This document sets out important information concerning your course. Please read it carefully.

LearnOnline Site
Please refer to the course LearnOnline site for other information to assist you with your studies.

Points of Contact
Your primary point of contact for all information about the course including course content, teaching arrangements, course materials, assessment requirements, and grades, is the Course Coordinator. The Coordinator's contact details are shown below.

Other contacts which you may use from time to time are also shown below, however you should refer all issues concerning your participation in this course to the Course Coordinator in the first instance.

If leaving a phone message or email, please allow at least one working day for staff to respond.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In 2018 the University launched its strategic plan Enterprise 25 (E25). Central to E25 is a commitment to orientating ourselves around our academic programs to ensure the quality of their delivery and the student experience. To meet this objective the institution is undergoing an academic transformation of Divisions and Schools to Academic Units. This transformation will occur on the 6th April 2020. Additional information regarding E25 is available at https://www.unisa.edu.au/About-UniSA/strategic-action-plan/

 

MBA Administration
University of South Australia Business School
City West Campus
Yungondi Building, level 1
T: +61 8 8302 9086
mbaunisa@unisa.edu.au 

There are no prerequisite courses to be completed before this course can be undertaken.

There are no corequisite courses to be completed in conjunction with this course.

This course will provide students with the foundation to lead the marketing function in their organisation or in their own business. Students will acquire an appreciation of evidence-based marketing and how to make decisions within a sustainable brand growth framework.

On completion of this course, students should be able to:

CO1. Critically reflect on empirically based principles of marketing and the role of the marketing function in contemporary organisations.

CO2. Critically evaluate and plan how market response can be stimulated and managed within a sustainable growth framework and the implications for organisational management and leadership.

CO3. Apply marketing management concepts and principles in diverse and international business and enterprise environments.

CO4. Demonstrate Business School Enterprise Skills: i) Problem Solving (advanced level); and ii) Teamwork (advanced level).

Upon completion of this course, students will have achieved the following combination of Graduate Qualities and Course Objectives:

A graduate of UniSA:

GQ1. operates effectively with and upon a body of knowledge of sufficient depth to begin professional practice

GQ2. is prepared for life-long learning in pursuit of personal development and excellence in professional practice

GQ3. is an effective problem solver, capable of applying logical, critical, and creative thinking to a range of problems

GQ4. can work both autonomously and collaboratively as a professional

GQ5. is committed to ethical action and social responsibility as a professional and citizen

GQ6. communicates effectively in professional practice and as a member of the community

GQ7. demonstrates international perspectives as a professional and as a citizen

This course begins with identifying the fundamentals of human behaviour as they relate to buying and marketing more generally. It then covers the marketing environment, methods and processes for market research, understanding product, and pricing decisions, developing mental availability through marketing communications and the importance of physical availability and distribution.

4.5 units

This course will involve the production of audio and/or video recordings of UniSA students. To protect student privacy, you must not at any time disclose, reproduce or publish these recordings, or related material, in the public domain including online, unless the videoed students give consent for reproduction, disclosure or publication. This requirement is consistent with University statutes, by-laws, policies, rules and guidelines which you agreed to abide by when you signed the Student Enrolment Declaration.

Program Learning Outcome Assessed (non–graded)

As part of the Business School’s Assurance of Learning process in Programs, the underlined components in the following Program Learning Outcome (PLO) statement will be assessed in this course and the overall findings will inform continuous improvements within Programs. Performance on the PLOs will not form part of any course grade and no feedback on individual performance will be provided.

PLO3 – Work Alone and in Teams & Ethical Actions: Demonstrate a high level of personal autonomy, adaptability and the ability to motivate teams, applying judgement in an ethically and socially responsible manner in sustainable business leadership and senior executive decision making.

 

Assignment protocols – collection and use of data

Assignments on your own workplace
If you do a major assignment for this course on your own workplace, you must seek permission from your employer prior to commencing the assignment.

A copy of the assignment cannot be given to any party other than your employer unless your employer agrees in writing for this to be done.

If a copy of the assignment is provided to your employer, or to any other party beyond course assessment purposes, all reference to UniSA, the program of study, and the course itself, must first be removed from the report. The report must not be presented as a UniSA report or be linked to UniSA in any way.

