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MSc Marketing

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Strathclyde Business School Masters mini-lecture series - 14 & 15 October

Key facts

  • Start date: September
  • Accreditation: AACSB, EQUIS & AMBA
  • Study mode and duration: 12 months full-time

Study with us

As an MSc Marketing post-graduate student you join one of the first Marketing Departments established in the UK. Strathclyde Business School’s Department of Marketing draws on more than fifty years of internationally leading research, innovation and impact, and global engagement to deliver an outstanding student experience. MSc Marketing offers research-led teaching and industry input to shape students to tackle grand challenges in marketing and wider society.

  • MSc Marketing is suitable for non-business graduates who want to pursue a career in this area.
  • Students develop an understanding of marketing theory and practice in relation to individuals, organisations and wider ecological and societal issues.
  • This reflects the dynamic and technologically innovative nature of contemporary marketing, spanning the private, public and third sectors.
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Why this course?

Our Masters of Marketing Programme covers core Marketing theory and practice relating to Strategy, Consumers, Research and Sustainability. This provides a basis for more specialised study tailored to your future career and skills development.

Key features of the course include:

  • a teaching team with demonstrated research excellence spanning a wide variety of Marketing disciplines.
  • experiential learning via case studies and high-calibre industry collaborations and speakers.
  • capstone projects with the opportunity to lead a theory-based or practice-based research project.
  • skills-based teaching focused on transferable skills and employability prospects.

Our marketing postgraduate students are truly international with representations from all parts of the globe which further enhances your learning experience.

THE Awards 2019: UK University of the Year Winner

What you'll study

All MSc Marketing students study six core marketing classes: Strategic Marketing Management, Consumer Behaviour, Marketing Research in a Digital Age, Brand Management and Strategy, Key Skills and Social Responsibility & Sustainability. You will then select further classes from a number of elective classes that reflect current diversity in contemporary marketing practice. This taught component will be covered in Semesters 1 & 2, which run for 12 weeks respectively.

In Semester 3, you will undertake a capstone research project. You’ll chose one of two pathways: a theory-based Marketing Dissertation; or a practice-based Marketing-Works Live Project.

 

Accreditations & affiliations

The Department of Marketing has an international reputation for high quality teaching and research. Many of our staff act as advisors to private and public organisations and are active across a range of knowledge exchange initiatives. Some staff members hold senior positions in esteemed professional associations such as the Chartered Institute of Marketing, the Market Research Society, the Research Excellence Framework and the Academy of Marketing.

As a Department, we are fully aligned with the University’s goals of being a socially progressive, international technological university and are one of the largest departments in the triple-accredited Strathclyde Business School. The Department’s teaching and research activities fully embrace the University motto as a “Place of Useful Learning”.

The Department of Marketing also houses the Stephen Young Institute for International Business (SYI). SYI was launched in 2022 by Dr Charles Huang to honour his mentor and founder of the Department, Professor Stephen Young.

Employability & career development

As an MSc Marketing student you will have access to a dedicated careers specialist, employability seminars, interview support and CV compilation. The Department works closely with the University Careers Service to ensure the programme is taught with an employer’s perspective in mind. Classes provide students with hard and soft skills to succeed at Strathclyde and progress into the job market.

The Department of Marketing’s collaboration and engagement with industry provides students with the opportunity to build networks and engage with potential employers. Our practice-based Marketing Works Live Project has been showcased as an effective post-study pathway for international students by the All-Party Parliamentary Group’s International Student Report.

Triple-accredited business school

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Course content

All MSc Marketing students undertake the following classes.

Strategic Marketing Management

This introductory class covers key tools and theories used within marketing management. Moving through the Marketing Planning Process, you will learn how to undertake market evaluation, make informed decisions and implement strategies to succeed in competitive markets.

By the end of this class, you should be able to apply marketing knowledge in a management capacity to develop and defend marketing plans.

Consumer Behaviour

This class provides you with an understanding of the principal concepts of consumer behaviour. This acknowledges the central role of consumers in marketing strategy but expands beyond traditional buyer behaviour to explore ‘having’ and ‘being’ as value formation processes that influence the way we feel and live.

By the end of this class, you should be able to analyse consumer behaviour, drawing on theoretical constructs and models to analyse and explain consumption across a range of contexts.

Marketing Research in a Digital Age

This class provides you with practical skills required to design and lead research in marketing. This builds on the need to understand the market, competitors and customers and the role of secondary, qualitative and quantitative research in doing so. Underpinned by the Marketing Research process, students will move through problem formulation, research design, data collection, data analysis and presentation of findings.

