85370 - Marketing and Event Management

Learning outcomes

The student will acquire skills relating to: - theories and basic applications of marketing management; - how to plan and apply a marketing strategy for companies and public autorities operating in the fields of sport tourism, well-being and leisure time; - how to plan and manage events particularly with regard to economic and marketing aspects.

Course contents

Marketing is a challenging and dynamic body of thought and everyday business practice. This course will introduce students to key concepts of marketing and encourage them to critically relate these to contemporary practice in the area of leisure and wellness. The module will present traditional approaches to marketing (e.g. marketing mix, segmentation, targeting and positioning) while also introducing alternative and critical perspectives. A specific focus of this course regards event management, which is a fascinating area of interests for both practitioners and researchers. Theoretical and applied knowledge on event marketing and management will be provided to participants in module 2, which will be delivered by Fabio Rizzi, through the study of real-life cases.

This course will extend the research work that students of the previous year developed with respect to the theme of “Rimini as a student city”. Through a number of focus groups with international, off-site and home students, some of the city’s strengths and weaknesses were identified, as well as some constructive proposals with the aim to improve the relationship between the city and the “students-as-consumers”.

Readings/Bibliography

Recommended textbook for module 1: Horner, S & Swarbrooke, J. (2012). Leisure Marketing: A Global Perspective. Elsevier

Additionally, a thorough list of academic journal and business magazine articles will be provided at the beginning of the course.

Teaching methods

To enable participants to achieve the above objectives, a combination of traditional lectures and more participatory/interactive sessions will be used for this course. The language of instruction for all teaching and learning activities is English.

Lectures

Topics will be introduced during lectures and readings suggested. Students are expected to do some of the prescribed readings before lectures, as the lecturing method for this course is a two-way interactive presentation, including students’ verbal participation in terms of their views/opinions of the information being presented.

Interactive sessions

Interactive sessions provide a means for students to verify their understanding and mastery of information presented in the preceding lecture. To that end, interactive sessions will be conducted in the form of group/class discussions, case study, question and answer sessions, and whenever possible a short project group presentation for classroom evaluation so as to engage all attendees. This will enable the tutor to diagnose students’ challenges and help to focus participants’ efforts on critical ideas and techniques to assimilate lecture content.

Assessment methods

Assessment of participants will be based on the submission of coursework. A detailed assignment brief will be communicated and discussed during the first lecture.

Teaching tools

Details will be communicated in due course.

Office hours

See the website of Massimo Giovanardi

See the website of Fabio Rizzi