BA (Hons) Business (Marketing)

Program Overview

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The BA (Hons) Business (Marketing) program at Bishop Grosseteste University provides a comprehensive grounding in business and marketing principles, with a focus on developing skills for careers in these fields. Through industry collaborations, work placements, and international field trips, students gain practical experience and build a strong portfolio. The program emphasizes employability, preparing graduates for diverse career paths in marketing and business-related roles.

Program Outline

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Degree Overview:

This program offers a thorough grounding in various business and marketing-related topics, including finance, management, entrepreneurship, and leadership. It focuses on developing your skills and knowledge for launching a career in business and marketing roles across various sectors and organizations. The program provides opportunities to:

• Work with a diverse range of organizations through industry links.
• Develop expertise and projects in your areas of interest.
• Complete a work placement and an international field trip (self-funded) in the second year.
• Achieve a CMI Level 5 Diploma in Leadership and Management alongside your degree.

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Outline:

The program provides a well-structured curriculum covering key areas of business and marketing:

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Year 1:

• Organisational Environments and Behaviour: Understanding the environment, analyzing its impact on organizations, and exploring stakeholders, supply and demand, and market structures.
• Marketing Principles: Key concepts, terminology, roles, functions, and factors influencing consumer behavior and stakeholder impact on marketing approaches.
• The New Professional: Building academic and professional skills for success, focusing on reflective practice, personal and professional development planning, teamwork, professional behavior, and digital capabilities.
• An Introduction to Finance: Basic financial management skills, covering roles of the finance function, sources of finance, regulatory compliance, key financial documents, and their role in decision-making.

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Year 2:

• Digital Marketing Strategies: Introduction to digital marketing, creating digital marketing plans, exploring online and offline channels, analyzing industry leaders, and considering Industry 4.0 impact.
• CSR and Sustainability: Exploring CSR and sustainability in global and organizational contexts, empowering students to take positive action, aligning with the UN SDGs, and examining case studies.
• Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion: Importance of equality, diversity, and inclusion in organizational performance, exploring individual lenses, legislation, and effective diversity and inclusion strategies.
• Managing Projects to Achieve Results: Project management skills, identifying methods and tools, planning, implementing, managing activities, stakeholder relationships, resource management, risk management, progress monitoring, and reporting.
• The Developing Professional: Bridge between academic studies and future employment, including personalized learning experiences, work placements, Graduate Attributes Excellence Award completion, and showcasing developed skills.

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Year 3:

• Innovation and Creativity in Marketing: Relationship between marketing and innovation, fostering innovation within marketing, developing business cases for marketing-related innovations, and creating communication plans.
• Consumer Behaviour and the Customer Experience: Factors influencing decision-making, behavior, and consumption, understanding customer service culture and the customer journey, and reflecting on own buyer behaviors.
• Business Start-Up: Business planning skills for start-ups, creating a plan with a unique selling proposition (USP), seeking guidance from external agencies, and utilizing BG Futures business incubation center.
• Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship: Exploring social innovation and entrepreneurship, analyzing characteristics of social entrepreneurs, studying successful examples, and considering motivations and roles of social entrepreneurs.
• Business Research Methods: Research methods and ethical considerations, selecting, evaluating, and analyzing data, creating research aims, questions, and objectives, and developing appropriate research designs.
• Capstone Project: Research-based project, addressing self-formulated questions, critical analysis of primary and secondary sources, and producing a dissertation.
• Brand Strategy and Management: Strategic approaches to branding, aligning with corporate brand, managing brand to deliver on promises, and utilizing monitoring and maintenance tools.
• Marketing in a Global Context: Principles and tools of strategic marketing in a global context, exploring issues and challenges in global marketing activities, and studying case studies of global marketing strategy implementation.

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Assessment:

Assessments use active learning techniques, encouraging students to take charge of their learning through various methods:

• Live briefs for industry clients: Gaining real-world experience through assignments developed in conjunction with industry experts.
• Work placements and international field trips: Putting theoretical knowledge into practice in real-world settings.
• Variety of active learning techniques: Engaging in projects, presentations, group work, discussions, and independent study.
• Developing academic skills: Researching, referencing, writing, presenting, critical analysis, and problem-solving.
• Portfolio development: Building a comprehensive portfolio showcasing skills and achievements.

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Teaching:

The program employs a variety of engaging teaching methods:

• Interactive lectures and seminars: Encouraging student participation and discussion.
• Small group workshops and tutorials: Providing opportunities for focused learning and personalized feedback.
• Industry guest speakers: Gaining insights from professionals in the field.
• Independent study and research: Developing self-directed learning skills.
• Online learning resources: Accessing additional materials and support.
• Innovative projects and simulation exercises: Applying theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios.
• Industry visits and field trips: Gaining firsthand experience in business settings.

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Careers:

This program prepares graduates for diverse career paths in marketing and business-related fields, including:

• Actuarial analyst
• Arbitrator
• Business advisor
• Business analyst
• Business development manager
• Chartered management accountant
• Corporate investment banker
• Data analyst
• Data scientist
• Forensic accountant
• Insurance underwriter
• Management consultant
• Project manager
• Risk manager
• Stockbroker
• Supply chain manager
Graduates also gain valuable skills and knowledge transferable to other sectors and fields.

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Other:

• The program emphasizes employability, building skills through curriculum design and industry collaborations.
• The program is delivered in a friendly and supportive atmosphere, fostering close relationships between students and staff.
• Students receive dedicated support from staff and resources throughout their studies.
• The program offers an international dimension through the optional field trip.
• The program equips students with the ability to succeed in the business world and make a positive impact on society.