By the end of the class, you should be able to utilise a range of traditional and digital data collection methods to address marketing problems, devise solutions and assess outcomes.

Brand Management & Strategy

This class provides a detailed understanding of brand theory and application of key brand strategies. Class content is rich in branding theory, and you'll put the theory to practice applying key branding applications to major global brands. You'll gain a clear appreciation of the role of brand strategy within the corporation’s operating plan. This will entail consideration of environmental factors causing changes to the structure and composition of the brand portfolio as well as discussion of conceptual issues surrounding the strategic roles of brand management.

By the end of the class, you'll have the skills required to manage effectively in a global brand environment.

Social Responsibility & Sustainability

This class explores sustainability and the role of marketing in society as an agent of change. Marketing has a substantial role to play in tackling the biggest challenges in our society, and in particular, driving societal discourse and market change towards the attainment of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A number of different techniques are explored to identify and exploit vectors for change through different approaches to understanding market systems, targeting key stakeholders to drive change, and marketing tactics for reshaping market, organisational and consumer behaviour.

By the end of the class, you should be equipped to challenge marketing roles, particularly around product–service development, business models, positioning and communication, to engage in greater levels of sustainability.

Key Skills

This class is taken alongside core Marketing classes, supporting you to develop skills associated with academic writing, presentations, group work and research needed to complete a postgraduate programme. This responds to feedback from industry that emphasises the need for high standards of performance in skills and business practices. This supports the more conceptual learning in Marketing, as well as developing the potential of our graduates to become senior business managers who work in global markets. 

As you progress throughout your studies, you will have the opportunity to select four elective classes. The list varies from year to year to align with contemporary issues and class sizes, but it is anticipated that the following, or similar, will be offered.

B2B Key Account Management

This module recognises that generating and delivering value for the B2B customer is key in developing a competitive advantage. The module covers the B2B Market environment, supplier selection and management, organisational buying behaviour, and B2B customers, exploring the ‘portfolio’ approach to managing relationships with key accounts and customers for strategic goals. This brings to the fore the significance of B2B sectors, as business exchanges account for more than 60% of all transactions taking place in any given economy.

By the end of the module, you'll understand the unique and distinctive characteristics of B2B selling and supplying while maintaining a mutually beneficial and ongoing relationship. This is important as many marketing graduates will likely work with B2B suppliers.

Contemporary Consumers

This elective class is designed to build upon the core consumer behaviour class by allowing you to work on independent research projects that develop in-depth knowledge of current thinking in the discipline and by analysing a chosen contemporary consumer context with support from theoretical inspiration. Understanding consumption and the changing consumer within shifting cultural contexts is central to Marketing.

By the end of this class, you will be able to build on consumption theory and research to critically analyse consumer behaviour in commercial or non-commercial contexts. This is invaluable to organisations of all descriptions.

Customer Led E-Marketing

The major premise of this class is that customer relationships are in a period of rapid change: digital technologies, including the Internet, e-commerce and social media platforms, are moving the balance of power in relationships through customer engagement to a ‘customer led’ phase. You'll be exposed to a synthesis of well-established digital marketing theories and the most recent academic research on e-marketing.

By the end of this class, you will have had hands-on experience in the use of digital technologies for marketing purposes. This will develop your knowledge and skills-based expertise in planning, implementing and managing successful e-marketing strategies.

Destination Marketing Management

This class presents destination as the core element of tourism supply. We define destination in spatial as well as cultural/symbolic terms and explore a wide variety of sectors such as hospitality, the built and natural environments, cultural heritage, entertainment, sport and retailing. This provides the opportunity to consider the diverse nature of the destination and lack of central ‘control’, which implies quite specific challenges and responses in its management and marketing.

By the end of this class, you will be equipped with the skills necessary to respond to changes and challenges in destination marketing.

Export Marketing

This class covers the key strategic and operational aspects of export marketing. It situates export marketing within the wider spectrum of foreign market entry modes and justifies the selection of export modes from amongst a wider range of options. You will build knowledge and understanding of a variety of driving forces behind selecting export modes and gain a better understanding of the international dynamics that influence companies' export performance in different sociocultural contexts.

By the end of the class, you will be able to prepare export marketing plans, building on readiness to export, operating conditions, behaviour and export strategy.

Integrated Marketing Communications

This class will explore relevant marketing communications theories, consider the role and purpose of marketing communications, critically review constituent components of the marketing communications mix and consider how marketing communication tools are used in practice. The role of Marketing Communications in bridging the gap between an organisation and its many stakeholders and providing a face voice for organisations will be emphasised. In particular, the class will consider the need for and management of Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC)

By the end of the class, you will be able to identify factors that impact upon the selection, implementation and evaluation of effective IMC and use this to develop communications strategy. This is an exciting, vibrant and contemporary topic that can contribute to laying the foundations for future careers in marketing.

