Marketing and Design BSc Hons - 2020 Entry

Course Overview

Are you highly creative? Do you want to understand business and marketing as well as the design process? This joint honours degree in both Marketing and Design offers the chance to study a degree in business with a creative focus.

Delivered by our Design and Marketing departments, this isn’t about graphic design but rather the theory and development of the design process. You’ll develop a solid grounding in design principles and applications. You will learn how to produce design briefs, commission design work and manage marketing for any area, from packaging to online advertising. The lively discussion between marketers and contemporary designers forms an important part of your course. Interactive lectures, tutorials and seminars help bring academic principles to life.

In your first year, you will learn about business models, science and new technology, product development, sustainability, and how design interacts with social media. We’ll also explore areas ranging from consumer behaviour to marketing research, customer relationship management to marketing communications. Throughout the year, you’ll be encouraged to think about how any theory works in practice.

The second year covers subjects such as routes to market – in particular retail, the application of design thinking and marketing research methods.

Every final year student carries out a design research consultancy project with a real-life client. The best final year student receives the annual Blueprint Scholarship Award of £1200. This is funded by Blueprint Interiors, a company set up by one of our graduates.

The relationship between design and marketing is becoming increasingly more strategic and business-like. This degree gives you the skills to succeed, whichever career path you choose. 

Entry Requirements

Grade Requirements

A Level AAB

GCSE Mathematics grade B or 5, English Language grade B or 5

IELTS 6.5 overall with at least 5.5 in each component. For other English language qualifications we accept, please see our English language requirements webpages.

Other Qualifications

International Baccalaureate 35 points overall with 16 points from the best 3 Higher Level subjects

BTEC Distinction, Distinction, Distinction

We welcome applications from students with a range of alternative UK and international qualifications, including combinations of qualification. Further guidance on admission to the University, including other qualifications that we accept, frequently asked questions and information on applying, can be found on our general admissions webpages.

Contact Admissions Team + 44 (0) 1524 592028 or via ugadmissions@lancaster.ac.uk

Course Structure

Many of Lancaster's degree programmes are flexible, offering students the opportunity to cover a wide selection of subject areas to complement their main specialism. You will be able to study a range of modules, some examples of which are listed below.

Year 1

Core

• Future Global Leaders

  Future Global Leaders is a professional development module taken by all first year LUMS students. The module takes place mainly online and aims to introduce you to key ideas about leadership to help you become future leaders, to enhance your online working skills and to help you develop professional and careers skills which will enhance your employability.

• Introduction to Design

  This module will offer students a coherent general picture of design as a multidisciplinary profession, an engine of innovation and creative thinking. This will include a historical, theoretical and practice based perspectives. Within this general framework there will be a focus on:

  1. Design thinking (forecasting, multidisciplinary working)

  2. Design and business (marketing, innovation, business models for design, design in the organisation)

  3. Design and technology (science and new technology, innovation and R&D, product development)

  4. Design and society (service design, sustainability, cultural issues and social media and design)

• Introduction to Marketing

  Students must study MKTG101 in Year 1. This year-long module serves as an introduction to the theory, tools and techniques of Marketing, teaching you all the foundational touch-points of Marketing which will be further developed in detail and depth throughout your second and final year. You will explore subject areas such as: Consumer Behaviour, Marketing Communications, Business-to-Business Marketing, Customer Relationship Marketing, Marketing Research and Marketing Management.

  Throughout the year, you will be asked to consider how theory works in practice, by examining your own experience of marketing as well as contexts obtained from the press and broadcast media. Part of your learning will be based on coursework; much of this will involve working in groups but you will also harness the skills of independent learning through individual course submissions.

  Further to this students can choose any two subjects from across the university (subject to availability and timetabling). These subjects need not be Marketing related but some advisable and good subject fits with Marketing are: Accounting & Finance; Design; Law; Economics; Management and Organisation; Media Film and Cultural Studies; Management Sciences; Psychology; Sociology. Such flexibility allows you to choose subjects that excite you, with the ability to then continue with these into your second and final year. This enables the development of not only a strong major in Marketing but a strong minor in other subject areas that you are passionate about.

• Marketing Learning Community - First Year

  This module is dedicated to students majoring in Marketing. This module has four interlinked objectives:

  • Firstly, to build your firm foundations in some basic skills (i.e. critical thinking and argumentation, numerical skills, basic management accounting and managerial skills) that will underpin your performance in the marketing workplace and on your marketing degree.
  • Secondly, to start you off on the right part to acquire the job you want and the career to which you aspire.
  • Thirdly, to provide you with personal academic advice/guidance in a one-to-one setting.

