Faculty of Business: Marketing
Credit points: 6 cp

Subject level: Undergraduate

Result Type: Grade and marks

Requisite(s): 24108 Marketing Foundations
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses.
There are also course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.

Handbook description

This subject examines advertising, promotion and other marketing mix communications decisions from an applied viewpoint based on theory and current practice. It provides students who might be potential brand managers, advertising managers or executives with systematic approaches to setting advertising and promotion objectives, establishing budgets, identifying relevant target audiences, formulating and testing strategies, and evaluating campaign results. It considers contemporary issues in advertising, together with reference to complementary aspects such as publicity, sponsorship and direct marketing.

Subject objectives/outcomes

On successful completion of this subject students should be able to:

1. Outline the nature of the advertising process and describe its environment.
2. Recognise the managerial decisions that need to be made with respect to an advertising and promotions campaign.
3. Evaluate creative and media strategies in the light of given marketing objectives and budget.
4. Prepare a promotional plan.

Contribution to graduate profile

This subject deals with the role of "promotion", particularly advertising, in marketing management from theoretical and practical perspectives. Promotion is an extremely important part of the marketing mix, as no-one will rush to buy your product if they don't know about it! It is, therefore, vital to effectively and efficiently communicate your message about your product, service an/or idea to the marketplace. This subject will also expose students to various managerial and strategic decisions relating to advertising and promotions that are typically made by marketers and agencies. It is not the objective of this subject to analyse the techniques for creating or producing advertisements.

Teaching and learning strategies

This will be by a 2-hour lecture and a 1-hour tutorial during the 3 hours assigned each week. Students must at least read the assigned chapters each week and be prepared to answer questions with examples. Student input is vital for the success of the tutorials. Participation in at least 80 percent of the classes is required to pass the subject. Where this is not possible, the subject coordinator must be consulted at the beginning of the semester.

Content

• Introduction to IMC
• Perspectives on Consumer Behaviour
• Communication Process
• Objectives and Budget
• Creative Strategy
• Media Planning and Strategy
• Campaign Effectiveness.

Assessment

Assignment 1 (Individual)	30%
These addresses objectives 1–3.
Assignment 2: Promotional Plan (Group)	30%
This addresses objectives 1-4.
Final Exam (Individual)	40%
This addresses objectives 1–4.

The examination will be conducted under University examination conditions, and hence thoroughly address concerns regarding secure assessment. The assignments will be secured through a combination of updating of assessment tasks across semesters and/or plagiarism detection software.

Recommended text(s)

Belch, George and Michael Belch (2004). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, 6th edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

Waller, David (1999). How To Prepare a Promotional Plan, Irwin/McGraw-Hill.

Indicative references

Arens, William F. (1999). Contemporary Advertising, 7th edition, Irwin: Homewood Il.

Batra, Rajeev, John G. Meyers and David A. Aaker (1996). Advertising Management, Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Rossiter, John and Larry Percy (1997). Advertising, Communications and Promotion Management, McGraw-Hill.

Shimp, Terence (2000). Advertising Promotion, 5th edition, The Dryden Press (Harcourt Brace and Company International Edition).