Professional Marketing (CIM)

Course Overview

This qualification is delivered at our Milnthorpe Road campusl in partnership with nesma, a nationally recognised Accredited Study Centre for CIM.

The Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) is the largest and most successful professional marketing institution in the world and its courses and Professional CIM qualifications are accepted and respected worldwide.

A CIM qualification at Level 4 builds on your tactical marketing skills enabling you to advance your marketing career and perform professionally at an operational level within your marketing department.

To achieve the CIM Certificate in Professional Marketing qualification at Level 4, you'll need to gain a pass in both mandatory modules and one elective module.

Module One: Applied Marketing (Mandatory)
Module Two: Planning Campaigns (Mandatory)
Module Three: Customer Insight (Elective)

Each module can also be achieved as an individual award.

Module One: Applied Marketing

Aims of the module

In this module, you will learn about the role of marketing in the organisation and the key concepts that underpin the activities of the marketer. You will explore the marketing environment, customer behaviour in the digital age, market research and the marketing planning process. This will include the marketing mix and a tactical planning framework to aid marketing effectiveness.

Module structure

The module comprises three units with two learning outcomes each. Each learning outcome will be covered by the related assessment criteria and will be assessed by way of examination. By the end of this module you should be able to:

Unit 1: The Marketing Concept

Understand the contribution of marketing to the organisation (15%)
Know what influences customer behaviour across a range of contexts (15%)

Unit 2: Analysis and Insight

Understand the factors and trends in the marketing environment and how they affect marketing (15%)
Know a range of options for gathering relevant marketing information (15%)

Unit 3: Marketing Mix

Understand the application of the marketing mix within different marketing contexts (20%)
Know how to apply and adapt the marketing mix to satisfy customer needs and business goals (20%)

Module Two: Planning Campaigns

Aims of the module

This module gives you the knowledge and skills to plan and implement successful campaigns that deliver real results for an organisation. You will learn the campaign planning process including how to analyse an organisation's current position. You will also learn how to set campaign objectives, implement a campaign then measure and evaluate its success to aid continuous improvement in the fast-changing world of marketing.

Module structure

The module comprises three units of two learning outcomes each. Each learning outcome will be covered by the related assessment criteria and will be assessed by way of work-based assignment. By the end of this module you should be able to:

Unit 1: Campaign Process

Understand the process of planning a campaign (15%)
Know how to undertake an internal and external situational analysis (15%)

Unit 2: Planning Campaigns in Action

Know how to develop a successful campaign plan (30%)
Understand how to implement a plan in practice (20%)

Unit 3: Campaign Success

Understand the principles of monitoring a marketing campaign (10%)
Know how to undertake a post-campaign evaluation (10%)

Module 3: Customer Insight

Aims of the module

Customer loyalty, the customer/user experience and customer insight are the core of achieving optimum satisfaction and retention. This module gives you an understanding of the contemporary customer's complex needs and wants, their behaviour as consumers and how this sets their expectations. You will learn how to gain the insight required to understand those needs and map the journey to ultimately improve their experience.

Module structure

The module comprises three units of two learning outcomes each. Each learning outcome will be covered by the related assessment criteria and will be assessed by way of work-based assignment. By the end of this module you should be able to:

Unit 1: Fundamentals of Customer Behaviour

Understand the range of customer contexts in which the marketer operates (15%)
Understand the key factors that influence customer behaviour (20%)

Unit 2: Customer Experience

Understand the customer experience (15%)
Know how to enhance the customer experience (15%)

Unit 3: Measuring and Monitoring

Understand the range of research methods and metrics available to monitor customer experiences (20%)
Know how to use and apply research approaches to gain insight and inform decision making (20%)

Assessment Method
To achieve this qualification at Level 4, you'll need to gain a pass in all three modules.

Applied Marketing Assessment: Examination

The 2-hour examination will be online and comprise multiple-choice questions.

Planning Campaigns Assessment: Work-Based Assignment

The assessment will require submission of an assignment based on a theme and an organisation of choice.

Customer Insight Assessment: Work-Based Assignment

The assessment will require submission of an assignment based on a theme and an organisation of choice.

Duration:

3 modules over 9 months. Each module will take 3 months to complete.

Delivery:

The Certificate is taught over 9 months with a total of 8 x 3 hour daytime or evening face to face classroom sessions per module (approximately 2 hours delivery + 1 hour assessment support per session), 3 modules to complete in total.