MSc in Marketing Communications Management
Oxford Brookes University
Key Information
Campus location
Headington, United Kingdom
Languages
English
Study format
On-Campus
Duration
1 - 2 year
Pace
Full time, Part time
Tuition fees
GBP 16,200 / per year *
Application deadline
Request info
Earliest start date
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* UK students full-time: £10,400 | International/EU students full-time: £16,200
Scholarships
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Introduction
Develop your knowledge and skills with our Marketing Communications Management MSc.
This is a conversion course designed for students with limited marketing experience. However, if you have some marketing background you can develop your knowledge and skills particularly in the following areas:
- brand communication strategies
- the use of branded and content management
- and the more traditional methods such as advertising and public relations.
You will work on live projects for real clients. And if you start in September you can opt to take a year's paid supervised work placement in a marketing role. This work experience will prepare you for your future career in areas such as:
- advertising
- public relations
- social media marketing
- influencer marketing
- branded content
- content marketing
- media planning.
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Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Curriculum
Learning and assessment
You will study a series of compulsory modules, including a module that will help you develop your professional and academic skills. You then choose either a dissertation or a client project.
If you start in September, you can choose the sandwich mode, which gives you the opportunity to apply for one year's paid supervised work experience in a marketing role.
Study modules
Compulsory modules
- Introduction to the Principles of Marketing
This module introduces the key principles of marketing by studying the theories that underpin the subject. You will explore the roles of buyers, the marketing environment, and the ways in which marketers plan, manage, implement and monitor marketing programmes in the context of the international environment of the 21st century. - Understanding Customer Behaviour
You will critically appraise the behaviours of customers and their interactions with marketing. Informed by behavioural science, you will analyse why customers behave as they do and how marketing activity influences their behaviours. This analysis informs your critical understanding and implementation of both strategic and responsible marketing practices. An innovative dimension of this course is the investigation of change agents that will significantly influence the behaviours of customers in the future, for example, neuroscience, climate change and technology innovation. This is an analytical module that utilises research evidence to inform evaluation, behavioural and communications research. - Research Methods for Events and Marketing
This module delivers the skills that enable you to conduct marketing research independently. Students on the MSc programmes are expected to undertake effective research drawing upon a range of secondary and primary data sources in the preparation of coursework. It is important that you are exposed to a range of methodological issues, data collection techniques and study skills. In addition, this module is geared towards the preparation for, and successful completion of, high quality, rigorous and systematic research for business and management. - Professional and Academic Development
- This professional and academic skills development module helps you to become a lifelong learner, develop career focus and enhances your employability. Starting with a focus on how to achieve your best academically, you then develop your skills for employment and career planning. You will work through a self-development plan, taking the lead in your own learning and development. You will be coached in identifying, engaging in and reflecting on how you can gain from developmental activities within the university and externally.
- Strategic Brand Management
You will examine how brands are created and successfully managed. You will explore the latest research and practice in strategic brand management and focus on innovative approaches to new product development. Key ethical, environmental and socio-cultural implications for contemporary brand management are analysed within regional, national and global contexts. The latest research and practice in strategic brand management and the use of social media and digital communications technology is investigated. On completing this module, you will have gained advanced knowledge of the latest tools, techniques and broader societal implications of contemporary strategic brand management. - Brand and Marketing Communications
You will explore the role and usage of contemporary brand and marketing communications and the fundamental insight that an organisation's brand strategy needs to be at the heart of all its marketing communications activities. A professional and ethically responsible focus will help you to consider multiple stakeholders' needs – eg consumers, businesses, the media, pressure groups – in a global context. A broad range of marketing communications channels and tools will be critically assessed. This includes advertising, public relations, sponsorship and digital marketing communications. Creative and strategic insights from current practice will help your understanding and application of marketing communications skills. - Content Marketing Management
This module investigates the concepts of branded content and content marketing. You will particularly focus on the role and application of content marketing as a new managerial approach in marketing communications. The module critically examines the fundamental paradigm shift within the marketing communications landscape from push to pull marketing which has led to the rise of branded content and content marketing. Furthermore, this module clarifies what differentiates branded content and content marketing from other key marketing communications concepts and management approaches. You will learn to develop ethically responsible content marketing management practices across a variety of sectors and consider multiple stakeholders on a regional, national and international level. - Digital and Social Media Marketing Strategy
Digital technologies have transformed marketing, they offer new sources of customer insight, they have dramatically changed customer behaviour, enabled new business models and impacted how organisations interact with their customers and key stakeholders. This module aims to take a strategic perspective of the digital and social media environment. It focuses on the interaction between consumers, businesses and other organisations and how thinking digitally can assist in effective marketing. Web-based media, mobile platforms, social media and digital tools are reviewed, practised and critically evaluated to identify successful performance and to create contemporary digital marketing strategies.
