University of Bedfordshire

BSc (Hons) in Marketing

What will you study?

Studying our Marketing BSc (Hons) course will equip you with in-depth knowledge and skills around communications, business and marketing that will turn you into a curious and questioning marketer. In core areas of study, you will be introduced to the Principles of Marketing that will uncover specialised knowledge around the marketing mix, the dynamics of innovation, marketplace analysis and data-driven marketing, all of which you will use to create simple marketing plans while addressing the important questions - such as how we make buying decisions or how product and branding decisions are made. By combining traditional and emerging techniques, you will receive an Introduction to Digital Marketing and Analytics where you will discover digital marketing and brand-building techniques used to implement effective digital campaigns while learning to interpret customer-related data from digital and AI analytics tools. More interestingly, you will discover the ins and outs of working with a range of brands and how to uniquely market what might be some of your favourite products in our Brand Management unit. This will equip you with the industry skills to analyse brand management strategies, feedback and performance to really understand the beating heart of today’s brands.

It is also important that you understand the people you are marketing to - and this is where our Consumer Behaviour unit will allow you to discover how people think, act and interact with a range of brands and use this knowledge to identify how brands communicate with unique audiences and develop successful marketing plans to reach them. With an innovative approach, you will also explore traditional and newer forms of Marketing Communications in the Digital Age to discover how brands use viral or influencer marketing on social media, AI, beacon and even virtual reality marketing. Building on this, you will develop the numerical skills that are crucial for the modern marketer in our Digital Communications Strategy unit while also learning to apply techniques in the design and management of contemporary marketing communication strategies in our Digital Marketing Communications unit. To fuel the modern marketer in you, our Marketing in a Global Context unit will enable you to analyse, create and implement global marketing strategies to improve company performance and competitiveness. You will also develop the strategic skills to take a business or organisation closer towards growth and success, which will help you stand out as a modern marketer with our units in Strategic Leadership and Strategic Business Planning.

You will also diversify your skills by developing the mathematical and numerical techniques used for decision-making and problem-solving processes that are increasingly in demand in the business sector within our Applied Numeracy for Business unit. Placing your practice in the context of marketing responsibility is where our Marketing Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) unit will introduce you to theories on ethics, CSR and purpose that will allow you to practice as a responsible and fair marketer. Innovation is yet another key to your practice and this is where our Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship unit will familiarise you with the industry skills to use digital technologies to design and enhance innovative business models. Among our optional units, you may also gain advanced insight into Interactive Marketing Management to develop your IT skills around analytics, database management and programmable marketing techniques. Moreover, if you have an interest in working in Small to Medium Enterprises (SME’s), where many of our alumni have been successful, our Marketing for SMEs unit will allow you to develop your creativity, customer relationship and content creation skills targeted towards the development of SMEs in a well-connected business environment at the University. Finally, our Business Project unit will allow you to identify and analyse emerging and contemporary issues in marketing ranging from client, brand and organisational challenges.

How will you be assessed?

The assessment strategy supports the course's focus on being an independent learner and employability. Your subject knowledge and key skills such as teamwork work communication information literacy research evaluation creativity and critical thinking are tested throughout the course using various relevant assessments to meet the learning outcomes as well as your different learning styles.

The key subject themes increase in intensity as you progress to the next level and then to the final year allowing you to build on previous knowledge. The assessments are therefore designed to support you to work both in a team and independently. The assessments reflect incremental learning as well as focus on being a confident independent learner by providing more group work opportunities at the start of your course to build your team skills and engagement and progress to more individual and guided assessments to challenge you academically and professionally.

The variations of assessments you will engage with ensure that you accumulate all the skills necessary to interact efficiently within the world of marketing. For all assessments you will have an assignment brief which clearly sets out requirements and the criteria for grading your work; this develops your understanding of the assessment standards and what is needed to do well at a task. You will receive feedback on all your assessments to enable you to improve your learning. It is important that you use this feedback accordingly to maximise your performance on future assignments and to buttress your learning.

The combination of subjects you will take throughout this course will allow you to think rigorously and creatively about problems. Employers value people who can get things done and in this course, you will bring the thinking and doing together.

The course will enable you to access a varied career path which will enable you to experience marketing and marketing communications and potentially be employed within areas of integrated brand communications specialist marketing or in-house functions e.g. advertising client-side brand management business-to-business marketing industrial marketing and for Not for Profit organisations.

Alternatively, you may want to further your studies in specialist areas of marketing communications e.g. corporate communications media planning or take a Master's programme including MA Marketing MSc Marketing Communications and some MBA programmes.