Strategic Marketing Management and Planning Assessment

1. Module overview

1.1. Introduction 

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” 

                                                     ~ Sun Tzu, The Art of War (5th Century BC) 

Whilst the great strategist was discussing military strategy in his influential treatise,  the quotation is perfectly valid for business today - without a well-defined business  strategy, organisations run the very real risk of losing market share to competitors  and potentially going out of business. 

Through the development and implementation of strategic plans, organisations are  ultimately seeking to identify and adapt to trends in the business environment in  order to create a competitive advantage for themselves and grow their businesses.  In short, it is the process of asking: (1) 'Where are we now?'; (2) 'Where do we want  to be?'; (3) 'How do we get there?'; (4) 'Did we get there?'. 

It is these questions that you will be attempting to answer for a client organisation,  through developing an understanding of the fundamental role that strategic planning  plays in business, undertaking research in the internal / external environment in  which the organisation operates and, finally, offering solutions based on application  of the theories and frameworks that this module will add to your toolbox of  commercial skills. 

1.2. Module Leader and teaching team  

1.3. Timetable

1.4. Learning outcomes 

Upon successful completion of this module, students should be able to: 

• Develop a strategic marketing plan to support corporate and marketing  objectives 
• Distinguish marketing management techniques to successfully implement and  evaluate the strategic marketing plan 

1.5. Indicative content 

This module explores the following areas: 

• Situational analysis 
  • Establishes key methods through which the organisation can identify trends  in the external environment and understand whether the organisation has  the resources and competences to address them 
• Setting objectives 
  • Highlights methods by which clear objectives can be established, which can  then be cascaded to all departments to ensure that all employees are  working towards the same desired outcomes 
• Developing strategies 
  • Examines key theories and frameworks that can be utilised to identify a  competitive position within the market, including the identification of a target  customer segment 
• Developing tactics 
  • Considers tactical marketing tools that can help the organisation to deliver  its chosen marketing strategy 
• Implementing strategic plans 
  • Identifies fundamental tools that would be used to create a realistic plan for  implementing a marketing strategy 
• Measuring plan performance 
  • Investigates appropriate control mechanisms that can be put in place to  measure and monitor progress of a marketing strategy

2. Assessment overview

2.1. Method of assessment 

Please download and read the full assessment brief, which is available on the  module’s Moodle site. 

Assessment will be via a time-constrained assessment, in which a brief will be  released on a specific day and students will then have 24 hours to submit their  response. 

To pass this module, you must achieve a final overall mark of at least 40%. If your  mark is less than 40%, you will be required to retake the assessment. 

For full details about the university regulations applied to this module, please refer  to iCity or contact the faculty or school office for any specific questions. 

2.2. Submission 

The timings for the time-constrained assessment are as follows: 

• Assessment brief is released on 9th January 2023 at 10am 
• Responses must be submitted no later than 10th January 2023 at 10am 

Assignments must be submitted online via link provided in the Assessment area of  the module’s Moodle site. Please follow the University policy regarding online  submission and submitting assignments on time, which are outlined in the  assessment brief. 

3. Support

3.1. Tutor support 

Support is available at any time throughout this module; simply contact your tutor if  you need help. Feedforward sessions will be scheduled to help you plan your work  and an audio assessment brief will be made available on the module’s Moodle site  to provide further guidance. 

Specific feedback on individual assessment preparation will only be available via  scheduled, face-to-face meetings, not via email. To make the most of these  sessions, it is expected that you will have already begun work on your assessment preparation and have a list of questions for your tutor prepared in advance. 

Detailed feedback will not be possible via email and lecturers can only  comment in detail on one draft only. Comments on multiple preparatory work are  not possible as there is a danger your work actually becomes your lecturer’s work.  However, if you have any specific queries, or need additional support, you can still  book a tutorial at any time up to one week prior to the assessment release – tutorials and preparatory work reviews will not be provided in the final week prior to  the release, so it is important that you start your preparations early and book a  meeting as soon as possible. 

Please note that tutors are unable to indicate a provisional grade for your  preparatory work at any point prior to the official grade release date. As such, it is  requested that you do not ask tutors what grade your preparatory work is likely to  achieve prior to final submission. 

3.2. Additional support 

The Centre for Academic Success (CAS) is the University's central learning  development service, which offers additional help to students in a variety of ways.  They run workshops as well as one-to-one or small group tutorials offering a valuable extra resource in a range of study skills. You can use them to help with  academic writing, report writing, referencing, statistics and much more. 

CAS are based in the Curzon Building in C033A or you can contact the team on: 

• Tel: 0121 331 7685 
• Email: success@bcu.ac.uk

Please visit https://icity.bcu.ac.uk/celt/centre-for-academic-success/index to book a  tutorial or learn more about what is available.

4. Teaching and learning

4.1. Methods of learning 

In order to pass this module, you are expected to engage with the following weekly  activities: 

• Lecture - Weekly, one-hour sessions in a lecture theatre, which will cover the  core material that you need to learn for your assessment 
• Classroom workshop – Weekly, two-hour classroom sessions, which provide  an opportunity to learn how to properly apply the core marketing frameworks  covered in the lecture 
• Online activity - Additional reading, videos and activities to enhance your  knowledge and help you make progress on your assessment this is provided weekly and should be completed by the end of the week in which they are  released 

All module resources, including online activities, will be accessible via the Moodle e learning platform. 

4.2. Expectations 

We are sure that you will embrace your learning with enthusiasm and make the  most of the opportunities this module offers. We are committed to providing an  enriching and accessible learning environment with a wide range of resources and  services to support you. 

However, it is important to remember that learning is a partnership, so you need to take an active role! As such, the module leader and teaching team expect you to: 

• Attend all of your classroom sessions - this is monitored 
• Arrive on time and stay until the end 
• Behave appropriately - respect the tutor and other students 
• Actively listen - keep phones on silent and out of sight 
• Get involved with all classroom activities 
• Engage with all online learning material and recommended reading • Follow the news in order to identify relevant articles that may inform your work 

5. Reading and resources

5.1. Recommended reading 

There is no single core text - the material will be pulled from different sources - but  the following books will help provide a solid foundation for this module: 

• Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F. (2019). Digital Marketing: Strategy,  implementation and practice. 7th Ed. Harlow: Pearson 
• Doyle, P. (2008). Value-based marketing strategies for corporate growth and  shareholder value. 2nd Ed. John Wiley & Sons (2008) 
• Grant, M. (2021). Contemporary Strategy Analysis. 11th Ed. Wiley • Hooley, G., Nicoulaud, B., Piercy, N. and Rudd, J. (2020). Marketing Strategy  & Competitive Positioning. 7th Ed. Pearson 

5.2. Additional reading 

In addition to academic literature, you need to stay abreast of issues in the  mainstream media. As such, you are advised to download the BBC News app onto  your mobile devices and spend a few minutes each day reviewing the main stories  of the day. 

Furthermore, it is advised that you identify the types industry publications that the  client organisation might engage with. 

5.3. Moodle 

All module resources will be accessible via the Moodle e-learning platform,  including the session materials and the assessment brief. All notices and  announcements will also be sent out via this platform. 

Resources will be published on a weekly basis, usually no later than the weekend  before the session. 

You can access Moodle via an internet browser – go to https://moodle.bcu.ac.uk – or by downloading the Moodle app onto your mobile device. 

Students registered on this module should automatically have been given access to  the module on Moodle. If this is not the case, please contact the Faculty Office in  the first instance to check whether you are correctly enrolled on the module; if you  are still unable to access this area, please inform the module leader.