REGULATIONS FOR MASTER OF COMMERCE DEGREE IN STRATEGIC MARKETING (BS35)

 

Duration	2 years
Credit Load	396
Minimum Credit Load	360
Maximum Credit Load	430
Maximum MBKs Credit Load	288
ZNQF Level	9

 

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1    These regulations shall be read in conjunction with the Faculty Business Science

           Regulations and the General Academic Regulations for Postgraduate Diplomas and taught Masters degrees herein referred to as General Regulations.

1.2 The degree will be awarded to candidates who have successfully completed the programme and passed the examinations in accordance with regulations set in below. The particular focus of the Master of Commerce in Strategic Marketing is to enable the manager to operate at a strategic level and manage effectively within a complex and uncertain environment.

2. 2. OBJECTIVES

Students should be able to:

2.1 Gain a broad understanding of the managerial techniques of decision-making. 

2.2          Design, implement and evaluate marketing plans including digital, international marketing, integrated marketing communication, and service marketing strategies.

2.3 Enrich the development and managerial prospects through learning within the context of their own experience. 

2.4  Appreciate the marketing discipline as ubiquitous in all business institutions.

2.5  Gain a broad understanding of the strategic role of marketing in any organisation.

2.6          Undertake marketing consultancy in specialised areas of marketing.

3. 3. ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

Applicants should have a good honours degree (first or upper second) in Marketing, Business Management, Tourism and Hospitality Management, Insurance and Risk Management, Economics and Entrepreneurship, or any other relevant degree programme.

4. 4. GENERAL PROVISIONS

Registration will take place in accordance with the arrangements prescribed for each semester through the Registrar’s Office. A student’s registration shall not be confirmed until she/he has fulfilled the requirements for payment of fees. A student registered for the programme is expected to attend classes prescribed per each module. The programme shall not commence with fewer than ten students. The programme shall be studied over a minimum period of four (4) semesters and maximum period of eight (8) semesters. The students shall undergo orientation on aspects of registration and progression. A student requires a minimum of 396 credits to complete the programme.

5. 5. ASSESSMENT

Students are expected to write formal examinations in the two quarters of the semester.

• Tobe admitted to the examination the candidate must have:
  • Writtenall assignments and tests given for the module during the semester.
  • Attended all the lectures.
  • Participated in prescribed seminars, tutorials, and practical classes.
  • Paid the prescribed fees in accordance with the General Regulations.
• Continuous assessment shall contribute 40% of the overall assessment, while the final examination contributes 60%. No continuous assessment shall be carried over to the next semester.
• The aggregate pass mark shall be 50%, comprising of final examination mark and continuous assessment mark.
• To be admitted to the examinations, a candidate must:
  • be a registered student of the Midlands State University in accordance with the General Regulations;
  • have satisfactorily attended lectures of the modules on offer in the quarter. Satisfactory attendance to lectures of the modules shall inclde participation and submission of all written assignments, presentations, and tests that constitute the continuous assessment.
• Candidates shall normally submit a dissertation in level 2.2 provided that:
  • the dissertation was done by the student under the supervision of the allocated supervisor.
  • the dissertation was done in two semesters (Level 2.1 – level 2.2), unless there are special circumstances as can be directed by the Department, Faculty, Senate orAcademic Board.
  • where a student fails to submit a dissertation, it is an automaticFAIL and the student will be required to redo using a new topic and under the supervision of a different supervisor from the one allocated in the previous semester.

6. PROVISION FOR PROGRESSION

A student shall progress automatically from one level to the other provided s/he is carrying less than 50% of the modules from the previous semester or level.

7. DEGREE CLASSIFICATION

For purposes of degree classification, the parts of the degree programme shall be classified as follows:

Level 1 (Semesters 1 and 2) 50%

Level 2 (Semesters 1 and 2) 50% 

8. GRADING SCHEME

The following grading scheme shall be used for all the modules.

80% – 100%                  Distinction

70% – 79%                    Merit

60% – 69%                   Credit

50% – 59%               Pass

Below 50%        Fail

For the Dissertation, a mark between 40 – 49, is a RESUBMIT, in which the student is required to resubmit the dissertation within THREE (3) MONTHS from the date of the examination’s publication.

