Course Design, Aims and Objectives

Rationale

The Diploma stage is designed to provide an opportunity for holders of Certificate-level of management qualifications with appropriate marketing content to continue their profession and personal development through to Diploma level and progression to the MA in Marketing Management.

The programme is intented to make an importnat contribution to the effective management of your company's marketing oeprations. The increasing demand for effective corporate and marketplace strtategy wihtin a changing environment is evident, and provides a major rationale for creation of the course.

The Diploma stage is based firmly upon the syllabus of the CIM Diploma. This has recently been reviewed by the development of "Syllabus 94" which was the responsibility of a CIM Education Working Group comprising of four senior academics and CIM staff. It is therefore a syllabus which is current, reflecting latest marketing tihnking and practice, and relevant to today's marketing issues and problems. The Course Team subscribe to the design of the CIM Diploma and have embraced it for the Diploma stage of this programme.

Course Aims

The programme seeks to provide a stimulating and intellectually demanding Marketing Management programme of value to marketing managers. It provides a rigorous education in the concepts and techniques of marketing within a business and management framework at a functional and strategic discipline level. From this base are developed the skills and analytical tools of relevance to marketing managers, enabling such managers to perform effectively within their unit or business, and at the boundary between that unit or business and its environment. The course will build strongly upon manager's business and marketing experience.

Of key significance will be the ability of marketing managers to perceive their organisations holistically, enabling strategic issues to be identified, analysed and appropriate plans implemented. The course seeks to enhance course member's ability to learn and acquire new management skills.

Participants will furthermore be encouraged to identify their personal continuing learning and devlopment needs beyond the provisions of the course.

Course Objectives

Incorporating the fulfillment of individual module objectives, on successful completion of the course delegates should be able to:

analyse marketing problems and opportunities in a multi-disciplinary way giving due recognition to the diverse needs of organisational stakeholders.
fomulate and evaluate marketing strategies aimed at improving total marketing performance.
design and implement effective marketing plans for performance improvement and business devlopment.
demonstrate their capacity for relevant marketing academic study and research and the ability to apply the outcomes of such work in an organisational context.
demonstrate their ability to plan and manage their own continuing professional development.
demonstrate their ability to handle new marketing concepts, to critically appraise their relevance and likely future impact upon organisational performance - the ability to succeed in periods of increasing uncertainty.

Course Structure

The Course design is modular:

Strategic Marketing Management: Planning & Control	Management Processes	Strategic Analysis	Strategy Formulation	Strategic Choice	Market Research
>	Marketing Communications Strategy	Promotion Campaigns	Communications Theory	Segmentation	Advertising Agencies	Brand Managements
International Marketing Strategy	International Trade	International Strategy	International Product Management	Distribution Channels	Logistics
Strategic Marketing: Analysis & Decision	Future Marketplace	Corporate Mission	Marketing Organisation	Planning & Control Decisions	Implementation

Strategic Marketing Management: Planning and Control

Aims to create awareness of all major aspects of the planning and control elements of the marketing management function.

Marketing Communications Strategy

Aims to provide a sound theoretical and practical understanding of the formulation of promotional strategy and the management of the marketing communications progress.

International Marketing Strategy

Aims to provide an understanding of the international context of marketing management, and how marketing in one national market is impacted by a multinational marketing strategy.

Strategic Marketing Management: Analysis and Decision

Aims to develop qualitive and quantitaive analysis skills and powers of diagnosis as a basis for decision making in respect of marketing situations. The course structure will include a provision for pre-block self-study within a managed framework. The learning material will include comprehensive study texts designed specifically for self-learning. This period of self-study is to be linked to the block via assessment. The course team considers the integration of modules important, given the changing nature of marketing management, and have adopted a number of explicit integrating strategies. The principle mechanisms for this are:

the ability of each lecturer to relate their subject to both the contents of other modules and the course aims.
the study of subjects which are themselves of an integrative nature.
this course will build upon the integrated learning experience achieved in the individual's prior learning and work experience.
the final module - Strategic Marketing Management: Analysis and Decision - is strongly integrative in nature.

There will be 100 hours of study per module, deployed as follows:

Distance Learning/directed self-study 64 hours (spread over 12 to 16 weeks)

Workshops/tutorials 36 hours

The aim of the workshops is to reinforce the learning of module content, to explore the issues in the context of professional practice, and to give course members opportunity to develop appropriate marketing management skills. Case studies and business scenarios will be used to help course members progress through the learning cycle.

The workshops will normally be structured to provide opportunities for one-one tutorials and group tutorials which will follow the structure of the study text. Detailed programmes will be issed prior to each workshop, with tutorial preparation notes.

The Strategic Marketing Management: Analysis and Decision module will have 60 hours of study in total, as there is no new study text and no post-workshop assignment.

Course members study one module at a time, each module being timetabled such that the work is spread over twelve to eighteen months. Each module will have a Module Guide, with a directed self-study scheme such that delegates have a programme by which they can manage their work.