Bachelor of Science in Marketing

Launch your marketing career by earning your Bachelor of Science in Marketing from a top 25 UK university.

The Bachelor of Science in Marketing provides a foundation for advanced and independent study through establishing a common platform of essential knowledge and skills. You’ll gain a unique insight into the role and function of marketing in our society and a global perspective on the ways marketing impacts different nations and peoples. A range of themes are offered to ensure that you get to appreciate the diverse, interdisciplinary nature of business administration and marketing and also gain or reinforce a range of conceptual, technical, quantitative and personal skills.

Experience a progressive degree structure that allows you to move from general modules to more critical or specialist modules. You will gain the ability to analyse real-life problems facing actual businesses and evaluate the effectiveness and limitations of different marketing and management solutions and practices.

The Bachelor’s degree is led by academics at Royal Holloway’s School of Business and Management. Royal Holloway is in the top 25 per cent of UK universities for research rated ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (REF 2014).

• Gain an in-depth understanding of marketing theory and practice. Build the foundation of marketing theory and skill through immersive, interactive experiences while engaging with fellow students and academic staff from across the world. You’ll get job-ready online with pre-recorded videos, readings, discussion forums, quizzes, online tutorials, and intellectually challenging debates in weekly study hours.
• Learn from internationally renowned experts. Study under some of the best minds in marketing. You’ll be taught by leading academics at Royal Holloway’s School of Business and Management, University of London, a UK top 25 university (The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2021).
• Get job-ready on your schedule. Gain the knowledge and experience necessary to succeed in management, strategy, design, and analyst roles as you build the leadership and interpersonal skills employers are looking for. Upon graduating the programme, you’ll be ready to bring demonstrable, transferable expertise to any business sector.

If you’re an inquisitive learner, this is the programme for you. Built on the underlying principles of accessible learning, simple-to-navigate content, and studying while having fun, this programme has been designed with a range of integrated knowledge and skills development approaches to encourage learning, including pre-recorded videos, readings, formative discussion forums, formative multiple-choice quizzes (MCQs) and online tutorials. Hyperlinks are embedded to relevant book chapters, journal articles and worthy topical news items.

Each 30-credit module comprises weekly topics, corresponding to the key content items detailed in the module descriptors, and equating to approximately 10-12 hours of directed learning per week. In addition, an assessment revision unit is included as a capstone to each module. You will also be encouraged to share and construct knowledge through participation in discussion forums and the live tutorials with 6 per module.

Stage 1 – four compulsory modules:

Foundations of quantitative methods for sustainable organisations In this module, you’ll be familiarised with quantitative studies and how they are and can be employed in management, economics and for sustainable business. Main topics of the module include:

• Data presentation
• Measures of central tendency and variation & index numbers
• Probability and probability distributions
• Political economy
• Natural resource economics theory
• Sustainability and climate change

Interpreting management, market and consumption In this module, you’ll be introduced to marketing in the context of interpreting management, as both an academic discipline and as practice. Main topics of the module include:

• The marketing system under capitalism
• Brands and branding
• Marketing beyond profit
• Critical thinking, reading, analysis and organisation theory
• Organisation theory
• Modernist organisation theory

Information systems and organisation studies This module offers an introduction to information systems and organisation studies. Main topics of the module include:

• Information systems and employability
• The e-business and collaboration
• Databases and information management
• Fundamental issues in organisation studies
• Managing and managers
• Organisational culture

International business and accounting In this module, you’ll be introduced to the subjects of international business and accounting. Main topics of the module include:

• Globalisation
• Foreign direct investment (FDI)
• Trade flows and international trade theory
• Measuring and reporting financial performance
• Analysing and interpreting financial statements
• Making capital investment decisions

Stage 2 – four compulsory modules:

Employability and human resource management

This module introduces career development and human resource management. Main topics of the module include:

• Skills and skill development
• Using social networks in your job and internship hunt
• Networking, postgraduate study and your career service and beyond
• What is HRM?
• Strategy and HRM
• HR planning

Strategic management and accounting This module introduces strategy and the use of accounting information by managers in organisations. Main topics of the module include:

• Strategy and strategising
• Historical threads in strategy development
• Mergers, acquisitions & alliances
• Introduction to management accounting
• Cost-volume-profit analysis
• Strategic approaches to performance management

Operations management and marketing strategy This module examines operations management and marketing strategy. Main topics of the module include:

• Design of the operations network
• Operations strategy
• Inventory planning and control
• Marketing analysis
• The competitive environment
• Using the segmenting, targeting and positioning model (STP)

Marketing research and digital consumer culture This module examines marketing research and digital marketing. Main topics of the module include:

• Planning research: defining problem, brief and proposal
• Secondary data: nature and sources
• Managing data collection
• Fundamentals of digital marketing (DM)
• DM and consumer culture
• DM strategy & implementation

Stage 3 – three compulsory modules:

Integrating management: business, leadership and innovation

This module draws together what you’ve learned over the entire programme. Main topics of the module include:

• Introduction - the business context, reputation and responsible management in the 21st century; Introduction 2 – sustainability, responsibility and ethics
• Implications of and for strategic management
• Innovation as a core business process
• Building the innovative organisation
• Design, innovation and entrepreneurship
• Leadership and innovation failure

Contemporary issues in consumer behaviour and global marketing This module develops a critical understanding of consumer behaviour and global marketing. Main topics of the module include:

• Consumer choice and consumer rationality
• Perception
• Attitude, beliefs and motivations
• Understanding the global marketing environment and some selected dynamics
• Global marketing, globalisation and neo-colonialism
• Global orchestration of ‘consumer behaviour’

Brands, branding and advertising This module develops a critical understanding of branding, and will provide you with a strategic perspective on contemporary marketing communication. Main topics of the module include:

• Introduction to brands and branding
• Evolution of branding
• Characteristics of brands and rationale for branding
• Advertising and promotion under media convergence
• The changing landscape for advertising under digitisation
• Advertising theory—alternative understandings of advertising effect

Optional Stage 3 modules:

International human resource management This module examines practical examples and the latest research in human resource management (HRM). Main topics of the module include:

• International human resource management
• Introduction to international HRM
• International staffing policy in multinational corporations (MNCs)
• Organisational structures of multinational companies
• Culture and IHRM
• Skills, knowledge and organisational learning: national differences
• Cross-border mergers and acquisitions

The individual at work and globalisation Gain an overview of contemporary subjects of interest in the field of organisational behaviour and examine the impact of globalisation on work. Main topics of the module include:

• Identity at work
• Job design and remote work
• Teamwork and virtual teams
• Capitalism, nations and globalisation
• The nature of work, labour process theory and globalisation
• Employment relations – from Fordism to neo-liberalism, waged labour to entrepreneurs

Emerging markets and Asia Pacific business This module examines emerging markets’ commercial realities and national cultures within the context of a global economy. Main topics of the module include:

• Emerging markets and the global economy: History and Development
• Global production chains
• Business groups and networks
• The ‘Miracle’ of the Asia Pacific?
• The Asia Pacific and the Global Economy: History and Development
• Banks and Financial Markets