Chapter 4: The academic discipline of Marketing
4.2 Background to the academic discipline of Marketing
4.2.2 Marketing at UKZN
who may be unsuccessful in earlier modules or unsure of their majors and career ambitions (Hugstad, 1997, in LaBarbera & Simmonoff, 1999). Additionally, some students may be drawn to Marketing because of its popularity and its image68, despite not having a clear idea of what the discipline actually entails and what they will be studying (Evans et al, 2002, p.579, citing O‟Brien
& Deans, 1995; Parker, 2002). This is problematic because “the more a student identifies with being a marketing major, the more committed he or she will be to enacting behaviours that lead to success as a marketing student” (Kleine, 2002, p.15).
As noted previously, students and lecturers may hold different conceptions of what constitutes the Discourse of Marketing and how having a sound grasp of, and proficiency in, the disciplinary Discourse will enhance performance and understanding. For example, while various studies of academics‟ and practitioners‟ opinions have shown the importance of communication skills (especially written) for Marketing graduates, students do not rate this aspect as highly (Gray et al, 2002; Stringfellow et al, 2006; Melaia et al, 2008; Treleaven & Voola, 2008).
Established as an academic discipline a little over a century ago, Marketing is now a maturing area of study that has drawn on more established disciplines such as Economics, Psychology and Anthropology in its development (Rust, 2006). As outlined above, Marketing also has an applied, real world orientation. This has potential implications in terms of how the discipline is understood and how this understanding then impacts on the Discourse of Marketing. Social access, the social dimension in terms of gaining access to marketing practice, might also be important in this regard. As a discipline (or region) with boundaries that are fairly fluid and interdisciplinary, Marketing is an interesting choice within which to explore disciplinary Discourse.
In this study, the exploration of the Discourse of Marketing takes place in the context of the discipline of Marketing at UKZN. Thus, before proceeding with the LCT analysis, I provide some background to Marketing at UKZN.
Westville and Howard College campuses of UKZN, although Marketing is also offered on the Pietermaritzburg campus. Of these two campuses of interest, most Marketing students are based at Westville, as can be seen in Table 4.2, which provides student numbers for each of the five undergraduate Marketing modules per campus.
Table 4.2: Number of students registered for undergraduate Marketing modules, 2010 Second year
First semester
Third year First semester
Third year Second semester Introduction to
Marketing
Consumer Behaviour
Marketing Research
Marketing Communications
Special Topics in Marketing
Westville 1 002 210 180 203 182
Howard College 186 81 78 89 86
Source: UKZN Student Management System, accessed 09-11-2011
As indicated in Chapter 1, the large number of students taking Introduction to Marketing at Westville is because the course is compulsory for students on most programmes offered in the Faculty of Management Studies, even those not majoring in Marketing. Most students who do choose to major in Marketing, however, are registered for the Bachelor of Commerce (General) degree offered in the Faculty of Management Studies and are located on the Westville campus.
Students from the Faculty of Humanities, Development and Social Sciences may also select Marketing as a major. These students are located on the Howard College campus and most are registered for Bachelor of Social Science degrees. On both degrees, students can choose from a wide variety of majors in a range of disciplines. The structure of the Bachelor of Commerce (General) degree is given in Table 4.3, showing Marketing as one of the two required majors.
Table 4.3: Bachelor of Commerce (General) degree, with a major in Marketing FIRST
SEMESTER
SECOND SEMESTER
FIRST YEAR
Accounting 101 Accounting 102 or 103
Economics 101 Economics 102
IST 100 or 101 or an approved elective IST 102 or 103 or an approved elective
Management 110 Management 120
Prerequisite for Introduction to Marketing Quantitative Methods 1 Specialised or Basic Business Statistics
SECOND YEAR
Economics 201 Economics 202
Introduction to Human Resources Management Introduction to Entrepreneurship Introduction to Marketing
Prerequisite for third-year Marketing modules
Introduction to Operations Management
Introduction to Commercial Law IST 100 or 102 if not done, or an approved elective An approved level 2 module An approved level 2 module
THIRD YEAR
Consumer Behaviour Marketing Communications
Marketing Research Special Topics in Marketing Second major: 32 credits of level 3 modules in an
approved discipline
Second major: 32 credits of level 3 modules in the same approved discipline
Source: based on 2009 Faculty Handbook
The implications of this degree structure for students‟ acquisition of the Discourse of Marketing will be explored in Chapter 5.
Table 4.4 provides more information on each of the five undergraduate Marketing modules in terms of their credit weighting and content. For ease of reference, and to facilitate comparison, the table also includes in the first column a summary of the knowledge base of the discipline of Marketing, as outlined in Table 4.1. Issues related to progression and integration in the Marketing curriculum will be discussed in Chapter 5.
