Master of Science in Marketing and Consumer Psychology
Course Descriptions
Study Block 1: Core Knowledge
BUS 501 Consumer Psychology (3 Credits)
This course aims to build students’ abilities to evaluate and analyze the key theoretical concepts in consumer psychology and to apply these concepts to solve marketing problems. Students would review the key psychological, social, and cultural factors influencing consumer decisions and develop the basic techniques of understanding consumers’ psychology. Making use of case-analysis, students can develop their analytical skills in applying consumer psychology research in real world settings. Marketing Ethics and social responsibility of firms and consumers will be discussed.
BUS 502 Marketing Communications and Brand Management (3 Credits)
This course aims to develop and enhance students’ knowledge base and skills with theories and practice in the planning, implementation and evaluation of effective Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) campaigns and brand development programmes in the international and local context. By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to apply concepts to practice, analyse real cases from an IMC perspective, develop IMC plans and present them in a professional manner, and making use of IMC plans to build strong brands. Students can develop their analytical skills in applying consumer psychology research to different marketing communication settings.
BUS 503 Applications of Psychology to Marketing (3 Credits)
This course is a survey of psychological principles applied to the work place and market. It is a practical course in which knowledge of business and psychology are welded together to tackle the challenges faced by business organizations. It aims to introduce students the psychosocial, interpersonal, and behavioural dynamics of people in markets, develop students’ abilities in utilizing systems and skills in psychology to analyse issues in marketing, and critically review business issues in marketing strategies such as positioning, branding, product development, pricing, distribution, and promotion.
BUS 540 Strategic Innovation and Marketing Management (3 Credits)
This course focuses on how innovation affects the competitive dynamics of product strategy, how marketers should strategically manage innovation, and how marketers should best create and implement strategies to maximize success and create value to customers. Students will learn the principles underlying innovation and problem-solving in the modern business context and develop an appreciation of the strategic implications and opportunities resulting from dynamic innovation. It aims to enhance students’ ability to formulate a firm's innovation and collaboration strategy, and assess and resolve marketing challenges in a rapidly changing environment.
BUS 521 Digital Marketing and Internet Consumer Behaviour (3 Credits)
This course aims to introduce students to cutting-edge research in the intersecting areas of consumer psychology and new media marketing. It provides students with advanced knowledge of the fundamental and critical impact of the Internet and how it changes consumer psychology, behaviour and traditional marketing practices. Major features of internet consumer behaviour will be identified and explained. Prevailing techniques in understanding e-marketing opportunities, challenges, and strategies and design of e-marketing plan will be included. Common strategies for the marketing of goods and services via Internet and social media will be discussed and evaluated.
BUS 522 Chinese Psychology and Marketing (3 Credits)
This course aims to familiarize students with the important knowledge, frameworks and concepts of marketing from a Chinese psychological and cultural perspective. It draws on knowledge of cultural, cross-cultural, and social psychology from abroad, and tests this against the experience and behaviour of Chinese people. It will apply relevant psychological principles and methods to the study of Chinese psychology and behaviour to develop students’ capacity to apply marketing strategies to a given situation in the China market.
BUS 523 Customer Relationship Management (3 Credits)
This course aims to familiarize students with the important knowledge, frameworks and concepts of customer relationship management. Making use of the concepts of consumer psychology, the course will examine how to measure long-run customer profitability, how to create value for customers, how to acquire, develop, and retain customers, and how to build up a close and loyal relationship with customers. It aims to develop students’ practical skills in applying customer relationship management principles to analyze customer data, create solutions for a specific business, and develop a close relationship with customers.
BUS 524 Global Marketing (3 Credits)
This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the fundamental concepts and issues of international marketing. Students will appreciate the psychological differences of customers across cultures and learn how multinational corporations (MNCs) operate and compete across borders. The course examines the impact of economic, cultural, political, legal, and other environmental influences on international marketing. It will discuss how to identify and analyse worldwide marketing opportunities and examine marketing strategies across different cultural contexts. The course will focus on the decision making processes in the areas of foreign market analysis, target identification, product planning, promotion and channels of distribution.
BUS 525 Organizational Marketing (3 Credits)
This course aims to enhance students’ understanding of the nature of managing business relationships in business to business markets. They will be able to analyse how organisations make buying decisions, and understand the organisational influences and the variety of methodologies for addressing the various concerns of these influences. Concepts including strategic alliance, networking, supply chain management, outsourcing, and issues and impacts of globalization, will be introduced. With value created and delivered in the marketplace as its cornerstone, this course equips students with the necessary marketing tools to deal with issues related to business markets.
Study Block 3: Research
BUS 531 Research Methods and Design (3 Credits)
This course prepares students to apply statistics and probability concepts to marketing decisions. Students learn important criteria for developing effective research questions, research design, data collection and analysis and presentation of results. It aims to build students’ abilities to:
- define research problems,
- utilize relevant sources of data from traditional and electronic information sources,
- demonstrate the use of research information in solving managerial problems, and
- become an effective decision maker.
BUS 532 Marketing Analytics (3 Credits)
This course aims to provide students with an understanding of the roles of statistics, analytical techniques and computer models in enhancing marketing decisions in the modern enterprise and an understanding of consumer psychology and behaviours. It aims to examine how marketers improve performance with the use of quantitative tools and techniques, and utilize different marketing decision models to plan, forecast, analyze and find solutions. Students then acquire better marketing decision making methods in solving a variety of problems, such as product positioning and customer targeting. Ethics in marketing decision making will also be emphasized. The aim is to foster and enhance students’ skills in making IT-intensive marketing decisions.
BUS 541-2 Master’s Project (6 Credits)
This course is designed to allow students to demonstrate their abilities in performing independent research and development work, and to develop expertise in a chosen area of marketing strategy and consumer psychology through the application of theories and techniques they have learned in the coursework. The research may be quantitative or qualitative in nature, but must include original inquiry and analysis and a review of the literature. In undertaking the dissertation, students should demonstrate initiative and intellectual achievements and an understanding of the subject matter and of the principles being applied. Students should also be able to present the results of the investigation in a precise, professional and well-organised manner in the form of a dissertation.
