Durham University
Programme and Module Handbook

Postgraduate Programme and Module Handbook 2024-2025

Module BUSI4G515: BUSINESS TO BUSINESS MARKETING

Department: Management and Marketing

BUSI4G515: BUSINESS TO BUSINESS MARKETING

Type Tied Level 4 Credits 15 Availability Available in 2024/2025 Module Cap
Tied to N5K609

Prerequisites

  • None

Corequisites

  • None

Excluded Combination of Modules

  • None

Aims

  • The module is designed to raise students' awareness and critical understanding of the significance of B2B marketing. It aims to re-dress the common imbalance of typical marketing programmes, which tend to over-emphasise the importance of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing. The module provides a comprehensive and critical introduction to the main theoretical and managerial issues in the area of B2B marketing. From the outset it is stressed that for every consumer (or end-user) market there are typically several upstream organizations which must deal with each other in products and services before anything is ultimately consumed.

Content

  • The Significance of B2B Marketing
  • Organisational Buying Behaviour
  • Inter-Organizational Relationships
  • Marketing Channels & Supply Chains
  • Industrial Networks
  • B2B Planning & Strategy
  • Business Products & Services
  • Value & Pricing in Business Markets
  • Marketing Communications & Personal Selling

Learning Outcomes

Subject-specific Knowledge:
  • By the end of the module students will have an advanced knowledge and understanding of:
  • the significance of B2B marketing in the global economy
  • the in-depth characteristics of business/organisational markets
  • the extent to which they differ from consumer markets
  • the critical importance of inter-organisational relationships within industrial networks
Subject-specific Skills:
  • By the end of the module students should be able to:
  • analyse the key processes involved in supply chain management
  • explain the key influences on industrial purchasing decisions
  • recognise the elements of successful customer relationship management in business markets
  • debate how ethical issues in business marketing and purchasing can affect members of the supply chain
  • appreciate how the metaphor of channels/chains in business markets can be extended to one of networks
  • empathise with the roles of the industrial marketing and purchasing managers
Key Skills:
  • effective written communication skills
  • planning, organising and time management skills
  • problem solving and analytical skills
  • the ability to use initiative
  • advanced computer literacy skills

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

  • The module will be taught through a combination of lectures, seminars, group work and discussion, supported by guided reading.
  • The summative assessment is designed to test students' acquisition of subject specific knowledge and skills through their application to a specific sector and company. Students select a company within a sector to produce a marketing plan.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Activity Number Frequency Duration Total/Hours
Lectures 10 1 per week 2 hours 20
Seminars 4 Fortnightly 1 hour 4
Preparation and Reading 126
Total 150

Summative Assessment

Component: Assignment Component Weighting: 100%
Element Length / duration Element Weighting Resit Opportunity
Individual Marketing Plan 2500 words 100% Same

Formative Assessment:

Formative assessment will be through a series of market research exercises designed to assist with the summative; feedback will be provided in class.


Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University