  Finally, to support the development of a strong community of Marketing students. This module has five non-assessed but fully mandatory requirements to proceed to part 2.

Year 2

Core

• Consumer Behaviour

  The overall aim of this module is to develop an appreciation and understanding of consumer behaviour from both managers' and consumers' perspectives, building on current research in consumer behaviour and the social sciences generally. The lectures initially focus on consumers as individuals and then consider more closely the influence of our social experiences on behaviour. The workshops provide a chance to focus on a specialist topic within the field, focusing upon improving academic reading and analysis skills.

• Design Management
  This module aims to provide students with an overview of the knowledge and expertise design management brings to organisations and prepare them to work successfully with designers on strategic design issues. Through the lectures and seminars students will develop an appreciation of the contribution of design management for strategy, product development, customer relationships and internal problem-solving.
• Design Visualisation

  This module aims to develop an understanding of design thinking and its applications and build an awareness of the different levels of intervention in the application of design thinking and creativity. The module will introduce a range of design methods, tools and skills and support the application of design thinking via practical exercises and case studies.

• Marketing Learning Community - Second Year

  This module helps you with employability skills and also gives you training and ideas for how to excel in your academic studies. (MKTG200 is not credit bearing, i.e. it is not formally assessed as part of your final degree.)

• Marketing Research

  This module introduces the key concepts and techniques in marketing research and the analysis of marketing problems. Its main aim is to prepare you for future roles as marketing, product, brand and advertising managers by giving you the skills needed to commission, manage, interpret and use marketing information. It will also prepare you for practical market or advertising research projects conducted in your final year (e.g. MKTG310 & MKTG331). The module covers both qualitative and quantitative research methods, as well as how to run and manage research projects. For the quantitative part of the unit, you will be introduced to SPSS.

• Marketing Simulation

  The Marketing Simulation gives an integrated overview of the concepts, techniques and skills used in marketing management. This is done via a computer simulation exercise known as “Markstrat”. The objective of the course is to allow participants to develop skills in applying marketing knowledge, running an analysis and planning system, and dealing with the problems arising from working in groups and managing a business under conditions of uncertainty.

• Routes to Market

  This module provides students with knowledge and understanding of routes to market – following the various decisions, actors and actions involved in transforming the product from its raw state through to its presentation in retail and the consumer’s access to it. This understanding is important to all marketers since it allows marketers to communicate with other areas of the organisation (such as manufacturing or logistics) over issues including new product launches, promotional initiatives and so on. A particular emphasis is placed on the retail end of the route to market and the necessary coordination between brand owners and retail (possibly also wholesale) actors. The module therefore provides vital understanding and perspectives to equip you for entry level jobs in areas such as trade marketing, customer marketing, shopper marketing, category management and areas of retail. In many companies a career in brand management can only be accessed through graduate entry level jobs in these areas. The thinking is “if you can’t manage retail partners, you can’t manage brands”.

  Throughout the module attention is paid to the international contexts of routes to market, ethical questions in routes to market, modern techniques and shopping behaviour and ICT use in routes to market. Examples are drawn especially from product areas students are familiar with.

Year 3

Core

• Brand Strategy

  This module will provide students with a managerial and critical understanding of how brand strategy must integrate and balance a variety of perspectives such as the social, cultural, and creative dimensions of contemporary consumer culture with the managerial and economic determinants of organisations. Students will master the language of brand strategy, discover how the brand function fits with the other functions of an organisation, and learn how this knowledge can be applied in the real marketplace contexts. A range of theories, concepts, strategies and practices designed to build, evolve and sustain brands will be addressed across a range of categories, product types and industries. Students will be encouraged to think for themselves about the role brands currently play in cultures of consumption around the globe.

• Design Research Consultancy Project

  This provides students with the opportunity to conduct a live, practical design research consultancy exercise requiring project management and execution. It enables students to develop the specific skills of problem definition, data collection, analysis, presentation and report writing. Students will develop their ability to manage the realities and complexities of design research problems and develop their skills in working independently in small groups.

• Innovation and Design

  The module aims to develop students' understanding of innovation as a discipline and identify and evaluate some of the different modes of innovation. It will explore practically the relationship between innovation and design and develop design concepts that employ ‘innovation’ thinking.

• Marketing Learning Community - Final year

  This module helps you further develop your employability skills to get the graduate job you want. It also gives you training and ideas for how to get the degree that you are hoping for. (MKTG300 is not credit bearing, i.e. it is not formally assessed as part of your final degree.)

