Marketing 229 – Routes to Market
Course Overview
This module is a core element of Marketing degrees at Lancaster. It covers key asp[ects of modern marketing in considering point of sale (retail). It is directly relevant to what we shall term “Route to Market Marketing jobs” . These include shopper marketing, trade marketing and category management. The module enlarges your career options.
Mktg builds on Mktg 101 or Mktg 227. It provides background relevant to final year modules including Strategy (301), Negotiations (303), Global Marketing (303) and Business to Business Marketing(329). It is a prerequisite for Marketing 327 and Mktg225.
Module Aims
Provide students with understanding of practical challenges in marketing posed by distribution. Introduce students’ knowledge and understanding of techniques in managing the routes through which consumer products reach audiences.
Deepen understanding of value as understood by shoppers and organisations
Enhance understanding of ethical issues in marketing.
Deepen understanding of context in which marketers work.
Module Learning Outcomes
Understand the role of the route to market in marketing, how value is created and captured in this. Relate the availability of products to upstream activity and to the nature of the product.
Identify channel functions and how these take place.
Appreciate interconnections in the route to market – and their practical and ethical implications.
Understand the importance of the shopper and the concept of shopper segmentation.
Understand techniques used by brands in retail contexts.
Employability Skills
Conduct a process of enquiry- conduct independent research, evaluate sources, present information in a visually accessible way.
Analyse and evaluate industry data.
Concise communication of analysis and conclusions
Autonomous work skills and ‘self management,.
Module Structure
The module comprises three themes with relevant information and discussion delivered in lectures.
Theme 1: Understanding marketing at the retail level
Week 11 – Introduction to the module and understanding VALUE in your own shopping
Week 12 – Retail structures and introduction to shopper psychology and marketing responses.
Week 13 – Route to Market marketing jobs – Shopper Marketing, Category Management and Trade Marketing. What do these jobs involve?
Week 14 – by now your assignment should be quite advanced, so we will have aa lecture to look at information searches, use of information and AI anything else that allows you to relate your project to the lecture content.
Theme 2 – Marketing and supply chains
Week 15– Delivering value through the supply chain – how do we get what drives value in our personal value statement? What has to have happened behind the scenes? What do marketers need to understand about supple chain activity?
Week 16 - Internationalisation and global supply chains. We will be looking at contemporary supply chains and there will be some politics discussed. We will be looking at tariffs or other issues of relevance at the time.
Theme 3 – Ethics in the route to market.
Week 17 – Global connections – we shall be looking at how you are connected to the world through the goods and services that you consume. What are the implications of this for social and environmental justice?
Week 18 - How do marketers seek to use ethics to attract customers. To what extent do you trust the ethics of the products you buy?
Week 19 – Bottom of the Pyramid Marketing and luxury markets We shall be looking at these contrasting markets and at the particularities of the supply chain and marketing activity in both cases.
Week 20 – Review of the module and exam preparation.
Workshops
Workshops are a very important part of the module and take place in weeks 12, 14, 16 and 18.
Brief preparation is required for each workshop. A file will be added in the preceding week to the workshop section of moodle. This includes brief reading and questions to prepare. We anticipate that this will take you about 1 hour. Workshop activity is the best place to test your understanding and to cover practical topics that are useful to the exam.
Assessment –
MKTG229 is assessed 50% by coursework and 50% by exam.
Coursework
In coursework you must pick any object that you have bought and that interests you (please no bananas!).
Your project should explain how value has been delivered to you and according to your own ‘value statement,. The project is therefore personal. You will need to consider – why did you buy it and at that price? What was the influence of the retail environment on your purchase? How has shopper marketing or store placement been used to influence you? In order to deliver to your value statement (eg being fresh or being right place right time, or being cheaper than the alternatives) what activity has taken place behind the scenes and how was this managed?
In other words, your task is to unpack the seemingly mundane and everyday task of getting goods into shoppers, hands. A lot of work goes into the mundane and it is your task to show that.
Your assignment can be delivered in a variety of formats – but you are limited to 800 words (+/-10%). This word count is tight. But you are able to additionally use ANY visuals (eg graphs, cartoons, pictures, figures, timelines etc etc etc) in which you can convey information more effectively that through lengthy writing. Words included in your visuals do not count in your word count. Your assignment is due in at the end of term.
More information will be given in a separate moodle document. This will explain also the criteria by which we assess your work.
EXAM – there is also a take home summer exam. You will need to answer 2 of 4 questions. Fuller information will be issued in advance.
Resources will be added to moodle – these may include academic papers, trade publications, videos, podcasts and more.