Assignments on other businesses or settings
If you do a major assignment for this course on an organisation or situation other than your own organisation and, in doing so, you intend to gather information that is not otherwise publically available, you must:
Discuss your proposed assignment with your Course Facilitator prior to commencing any work on it.
Give the party providing you with information a written statement of disclosure setting out:
a) The capacity in which you are acting; this will usually be “I am seeking information in my capacity as a student undertaking university studies”.
b) The purpose for which the information will be used; usually “The information will be used as part of a university course report to be submitted for assessment”.
c) Who will receive a copy of the report; normally this will be “The report will not to be used for any other purpose other than for university course assessment”.
d) There may be instances where the report might be provided to another party, such as an organisation that is the focus of the assignment i.e.: “The report will be used for university course assessment and will be provided to XYZ”.
e) Confidentiality and anonymity protocols: normally this will be “Information will not be requested that is personal to you and no references will be included in the report that could directly or knowingly identify you as the source of information”.
f) The name and contact details of the School’s Academic Integrity Officer with an invitation for the person to contact the AI Officer if any matters of concern arise: “If you have any concerns with the gathering or use of information please contact the School of Marketing Academic Integrity Officer, Ms. Monica Orlovic: email: monica.orlovic@unisa.edu.au 

A copy of your proposed statement of disclosure must be provided to, and approved by, your course facilitator prior to your proceeding with the assignment.

Where a report is provided to another party beyond course assessment purposes, all reference to UniSA, the program of study, and the course itself, must first be removed from the report. The report must not be presented as a UniSA report or be linked to UniSA in any way.

You will need continual access to the following text(s) to complete this course. Where possible the Library will make the book available for student use. Please check the Library catalogue before purchasing the book(s). The Library will always seek to purchase resources that allow an unlimited number of concurrent users, however availability is dependent on license arrangements with book publishers and platforms. http://www.library.unisa.edu.au

Byron Sharp (2017). Marketing: Theory, Evidence, Practice (2nd). Oxford University Press.

The textbook is mainly to complement the material in the Study Guide.

If you wish to consult or refer to other material and/or read more widely you could look at some of the texts below,  in addition to the Course Textbook.

Sharp, B. 2010, How brands grow: What marketers don’t know, Oxford University Press.

Romaniuk, J. & Sharp, B. 2016, How Brands Grow part 2, Oxford University Press.

Romaniuk, J. 2018, Building Distinctive Brand Assets, Oxford University Press.

 

These are evidence-based books but with the purpose of being useful for managers.

JOURNALS AND PERIODICALS

Serious, scholarly marketing work can be found in a range of journals. These are primarily for academics and not written for managers.

Admap (A UK 'thinking marketing practitioners' journal, with a consumer goods focus)
The Journal of Marketing (American Marketing Association)
The Journal of Marketing Research (American Marketing Association)
The Australasian Journal of Marketing
The European Journal of Marketing
Harvard Business Review
The Journal of Consumer Research
The International Journal of Research in Marketing

All course related materials can be accessed through your learnonline course site which you will be able to access from the my Courses section in myUniSA.

All study related materials can be accessed through: https://my.unisa.edu.au

Details of assessment submission and return are listed under each assessment task. Assessment tasks will be returned to you within two to three weeks of submission.

 

Cover sheets

A cover sheet is not required for assessment tasks submitted via learnonline, as the system automatically generates one.

 

If the Course Coordinator allows submissions in hard copy format, you will be required to attach an Assignment Cover Sheet which is available on the learnonline student help (https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=1843&chapterid=567) and in myUniSA.

 

The feedback proforma is available on your course site.

Submission in 4 chosen weeks (375 words each)
In the LearnOnline site a question is set for each topic (see 'For Assessment 1 submission') that will give you the opportunity to apply the concepts covered in the week's reading. You need to CHOOSE 4 of these to submit during the course. If you choose to submit an answer for a week you are required to submit it to the Course Facilitator, via the LearnOnLine system. The due date is Sunday 11:55PM before the class of that week.
You are required to make a minimum of two submissions prior to week 5.

The submission must be no more than 375 words. Less is certainly acceptable, as are dot points. It is the essential content and indication of your thinking that counts. We will discuss each question in class following the submissions. The mark for each submission will be out of 5.

References are not normally expected for these exercises. If you feel you need to support your decision, proposal or conclusions please cite in brackets the key term or principle or part of the Study Guide or the Textbook that contains the relevant principle, concept or framework. If you think you need to use a reference from a journal, use the Harvard Referencing style.

Assignment length: 3500 Words

Due Date: 8 March2020, 11:55 PM (Adelaide time)

There are two options:

a) As a group of 4-6 write a marketing plan for a brand selected from the list below.

The marketing plan template will be covered in Topic 3 in some detail. Note that the development of extensive budgets and financial returns is not required for this assignment. Dot points may be incorporated within the body of the text. It is primarily an informal report and you may adopt your own format as long as you address the questions set. This is not an essay.

The marketing plan sections are weighted as follows:
Executive summary: 5%
Introduction: 2%
Situation analysis: 28%
SWOT analysis: 14%
Objectives and Strategy: 10%
Tactics: 26%
Implementation and control: 15%
And the financial section can give up to +5% bonus marks.

This assignment will also provide you with the opportunity to enhance and refine your skills relating to working effectively with others. The ability to collaborate with people at workplaces to achieve business objectives is a valued skill. In addition, working in teams will also allow you to learn from others and demonstrate leadership.

