Self-funded Undergraduate Programmes

This course provides students with a fundamental understanding of marketing research techniques employed by major corporations, as well as small and medium enterprises, in Hong Kong, mainland China, and abroad. The course will focus on both the theoretical and practical underpinnings of these techniques, using current examples and cases to illustrate important concepts and topics. The course culminates with a group project where students get an opportunity to use marketing research methods in solving business and marketing issues faced by their chosen organization.

Global marketing addresses global issues that challenge today’s international marketers and describes the concepts relevant to all international marketers regardless of the extent of their international involvement. This course aims at students up-to-date with the changes facing businesses now and into the future. As global economic growth occurs, understanding marketing in all cultures is increasingly important. Progress toward the single market in Europe has continued, the former communist countries have continued to embrace free markets, a number of symptoms including major declines in currency values and widespread bankruptcy of highly leveraged firms that had taken on an enormous burden of dollar debt to finance dubious expansion projects. These are not simply news reports but changes that affect the practice of business worldwide.

Socially Responsible Marketing (SRM) introduces students to major ethics and social-responsibility challenges encountered by marketing practitioners and consumers. Through a critical reflection on the role of marketing in society, students can appreciate the complex dynamics between marketers and consumers as well as the influence of other major stakeholder parties, such as business partners, competitors, regulatory bodies, and the third sector. We further enrich the interrelated areas of marketing ethics, marketing citizenship, and societal marketing using real-life examples. After completing this course, students should be equipped with the necessary theoretical and practical knowledge to formulate marketing strategies that balance organizational objectives (e.g., profitability) and societal well-being.

The Internet, mobile technologies, and social media have given marketers more tools to satisfy customer needs with global reach, round-the-clock service, and meaningful customer interactions. The big question is, how could these tools be integrated into existing marketing strategies in the “Digital Economy”? This course is designed to guide future marketing experts in using internet-based technologies to develop and implement digital marketing strategy, with a specific focus on global brands and markets.

This course helps students develop a viable social enterprise that solves a particular social problem. By the end of the course, students will have a good understanding of the realities of founding a social enterprise and be prepared for every step of the process—from idea generation, to planning, and to launch. Students will learn how to use the Social Lean Canvas to develop a business plan for a new social venture. In addition, students will be able to identify and compare different funding alternatives and choose the option that’s most appropriate for their social venture.

This course focuses on providing students with the knowledge and experience of planning and executing marketing strategies through working on a real marketing plan while learning the strategic marketing concepts in the local and global context. Students will learn how to apply knowledge into practice. Apart from lectures, case studies and guest talk, students are required to take up a real-world company-based coursework project and eventually deliver a report and a presentation to the instructor and the sponsoring company. This company-based coursework project aims to enhance students’ ability in preparing a full business proposal, critical thinking, problem solving and effective communication as well as time management.

This course focuses on providing students with the knowledge and experience of brand building and management. On successful completion of this course, students should understand the nature and importance of branding building in marketing practice. In addition, they should also possess the strategic thinking and techniques in developing and managing brands that enhance an organization’s marketing competence.

This is a service-learning course that integrates student academic knowledge and skills and applies them in a social entrepreneurial setting. This course helps students develop practical skills to articulate, design and implement social innovation strategies. By adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, students will analyse how different environmental forces affect a social enterprise (SE) and non-governmental organization (NGO). They will serve in a consulting capacity to provide innovative solutions to marketing problems and evaluate opportunities for improvement in SEs/NGOs in Hong Kong. Students are expected to plan and/or implement a project negotiated between the academic supervisor and the workplace supervisor within the host organization for no less than 120 hours, which may not be a paid position. Students will work in groups of four or five under the guidance of both supervisors. Throughout the practicum, students are expected to take the lead discussing with their workplace supervisor regarding allocating the work hours, the nature of their tasks, the expected deliverables and learning outcomes of their tasks. Specifically, this practicum involves an internship with an SE or NGO. Students are expected to engage in marketing and business projects related to the host organization’s business activities, such as market research and analysis, marketing plans, media strategies and event plans, and daily administration. Students may have to make a formal presentation of the recommendations to the workplace supervisor when necessary.