Digital Marketing (Professional Practice) MSc

Digital marketing is central to the contemporary business environment and is emerging as a fundamental aspect of marketing strategy. This module aims to provide you with a strong theoretical and practical understanding of digital marketing strategy, identifying objectives, strategies and tactics relating to digital marketing strategy and planning in the modern business environment. In studying this module, you have an opportunity to develop an understanding of the role of customer insights and enhanced customer engagement, focusing on direct and digital marketing tools and their implementation in the digital domain.

This module focuses on marketing communications with emphasis placed on how organisations can leverage an understanding of consumer behaviour to engage, influence and communicate with consumers effectively both on-line and off-line. A range of concepts will be introduced to build a multi-dimensional understanding of how consumers think, feel and behave, and to advance your understanding of the design and development of marketing communications strategy and campaigns.

With many industries generating huge volumes of data almost continuously the challenge for these industries is understanding how this data can be utilised for developing organisational value. This module introduces the field of Big Data, sources, management and visualisaiton. The module will evaluate and consider a range of features in the area, and provide opportunity to work with multiple online and offline data sets, investigate ethical issues around the data and explore different data collection strategies. Experience in these areas gives a holistic overview of organisational challenges and an informed perspective in decision making through the utilisation of big data.

In today’s highly mobile and interconnected world of business, you will undoubtedly find yourself working with culturally diverse teams, partnerships and customer bases. It is therefore essential that you are able to offer future employers, colleagues and other stakeholders an adaptable interculturally aware and responsive approach. In the light of that, this module fosters transferable skills fundamental to global employability. Your professional and personal development will be guided through the application of the eight CIPD Behaviours, University of Huddersfield’s target Graduate Attributes, and key Intercultural Effectiveness skills and mindsets. As you develop professionally through your subject studies you will increase consciousness of your individual cultural make-up and the impact of this on behaviour, relationships and worldview in order to navigate beyond the borders of your own culture. You will develop a conscious approach to effective global practice, responding positively to difference, and constructing strategies to deal with intercultural workplace encounters.

As more and new corporate and trading actors emerge onto the global commercial scene, questions as to the relationship between business and human rights increasingly raise profound and intriguing problems of law and policy. This module, alert to historic developments, and drawing on principles of international law, investigates how national, regional and international initiatives to regulate the ever-changing dynamics of financial and cultural globalisation, are affecting respect for human rights in contemporary society. Your study will focus on some of the key dilemmas and opportunities arising from shifts in power dynamics towards non-state actors, enquiring as to how the UN’s negotiation and legal frameworks are adapting for the purpose of protecting rights and ensuring the viability of trading networks in the 21st century.

This module will provide a comprehensive understanding of employment relations perspectives and debates, focusing not just on the theoretical, practical and legislative aspects of this constantly evolving subject area but also to manage employment relations strategies and their outcomes on organisational climate, employees and management. Through critical application of activities, knowledge and behavioural competencies learners this module aims to equip you to strategically manage employment relations practices across broad organisational settings e.g. non-union and union environments, to enable the effective management of the employment relationship.

This module will review the principles and applications of information systems and business intelligence in different types of businesses and organisations. The role of information systems and business intelligence in modern operations and supply chains will be reviewed and discussed. The most recent advances in technology, their applications and implications in managing businesses will be discussed. Different types of information and enterprise systems and software will be reviewed and discussed in this module. Issues to be considered in the implementation and use of these packages will be highlighted.

EQ (emotional intelligence) is considered to be the ‘soft’ skill which the sharpest leaders use. This module encourages you to enhance your effectiveness in areas of EQ such as self-awareness, self management, mindset, integrity, maturity, empathy, inter- and intrapersonal intelligences, and physical context. All of this is contextualised within a framework for developing effective relationship management in team work and leadership.

As more and new corporate and trading actors emerge onto the global commercial scene, questions as to the relationship between business and human rights increasingly raise profound and intriguing problems of law and policy. This module, alert to historic developments, and drawing on principles of international law, investigates how national, regional and international initiatives to regulate the ever-changing dynamics of financial and cultural globalisation, are affecting respect for human rights in contemporary society.

Businesses around the globe are becoming more aware of their role in helping to build a more sustainable future. Consequently, this module will aim to provide you with an integrative understanding of the role of business in overcoming the challenges of sustainability. Utilising both theory and practice-based frameworks related to business responsibility, corporate sustainability and sustainable development, you will have the opportunity to identify, and assess the challenges associated with the responsibilities of business. You will also be introduced to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with a view towards examining how businesses could collaborate to achieve these.

The Individual Research Project provides an opportunity to pursue your own interests and engage more deeply with your subject by completing an in-depth piece of research work using relevant research methods. Working autonomously, but under the guidance of a supervisor, you will make choices about the most appropriate methods and then conduct your own research project. Through the Individual Research Project, you will have the opportunity to greatly enhance your own knowledge and skills. The research will be presented in written format using academic conventions recognised in your field.

The Group Consultancy Project provides you with the opportunity to engage in a ‘real world’ live client brief. You will work in small teams and will be expected to engage in the process of scoping the project with the business client, undertake the necessary information gathering, analysing the information and make recommendations to the client. As part of this module, you will also need to evaluate how principles of ethics, sustainability and responsibility influence your professional decision making.

The module will encourage you to develop your entrepreneurial mind-set, and help you understand the challenges and opportunities of starting and running a new venture. Your entrepreneurial skills and abilities will be guided through the application of different entrepreneurial tools and techniques – as well as practical exercises - that should enable you to assess your own entrepreneurial readiness, while preparing for the risky, uncertain and challenging environment of creating new ventures.