BUSI4D515: Buyer Behaviour and Marketing Communications (ONLINE)

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• Buyer Behaviour and Marketing Communications (TAUGHT)

• To provide a comprehensive to the specialised area of buyer behaviour and the management of customer - centric Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) strategies.
• To consolidate and extend the advanced conceptual and empirical skills acquired during the Core period of the MA programme.
• To equip the student with the advanced conceptual and practical skills needed to successfully develop a professional multimedia marketing communications plan.

• I. Understanding Customers:
• Marketing management in the customer-driven organisation;
• Consumer buying and organisational buying;
• Customer choice and decision-making processes;
• Internal influences on customer decision-making;
• External influences on customer decision-making.
• II. Communicationg with Customers:
• Marketing communications as a buyer-seller dialogue;
• Developing an integrated marketing communications (IMC) strategy;
• One, two, three and four-dimentional communications strategies;
• The marketing communications mix - advertising, promotion, merchandising, PR,etc;
• Developing and implementing a strategic media plan.
• III. Managing Customer Relationships:
• Understanding customer-marketer dynamics;
• In-bound communications and customer intelligence;
• Realtionship marketing and the 'marketing concept';
• Customer relationship, management (CRM) systems;
• Identifying, communicationg and delivering the value proposition.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• An advanced understanding and critical appreciation of customer responses to the products and services of everyday life, and to the marketing of those products and services.
• A critical appreciation of the complex nature of the customer decision-making process and the methods of studying these processes, together with the challenges marketers face in seeking to influence that process.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Aquired the specialised skills needed to develop a comprehensive marketing communications strategy that is founded upon a grounded knowledge of how and why customers behave as they do.

Key Skills:

• effective written communication skills
• planning, organising and time management skills
• problem solving and analytical skills
• the ability to use initiative
• advanced skills in the interpretation of data
• advanced computer literacy skills

• The module is delivered via online learning, divided up into study weeks with specially produced resources within each week. Resources vary according to the learning outcomes but normally include: video content, directed reading, reflection through activities, opportunities for self-assessment and peer-to-peer learning within a tutor-facilitated discussion board. Tutors provide feedback on formative work and facilitate discussion board communication as well as being available for individual consultation as necessary (usually by email and Skype).
• The summative assessment of the module is designed to test the acquisition and articulation of knowledge and critical understanding, and skills of application and interpretation within the business context.

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