The aim of lectures is to provide students with direction on the key concepts and issues within each topic area, with emphasis on explaining the concept, providing a theoretical context for the concept and very importantly, through the use of examples, showing the application of the concept to real industry experience. Examples of industry application are derived by way of personal industry experience of the lecturer, educational videos and other audiovisual material, references to current marketing events or journal publications. Tutorial exercises are designed to encourage students to read the prescribed textbook and through attempting the questions independently, to test their understanding of the concepts. Students are required to provide both theoretical and practical justification to support their answers and are encouraged to share their opinions and examples via class discussion. The style of the questions are similar to those on the final exam and offer the student some practice in answering these types of questions.
Students also work in teams to prepare a marketing plan for a product or brand of their choice.
Tutors provide guidance on developing the marketing plan by providing examples of critical sections of a plan and working through in class how to research and present the report. Part 1 of the marketing plan, the Situation Analysis, is marked and returned to students with feedback on areas for improvement. Students then have the opportunity to review this section of the plan and make refinements prior to submitting Part 2, the Completed Marketing Plan. The marketing plan requires students to collect and analyse marketing information, identify key issues and recommend marketing strategies for competitive advantage. A class test is administered in week 8 of semester to provide students with an opportunity to gauge their understanding of the topics covered so far and provide students with feedback on their progress.