Top 50 for Marketing in the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2025
Rooted in a pioneering legacy as the first academic marketing department in Europe, we draw on a rich track record in advanced marketing education. Our MSc Advanced Marketing Management will transform you into a marketing thought leader, prepared to make an impact across industries and academia.
Guided by internationally recognised faculty, you will engage with cutting-edge marketing research, theory, and practice, developing the intellectual tools needed to challenge convention and shape the future of marketing. You will engage with dynamic learning formats, personalised careers support, and exclusive professional development opportunities.
Our MSc Advanced Marketing Management is ideal for driven and ambitious marketing students and marketing professionals who already completed an undergraduate degree in Marketing and may have relevant work experience.
Drive marketing innovation
This programme transforms how you think and practice strategic marketing management, and it equips you to challenge assumptions, navigate complexity, and drive meaningful marketing innovation.
The programme has a specialist, innovative curriculum that reflects the latest advances in marketing research. Through real-world case studies, interactive sessions, and a focus on developing strategic thinking, you will build a robust portfolio of professional skills to complement your academic knowledge. The programme will ensure your ideas and decisions are backed by strategic thinking and real-world applicability.
Programme outline
In Semester 1, you will develop advanced expertise in marketing strategy. You will explore the complexity and challenges of devising sustainable and responsible marketing strategies, develop a deeper understanding of consumer behaviour, and investigate the dynamics of global marketing.
In Semester 2, you will build on your understanding of strategic marketing management and investigate specialist areas of marketing using advanced insights from marketing research and theory. You will develop specialist expertise in brand management and product marketing innovation. You will also build your knowledge and skills in communicating value through the strategic use of integrated marketing communications. Because digital technology, such as analytics, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, is making a strong impact in marketing, you will gain new perspectives on the digital transformation of marketing strategy.
Your capstone project
The programme’s capstone dissertation project allows you to integrate and apply your knowledge. You can work on a real-world company project or deepen your specialisation in an area you choose through an academic research project. This second route can prepare you to pursue a subsequent PhD degree.
Join a vibrant global network
By joining our MSc Advanced Marketing Management, you will join a vibrant and international network of alumni and gain the skills and confidence to shape your career and the future of marketing itself.
We're ranked in the QS Master's in Marketing Top 50 in the Business Master’s Rankings 2025, placing 15th globally for Thought Leadership, 41st overall, and 8th in the UK.
Features of the MSc Advanced Marketing Management programme you should know about:
Real-world insight and strategic application
Through company-based challenges, case studies and guest speakers, you will experience real-world insight and strategic application integrated into your learning.
Accredited by CIM
Benefit from the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Accredited Degree scheme.
Alumni network
Join our high-profile network of globally active alumni with senior marketing and leadership roles.
Learn from the best
You will be taught by internationally leading scholars who infuse teaching with the latest research and industry insight.
Our pioneering legacy
Lancaster University is home to the first Marketing department in Europe, established in 1964.
Why study MSc Advanced Marketing Management at Lancaster?
"The practical experience that we got from our course really helped me to get the job I have today": Lushanthi talks about what she liked about the Advanced Marketing Management programme.
Transcript for Why study MSc Advanced Marketing Management at Lancaster?
I was looking at about five universities for my MSc, and this one seemed the most challenging. There were a lot of time management skills needed to organise ourselves in the right way to achieve what we needed to. That really gave us valuable life skills. Lancaster has helped me achieve my goals because the practical experience from our course really helped me get the job I have today. So I did a live consultancy project with Brand Cap, and that practical perspective really helped me to understand what I would want from a job. And that pushed me to apply for the right jobs, succeed in my interviews, and I have a job that I really enjoy today. So that was one of the achievements that I was hoping to get out of my master's. So that definitely was achieved because of this university and AMM course.
Course accreditation
Students taking this CIM Accredited programme are automatically enrolled in the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s study programme for one year. When you pass your master's, you’ll gain exemptions from CIM assessments, reducing the number of modules you will need to take to gain a professional CIM qualification if you wish to engage in additional study alongside your master's,
MSc Advanced Marketing Management equips you with the advanced knowledge and skills needed to secure senior and leadership positions across a range of marketing roles in the UK and internationally.
Typical career destinations for graduates of this programme include:
Scholarships for students on Master's programmes in the Department of Marketing.
Entry requirements
Academic requirements
2:2 Hons degree (UK or equivalent) in Marketing or a related Business Management degree with minor marketing components. Marks should be consistently at 2:2 level, or higher, throughout your undergraduate studies, with all marks at least pass level. We welcome students with marketing experience gained within a degree in Marketing or a related Business Management degree, or practically within industry.
English language requirements
We require an IELTS (Academic) Test with an overall score of at least 6.5, and a minimum of 6.0 in each element of the test.
