Is marketing communications essentially just to do with sales and profits and activities such as advertising? Certainly, you learn in this course that sales and profits, together with the tools and techniques of advertising, are important considerations and tools of marketing communications.

Virtually all organisations at some time need effective marketing communications. This need cuts across different types of organisations from profit seekers to not-for-profit organisations, across different types of situations and problem areas such as the need, say, to minimise adverse publicity through to the need to increase public donations. And it encompasses the relatively small local company through to the major multi-nationals operating on a global basis.

Effective marketing communications has become even more important to organisations, but at the same time, more complex and difficult to plan.

Unit 1: Marketing Communications: Nature, Purpose and Process

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Exchange Processes and Marketing Communications
• Marketing Communications Mix
• Managing and Planning Marketing Communications: Key Tasks
• Communication Theory: Models of Communication
• Buyer Information Processing
• Factors Affecting Buyer Information Processing
• Summary
• Further Reading

Unit 2: Advertising

• Introduction
• Objectives
• What is Advertising?
• Theories and Models
• Message Design
• Media Planning
• Elements of Media Planning
• Concepts and Techniques in Media Planning
• Evaluating and Controlling Advertising
• Summary
• Further Reading

Unit 3: Sales Promotion and Personal Selling

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Overview of Sales Promotion
• How Sales Promotion Works
• A Strategic Approach
• Sales Promotion Methods
• Other Issues in Sales Promotion
• Personal Selling
• Sales Force Management
• Summary
• Further Reading

Unit 4: Sponsorship, Public Relations, Direct Marketing and Interactive Tools

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Public Relations
• Nature, Purpose and Uses
• PR Methods
• Conventional PR Tools
• Newer PR Tools
• Planning and Managing PR
• Sponsorship
• Types of Sponsorship
• Planning and Managing Sponsorship
• Direct Marketing and Interactive Communications
• Direct Marketing
• Methods of Direct Marketing
• Future of Direct Marketing
• Interactive Marketing Communications
• Summary
• References
• Further Reading

Unit 5: Planning Marketing Communications

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Integrated Marketing Communications
• What does an Integrated Approach Mean?
• Advantages of Integration
• Problems in Achieving an Integrated Approach
• Achieving Integration
• Marketing Communications Planning Framework
• Applying the Framework
• A Concluding Note
• Summary
• Further Reading

Unit 6: Further and Future Issues

• Introduction
• Objectives
• Ethical Issues in Marketing Communications
• What is Ethical?
• Schools of Thought in Business Ethics
• Criticisms of Marketing Communications Ethics
• Internal Marketing Communications
• Growth of Internal Marketing
• Uses of Internal Marketing Communications
• Planning and Implementing Internal Marketing Communications
• Communications Industry
• Agencies in the Industry
• Industry Regulations: Issues and Concerns
• International Marketing Communications
• Coping with a Different Environment
• Standardisation Versus Adaptation
• Growth of a Global Industry
• Summary
• Further Reading

For a more detailed syllabus on this course, click here

On completion of your course, you will receive two qualifications:

Qualification 1: Marketing Communications Diploma

Marketing Communications Diploma issued by Stonebridge Associated Colleges, entitling you to use the letters SAC Dip after your name.

Qualification 2: Level 4 Marketing Communications Award

This Course leads to an NCFE Level 4 Award Certificate for successful learners. That means that it is independantly accredited at a level of learning equivalent to level 4 on the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland (in which case GCSE's are at levels 1 and 2 and A Levels are at level 3). In accrediting the programme at level 4, NCFE attests that its learning outcomes are at an equivalent level to a level 4 national qualification.

This award has been designed by Stonebridge Associated Colleges to meet specific learners' or employers' requirements. Accreditation by NCFE is a guarantee of quality. It means that this learning programme has been scrutinised and approved by an independent panel of experienced educational professionals and is quality audited biannually by NCFE.

In order to offer our students the most convenient and flexible distance learning courses, Stonebridge Associated College offers you the option to study for your course via two methods:

• 1. Via the traditional paper-based method.
• 2. Through the online method via ElearnUK.

