Global brand strategy adaptation or unlocking brand potential across boundaries

Highly competitive international marketing environment demands well equipped graduates who are going to be business leaders. Hence research skills are of crucial importance in marketing intelligence. Constantly changing international marketing environment, changes in consumer behaviour and organisations responding to these changes require international marketers with excellent research skills and cutting edge knowledge of constructs and models to tackle marketing challenges.

The module helps you to develop research skills as well as providing you a sandbox to develop your dissertation research proposals. The module also encourages you to develop a critical review of the scholarship in your chosen topic of interest. This course introduces you to the field of marketing research and the ways in which it can help managers make better marketing decisions.

Aims

This 20 credit postgraduate module provides a systematic introduction to qualitative and quantitative approaches to research design, data collection and analysis in social sciences while also introducing market research techniques and practices with an emphasis on the international marketing environment and its needs and challenges. You will have the opportunity to analyse data collected from major surveys and to develop a critical understanding of the use of statistics in research and report writing. The module is designed to provide you with a sound basis for Masters level marketing research as well as a basis on which more advanced studies can build.

International marketers need to have a clear understanding of both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Along with skills in marketing intelligence and skills in the use and knowledge of industrial and public databases, this module aims to help students being able to deal with appropriate data and relevant methods. This is a key skill globally recognised.

The module sessions are designed to develop these key skills which are also priceless for conducting postgraduate research. You will work towards developing a research proposal for your dissertation.

Learning Outcomes

Please see MA Student Handbook for detailed information about Learning Outcomes. You will be able to define the objectives of a research project, plan a valid and feasible research design to meet the objectives, justify your choices, and develop a coherent research proposal for the MA Dissertation. Upon completion of the module, you should have knowledge and skills that connect to the overall learning outcomes of the programme, as indicated in the table below:

Module Learning Outcomes (MLOs)    Programme Learning Outcomes (PLOs)
Developing a clear understanding of the key principles in marketing research challenges regarding the design, data collection and analysis and interpretation    KU1, KU2, KU10, IC1
Research design strategies for data collection using various qualitative and quantitative techniques, including structured and/or  qualitative questionnaires and large- and small-scale surveys    KU1, IC2, IC6, IC10, PTP12
Understanding and using different methods and tools while also being aware of their limitations    KU5, IC5, IC9, PTP5
Identify and use analysis techniques for marketing data, including the ways of interpretation, sampling and basic use of descriptive and inferential statistics    KU6, KU7, IC1, IC10, IC11, PTP1, PTP2, PTP12
Developing an understanding of how marketing research is used to solve marketing problems and an appreciation of a selection of quantitative methods used in marketing research    IC3, IC4, PTP3, PTP4
Mastering research skills and their use in marketing intelligence via the use statistical software to analyse data; and developing the capacity to understand the output of marketing research investigations     IC6, IC7, IC8, IC9, IC12, PTP7
Developing oral and written skills for dissemination of marketing research    PTP4, PTP5, PTP6, PTP8, PTP10, PTP11

Teaching/Learning Strategy

If Elective, please tick the preferred mode of delivery:

Weekly – over 5 weeks        Evening – over the 5 weeks        Over one Weekend        In one week – 3 hours per day        Sandwich – intensive long day – a gap and then one more session

The main teaching method for this module will be lectures and seminars offering hands on practical sessions. You will be able to use the software and data sets available. Not only requiring you to describe methods and techniques but the module will also require you to use them.

The module will include mini-lectures at the beginning of sessions and class discussions in a seminar format will follow. The tutor will help you to explore and understand the issues covered in the session by asking questions, and trying to answer your questions.

To enhance your learning experience, the module follows the logic of the marketing research process, starting with the planning, and through the collection, and analysis of data relevant to marketing decision making and communication of the results of this analysis to management.

Assessment Methods

Assessment will be based on the following:
%
1.    Class participation                20
2.    Literature review                40
3.    Dissertation Research Proposal            40

Assessment 1: Class participation

Rationale for Assignment
You will be required to be prepared in each session and engage with the lecturer and peers on topics discussed as suggested in the module outline. There will be mini-presentations and classroom discussions; as well as some hands on practices including interviewing techniques, and research instrument development (e.g. questionnaires).

Learning Outcomes being met:    IC1, IC2, IC3, IC9, IC11, PTP3, PTP4, PTP5, PTP12

Assessment 2: Literature review

Rationale for Assignment
You will be required to identify one or more key international marketing issues and/or problems and conduct a literature review on the chosen subject. The aim of the assignment is to develop your research skills and ability to engage with the literature. The literature review should be organised in a way to indicate that the key texts and materials are screened and main arguments are clearly outlined while also pointing out the gaps in the literature where your dissertation research can possibly contribute. Your literature review should help you to narrow down your research focus and develop a research question and a long list of potential hypotheses on which your research will be developed and designed. The literature review will form the basis for background chapters in your dissertation while also providing guidance for research design in terms of methods, instruments and analysis as well as overall approach. The submitted literature review must be approximately 1500 – 1800 words and must be fully referenced according to Harvard style.

Submission deadline: in Week 7

Learning Outcomes being met:    KU1, KU2, KU6, KU9, KU10, IC5, IC7, IC8, IC10, PTP5, PTP6, PTP7, PTP8

Assessment 3: Dissertation Research Proposal

Rationale for Assignment

You will prepare a dissertation research proposal. This assignment builds upon the first assignment where you have reviewed the relevant literature and developed research questions and identified gaps. Writing the research proposal is a crucial part of your dissertation research process and it requires a great deal of time and effort. Your ideas should be organised, expressed in a convincing way. The proposal must have a title and outline; explain why your research is worth the effort. You will show that you are familiar with the relevant literature and how your research fits into the debate in the literature. It will just provide an overview of the literature. Research questions and objectives must be clearly stated and it should flow out of your literature review. Method section is the key part of the proposal and it must clearly describe and explain how you will carry out the research, methods of data collection and analysis which are all to be justified. There must be a clear timescale indicating various tasks to be achieved (you can use a Gantt chart for this). Finally, you should present resources and references. Regarding resources, data availability issues need to be addressed. The final submitted output should comply with writing style and referencing guidelines appropriate to MA level. Final submitted dissertation proposal must not exceed 2000 words limit which excludes front matter, references and appendices (if any).

Submission deadline: in Week 11

Learning Outcomes being met:    KU3: KU5: KU6: KU8: ICI: IC2: IC3: IC5: IC6: IC7: IC9: IC11; PTP1: PTP2: PTP3: PTP5: PTP9: PTP10: PTP11 PTP6 PTP11

Indicative Content

•    The marketing research processes and design
•    Research problems, objectives and information needs
•    Writing a research proposal
•    Implementing qualitative and quantitative research
•    Instrument development – Questionnaires, schedules, etc.
•    Survey and sampling methods
•    Data preparation and analysis
•    Statistics for decision making
•    Case study research
•    Preference mapping for new product development
•    Conjoint analysis for product positioning
•    Cluster analysis for segmentation purposes
•    Advertising research– test marketing, sales and market share analysis
•    Presenting results for marketing decisions
•    Marketing research ethics
•    Evaluating research

Teaching Schedule / Weekly Themes

The following is a suggested indicative content:

Activity: Draft and present a Marketing Research Brief

Saunders et al. (2008). Research Methods for Business Students. 5th edn – Chapter 1.
Kent (2006). Marketing Research Methods. – Chapter 1, 2