 PROGRAMME STRUCTURE

9. MODULE SYNOPSES

MMRK731 Integrated Marketing Communications

Integrated marketing communications and corporate strategy; marketing communications environment, marketing communications theories; segmentation, targeting, and positioning in promotional strategy; consumer and organisational buyer behaviour; determination of marketing communications objectives; promotional budget appropriation methods; the marketing communications industry agencies, roles, structures, and remuneration methods; the media mix and characteristics of media, press, broadcast, outdoor, cinema, the Internet and social media, mobile phone, supplemental media; the marketing communications mix sales promotion, public relations, sponsorship, personal selling, direct marketing, exhibitions, advertising,  packaging, merchandising, and word of mouth; globalisation and international marketing communications; legal and ethical issues in marketing communications strategy; evaluation of integrated marketing communications strategy.

MMRK732 International Marketing Strategy 

Strategic importance, scope, and challenge of international marketing; international economic environment; political-legal issues in international marketing; socio-cultural issues in international marketing; technological environment and internationalisation of businesses; international consumer and buyer behaviour; international marketing information and research; international market entry strategies; product and service decisions in international marketing; international marketing communications; international distribution strategy; pricing in an international marketing context; organisational structure in international marketing; and measuring the success of international marketing strategy.

MMRK733 Business Research Methods

 Introduction to business research; research philosophies and research approaches; primary and secondary research; business research and marketing research; research briefs and research proposals; literature review; research design and research strategy; sampling; research methods; research ethics; qualitative data analysis, quantitative data analysis; writing up a research report.

MMRK734 Accounting for Managers

Roles of management accounting in corporate strategic decision-making; management accounting and decision-making (cost/volume/profit analysis~assumptions and limitations, application to profit planning and price/outcome decisions); budgeting and budgetary controls (fixed and flexible budgets, responsibility accounting, standard costs and variance analysis ratios for control); financial implications of marketing management decisions on corporate resources and performance including cash flow, profitability and risk; introduction to profit and loss and balance sheet analysis (financial ratios, financial interpretation; integrating results of financial analysis into marketing analysis and planning.

MMRK735 Consumer Behaviour

Consumer buyer behaviour and marketing strategy; consumer and customer research; market segmentation, targeting and positioning; consumer motivation; personality; perception; learning; attitude; social class; culture and subculture; family; international consumer behaviour; consumer influence and diffusion of innovations; and consumer decision-making.

MMRK736 Strategic Marketing 

Role of marketing in society, marketing management philosophies and applications of marketing; marketing environment and marketing planning; competitor analysis; consumer and organisational behaviour; segmentation, targeting and positioning; international marketing; product management; new product development; service marketing; brand management; pricing decisions; promotion decisions (advertising, public relations, sales promotion, direct marketing, sponsorship, etc.); place decisions; and measuring marketing performance.

MMRK737 Global Economy

 Globalisation trends and philosophy; motivations for globalisation; global strategy framework; basic competitive strategy profiles; pitfalls of global marketing; globalisation from a macro perspective; growth of Asian competitors.

MMRK738 Strategic Quality Management

The module defines the key concepts in quality management and further identifies the quality phases. It also explores how excellence in organisation and delivery of unparalleled service can be achieved through people, re-engineering and benchmarking. Costs of non-conformance to quality, costs of quality and quality perceptions will be studied.

MMRK739 Advanced Corporate Governance and Ethics

The student is prepared for a leadership role within organisations through an exploration of the importance of social and moral values in business and management. This exploration takes place at organisational level, where the critical role of Board of Directors in shaping and defining of corporate conduct is examined. At individual level, the module examines the dilemmas marketers face in seeking to balance and integrate the often conflicting demands of personal and professional life.

MMRK740 Entrepreneurial Marketing Strategy

The module seeks to raise students’ awareness of the theoretical and philosophical thinking in the development and interrelationship of entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial marketing strategies. It adopts a deliberate practical approach that enables student practitioners at masters’ level to fuse the philosophical concepts, tools and procedures to apply to their organizations so as to remain competitive and going forward. The module uses case analysis from a global perspective and Zimbabwean experiences to redefine and rejuvenate their organisations through key learning obtained.

