TM9702 - Responsible Marketing Strategies in Tourism, Hospitality and Events

A research rich learning approach alongside awareness and understanding of contemporary issues, investigations and developments within the leisure marketing field. Critical reflection on knowledge, experience and practice underpins the learning and teaching philosophy along with the explicit development of competence. This is key to your learning on the module. To put this in place, the module will be taught by lectures and seminars covering contemporary theories and debates concerned with entrepreneurship and small business combined with developing analytical awareness to aid critical thinking and writing.

The module is supported by a teaching and learning plan, which outlines the formal sessions, together with the tutor-directed study and independent reading. An interactive approach to lecture sessions will draw upon the directed learning undertaken and your own experiences. Throughout, the emphasis will be on high levels of your participation, both individually and within small groups or teams. You can therefore expect the reflective-practitioner approach to learning to be embedded in all workshop/seminar sessions through undertaking activities which facilitate you to apply theory through considering the different methodologies, ways of thinking about and reflecting through a contemporary issue to enable you to examine a concept of choice and develop a clear and convincing argument through to drawing conclusions and/or recommendations for appropriate ways forward for an organization/individual.

Directed learning will centre upon a range of activities including pre-reading, preparation for interactive activities and use of the discussion board on the e-learning platform. Independent learning will centre upon you identifying and pursuing areas of interest in relation to the subject area or by providing deeper/broader knowledge and understanding of the subject through a range of learning activities that might include extended reading, reflection, research etc.

Throughout the module until its end, you will engage in individual writing exercises and group role play to debate to consider the pros and cons of contemporary issues and test, develop and present your arguments logically and persuasively.

Support will be provided to you by a member of academic staff leading the module and a set of subject experts leading the lecture inputs on Entrepreneurship and Contemporary Issues. Individual and group work will be supported by individual members of academic staff to provide closer, more focused and personal academic support.

The eLP will serve as a learning tool house lecture and seminar materials relating to the module supported, where appropriate, various lecture recordings to support you in your independent study. These lecture recordings will include introduction to the module and support in preparation for assessment. The module uses software which is fully supported by a comprehensive range of materials which are housed on the eLP for your reference.

In mid-semester formative feedback session on marketing strategy plans in the group work aspect of the module will aid students understanding of the marketing context, undertaken with academic staff.

Students will be provided with a specialist electronic reading list that comprises of various materials including reports, conference papers and journal articles that showcase the application of a variety of subject material presented by specialists involved on the module as well as real life opportunities to work on both hypothetical and real events to demonstrate team work skills within a campaign.

The module assessment consists of two parts.
Part A: An essay that provokes scholarly discussion in critical marketing and future suitability of ethical consumption practices. (60%). This provides an opportunity to be given formative feedback to students on your grasp of theory as well as your writing style.

Part B: The experiential learning form of assignment in a 15 minute group presentation requires students to critically evaluate and discuss certain contemporary issues with reference to theory, policy and practice, working in both hypothetical and real contexts towards an innovative sustainable marketing campaign. (40%).

Other inter-related tasks which will be distributed to you throughout your teaching semester. Including a summative workshop that evaluates marketing campaign plans Mid -term. This will encourage your active participation in the learning process throughout the semester. The eLearning portal will be used to permanently host these tasks after release to ensure that you can access the information required at all times. Your work on these tasks will be the pre-work for your assignment at the end of the module.

The module will be assessed by two assignments. Both assignments are individually based on a critical evaluation of a contemporary issue where you will evaluate and write a critical appraisal of your article and present a balanced argument to demonstrate your reading and learning on the module. Formative feedback will be provided throughout the module, particularly in relation to seminar tasks and individually.

The final individual assignment will assess how you critically evaluate and discuss sustainable marketing concepts within Tourism, Hospitality and Events brings together the skills developed in the module. The role of the assessment is to ensure all the skills and attributes learnt on the module including applying critical thinking, research and reflection and demonstrates that you have fully considered the necessary aspects of marketing in the business environments in an integrated way. A second reason is to provide you with early feedback on your understanding of the module content and expectations of individual and group exercises to provide tangible outputs.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. Online reading lists (provided after enrolment) give you access to your reading material for your modules. The Library works in partnership with your module tutors to ensure you have access to the material that you need.