When you study through ElearnUK you can quickly access your course material online and submit all of your question papers to your tutor online, using your unique student account. You have access to all of your course material immediately, and when you submit question papers, your tutor sends you an email containing your results and feedback.

Please click on the logo below to view a few sample pages of the course materials we provide. Whilst this is only a few sample pages, we do hope that it will give you some idea of the quality of the materials we provide. If you have anymore queries in relation to the course materials, please feel free to contact one of our friendly course advisors who will be more than happy to deal with any queries that you may have.

Click to View

At the end of the course you will receive an award issued by Stonebridge Associated College, and also gain full awarding body accreditation for the course.

With this course you will have unlimited access to your own personal tutor who specialises in their field of study. It is your personal tutor's role to ensure that you receive constructive feedback and to deal with any queries you may have. You are more than welcome to telephone, fax or email your personal tutor.

You will also have access to a dedicated and friendly team of administrators and course advisors who offer sound and professional guidance and advice when you need it. This ensures that you will never feel neglected and that you will always succeed!

There is no experience or previous qualifications required for enrolment on this course. It is available to all students, of all academic backgrounds.

This is only an approximate figure and is dependant upon how much time you can dedicate to your studies and how well you grasp the learning concepts in the course material. Furthermore, at the end of each lesson there is a question paper that needs to be completed and returned to your tutor. You should allow at least 1 - 2 hours of study to complete each question paper.

The approximate amount of time required to complete the course is: 180 hrs.

Assessment Method

After each lesson there will be a question paper, which needs to be completed and submitted to your personal tutor for marking. This method of continual assessment ensures that your personal tutor can consistently monitor your progress and provide you with assistance throughout the duration of the course.

What's Included

• All study materials
• Study Guide
• Full Tutor and Admin support
• The course fee includes the awarding body registration and certification fee (valued at up to £30.00).

What is NCFE

NCFE is the UK's longest established awarding body, recognised as a highly professional and responsive organisation, committed to maintaining excellent customer service and a friendly approach.

NCFE is recognised as an awarding body by the qualification regulators ('regulators') for England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The regulators are the Office of the Qualifications and Examinations Regulator (Ofqual) in England, the Department for Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills (DCELLS) in Wales and the Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) in Northern Ireland.

Accreditation by NCFE is a guarantee of quality. It means that a learning programme has been scrutinised and approved by an independent panel of experienced educational professionals and is quality audited biannually by NCFE. Learners successfully completing NCFE accredited programmes receive an externally accredited and nationally recognised NCFE certificate.

For more information on this award, click here

Course Textbooks

For this course you will be required to purchase the following textbooks:

• Marketing Communications: Contexts, Contents and Strategies, Chris Fill (1999) second edition, Hemel Hempstead: Prentice Hall Europe.
• Principles and Practice of Marketing, David Jobber, second edition, Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill (1998)

Below you will find a list of courses that previous students have taken to complement their course. We hope that this list will give you some idea of the types of progression courses we offer, or alternative course options that may be of interest to you.

• Advertising - Good advertising is advertising which sells the product! Advertising which looks beautiful and reads well may indeed sell the product but then again, it may fail to do so if other things in the marketing mix ...
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• Advertising and Promotion (Skills Course) -   This course deals with how to get your message across to your customers. ...
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• Business Decision Analysis - For those involved in business, particularly for those in managerial positions, the ability to make effective decisions or to contribute to the decision-making process is of vital importance. The ability to use mathematical techniques is becoming ...
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• Business Economics - Economics is the study of scarcity and the consequences of scarcity. Individuals, households, businesses and nations all experience some level of scarcity, in that they do not possess all the resources to satisfy all their wants ...
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• Business Economics Professional - What is economics about? Economics is the problem of using the available resources as efficiently as possible so as to achieve the maximum fulfilment of society's unlimited demand for goods and services. The ultimate purpose of ...
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• Business Functions - This course presents an introductory over-view of the study of business organisations. The course examines business organisations in terms of their missions and values, their structures and cultures and the key organisational processes which underpin business ...
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