RESEARCH IN MARKETING - 2020/1

Module Overview

This module aims to provide students with both theoretical and practical understanding of how marketing research is designed, conducted and evaluated.  More specifically, this module equips students with a framework for understanding various decision issues involved in marketing research, while giving them the opportunity to implement them in a practical way. 

Module provider

Surrey Business School

Module Leader

HEMSLEY-BROWN Jane (SBS)

Number of Credits: 15

ECTS Credits: 7.5

Framework: FHEQ Level 6

Module cap (Maximum number of students): N/A

Module Availability

Semester 1

Prerequisites / Co-requisites

None

Module content

Indicative content includes:

• The nature, scope and roles of marketing research


• Using and evaluating basic research designs


• The use of secondary data and databases


• Qualitative research: uses and main methods


• Quantitative research: surveys


• Sampling frames and sampling methods


• Questionnaire design, measurement and scaling


• Experimentation and test marketing, product and promotional testing


• Online Research and its methods for research purposes

Assessment pattern

Alternative Assessment

Students could do an individual assignment which will be a 1,500 word report.  NOTE: this is for students who did not pass the group assignment and received an aggregate mark of less than 40%

Assessment Strategy

The assessment strategy is designed to provide students with the practical opportunity to:

• apply sound knowledge of theoretical concepts in designing and executing a marketing research project; and


• learn to work in a team in completing and presenting the marketing research report.

Thus, the summative assessment for this module consists of:

• group assignment (2,500 word report) to be submitted mid-semester


• individual exam (during the exam period)

Formative assessment and feedback


This module adopts an enquiry based approach to assessment and feedback where resources are provided to students to enable them to identify their own strengths and weaknesses prior to an assessment, and in turn decide their own learning strategies. These resources include:

• Seminars/Labs will be designed to address the preparation process, team management, and other key issues associated with the group project;

• A detailed marking scheme will be supplied to students to explain the assessment criteria used and the weighting of each criterion; Criteria have been developed in line with the learning outcomes and reflect those;

• Summative feedback, explaining what students did well and less well, will be published on SurreyLearn once the marking process is completed;

• The generic feedback, including a statistical breakdown, will also be posted on SurreyLearn so that students can gauge their own performance in relation to the whole cohort’s performance.

Marks will be returned to students within 3 weeks of submission (excluding bank holidays and university closure days), via SurreyLearn. Exam marks may be released later pending ratification at the Board of Examiners.

Module aims

• To provide a theoretical understanding on the development, execution, and evaluation of a marketing research project;
• To provide a practical experience where students learn to apply theoretical concepts in conducting and managing a marketing research project;
• To provide a practical experience where students learn to work as a team, coordinate and communicate with other individuals, and appreciate the importance of teamwork in conducting a research project.

Learning outcomes

Methods of Teaching / Learning

The learning and teaching strategy is designed to:

• develop both theoretical and practical understanding of the discipline; develop a sound knowledge of the principal areas within the discipline; place students in a practical context,and enable them to learn to design, conduct, and evaluate a research project.

The learning and teaching methods include:

• 22 hours of lectures and 11 hours of seminars/labs. The seminars/labs are designed to assist students applying the concepts delivered to the them in the lectures. In this vein, they will also help them with their assignments (e.g. development of research problem and objectives, sampling strategy, questionnaire design, etc). Teaching and learning will be supported by SurreyLearn.

Indicated Lecture Hours (which may also include seminars, tutorials, workshops and other contact time) are approximate and may include in-class tests where one or more of these are an assessment on the module. In-class tests are scheduled/organised separately to taught content and will be published on to student personal timetables, where they apply to taken modules, as soon as they are finalised by central administration. This will usually be after the initial publication of the teaching timetable for the relevant semester.

Reading list

https://readinglists.surrey.ac.uk
Upon accessing the reading list, please search for the module using the module code: MAN3087

Programmes this module appears in

Please note that the information detailed within this record is accurate at the time of publishing and may be subject to change. This record contains information for the most up to date version of the programme / module for the 2020/1 academic year.