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Unit information: Issues in Consumer Marketing and Innovation in 2021/22

Please note: you are viewing unit and programme information for a past academic year. Please see the current academic year for up to date information.

Unit name Issues in Consumer Marketing and Innovation
Unit code EFIM20045
Credit points 20
Level of study I/5
Teaching block(s) Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director Dr. Simon Blyth
Open unit status Not open
Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

School/department School of Management - Business School
Faculty Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

In this unit you will explore the changing marketing environment and the challenges this poses for marketers. You will explore the processes associated with innovation and new proposition development and apply what you learn through a specific case study.

This unit is designed around three propositions:

1) that marketing managers constantly face ethical, moral, political and social dilemmas as they go about their business. And that they, more any other business professional have to make sense of, interpret and intervene in the world outside of their organisation
2) that ‘consumers’ now play a central role in the innovation rhetoric, practice and processes of marketing-led organisations
3) that marketing managers need to hold and develop a complex set of knowledge, skills, competencies and behaviours which allows them to be both analytical and creative

This unit will focus on the ‘fuzzy front end’ or early concept stage. We will draw on several different disciplines - including marketing management, innovation studies, sociology, psychology, anthropology and design. We will organise our learning around a particular current brand for which we will develop a proposal for a new products and/or services for the brand, whilst critically reflecting on the process and thinking, shaping and informing our innovation.

This is a fast-changing field. You are encouraged to contribute by raising contemporary issues of particular interest to you, or by bringing in examples of latest developments or trends you have noticed.

Intended Learning Outcomes

On completion of this unit, students will be able:

LO1: Select appropriate methods in order to undertake a situational analysis of a given market.

LO2: Critically analyse the marketing environment that leads organisations to innovate and develop new propositions.

LO3: Understand the complex relations between innovation and consuming, consumers and consumption.

LO 4: Formulate an appropriate marketing response given a set of environmental opportunities and challenges and changing market needs.

LO 5: Demonstrate the capacity to implement the required processes needed to develop a new proposition service in response to an identified challenge or opportunity in the market.

Teaching Information

Teaching will be delivered through a combination of synchronous and asynchronous sessions including lectures, tutorials, drop-in sessions, discussion boards and other online learning opportunities.

Assessment Information

Assessment on this unit is comprised of two components: A situation analysis in the form of an individual report (30%) and a portfolio that contains a new product development proposal and supporting evidence. (70%)

Situation Analysis (30%)

Students will be required to analyse a selected market environment, in the context of a given organisation, to identify opportunities for new proposition development - 1500 words (LO1, LO2)

Reflective essay documenting their New Proposition Development (70%)

Based on their situation analysis, students will then develop and work through a new proposition development process. They will write a critical and reflective essay on their experience of developing and using the process. 2500 words. (LO3,LO4,LO5)

Throughout the unit the students will be working in groups to deliver a shared proposal for the development of a new proposition. The presentation of this proposition is the formative assessment for this unit. Students will receive verbal feedback from course lecturers (and peers) on their group proposal and individual contributions in preparation for their assessed reflective essays.

Resources

If this unit has a Resource List, you will normally find a link to it in the Blackboard area for the unit. Sometimes there will be a separate link for each weekly topic.

If you are unable to access a list through Blackboard, you can also find it via the Resource Lists homepage. Search for the list by the unit name or code (e.g. EFIM20045).

How much time the unit requires
Each credit equates to 10 hours of total student input. For example a 20 credit unit will take you 200 hours of study to complete. Your total learning time is made up of contact time, directed learning tasks, independent learning and assessment activity.

See the Faculty workload statement relating to this unit for more information.

Assessment
The Board of Examiners will consider all cases where students have failed or not completed the assessments required for credit. The Board considers each student's outcomes across all the units which contribute to each year's programme of study. If you have self-certificated your absence from an assessment, you will normally be required to complete it the next time it runs (this is usually in the next assessment period).
The Board of Examiners will take into account any extenuating circumstances and operates within the Regulations and Code of Practice for Taught Programmes.

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