 
The purpose of this exercise is for your group to demonstrate and apply what you have learned in the course.

Brands for selection (note only one team per brand)

-UniSA MBA program

-Sofitel Adelaide (either rooms or events)

-Wirra Wirra (winery)

-Remedy Kombucha

-Adelaide Convention Centre (attract international conventions to South Australia)

-Haighs

-Iron Jack beer

-Jurlique

-Australian Cancer Research Foundation

-Me bank (pick a product)
The first part of your job will be to define the scope of your marketing plan, i.e. country (we recommend Australia/Adelaide), the product(s) etc. You will identify the 'problem' the marketing plan seeks to address through a relevant situation analysis.

OR

b) You may propose to do a marketing exercise on a project that would be useful to you and/or your organisation. This could be to revitalise the marketing of a business or it could devise a Marketing Plan for a new business or service project. You must gain the approval of the Course Coordinator if you plan to do this option as it is important that the project offers enough scope to demonstrate what you have learned on the course and is not too ambitious and requiring more than would be feasible in the time available.

 

Scope: This assignment will assess the application of major concepts, frameworks and principles expounded in this course to a real-world business/management situation.

Formatting and Layout: 3500 words, excluding the Executive Summary, Contents list, tables, appendices, any references. Please state the Word Count at the start of the Report. We recommend use of the template discussed in Topic 3.

Marking Criteria and Standards: The demonstration of understanding and application of course concepts, principles, frameworks and terms.

Only one member of a Group needs to submit the Report - do this via the Learn Online course site.

Peer assessment: As part of the assessment of this assignment, a peer assessment will occur. This will be used to moderate the grade each team member receives for the group assignment. This means that if you do not work to the satisfaction of the other members of your team, you should not expect to receive the team grade. The peer assessment will produce a standardised metric that is used to moderate individual grades.

In the performance assessment each member of the team assesses every other member (including themselves) and may provide written (professional) feedback on performance. Remember that both quality and quantity of participation is important in assessing the contribution of your fellow team members.

Two rounds of peer assessment will be held, the first in week 5, the second following submission of the marketing plan. The second peer assessment will affect the individual grades achieved for this assessment.

Assignment length: 1500 Words

Due date: 22 March 2020, 11:55 PM (Adelaide time)

You will be randomly assigned to evaluate a submitted marketing plan of another group and write a critique of it. You will place yourself in the role of a general manager and your brand manager has submitted the team's marketing plan. Your submission should be written as a memo to the group preparing the plan - it is your thoughts regarding their work. Do not worry about the framing, your memo is not actually going to be given to the team so you do not need to worry about upsetting people, it should however be professionally written as though you were writing it for your staff.
Your content should relate back to the course content and importantly focus on the critique, don't just repeat the plan's content! Note that a critique does not need to be negative - if the team has done things particularly well in the context of the framework then identify that. The the 'best/worst' does not mean find something bad, it's just what's the weakest element in what might be a great piece of work.

The critique will have four parts:
1 - The SWOT
2 - The objectives and overall strategies
3 - The tactics that are to be implemented to achieve the objectives.
4 - The best and worst parts of the plan

 

The purpose of this critique is to identify how well the plan implements the theory and evidence that has been discussed over the course.

 

See above under Assessment details.

This course does not have an exam.

Variation to exam arrangements does not apply to this course.

Supplementary assessment or examination offers students an opportunity to gain a supplementary pass (SP) and is available to all students under the following conditions unless supplementary assessment or examination has not been approved for the course:

1. if the student has achieved a final grade between 45-49 per cent (F1) in a course
2. if a student who has successfully completed all of the courses within their program, with the exception of two courses in which they were enrolled in their final study period, a supplementary assessment or examination may be granted where the final grade in either or both of these courses, is less than 45 percent (F1 or F2) and all assessments in the courses were attempted by the student. Supplementary assessment will not be available for a course under investigation for academic integrity until the investigation is completed, and determined that it did not constitute academic misconduct.

More information about supplementary assessment is available in section 7.5 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual.
http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/

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All students must adhere to the University of South Australia's policies about assessment:
http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/.

Students are normally expected to attend a minimum of 80% of the seminars scheduled for the course. Students enrolled in courses delivered online are normally expected to participate in a minimum of 80% of the compulsory online discussion forums scheduled for the course.

To obtain an overall pass grade in the course students must normally achieve at least 50% for the sum of the individually assessed components of the course.

The marketing plan also includes self and peer assessment as an individual activity.

Students with disabilities or medical conditions or students who are carers of a person with a disability may be entitled to a variation or modification to standard assessment arrangements.  See Section 7 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual (APPM) at:  http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/

 

Students who require variations or modifications to standard assessment arrangements should make contact with their Course Coordinator as early as possible in order to ensure that appropriate supports can be implemented or arranged in a timely manner.