If you are thinking of applying to Lancaster and you would like to ask us a question, complete our enquiry form and one of the team will get back to you.
Delivered in partnership with INTO Lancaster University, our one-year tailored pre-master's pathways are designed to improve your subject knowledge and English language skills to the level required by a range of Lancaster University master's degrees. Visit INTO Lancaster University for more details and a list of eligible degrees you can progress onto.
Course structure
We continually review and enhance our curriculum to ensure we are delivering the best possible learning experience, and to make sure that the subject knowledge and transferable skills you develop will prepare you for your future. The University will make every reasonable effort to offer programmes and modules as advertised. In some cases, changes may be necessary and may result in new modules or some modules and combinations being unavailable, for example as a result of student feedback, timetabling, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes and new research. Not all optional modules are available every year.
In this programme, all modules are core and there are no optional modules.
Core
core modules accordion
This capstone module invites you to explore a specialist area of marketing of your interest and apply everything you have learned across the programme. You can choose one of three routes to best suit your career ambition:
Research dissertation: deepen your understanding of a marketing issue of your choice through intensive individual research.
Company-commissioned dissertation: This alternative, practice-driven format gives you the opportunity to work with a real-world client.
PhD pilot study: The ideal option if you are considering pursuing a PhD degree.
Regardless of which path you take, this module will strengthen your problem-solving, project management, and research skills and challenge you to make a substantial conceptual, practical, or methodological contribution to your chosen field.
You will develop a critical and strategic understanding of consumer behaviour in context. This will enable you to explore how individuals and groups engage with brands, products, and experiences across diverse cultures and markets. You will examine the foundations of consumer culture, including its evolving nature and social impact. Additionally, you will interrogate the dark side of consumer culture, from overconsumption and identity manipulation to surveillance and ethical concerns.
The module emphasises the importance of consumer behaviour theory as a tool for building meaningful, data-driven consumer insight that supports strategic marketing decisions. You will learn how to interpret behavioural trends, decode symbolic consumption, and design more impactful engagement strategies. Through in-depth engagement with leading-edge academic research and critical discussion, you will explore the ways in which marketers strategically connect with consumers, while reflecting on how consumer insight, engagement and experience management must adapt to shifting values and technologies.
New technologies impact digital marketing communications and transform all aspects of marketing strategy. Therefore, the focus of this module is both strategic and practical: you will use digital marketing analytics to gain new insights into online consumer behaviour, e-commerce, digital service delivery and digital campaign design. You will use industry browser analytics software to master the transformation of data into strategic insight and leverage that insight through strategic digital innovation.
Key topics will include:
customer journey mapping
mastering digital analytics for data-driven decision-making
optimising marketing performance
mastering campaign design and integration.
Throughout, you will engage with cutting-edge research and industry best practices, ensuring you build on the latest trends in digital marketing. Research-active digital marketing experts teach the module, and the content evolves each year to keep pace with the dynamics in new technologies, regulation and marketing practice.
The increasing globalisation of markets is complex and requires deep knowledge of global marketing management to develop effective strategies that are sensitive to context. These strategies must navigate diverse cultural, economic, and regulatory environments. You will explore the multifaceted nature of global markets and gain a critical understanding of how emerging technologies, regulatory shifts, consumer behaviour, and political dynamics shape contemporary global marketing strategies.
You will analyse, evaluate, and design market entry approaches, assess the need for regional adaptation, and engage with the challenges of managing global value chains in response to evolving customer demands, competitor behaviour, and local governance. You will enhance your expertise in applying global marketing theory across diverse sectors, such as fast fashion, healthcare, luxury, beauty and cosmetics, fast-moving consumer goods, and technology.
Additionally, you will also gain insight into the intersection of marketing, politics, economics, and international regulation, and critically reflect on global developments shaping marketing practice.
This module equips you with the strategic insight and skills for managing brands and products for growth. You will master innovative brand and product portfolio management strategies and assess diversification opportunities through analysing a selection of global case studies to critically examine why some brands thrive while others falter.
The module will cover advanced brand management strategies, and you will learn to design and manage product marketing strategies from product concept development and innovation to go-to-market strategies, lifecycle management, and maturity. You will understand the strategic links between brand and product portfolio strategies, appreciating the complexity and strategic interplay between brand and product line extensions in various contexts.
Additionally, you will examine how digitalisation impacts concept development, including emerging tools such as AI-assisted, digital twin or 3D-printing enabled prototyping.
Generating strategic market, consumer and competitor insight is at the heart of successful marketing strategy. Equally, mistakes can be detrimental to brand and company reputation and market success. This module will equip you with advanced skills in marketing research, enabling you to excel in generating high-quality insights and evaluating their validity, reliability, and credibility.