Optional

• Advanced Topics in Consumer Behaviour

  This module aims to provide students with the opportunity to critically review existing research and theory as it relates to a number of current consumer research specialist topics. The module provides students with the experience of applying and adapting existing theoretical frameworks to real consumer contexts and will enable a fuller engagement with the research interests of the marketing department staff. The module adopts a topic-based model; a typical syllabus would include self and identity in consumer behaviour, consumers & communications, theories of consumption, children as consumers, consumers & culture, consumer research applications in the public policy domain and consumers & ethics.

• Advertising

  The overall aim of this course is to develop an appreciation and understanding of the fast-moving and multi-faceted world of advertising from both a theoretical and managerial perspective. This course will focus on advertising within the private sector and will cover a number of contemporary issues in advertising, including social and ethical issues, international advertising and advertising regulation. On completion of this course, students should be able to demonstrate a clear understanding of advertising theory, strategy and execution.

• Business-to-Business Marketing

  This module looks at the less visible but vast area of marketing to help you understand how ideas familiar to you as marketers apply in business-to-business settings. The module aims to deepen your understanding of business-to-business markets and of the marketing activities that organisations engage in with respect to these markets. The module aims to consider a range of contexts but focuses to a large extent upon contemporary trends in B2B marketing practice and theory.

• Critical & Creative Communications

  The module concerns the communications strategies and techniques used by new social movements, brands and people. We will study a spectrum of tools and media of communications, such as lobbying, design, sustainable communications (and greenwashing). Students will use action learning to develop a campaign strategy and creative work for a major UK government campaign. We will examine how protesters and social activists use communications, and students will be encouraged to think critically about how communications shape societies and human values.

• Digital Marketing

  The module gives students an opportunity to investigate both established and emerging forms of digital marketing. Initially the focus is on integrated digital campaign planning. Commercial web analysis tools, provided by comScore, a global leader in this area, will be used to assess consumer web browsing behaviour on corporate and social websites, to inform campaign decisions. Topics discussed will include: integrated campaign planning; search marketing; digital advertising, in particular display advertising; the consumer decision journey and approaches to using commercial software. However, this does not require a statistical approach.

  Building on the knowledge of data-driven, integrated digital campaign planning, the module introduces students to strategic aspects of the ongoing digitalization of marketing activities. The aim is to explore how marketing in the digital space is not an isolated or ‘add on’ element to established marketing strategy, but increasingly becomes an integral and ‘blended’ part of key business-to-business and business-to-consumer activities. Value creation will be discussed in the context of, for example: the internet of things (IOT); personal, connected, devices (eg trackers); and innovative digital services.

• Global Marketing Management

  As marketing activities become more and more internationally focused, firms are increasingly looking for prospective employees with the knowledge and skills to address the new challenges and opportunities associated with globalisation. This module combines the latest research in the field of international marketing; providing insights, theories, concepts and tools that enable students to navigate the global market. Students will take part in interactive lectures and case study analysis that examine the trends in global marketing management. The module will also pay special attention to emerging markets and the roles they play in invigorating marketing theories and practice.

• Managing Marketing Innovation

  The aim of the module is to introduce students to theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence of contemporary innovations in markets and an exploration of marketing activities that support them. Students will be given time and opportunity to reflect on their learning and to discuss their emergent understanding. They will have the opportunity to explore challenges faced by managers of innovation, as well as comparing potential outcomes of marketing management decisions in real world scenarios.

  The module begins by identifying marketing innovations, followed by exploring the issues of why firms are thought to either typically succeed or fail in business. From here students will be encouraged to explore the changing business environments within which firms must survive. The module will be organised around six themes: (i) Creating Innovations (ii) Developing an Innovation Strategy (iii) Building the Innovative Organization (iv) Managing the Innovation Process (v) Capturing the Value from Innovations (vi) Emerging of the Contemporary Innovations in Markets. We see how Social Innovation, Innovations for Emerging Markets and Sustainability-led Innovation are emerged and contribute to the global markets.

• Marketing of Services

  This module aims to introduce students to the theoretical and research issues surrounding the fast expanding field of service marketing. It is designed to develop an understanding of the special context and techniques in the marketing of services. For those who recognise the crucial role that services play in the economy and its future, this module aims to develop an appreciation and understanding of Services Marketing from a theoretical point of view as well as business and management context. This module explores frameworks for understanding the nature and characteristics of services, and how these help in formulating marketing strategies and planning marketing tactics in relation to services. This is achieved through exploring the key theoretical foundations for services marketing, including the models and frameworks associated with the marketing of services and examining how these are employed by managers in service based companies. Other more common topics in services will also be addressed, including service quality; the role of people in service organisations; service encounters and moments of truth; customer satisfaction; customer retention; services branding and strategic issues.