 

International Culture & Heritage Marketing

This class explores the marketing of culture and heritage as ‘resources’ in a global context. You will be introduced to the essential dimensions of culture, heritage and the arts as resources for many types of organisations, both private and public sector, in activities such as tourism, festivals and events, community redevelopment and corporate branding.

By the end of the class, you will understand the theoretical and practical dimensions of culture and heritage, which need to be understood by tourism managers if these resources are to be used responsibly and sustainably.

International Services Marketing

This class emphasises the need to adopt a different approach when marketing services rather than products. Services represent more than a quarter of all world trade and the world market for services is growing at more than twice the rate of the product sector. Many companies producing products are turning to services to provide their differentiation.

By the end of this class, you will recognise that services present unique challenges. Understanding this will enable you to build customer relationships through quality service, which is fundamental to marketing success in every organisation.

Managing Tourism Resources

This class provides an introduction to the structure and management of individual tourism organisations and attraction resources in the private, public and third sectors. This covers key industries involved in the distribution of tourism products, facilitation of tourist transport and accommodation, and sustainable management of key resources at destination level.

By the end of the class, you will recognise the important roles of tourism managers and consumers in the co-creation of products, services and experiences, allowing you to engage in the challenging management environment where tourism is produced and consumed.

Retail Marketing Management

This class assesses the role of retailing within the context of the overall supply chain and within the economy. We look at key operational issues such as store design and layout, location and customer service. The class also focuses on changing trends for retail and how technology has played a role in shaping the retail industry. We place this in the global context, demonstrating how important the retail sector is in driving the global economy.

By the end of the class, you will be familiar with the various tools and techniques used by retailers and be able to apply these to develop retail strategy in international and global contexts, addressing cultural, social, economic, and legal issues.

Over the summer term, you will undertake a capstone research project. You can follow one of two pathways: a theory-based Marketing Dissertation; or a practice-based Marketing-Works Live Project.

Dissertation

The MSc Marketing Dissertation offers you an opportunity to study, in-depth, a specific marketing problem in an area of your own interest.

Working individually, you will be expected to conduct a literature review, develop an appropriate research methodology, undertake empirical research and present findings with implications for marketing theory and practice. You will be assigned a supervisor from the Department to oversee progress.

Marketing Works

The Marketing Works project provides you with a challenging organisation-based, action-learning opportunity to advise a company on a marketing problem or opportunity.

Working in groups, you will consult your client-organisation with the objective of delivering realistic recommendations which, if implemented, could reasonably be expected to help generate strategic marketing plans. You will be expected to consult relevant theory, design and execute appropriate data collection and analysis, and present key outcomes and recommendations to the client. You'll be assigned a supervisor from the Department to oversee progress.

Chat to a student ambassador

Want to know more about what it’s like to be a Strathclyde Business School student at the University of Strathclyde? A selection of our current students are here to help!

Our Unibuddy ambassadors can answer all the questions you may have about their course experiences and studying at Strathclyde, along with offering insight into life in Glasgow and Scotland.

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Learning & teaching

The Department of Marketing adopts a research-led teaching approach designed to facilitate integration of the theoretical and practical aspects of the programme. All classes require a high level of student engagement and interaction between students is encouraged.

A comprehensive support package is provided to enhance your learning and to ensure maximum benefit during your period of study. This includes:

  • access to a wide range of text and digital resources via The University Library and Databases
  • a suite of IT resources, including on-site hardware and an extensive list of software downloads
  • state-of-the-art teaching facilities across the business school and our dedicated Teaching & Learning Building
  • support mechanisms such as staff-student liaison meetings, student representations, drop-in student hours and module and programme evaluations

Methods

Learning and teaching methods will vary between courses. As a Department, we work towards Education for Sustainable Development Goals and seek to embed Entrepreneurial competencies via a wide range of contemporary learning and teaching activities. This includes:

  • case studies
  • simulation activities
  • inquiry or problem based learning
  • debate and discussion
  • flipped classrooms
  • experiential and project-based learning
  • guest lectures
  • self-motivated reading and research

Assessment

Assessment also varies between classes. Methods used are informed by SCQF and  FQHEIS Descriptors for master's degrees. You will be required to conduct both primary and secondary research to undertake critical analysis across assessments that comprise individual and group elements. Submission formats include written reports and essays, oral presentations, examination and class tests, and reflective submissions.

