HFMA03082U Modul 5: Strategic marketing communications – theory and practice

The course aims at giving useful insights into and knowledge about modern marketing communications. The theoretical starting point will be an understanding of a radically changed media environment within the last 15-20 years caused by rapid technological development, changed user behaviors and global challenges.

An important aspect of the course will be to teach the students how marketing communications contributes in creating value for modern organizations and businesses. We will start by demonstrating how marketing communication strategies are being built and pursue aspects of planning and execution of these strategies.

On this backdrop the course will examine which types of actors exists in the industry on both “client-side“ and “agency-side” (buyers and sellers of marketing communication services and products), so that the students will get a clear overview of who does what and which competences are sought for in the industry, and which job profiles that exists.

Based on case studies the students will learn how marketing communication solutions are created at both agency- and client-side, how the two sides work together and what is need to create successful solutions.

The course will introduce both B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer) communication solutions so that the students will be able to work with and understand the differences between communicating with consumers and businesses clients. With both national and international case studies the students will also get to understand how marketing communications are created and rolled out in both local and global business settings.

Key trends such as “integrated marketing”, “digital strategies”, “permission marketing”, “content marketing”, and “meaningful marketing” will also be introduced both in theory and practice. The students will learn how to apply a critical stance towards such trends and buzzwords and see how these themselves are part of the marketing strategies of competitors in the industry in a battle of winning clients and business.

We will also look at disciplines such as CSR and employer branding as distinct types of communication strategies.

Key technologies and digital concepts such as Google, social media, mobile and apps will also take up a major part of the course, as these have profoundly changed the industry and are now something that any marketer must understand and master in order to have success.

As part of teaching how to achieve results the students will learn how to set-up success criteria/Key Performance Indicators, how to work with end-user research when building marketing communication strategies, and finally how to plan and execute marketing activities together with internal and external stakeholders in the organization and external environment of the sender.