Final project - choose one of
- Dissertation
The dissertation is an opportunity for you to explore and develop expertise in marketing communications. You are encouraged to choose a topic that will be valuable in your future career. This is a self-managed activity, with you driving your own research project, with guidance and advice by a supervisor, based on the proposal developed in the Research Methods in Marketing module. - Client Project
You have the opportunity to link theory to practice by analysing a real organisational issue. Having identified a project (with the approval of both the client company and the Module Leader) you investigate a particular issue, one that can be supported through the relevant literature and by conducting primary research with the client. This module is not an internship but can be taken in conjunction with an internship you have identified and are participating in. The 'issue' in question may be a current management problem for the client organisation or related to future strategic choices. The Client Project provides you with a significant learning and personal development experience.
Work placement
- Marketing Practice (sandwich mode)
This module is a great opportunity to gain one year’s supervised full time paid work experience in the UK or internationally in a marketing role. You will investigate a marketing challenge in a commercial or non-profit organisation. Throughout this placement, you apply the practical concepts you are learning in the course. When you are working for the organisation, you will be responsible for managing a large proportion of your own learning, including tracking and recording your progress.
We provide lots of support to help you find paid work experience and gain connections with various organisations. Our placements team (WAVES) has a database that records work placement opportunities and they run numerous placements fairs where you could meet potential employers. Securing a work experience placement is your responsibility and does take a lot of effort, but this gives you valuable experience. You would need to cover your own living and travel costs throughout this duration.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
The MSc Marketing Communications Management Programme provides essential knowledge through the core modules:
- Introduction to the Principles of Marketing
- Understanding Customer Behaviour
- Digital and Social Media Marketing Strategy
- Research Methods for Events
- Marketing and Professional and Academic Development.
The programme further develops specialist content through:
- Brands and Marketing Communications,
- Strategic Brand Management
- Content Marketing Management
- Dissertation or Client Project.
This learning enables our graduates to choose career pathways in a range of marketing generalist and specialist areas as follows:
Marketing/Business Sector (which covers both Business to Business and Business to Customer disciplines)
- Marketing Communications
- Communications Agencies (e.g. Advertising, PR, Media, Digital, Integrated, Social Media)
- Market/ Marketing Research
- Business Consultancy
- Retailing (online/ offline)
- Customer Relationship Management
- Ethical/ Green Marketing
- Non- Profit Organisations
- International Marketing
Employers include:
- Johnson & Johnson
- Hitachi
- DK
- Avis
- PWC
- Nielsen
Our graduates' positions in marketing communications are:
- communications manager
- advertising manager
- public relations executive
- media planner
- media buyer
- content marketing executive
- marketing researcher
- customer relationship manager
- strategic planner
- creative planner
- partnership manager,
- sponsorship coordinator
- account manager
- social media executive
- sales manager
These roles are across commercial and non-commercial sectors as well as communications agencies. In addition, some of our students go on to start their own companies.
We have strong relationships with companies in a range of industries that inform the programme design and delivery and provide opportunities for placements and employment. Our Careers Service helps students gain the ‘competitive edge’ when applying for jobs by offering help with CVs, and mock assessment centres and interviews.
Program Admission Requirements
Demonstrate your commitment and readiness to succeed in business school by taking the GMAT exam – the most widely used exam for admissions that measures your critical thinking and reasoning skills.
Download the GMAT mini quiz to get a flavour of the questions you’ll find in the exam.