 

Students can register for an Access Plan with UniSA Access & Inclusion Service. It is important to make contact early to ensure that appropriate support can be implemented or arranged in a timely manner. See the Access and Inclusion for more information: https://i.unisa.edu.au/students/student-support-services/access-inclusion/

Students are advised there is a deadline to finalise Access Plan arrangements for examinations. Further information is available at:  http://i.unisa.edu.au/campus-central/Exams_R/Before-the-Exam/Alternative-exam-arrangements/

Deferred assessment or examination is available for the course.

Special consideration is available for this course. Note: Special consideration cannot be granted for a deferred assessment or examination, or a supplementary assessment or examination. APPM 7.7.6

Variation to assessment methods, tasks and timelines may be provided in:

Unexpected or exceptional circumstances, for example bereavement, unexpected illness (details of unexpected or exceptional circumstances for which variation may be considered are discussed in clauses 7.8 - 7.10 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual). Variation to assessment in unexpected or exceptional circumstances should be discussed with your course coordinator as soon as possible.

Special circumstances, for example religious observance grounds, or community services (details of special circumstances for which variation can be considered are discussed in clause 7.11 of the Assessment Policy and Procedures Manual). Variations to assessment in expected circumstances must be requested within the first two weeks of the course (or equivalent for accelerated or intensive teaching).

 

Students with disabilities or medical conditions please refer to Students with disabilities or medical conditions.

 The University policy and procedures are in the current Assessment Policies and Procedures Manual, which can be found at: http://w3.unisa.edu.au/policies/manual/default.asp

All grades are provisional until confirmed by the UniSA Business School Program Committee.

Late Submission Penalties
The Policy of the University of South Australia Business School will be applied to any late submissions. A standard penalty of 10% a day will be deducted from the total available mark for the assignment, for up to 7 calendar days. After 7 calendar days the assignment will no longer be accepted.

Academic integrity is the foundation of university life and is fundamental to the reputation of UniSA and its staff and students. Academic integrity means a commitment by all staff and students to act with honesty, trustworthiness, fairness, respect and responsibility in all academic work.

An important part of practising integrity in academic work is showing respect for other people's ideas, and being honest about how they have contributed to your work. This means taking care not to represent the work of others as your own. Using another person's work without proper acknowledgement is considered Academic Misconduct, and the University takes this very seriously.

The University of South Australia expects students to demonstrate the highest standards of academic integrity so that its degrees are earned honestly and are trusted and valued by its students and their employers. To ensure this happens, the University has policies and procedures in place to promote academic integrity and manage academic misconduct. For example, work submitted electronically by students for assessment will be examined for copied and un-referenced text using the text comparison software Turnitin http://www.turnitin.com.

More information about academic integrity and what constitutes academic misconduct can be found in Section 9 of the Assessment Policies and Procedures Manual (APPM): http://i.unisa.edu.au/policies-and-procedures/codes/assessment-policies/. The Academic Integrity Module explains in more detail how students can work with integrity at the University: https://lo.unisa.edu.au/mod/book/view.php?id=252142

Referencing

You are required to use the Harvard Referencing system. Please refer to the Referencing LearnOnline site: http://resource.unisa.edu.au/course/view.php?id=1572

Marking Criteria
Please refer to Assessment Feedback Forms for a guide on the marking criteria.

Group Work
When a group of students work collaboratively on a task or an assignment that is graded as part of the course assessment, it is a requirement that each student in the group report on his/her perception of the contribution of others in the group, via the Peer Assessment Form available at: http://resource.unisa.edu.au/file.php/930/Group_Assignment_Peer_Assessment.docx. A poor contribution by any member, as reported by other members, may result in a reduced grade for that member.

Final Grades
Final grades for this course will normally be made available via the MyUniSA portal within three weeks of final assessment.

You will be asked to provide anonymous feedback regarding all aspects of your course. Your honest, constructive feedback allows the University to improve the teaching and learning environment as well as outcomes for all concerned.

If you have a complaint or grievance regarding academic programs, decisions of committees and administrative operations or individual staff members, please refer to the following website for the procedures for the resolution of student grievances: http://www.unisa.edu.au/policies/policies/corporate/C17.asp

The University will take all reasonable steps to resolve student complaints in an expeditious and satisfactory manner in all matters.

The information below show the suggested alterations/considerations for assessment items and exam dependent on the duration of the unplanned  outage

 

less than 1 hour outage. No impact on either assessment or examination

 

1 to 4 hour outage.     Assessment  - Consider an extension. Examination - No impact.

 

4 to 24 hour outage.     Assessment - 24 hour extension. Examination - Be mindful of outage when marking

 

Over 24 hour outage.   Assessment - 48 hour extension. Examination- Be mindful of outage when marking