Ogechi Okelu
In addition to Strathclyde lecturers delivering classes, we were exposed to guest lecturers who are industry experts and this provided insights into industry trends and the application of theoretical concepts in the work environment
Ogechi Okelu
MSc Marketing (January)
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Entry requirements

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Academic requirements

Minimum second-class Honours degree, or overseas equivalent, in a non-marketing discipline. A Business degree may be considered, provided it does not contain significant marketing components.

English language requirements

Students whose first language is not English must have a minimum of 6.5 IELTS score, with no individual score lower than 5.5. Get more information about the English language requirements for studying at Strathclyde.

The curriculum emphasizes a balanced integration of case studies and theoretical principles, bridging the gap between academic concepts and real-world application. This approach significantly minimizes the transition challenges students might face when entering the professional realm of marketing projects.
Cherry Lai
MSc Marketing

Pre-Masters preparation course

The Pre-Masters Programme is a preparation course held at the University of Strathclyde International Study Centre, for international students (non-UK/Ireland) who do not meet the academic entry requirements for a Masters degree at University of Strathclyde.

Upon successful completion, you'll be able to progress to this degree course at the University of Strathclyde.

Please note: Previous Maths & English qualifications and your undergraduate degree must meet GTCS minimum entry requirements as well as the pre-Masters course and an interview will be conducted before an offer can be made.

International students

We've a thriving international community with students coming here to study from over 140 countries across the world. Find out all you need to know about studying in Glasgow at Strathclyde and hear from students about their experiences.

Visit our international students' section

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Fees & funding

All fees quoted are for full-time courses and per academic year unless stated otherwise.

Fees may be subject to updates to maintain accuracy. Tuition fees will be notified in your offer letter.

All fees are in £ sterling, unless otherwise stated, and may be subject to revision.

Annual revision of fees

Students on programmes of study of more than one year (or studying standalone modules) should be aware that tuition fees are revised annually and may increase in subsequent years of study. Annual increases will generally reflect UK inflation rates and increases to programme delivery costs.

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Scotland

£16,650

England, Wales & Northern Ireland

£16,650

Republic of IrelandIf you are an Irish citizen and have been ordinary resident in the Republic of Ireland for the three years prior to the relevant date, and will be coming to Scotland for Educational purposes only, you will meet the criteria of England, Wales & Northern Ireland fee status. For more information and advice on tuition fee status, you can visit the UKCISA - International student advice and guidance - Scotland: fee status webpage. Find out more about the University of Strathclyde's fee assessments process.
International

£28,250

Visa and immigration

International students may have associated visa and immigration costs. Please see student visa guidance for more information.

Available scholarships

Take a look at our scholarships search for funding opportunities.

Please note: the fees shown are annual and may be subject to an increase each year. Find out more about fees.

How can I fund my course?

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Scottish postgraduate students

Scottish postgraduate students may be able to apply for support from the Student Awards Agency Scotland (SAAS). The support is in the form of a tuition fee loan and for eligible students, a living cost loan. Find out more about the support and how to apply.

Don’t forget to check our scholarship search for more help with fees and funding.

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Students coming from England

Students ordinarily resident in England may be to apply for postgraduate support from Student Finance England. The support is a loan of up to £10,280 which can be used for both tuition fees and living costs. Find out more about the support and how to apply.

Don’t forget to check our scholarship search for more help with fees and funding.

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Students coming from Wales

Students ordinarily resident in Wales may be to apply for postgraduate support from Student Finance Wales. The support is a loan of up to £10,280 which can be used for both tuition fees and living costs. Find out more about the support and how to apply.

Don’t forget to check our scholarship search for more help with fees and funding.

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Students coming from Northern Ireland

Postgraduate students who are ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland may be able to apply for support from Student Finance Northern Ireland. The support is a tuition fee loan of up to £5,500. Find out more about the support and how to apply.

Don’t forget to check our scholarship search for more help with fees and funding.

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International students

We've a large range of scholarships available to help you fund your studies. Check our scholarship search for more help with fees and funding.

Glasgow is Scotland's biggest & most cosmopolitan city

Our campus is based right in the very heart of Glasgow. We're in the city centre, next to the Merchant City, both of which are great locations for sightseeing, shopping and socialising alongside your studies.

Life in Glasgow
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Apply

For information and guidance on the application process, take a look at our How to Apply web page.

Start date: Sep 2025

Marketing

MSc
full-time
Start date: Sep 2025

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Contact us

SBS Postgraduate Admissions

Telephone: +44 (0)141 553 6105 / +44 (0)141 553 6116

Email: sbs.admissions@strath.ac.uk

Strathclyde Business School, University of Strathclyde
199 Cathedral Street
Glasgow
G4 0QU

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