Table 4.4: Undergraduate Marketing modules, UKZN, 2010 THE KNOWLEDGE BASE
OF MARKETING (Yiu, 2009)
THE UNDERGRADUATE MARKETING CURRICULUM AT UKZN, 2010
Areas of study Module/credit points Year/semester Course content69 Consumer behaviour
Marketing research Market segmentation and targeting
Positioning and branding Marketing mix (4 Ps)
Product
Price
Place
Promotion Customer relationship management
International marketing Marketing ethics
Introduction to Marketing70 8 credit points
Second year First semester
A concise, introductory overview of all of the areas of study in the knowledge base of Marketing (Yiu, 2009), with the exception of international marketing.
Consumer Behaviour 16 credit points
Third year First semester
The consumer research process; the consumer as an individual; consumers in their social and cultural settings; the consumer decision-making process;
ethical dimensions. Also includes market segmentation and targeting.
Marketing Research 16 credit points
Third year First semester
The research process: problem definition;
research design; sampling; data collection methods; data analysis; the research report. Research ethics.
Marketing Communications 16 credit points
Third year Second semester
Focuses on the ‘promotion’ element of the 4 Ps. Explores a variety of marketing communication tools, media and strategies. Ethical implications.
Special Topics in Marketing 16 credit points
Third year Second semester
Currently focuses on strategic brand management i.e. primarily on the
‘product’ element of the 4 Ps. Also includes positioning and branding.
Finally, Table 4.5 provides an overview of the assessment tasks in each of the five modules.
From this table, it is clear that these tasks are almost exclusively in written form. While oral presentations have played a greater role in assessment in the past, growing student numbers have made this logistically difficult in recent years. In 2010, only one of the five Marketing
69 This information was drawn from the course outline and/or prescribed textbook of each module.
70 As indicated in Table 4.3, there are no Marketing modules in the first year of study. However, a first-year module offered by the discipline of Management, Management 120, is a pre-requisite for Introduction to Marketing.
modules on offer included an oral presentation for assessment (and this was weighted at just 5%
of the total course mark). The large class sizes, combined with the lack of tutors and tutorials in the School, also contribute to a situation where there are few tasks in each module leading up to the exam in order to make assessment more manageable. There are thus few opportunities for students to practice the Discourse of the discipline and to receive feedback - especially formative feedback. There is also a reliance on group-based tasks. In addition, the table reveals that while both academic genres (essays and short answers) and business genres (reports, research proposals and case studies) are set for Marketing students, academic genres dominate, with
„essays‟ as the most prevalent type of writing required. The implications of the above assessment practices for UKZN students‟ acquisition of the Discourse of Marketing are explored in Chapter 5.
Table 4.5: Assessment tasks in undergraduate modules in the discipline of Marketing, Westville and Howard College campuses, UKZN, 2010
MODULE CREDIT POINTS
ASSESSMENT TASKS DURATION WEIGHT71
LEVEL 2 Introduction to
Marketing 8
Test [one essay; short answers] 1½ hours 33%
Exam [essay; short answers] 2 hours 67%
100%
LEVEL 3
Consumer
Behaviour 16
Group assignment [15-page report] 11 weeks 20%
Test [one essay] 1 hour 13%
Exam [four essays] 3 hours 67%
100%
Marketing
Research 16
Group assignment [10-15 page research proposal] 11 weeks 13%
Test [one essay; short answers] 1½ hours 20%
Exam [two essays; short answers] 3 hours 67%
100%
Marketing
Communication 16
Group assignment [10-page campaign evaluation] 10 weeks 20%
Test [one essay] 1 hour 13%
Exam [one case study; two essays] 3 hours 67%
100%
Special Topics in
Marketing 16
Group assignment [Brand audit report; 5%
presentation] 10 weeks 23%
Test [mini case study; essay; short answers] 1½ hours 10%
Exam [mini case study; essay/short answers] 3 hours 67%
100%
Insight into what is considered legitimate in Marketing Discourse rests on an understanding of the
„rules of the game‟ of Marketing. These rules of the game, or underlying principles that structure the discipline of Marketing, represent what is seen to be possible and what is not in the discipline.
From a critical realist perspective, these rules of the game at the level of the real are mechanisms that impact on the events and experiences that emerge at the levels of the actual and empirical.
71 For all five undergraduate Marketing modules, the class mark (comprising test and/or assignment marks) constitutes 33% of the final course mark and the examination mark constitutes 67%.
The next section comprises an LCT analysis of the discipline, in order to identify the „rules of the game‟ of Marketing.