• Online Consumer Engagement

  This module provides an opportunity to investigate both established and emerging forms of digital marketing. The underlying themes and principles of the dynamic world of digital media will be explored alongside discussion of topics such as viral and word of mouth campaigns, search engine optimisation, social media and digital analytics. The module will also examine why digital marketing has become so important to various stakeholders before investigating applied digital display advertising using leading industry tools for commercial web analysis.

• Strategic Marketing

  In this module on Strategic Marketing the key word is "strategic". Hence it is essential for students to obtain a solid understanding of the various perspectives on strategy. This understanding of strategy is of utmost importance as the marketing decisions must be consistent with the company's strategic choices. Often strategic planning is confused with strategy, and this module will highlight the nature of this crucial distinction by reviewing and highlighting the importance of each in Strategic Marketing. This module will focus upon applying relevant concepts and theories to appropriate contemporary developments as well as feature case studies.

• Strategic Negotiation : Making Sustainable Deals

  Students will learn how to negotiate and make sustainable business deals, not short-term persuasive negotiation tactics, instead, long-term business deals that are economically, socially and environmentally sustainable. Strategic negotiations are highly relevant in today’s interconnected business landscape. The resources that are necessary for companies to solve their problems, gain and retain customers, launch and re-launch new products or services, and develop profitable business. The resources that companies need are widely dispersed among many actors within networks of inter-connected business relationships. Companies need to negotiate with multiple stakeholders, such as suppliers, customers, agencies, governments and authorities to be able to access the resources that they need. A strategic deal that companies would need is not a fixed entity but rather the outcome of long and time-consuming negotiations that affect further negotiations. The course will examine 1) the strategic challenges that companies face in their markets today, 2) the analytical tools that are needed to make sustainable business deals, 3) the biases and errors in deal-making 4) the various ways by which business deals are manifested and 5) the managerial implications of strategic negotiations.

• The Management of Marketing

  This module focuses upon those individuals and organizations who are regarded as the most influential or powerful individuals/organizations in their chosen field and beyond. These are the individuals whose leadership or challenge to the status quo transforms their immediate arena and beyond. In so doing this class is broad in coverage affording study of prominent leaders and artists, as well as the context of their operations. The module incorporates important aspects of strategy and leaderships as well as marketing. It is suggested that examination of these individuals provides valuable lessons for corporate marketers.

Lancaster University offers a range of programmes, some of which follow a structured study programme, and others which offer the chance for you to devise a more flexible programme. We divide academic study into two sections - Part 1 (Year 1) and Part 2 (Year 2, 3 and sometimes 4). For most programmes Part 1 requires you to study 120 credits spread over at least three modules which, depending upon your programme, will be drawn from one, two or three different academic subjects. A higher degree of specialisation then develops in subsequent years. For more information about our teaching methods at Lancaster visit our Teaching and Learning section.

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research.

Careers

Thanks to the high quality of our graduates, starting salaries and employment prospects are above average and most move on to successful careers in design management, advertising, media planning and buying, qualitative and quantitative research, and marketing communications.

Some of our Marketing graduates have moved into high-profile managerial positions in the top UK advertising agencies, including Ogilvy & Mather, Grey Advertising, and Leo Burnett. Others work at leading market research companies, such as Millward Brown and NOP.

Our alumni have also recently chosen to work in Marketing functions in industry, for Asda, BT, the BBC, Disneyland, ICI, Marks and Spencer, Boots, Barclaycard, Renault, IBM, Unilever, The Body Shop, Ernst and Young and Sainsbury's, among others. 

Lancaster Management School has an award winning careers team to provide a dedicated careers and placement service offering a range of innovative services for management school students. Our high reputation means we attract a wide range of leading global employers to campus offering you the opportunity to interact with graduate recruiters from day 1 of your degree.

Fees and Funding

Fees

We set our fees on an annual basis and the 2020/21 entry fees have not yet been set.

Channel Islands and the Isle of Man

Some science and medicine courses have higher fees for students from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. You can find more details here: Island Students.

Funding

For full details of the University's financial support packages including eligibility criteria, please visit our fees and funding page

Students also need to consider further costs which may include books, stationery, printing, photocopying, binding and general subsistence on trips and visits. Following graduation it may be necessary to take out subscriptions to professional bodies and to buy business attire for job interviews.