This module will help you master the use of data and insight for the purposes of strategic marketing by introducing you to the full range of qualitative and quantitative research methods. From interviews and ethnography to eye-tracking and netnography, you will explore how to generate insight from rich and complex data sources. On the quantitative side, you will use industry-standard software to conduct a range of advanced statistical analyses.
This practical and philosophical foundation will empower you to question, critique and design robust marketing research projects.
This module teaches you how to effectively design, deliver, and evaluate integrated marketing communications strategies to drive performance across a range of marketing objectives. You will explore how to create, revitalise or align messaging with brand strategy, develop compelling briefs, and manage campaigns across various media channels, markets and audiences.
The module equips you with key marketing communications literacy, knowledge and practical skills to help you thrive in senior roles associated with campaign planning and execution, media buying, content production, stakeholder communication, strategic PR and advertising, among others.
You will learn how to build and drive strategic marketing communications that reflect brand values, respond to market demands and connect with target audiences globally. You will gain the critical skills to interrogate the role of strategic marketing communications in shaping critical societal, environmental and economic issues.
This module challenges conventional approaches to marketing management and strategy. You will critically reflect on the role of marketing professionals and the ethics and responsibility involved in making strategic decisions and shaping longer-term organisational agendas.
You will explore how organisations can think and act strategically in ways that go beyond profit maximisation, considering the broader impact of marketing on society, the environment, and global equity. You will learn to critically assess the effectiveness and authenticity of corporate and political responsibility and sustainability initiatives, and to interrogate the real-world consequences of strategic choices.
You will analyse the tensions between short-term goals and long-term responsibilities, and evaluate whether responsible strategic thinking can offer both ethical integrity and competitive advantage. Ultimately, this module will prepare you to contribute to the development of marketing strategies that align organisational purpose with societal values in an increasingly complex and accountable global marketplace.
Fees and funding
We set our fees on an annual basis and the 2026/27
entry fees have not yet been set.
Additional fees and funding information accordion
There may be extra costs related to your course for items such as books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation, you may need to pay a subscription to a professional body for some chosen careers.
Specific additional costs for studying at Lancaster are listed below.
College fees
Lancaster is proud to be one of only a handful of UK universities to have a collegiate system. Every student belongs to a college, and all students pay a small College Membership Fee which supports the running of college events and activities. Students on some distance-learning courses are not liable to pay a college fee.
For students starting in 2025, the fee is £40 for undergraduates and research students and £15 for students on one-year courses.
Computer equipment and internet access
To support your studies, you will also require access to a computer, along with reliable internet access. You will be able to access a range of software and services from a Windows, Mac, Chromebook or Linux device. For certain degree programmes, you may need a specific device, or we may provide you with a laptop and appropriate software - details of which will be available on relevant programme pages. A dedicated IT support helpdesk is available in the event of any problems.
The University provides limited financial support to assist students who do not have the required IT equipment or broadband support in place.
Application fees for 2025
For most taught postgraduate programmes starting in 2025 you must pay a non-refundable application fee of £40. We cannot consider applications until this fee has been paid, as advised on our online secure payment system. There is no application fee for postgraduate research applications.
Application fees for 2026
There is no application fee if you are applying for postgraduate study starting in 2026.
Paying a deposit
For some of our courses you will need to pay a deposit to accept your offer and secure your place. We will let you know in your offer letter if a deposit is required and you will be given a deadline date when this is due to be paid.
The fee that you pay will depend on whether you are considered to be a home or international student. Read more about how we assign your fee status.
If you are studying on a programme of more than one year’s duration, tuition fees are reviewed annually and are not fixed for the duration of your studies. Read more about fees in subsequent years.
Details of our scholarships and bursaries for 2026-entry study are not yet available, but you can use our opportunities for 2025-entry applicants as guidance.
Marketing is everywhere, and in our Making Marketing Matter podcast, we introduce you to the world of marketing – everything from digital to advertising, sustainability to accessibility – that you can encounter as a student at Lancaster University.
The information on this site relates primarily to the stated entry year and every effort has been taken to ensure the information is correct at the time of publication.
The University will use all reasonable effort to deliver the courses as described, but the University reserves the right to make changes to advertised courses. In exceptional circumstances that are beyond the University’s reasonable control (Force Majeure Events), we may need to amend the programmes and provision advertised. In this event, the University will take reasonable steps to minimise the disruption to your studies. If a course is withdrawn or if there are any fundamental changes to your course, we will give you reasonable notice and you will be entitled to request that you are considered for an alternative course or withdraw your application. You are advised to revisit our website for up-to-date course information before you submit your application.
More information on limits to the University’s liability can be found in our legal information.
Our Students’ Charter
We believe in the importance of a strong and productive partnership between our students and staff. In order to ensure your time at Lancaster is a positive experience we have worked with the Students’ Union to articulate this relationship and the standards to which the University and its students aspire. Find out more about our Charter and student policies.
