Course: Marketing Communication and Research credits: 5

A vast number of business activities worldwide involve making marketing decisions in an international setting. Students will be challenged to translate these decisions into an appropriate marketing communication strategy in a particular context, from a client’s perspective.
 
Therefore, Marketing Communication & Research emphasizes the evaluation and choice of alternatives in order to achieve organizational objectives in an international business environment. As such, this module equips the student with the basic concepts and knowledge he needs to segment the market, carry out target group research for a brand, and translate research outcomes into clearly defined brand positioning. Various teaching methods will be used, such as lectures and ‘flipped-class room methods’. 
 
Special attention is devoted to the online media landscape and the components and importance of content strategy. Because most companies operate in an international environment, students also receive an introduction to concepts on intercultural communication theory and explore the impact of culture on brand positioning. The students explore their own cultural identity (subcultures, behavioral patterns, norms and values, basic assumptions), he acknowledges differences in cultural perspectives and develops cultural curiosity.
 
Research occupies a crucial place in this module since it introduces techniques and principles the student needs to master in order to prepare for a debriefing and to collect, analyze and evaluate data. Part of this research takes place online. Students are trained in the use of professional analytical tools and monitoring software for online media and big data. These tools are used in relatively simple analyses to answer questions such as “What do people say about my organisation / my brand / my competition?”, “Who are the most important influencers?”, and “What is the current sentiment?”. Additional learning objectives include developing critical thinking on effective online marketing (communication) topics.
 
This course module is particularly relevant for the online content marketing project (CIB1), since it incorporates elements of basic marketing strategy, research, online marketing communication and intercultural communication theory.
 
Overview key subjects included in this course:

• Segmentation, targeting, positioning strategies.
• Product, place, price, promotion.
• Branding.
• Social media landscape: what does it mean? How can it help businesses? How do businesses integrate social media?
• Content strategy: steps and planning, storytelling.
• Online monitoring and effects of social media.
• Influence of business structures and corporate culture on intercultural business communication.
• Cultural rules and establishing relationships, intercultural information, decisions and solutions.
• Qualitative research, debriefing, data collection methods.
• Analysis and (online) data evaluation.