Knowledge & Understanding:

• Understand and evaluate the affectivity of Marketing theory on practice[MLO1] (Addresses PLOs 2.3; 4.1; 4.2;
• Acquire, interpret and critically apply theoretical knowledge of contemporary sustainable marketing within the international hospitality and tourism business environment. [MLO2] (Addresses PLOs 4.1; 4.2; 4.3; 3.1)
• Critically apply specialist knowledge in Marketing theory and practice. [MLO3] (Addresses PLOs 2.3; 4.2; 3.1)

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:

• Demonstrate skill in the selection, planning and critique of contemporary marketing issues that consider sustainability in the local and global markets through professional communication skills, showing creativity both individual and within culturally diverse groups to develop a range of professional skills and project capabilities [MLO4]

Personal Values Attributes

(Global / local/ Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

The module will be assessed by two assignments. Both assignments are individually based.

Assignment A (60%)

Write a short review (3000) essay on an area of critical marketing theory of your choice to develop your critical and analytical thinking This assesses MLO1 and MLO2.

Assignment B (40%)

A 15 minute group presentation on critical and applied Marketing strategies towards a sustainable practice which includes a group reflection statement within the submission.
(40%). This assesses MLO1, MLO2, MLO3 and MLO4.

None

None

You will learn about the main theoretical concepts and applications of marketing applied to the business of Tourism, Hospitality and Events.

The marketing of intangible offerings such as tourism and events products are critical to their success. This dynamic module focuses is on the application of key marketing strategies applicable to the industry with a particular interest in sustainability and ‘Green Marketing’ principles. Building on the foundations of a range of modern marketing theories, learners will utilise cutting edge concepts to create promotional tactics for real or hypothetical marketing campaigns. The module adopts an experiential learning approach that encourages entrepreneurial thinking; and it utilises the extended marketing mix to provide a framework for the creation of effective campaigns. Skills attainment on the module includes: aptitude in social media marketing that lends itself to applying innovation practices, using digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and design applications such as Canva. Learners will consider, adapt and apply a range of current marketing theories - such as experiential, guerrilla and relationship marketing - whilst considering the role of social media, VR and augmented reality technologies and discussion of Big Data in a modern marketing campaign.

To contextualise, the module examines the leisure-based service sector and how it can be marketed in innovative ways. At the end of the module learners -having worked on small scale projects that relate directly to industry – will demonstrate a good understanding of how tourism and events can be used as a promotional tool for destinations and leisure services evocative of sustainable consumption practices in society at large. The module also encourages reflection on the consumer experience in both ‘bricks and clicks’ organisations as learners will understand the key requirements of relationship management through effective public relations, honing their skills to critically evaluate marketing practices. First, the principles of marketing research are presented. This entails not only an understanding the applied aspects of the fundamentals of marking approaches, but also encourages students to explore critical marketing theory and ethical marketing practices. From here the fundamentals of marketing planning are discussed, underpinned by the core components of the marketing mix and analysis frameworks. Students will also be encourage to develop innovative marketing campaigns that challenge existing sustainable models to reflect the changing nature of world economies, consumption practices and climate change.

Upon completion of the module, learners will have worked with an organisation to achieve the appropriate skills to develop a research-driven and innovative marketing plan. With this, learners will be able to describe and explain the key theoretical terms and concepts of marketing research in relation to tourism and events management.
The two-hour weekly lectures provide a theoretical underpinning of the module content, relating theory to practice through the use of case studies supported by guest lectures and local visits to cultural venues. The one-hour weekly seminar / workshop offers the opportunity to apply knowledge to tourism and event production processes, providing opportunities for teams to work together to plan and produce campaigns by using the theoretical knowledge gained in the lectures.
Students are expected to keep up-to-date with the reading and the workshop activities. As mooted, keynote lectures will introduce the topics and seminars will be used to discuss and apply the theories to case studies. Materials for the module are housed on the e-learning portal, and include lecture materials, seminar activities and preparation and assessment details. The e-learning portal will also provide recordings of guest lectures and links to contemporary articles - both research-based and industry practice-based articles will be used. Learners are expected to participate in activities as individuals and as part of a team, both of are part of your self-directed learning. Students can access a wide range of supporting materials, including an electronic reading list which will provide links to academic reports, book sections and articles.
In the group work component, marketing theories will be used to underpin practical activities such as marketing an event, setting up a promotional stall or developing an existing campaign with a local organisation. Through this experiential learning learners will be able to describe and explain the key terms and concepts of marketing planning, whilst also being critically engaged marketers who are aware of sustainable and ethical practices and issues.
Within the setting of these strategic objectives, you will demonstrate a variety of skills in throughout the module including creativity, critical thinking, professional communication skills through written and debate. You will understand how holding a valuable critical approach to entrepreneurship and small business will impact on stakeholders, and by doing so, will enable you to gain an understanding of the concepts and mechanisms of entrepreneurship and small business, as well as being able to assess and critically evaluate issues of contemporary entrepreneurship.

Throughout the module, students will work both individually and in teams to practice your research, analytical and debating skills.