Marketing Theory

Module code: MK2001

Marketing shapes how you think, what you want, and how you see the world around you. This core module takes you beyond textbook strategy and managerial frameworks to examine marketing as a social, cultural, and political force. You will draw on ideas from philosophy, sociology, psychoanalysis, political science, and cultural studies. These perspectives sharpen how you understand marketing's relationship to desire, identity, and power. You will build a critical vocabulary for analysing marketing's influence on everyday life.

The module poses direct questions. Does advertising create demand, or respond to needs that already exist? Can marketing promote environmental sustainability, or does it co-opt these causes for profit? Do brands let consumers express who they are, or narrow the identities available to them? You will study thinkers and traditions that most marketing modules overlook. Ideas about consumerism, ideology, freedom, and control sit at the centre of this module. It will challenge how you think about marketing and surface assumptions you may not realise you hold. The module builds the analytical foundations you need to examine marketing's consequences beyond the commercial applications. You will leave with a sharper, more critical perspective on how marketing intersects with culture, politics, and society.