MMRK831 Digital Marketing

The module covers the background, current state and future of e-marketing or digital marketing; e-marketing strategic planning and the e-marketing plan; international markets, ethical and legal issues in e-marketing; the e-marketing environment; marketing knowledge and marketing research in e-marketing; consumer behaviour and e-marketing; e-marketing and segmentation, targeting, and positioning strategies; managing e-marketing mix decisions—product, pricing, e-marketing communications, place and the Internet; and relationship marketing in the new economy.

MMRK832 Advanced Data Analysis Techniques

The module covers Descriptive Statistics, Probability, Random variables, The Normal Distribution, Sampling and Sampling Distribution, Confidence Intervals, Hypothesis Testing, Analysis of Variance, Simple Linear, Regression and Correlation, Multiple Regression, Exploratory factor Analysis, Non Parametric methods and Chi-Square Test, Bayesian Statistics and Decision Analysis, Sampling Methods, Univariate and Multivariate Techniques using SPSS, Data Mining for Business Intelligence, Data Visualisation, Dimension Reduction and Thematic content analysis. Enhance competencies in softwares / packages used in research such as ATLAS, SPSS, SMARTPLS and AMOS.

MMRK833 Services Marketing & Consultancy 

Understanding service products, customers and markets (fundamentals of services marketing, customer behaviour in service contexts and segmentation, targeting and positioning services in competitive markets); Critical elements in service marketing (designing the service product, designing marketing communications strategy for services, managing pricing policy and revenues in service contexts, managing services distribution policy); Managing the service value chain (designing and 368 managing service processes, balancing service demand and operations capacity, auditing and reengineering the service environment, managing people for service excellence); Implementing service marketing strategies (relationship marketing in the service context, customer feedback and service recovery, managing service quality and employee productivity, organising for service leadership); Consultancy (theory of consultancy, marketing consulting and the research process; strategic marketing models and marketing consultancy; client brief and/or Terms of Reference, interpreting the client consultancy brief, generating and agreeing the consultancy proposal; implementing the consultancy proposal: research and/or strategic marketing decision-making; reporting findings or recommendations of a consultancy assignment, structure and content of consultancy reports, presenting a consultancy report to a client(s), and agreeing the way forward, immediate versus delayed exit. 

MMRK834 Relationship Marketing Strategy

The module identifies the need to market products and services to both internal and external customers. It describes and examines ways of developing and maintaining customer relationships.

MMRK835 Corporate Strategy

The module deals with the process of formulating and implementing strategy in modern business enterprises. Case discussions and class debates challenge students to develop interpersonal skills that they require to communicate effectively in the business world, and to analyse markets and select strategies that allow firms to achieve superior long-term performance.

MMRK836 Strategic Brand Management

Branding, brand management and marketing management; customer-based brand equity; brand positioning and brand values; selecting brand elements for brand equity building; designing marketing strategies to build brand equity; application of marketing communications in building brand equity; leveraging secondary brand knowledge to build brand equity; designing a brand equity measure and management framework; measuring sources of brand equity capturing customer mindset; measuring outputs of brand equity, capturing market performance; developing and implementing brand strategies; introducing and naming new products and brand extensions; managing brands over their brand life cycles; and managing brands across international boundaries.

MMRK837 Social Marketing

Introduction to social marketing; social marketing planning process, cases in social marketing campaigns; analysing the social marketing environment; application of research theory in social marketing; analysing competition, barriers and needs within social marketing settings; audience segmentation and targeting; defining social marketing goals and/or objectives; identifying barriers, benefits, competition and significant others; designing social marketing strategies; developing the desired positioning strategy; product strategy; pricing strategy; place strategy; promotion strategy messages, messengers and creative strategies; promotion strategy selecting communication channels; managing social marketing campaigns; developing a monitoring and evaluation plan for social marketing campaigns; budgeting and fund raising for social marketing programmes; designing implementation plans and sustaining behaviours; and ethical issues in social marketing

MMRK838 Dissertation/Research Project

A student is required to submit a dissertation of approximately 20 000 words on a topic relating to marketing within a period as may be prescribed by the department. This is an independent project in content areas related to marketing management areas. Students work under the supervision of an assigned departmental lecturer to address comprehensive industry/sector-based or research-orientated problems with documented results. The completed project should clearly present the problem of the research subject investigated or applied project undertaken, its significance to theory or business practice, the research or project background, a well-defined method, results or findings, and their implications.