MKC1200: Principles of Marketing

20% STP essay, 15% tute participation, 15% mcq, 50% exam

pure shit unit. lecturer was dry af and most of the time read the slides word for word without adding anything useful. the STP essay (which is a 20% essay) was difficult af to research, but is good for exam prep I guess. the content was alright, but still boring as hell lol.
exam preparation was by far the hardest. the exam questions they ask are completely nonsensical and doesn't initially test your application skills. for example, a question they would ask is "what are the 5 stages of consumer decision process", which might not seem difficult, but keep in mind the exam is closed book, so you're literally going to have to remember the 5 stages. Also note that marketing has millions of different concepts, so be prepared to remember a shit tonne of info

Maureen Griffiths

No

0.25 / 5

s: Yes

Don't buy it

Sem 1 2021

D

10 x online quizzes (10% total)
These Moodle quizzes were to be completed each week after watching the online lesson for that week. They were made up of about 5 MCQ questions, and were relatively easy to do, provided you watched the video. Most of the answers could be obtained directly from the lecture slides/online lesson.

8 x tutorial-based assessments (15% total)
These were weekly quizzes done in pre-allocated groups in the tutorials. Questions were all MCQ, and were answered on an IF-AT card (those scratchy ones) - so you could still gain some of the marks even if you didn't get the answer the first time. Tutorials were 1 week behind the online lessons, and to do well on these quizzes, it's important to do some study beforehand (since we couldn't use our notes). Tutorials weren't compulsory per se, but you could only obtain the mark for each week's tute quiz by attending and staying for the whole time. You also get 9 quizzes, but only the top 8 are counted, so you could miss one without too many problems.

The 'Look Around You' Video Project (10%)
This is a video project done in pre-allocated tutorial groups. You will have a choice of some recent events (e.g. our group chose Woolworths' decision to shut down Masters) and have to create a 2 minute video on what environmental forces led to the event, and how the company responded. A word of warning - the video has a strict 2 minute time limit, and this is not a long time at all. In the end, our group had to talk really quickly, and probably lost marks because we couldn't be understood or whatever .

STP Essay (15%)
You had a choice of two products, and were required to write a 1500 word essay about the marketing strategy employed by the company with regards to this product. Another word of warning - make sure your essay is based around STP strategy (with minimal discussion of other topics you have learnt), since lots of people lost marks due to not being on topic. The Matheson library also ran optional workshops for this essay where they talked about academic essay writing and how to research journal articles.

End of Semester Exam (50%)
The examination consisted of two sections - section A consisted of 3 extended answer-style responses, while section B consisted of 5 short answer questions (but you were only required to answer 4 of them i.e. leave one out). The sample exam provided was pretty similar to the final exam, and there were no trick questions - I found they could be well answered as long as you studied the content. Be sure to remember to talk about real-life examples where asked, and apply the concept to the example.

If you're studying Commerce, you don't really get a choice since this is a core unit . I'm not the biggest fan of marketing, but the content was still somewhat interesting. Each week generally covers a different topic. As an overview - you'll learn about what marketing actually is, how companies design marketing strategies, the many decisions they have to make (e.g. how much to price an item for), and the differences between consumers and businesses. I found that many of the concepts you learn can be applied to your everyday life (especially when you look at/watch advertisements).
The contact hours for this unit were pretty relaxed, and you could generally do things at your own pace. The tutorials usually consisted of the quiz for the first 20 or so minutes, and then the tutor goes over the previous week's content (sometimes there's also group activities).

- Dr Elizabeth Snuggs (unit coordinator) - only gives a quick 2-minute intro video at the start of the week outlining what's happening that week, as well as the end of semester revision lesson
- For the online lessons, I don't think the lecturers gave their names

No. 1 sample exam provided to give an idea of the exam format only - no answers.

3 out of 5

N/A - pre-recorded videos uploaded to Moodle in a weekly online lesson format

- Prescribed: Marketing principles (2nd ed.) by Pride et al. I don't think that this textbook is essential for the unit content, since the online lectures cover the required content. However, I found it helpful at times for clarification (since each topic has a relevant textbook section) and also useful for the STP essay (which requires you to reference at least 2 marketing textbooks anyway).

Per week: 1 x 1.5 hour tutorial, 1 x online Moodle lesson

S1, 2017

HD

Assessment 1: Individual Tutorial Exercises 10%
So for 8 of 12 the weeks of tutorials, there were tutorial exercises that needed to be completed. These tutorial exercises were uploaded onto Moodle and you needed to complete before your tutorial and then submit them in your tutorial. The tutorial exercises where mainly 1 page tables that you had to fill out but somtimes were textbook questions. Each exercise was worth 1.25 and you could consider the easy marks because they were either marked as satisfactory (got the 1.25 marks) or not (0 marks). Staying in bed and skipping your tutorial can be tempting though :3

Assessment 2: Multiple Choice Test 15%
Test done in tutorial consisting of 25 MCQ. I just remember the night before frantically trying to learn 4 weeks of content and still doing good/average (21/25 was the average mark). You could have deduced most of the answers from common sense, but some were pretty specific. If I recall correctly, you got the whole hour to do it which was way more than enough time imo

