is structured around three particular perspectives; namely: 1) Leadership in General (Mainstream Perspective) 2) Creative Leadership 3) Critical & Contextual Leadership (Critical Perspective) 4) Leadership in Practice. The module will look at the influence of different leadership styles on Business Thinking and look at creative solutions to business problems.
Block 4: Marketing Consultancy Project
This module is an individual marketing consultancy project that serves as a commercial and employability- relevant experience. It requires a student to compile a report that acts as a solution to a marketing business problem. Students submit their preferred project choice and after consultation with the programme leader are allocated to a project they are most suited to. In an identical way to a Marketing consultancy, the organisation will give a summary briefing to students either face-to-face or by Skype before the project starts, this enables students to question and investigate further detail. This is an important part of the marketing consultancy process. Students then form their own investigation proposal document to give a summary outline of how they will research and analyse the project. After feedback, students continue their project following the direction given. Marketing Consultancy project briefs are sourced by the Module leader from local companies and advertising/PR/Creative agencies, and are live projects. All project briefs will be scrutinised to ensure they are appropriate to give a high level of commercial marketing experience required. In this way students gain a guaranteed marketing consultancy experience, use their learned skills to make a genuine impact and benefit for the company, and are able to summarise the experience on their CV/LinkedIn profile, and described the value of their project at an interview. This employability aspect to the Marketing Consultancy project is crucial as it provides evidence of using their degree in action, and provides a focus area for job applications. Each Marketing Consultancy project student will be allocated a supervisor to assist with both the interpretation and the marketing proposal for the report, and academic standards. This is an individual project although a cluster of students will be formed (up to 6 students per project), who work on the same (or similar parts of) the project. This results in the client gaining a variety of innovative solutions to their marketing situation.
OR
Marketing Dissertation
The marketing dissertation is designed to give students the opportunity to research a topic of their individual interest. Students frequently expand on an area that has been of interest in previous marketing modules, link the study to issues that intrigued them from their work placements, or explore a topic that has not been studied in a formal module, with the guidance of several lectures and appointments with an assigned dissertation supervisor, the dissertation should demonstrate the application of academic theory to actual marketing situations. The module requires the student to be able to work independently and set their own goals in exchange for the opportunity to research a topic that excites and interest them personally
Entry Criteria
ENTRY REQUIRED DOCUMENTS
Home Office Share Code
For EU students only.
IF no Qualification
Please provide CV with at least 2 years of work experience, and employee reference letter.
Entry criteria
GCSEs
Five GCSEs at grade 4 or above including English and Maths
Plus one of the following:
A levels
A typical offer is 112 UCAS points. You need to study at least two subjects at A Level or equivalent (e.g. BTEC)
T Levels
Merit
BTEC
BTEC National Diploma - Distinction/Distinction/Merit
BTEC Extended Diploma - Distinction/Distinction/Merit
Alternative qualifications include:
Pass in the QAA accredited Access to HE overall 112 UCAS tariff with at least 30 L3 credits at Merit.
English and Maths GCSE required as separate qualification. Equivalency not accepted within the Access qualification. We will normally require students to have had a break from full-time education before undertaking the Access course.
International Baccalaureate: 26+ points.
Mature students
We welcome applications from mature students with non-standard qualifications and recognise all other equivalent and international qualifications.
English language requirements
If English is not your first language an IELTS score of 6.0 overall with 5.5 in each band (or equivalent) when you start the course is essential.
English language tuition, delivered by our British Council-accredited Centre for English Language Learning, is available both before and throughout the course if you need it.
Contextual offer
To make sure you get fair and equal access to higher education, when looking at your application, we consider more than just your grades. So if you are eli
Assessment
ASSESSMENT METHODS
1. INTERNAL ENGLISH TEST if you don't have an English accredited certificate
2. Academic Interview
Teaching and assessment
A mixture of large group sessions, tutorials, on line resources and formative assessments are used. Students are given feedback throughout the course to develop and improve their technical knowledge, skills and understanding.
Emphasis is placed on the application of technical understanding to case based and impact focused scenarios through the use of assessments.
Teaching contact hours
This is a full-time course. Each module is worth 30 credits. It is expected that student will spend a total of 300 hours of study for each module. You should be prepared to devote approximately 10 contact hours a week to your studies and additional independent hours of study in order to succeed. Teaching is through a mix of lectures, tutorials, seminars and lab sessions and the breakdown of these activity types is shown in each module description.
Other: In addition, each module provides a two-hour surgery each week for individual consultation with the lecturer. You will also have timetabled meetings with your personal tutor and careers and/or subject meetings scheduled throughout the year.
Self-directed study: In order to prepare for, and assimilate, the work in lectures and seminars you will be expected to use our on-line resources, participate in flipped or virtual classroom discussions on our virtual learning environment (VLE) and engage in personal study and revision for approximately 25 hours per week.
Accreditations
Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Accredited Study Centre
Institute of Direct Marketing (IDM) Key Educational Partner
Programme modules are aimed to map to certain CIM professional qualifications. This means that when students successfully complete the programme they are exempt from certain modules of CIM qualifications.
Career Opportunities
Placements
During this course, you will have the option to complete a paid placement year, an invaluable opportunity to put the skills developed during your degree into practice. This insight into the professional world will build on your knowledge in a real-world setting, preparing you to progress onto your chosen career.
Our Careers Team can help to hone your professional skills with mock interviews and practice aptitude tests, and an assigned personal tutor will support you throughout your placement.
There are a number of modules which are linked to placements, such as the 'Marketing Consultancy Project' which is a live project that students act on a briefing from a live business and then propose an innovative solution to a problem that the business is facing. Also, within the 'Marketing Practice and Industry Insights' module students will have the opportunity to do a short-term placement.
Luke secured a job with FTSE 100 company Smurfit Kappa as a customer service project manager after benefitting from the guidance of the Careers Team.
DMU Global
Our innovative international experience programme DMU Global aims to enrich studies, broaden cultural horizons and develop key skills valued by employers.
Through DMU Global, we offer an exciting mix of overseas, on-campus and online international experiences, including the opportunity to study or work abroad for up to a year.
Business and Marketing students have recently visited India as part of the Brand Management module. They have also travelled to Silicon Valley in California, home to many start-up and global technology companies such as Essential, a tech company founded by Android creator Andy Rubin.
Graduate careers
A degree in Business and Marketing prepares you for a whole range of career opportunities.
You may decide on a marketing focused career such as digital marketing, brand management, customer service project management or market research.
Alternatively, you could follow a more business orientated route, with graduates choosing to pursue careers in business analysis, project management or sales management – to name but a few possibilities.
Students can set up their own business as the programme offers a good foundation.
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