CIM COURSES
Professional Postgraduate Diploma In Marketing
If you have already gained a significant level of knowledge and/or experience of marketing then the Postgraduate Diploma In Marketing may be for you. The focus is on the strategic aspects of marketing management and the qualification is increasingly seen as a benchmark of your competence at the highest level.
Why study at this level?
- Contribute research and insights to inform strategic marketing decisions.
- Influence strategic decisions in an organisation to create value for customers and other stakeholders.
- Manage and measure marketing activities undertaken as part of the implementation of a customer-focused strategy.
- Formulate, present and justify a creative, customer-focused and innovative strategy for any given context.
Objectives
The primary role of strategic marketing is to identify and create value for the business through strongly differentiated positioning. It achieves this by influencing the strategy and culture of the organisation in order to ensure that both have a strong customer focus. Strategic marketers should champion the customer experience and exert a strong influence on the organisation to adopt a customer orientation, contribute along with other directors and senior managers to its competitive strategy, align the organisation's activities to the customer, and manage the organisation's marketing activities.
Entry requirements and assessments
- CIM Advanced Certificate in Marketing or CIM Professional Diploma in Marketing.
- Degree (undergraduate and postgraduate) with significant marketing content from a CIM-approved university OR a non-marketing degree plus three years' management experience.
- Six years' operational marketing experience, three of which should be at management level.
- Other appropriate qualifications approved by CIM.
We will be happy to advise you about your level entry after we know a little more about you.
Please note that our courses do not fulfil requirements for UK student Visas.
How will I be assessed?
This level is taught by module and the topics Analysis and Evaluation and Strategic Marketing Decisions are assessed by the CIM by examination only.
The module Managing Marketing Performance is assessed by the CIM in two ways and students can choose between taking an exam or carrying out an assignment. Oxford College of Marketing offers both these options.
The Case Study Strategic Marketing in Practice) is also assessed by examination but candidates are given the case 4 weeks before the exam and the college runs a fantastic programme of weekend classes running up to this exam culminating in a marked mock exam with personal feedback. This method ensures that the college consistently gets very high exam results. Each module is examined by the CIM twice a year in June or December.
Course structure - there are four modules to study for this level
Analysis & Evaluation
By the end of this module you should be able to:
- Explain the concept of business orientation and critically appraise the different orientations in management and planning and the roles of marketing used by organisations.
- Identify the business intelligence required to inform the organisation's strategy-making activities in domestic and international markets.
- Assess the impact of the major trends in the strategic and global context on the strategy making process.
- Conduct and synthesise a detailed strategic audit of the organisation's internal and external environments, including an evaluation of business performance, using appropriate tools and models and analysis of numerical data and management information to support decisions on key strategic issues.
- Appraise the nature of culture in organisations and the importance of its 'fit' with strategy and operations across different cultures.
- Synthesise a coherent and concise assessment of the situation facing an organisation and develop alternative scenarios.
Strategic Marketing Decisions
By the end of this module you should be able to:
- Appraise a range of corporate and business visions, missions and objectives and the processes by which they are formulated, in light of the changing bases of competitive advantage across geographically diverse markets.
- Identify, compare and contrast strategic options and critically evaluate the implications of strategic marketing decisions in relation to the concept of shareholder value.
- Evaluate the role of brands, innovation, integrated marketing communications, alliances, customer relationships and service in decisions for developing a differentiated positioning to create exceptional value for the customer.
- Demonstrate the ability to develop innovative and creative marketing solutions to enhance an organisation's global competitive position in the context of changing product, market, and brand and customer life cycles.
- Define and contribute to investment decisions concerning the marketing assets of an organisation.
- Demonstrate the ability to re-orientate the formulation and control of cost-effective competitive strategies, appropriate for the objectives and context of an organisation operating in a dynamic global environment.
Managing Marketing Performance
By the end of this module you should be able to:
- Critically evaluate the techniques available for integrating teams and activities across the organisation, specifically relating to brands and customer-facing processes, and instilling learning within the organisation.
- Identify the barriers to effective implementation of strategies and plans involving change (including communications) in the organisation, and develop measures to prevent or overcome them.
- Demonstrate an ability to manage marketing activities as part of strategy implementation.
- Assess an organisation's needs for marketing skills and resources and develop strategies for acquiring, developing and retaining them.
- Initiate and critically evaluate systems for control of marketing activities undertaken as part of business and marketing plans.
Strategic Marketing in Practice
By the end of this module you should be able to:
- Identify and critically evaluate marketing issues within various environments, utilising a wide variety of marketing techniques, concepts and models.
- Assess the relevance of, and opportunities presented by, contemporary marketing issues within any given scenario including innovations in marketing.
- Identify and critically evaluate various options available within given constraints and apply competitive positioning strategies, justifying any decisions taken.
- Formulate and present a creative, customer-focussed and innovative competitive strategy for any given context, incorporating relevant investment decisions, appropriate control aspects and contingency plans.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the direction and management of marketing activities as part of the implementation of strategic direction, taking into account business intelligence requirements, marketing processes, resources, markets and the company vision.
- Promote and facilitate the adoption and maintenance of a strong market and customer orientation with measurable marketing metrics.
- Synthesise various strands of knowledge and skills from the different syllabus modules effectively in developing an effective solution for any given context.
Study options
This level is offered at Oxford College of Marketing via part-time evenings in Oxford and Brighton, via intensive weekends in Reading, Gatwick, Milton Keynes, Sheffield, Liverpool and London and via online distance learning, and a part time Saturdays programme runs in Reading.
Discuss this course
To discuss this programme in more detail please contact us
Telephone: 01865 515255 Email: janeyenquiries@oxfordcollegeofmarketing.ac.uk