Assessment 3: Marketing Mix Analysis 25%
I hate writing essays so when I saw this in the unit guide I was like 'oh boy'. But it’s actually not too bad! The essay is 1800 (±10%) words and involves analysing the marketing mix (product, price, place, promotion) of a product (we got to choose between Toyota Prius C, some tooth brush thing and the HTC One). You also get to make a pretty cover sheet for it :3

Pretty straight forward once you figure out what you're doing. Spent around 2-3 days on it and managed a C (would’ve been a HD if I didn’t hand it in two days late #regrets). You may or may not think 1800 words is heaps, but I struggled to keep below the word limit and for most people I spoke to they hit above 1800 words. Some of the knowledge required for the essay needed to be self-learnt because it was due to be covered after the essay was due. This may or may not be the case when you do this unit, it was easily managed though.

This essay can be tough as it might be the first essay you’ve written in uni and have no clue about APA referencing (Q MANUAL IS YOUR BIBLE), and finding good journal articles was an absolute pain but there’s a library seminars specifically for this essay and it’s not restricted to peer reviewed journals (“only” had to use 4) and you could use textbooks (including the prescribed), company/product websites, newspaper articles etc.

Oh and you don’t actually get a numbered mark for this essay. You do however get a filled out rubric and a letter grade (N, P, C, D or HD)

Exam (50%)
2 hour exam. 100 marks. Hurdle (must achieve at least 50%)

• No essays, hooray!
• 3 compulsory questions: 20 marks each, not some crazy massive essay question, the questions could be broken into parts
• Choice 4 questions out of 7(?): 10 marks each

Make sure you know your examples!

A lot of content but most of it is fairly straightforward and not too dry. Overall a decent unit and well organised. Disappointed with myself for not putting more effort in the class

Dr. Dewi Tojib (Chief Examiner), Peter Thompson

Each lecturer would take one lecture a week.
It was Dewi’s first semester of taking this unit and when I found the motivation to attend uni she was great! Didn’t read off the lecture slides, had great examples and a few good jokes. Peter, on the other hand, scared me off from his lectures in the first week (picking on random students to answer, finds students with laptops annoying, angry kind of tone etc) so I can’t comment further Seriously, I didn’t attend any of his lectures afterwards hahaha. I heard he reads of the lecture slides and left the lecture 5 minutes in when the technology wasn’t working.

Sample exam and one from 2007. Dewi told us not to look at the 2007 one as she has a different style of exam writing. The sample exam was pretty good indication of the structure of the exam. She also held a lecture in the last week about what topics would be covered on the exam which was very helpful.

3.75 out of 5

Nope

The prescribed book is Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L., and Armstrong, G. (2013). Marketing (9th Ed.). Pearson Australia.

Didn't buy it (new textbook, $$$, yolo) so can't really comment on it. I did however consult other textbooks by one of the authors. Some tutorial exercises did come from the textbook, but when this was the case an excerpt of relevant part of the book was uploaded onto Moodle so yeah. I think the textbook would have been really useful for the essay, I ended up referencing the textbook through quotes in the lecture slides >< (wouldn’t recommend haha). Oh and the textbook would be really useful for examples. Every question on the exam required a few examples. The textbook I consulted had random American examples which I hadn’t even heard of haha.

2 x 1hr Lecture, 1 x 1 hr tutorial
Tutorial Structure: Submit tutorial exercises, do some practice multiple choice questions, discuss tutorial exercise, random group activity. I found that time in tutorials flew pretty quickly.

Semester 2, 2013

78

2 Multiple choice tests (each worth 20%), weekly tutorial questions (10%), 1 end of sem exam (50%).

I was tempted to give this subject a 0, but didn't want to put it down that much, lol this has got to be the MOST USELESS unit i've ever done, till this point, I still don't know what i learnt, i dont even think i learnt anything, besides the fact that i used my common sense throughout the entire unit, the unit is THAT bad. I seriously don't think i learnt ANYTHING, i'm not even kidding you, i heard lectures were completely useless and didn't attend any, everything you "learn" is common sense. For example, they 'teach' you that companies should be nice to their customers so they will have a good impression of the company - umm... you don't need to get "taught" this, pretty sure anyone with a brain can figure that out lol. But yeah, to get a HD in this unit, get your textbook, memorise every single important paragraph you can find, regurgitate on the exam and there's your HD. Unfortunately, this unit is compulsory for those doing commerce, and I truly feel sorry for those who have to undergo the pain. Pretty sure most students who have done this unit will vouch my review haha.

really don't know who, I didn't attend any lectures and tried searching in the tutorial guide and website regarding who takes the lectures, all i know is that the unit coordinator is Dr Rowan Kennedy (from the handbook)

1 past exam, no solutions

0.1 of 5

No

Kotler, Brown, Burton, Deans and Armstrong 8th Ed.

2 Lecture per week (1 hr), 1 tute (1 hr)

2011, sem 1

91 HD