Marketing Management M.Sc.

The degree qualifies you to take on management tasks in marketing and sales of production and service companies as well as for demanding activities in management consulting.

The program is offered as a full-time study program and is completely modular. Students can start in the summer and winter semesters.

Students have a great deal of freedom when it comes to organizing their study schedule and deciding on elective subjects. The timetable allows sufficient freedom for independent work in self-study and group work.

Due to the use of qualified lecturers from the field, individual courses are held in the form of block courses, sometimes as weekend seminars and at external locations.

Main modules of the study program:

• Service and trade marketing
• Dialog marketing and customer relationship management
• Marketing law
• Capital goods marketing and technical sales
• Distribution logistics
• Online marketing and e-commerce
• Regional marketing and management of public enterprises
• Market research project
• Seminar Case Studies Marketing Research
• Case Studies Strategic/International Management
• Marketing controlling
• Business game Marketing and Management
• Negotiation
• Consumer Behavior

Exemplary additional electives from previous semesters:

• Five Sense Branding
• Global Marketing Strategies
• Studies in Empirical Market Segmentation
• Corporate Management
• Business Ethics
• Organizational Psychology
• Business plan development
• Business Development

The individual subjects, their scope and the type of examination to be taken can be found in the study and examination regulations in the currently valid form.

The Master's thesis is to be carried out as an empirical work with own data collection, usually as a freely selectable research project or in cooperation with a company. A supervising lecturer is available for all marketing-relevant topics.

The topic can be determined as early as the second semester, and the third semester is usually available for working on it. Empirical research projects of our students are extensively supervised by an additional lecturer.

The classification in the approval notification (approval for semester "1Z") is based on the documents (certificates) you submitted with your application. Sometimes these documents are incomplete or ambiguous; if you doubt whether - in your case - additional business courses are necessary, please ask the head of the study program by email (jriedl@hof-university.de).

• Additional business training is not a flaw in the assessment of applicants. About half of the students in the MM undergo this training. 
• The course of studies in the core program of the Master Marketing does not differ from that of other students.
• The additional business training takes place parallel to the Master's program. The experience of the last few years shows that it can even be completed without an extension of the study time if the student is particularly willing to perform (but this is not an obligation).
• The courses of the additional education must only be passed. They do not appear on the master's transcript and do not count toward the final grade.
• The individually eligible courses can be selected from a large number of courses offered by Hof University of Applied Sciences and the Virtual University of Bavaria (www.vhb.org). Your study advisor will determine together with you what is relevant for you.
• There are no special obligations for you before you start your studies. The courses to be considered for the additional training can always be determined shortly before the start of the semester and will be published in moodle just in time.
• All relevant questions will be addressed at the semester introduction event.

In terms of content, scope and practical depth, the course goes far beyond the marketing knowledge "normally" taught in a major.

Case studies, application exercises and business games are overweighted in comparison to the frontal teaching of the subject matter. In line with future professional requirements, students are expected to show a high level of commitment and participation.

Jobs in marketing and sales are one of the most important forms of employment for graduates of business and related programs. Graduates of non-business degree programs also frequently take up initial jobs in sales.

In surveys, corporate practitioners consistently express a need for graduates with in-depth training in marketing and sales. This requirement can only be met to a limited extent in a normal major in business administration, as there is often not enough time for the specialization subjects of marketing, work on case studies and in-depth study based on practical projects. These gaps are closed by our Master's program in Marketing Management.

The program focuses on the empirically relevant areas of market research, market segmentation, direct marketing and sales. There is deliberately no restriction according to economic sectors, i.e. aspects of the consumer goods, capital goods and service sectors as well as trade are treated equally.

International issues are part of the courses and the case studies. The needs of medium-sized companies are also given special consideration in all courses.

The study concept has been defined taking into account the requirements of corporate practice. Due to the deepening of the contents and the decided practical orientation of the study program, it can be assumed that graduates will have good chances on the job market.

Qualification requirements for the admission to the Master’s degree program are:

• The overall grade 2,5 (or better) in the previously completed first degree course at a state-recognized institution of higher education. Equal degrees from foreign institutions of higher education with differing grading schemes can be recognized.

Alternative: Applicants with an overall grade better than 3,0 can be admitted insofar they have a special qualification for this degree program, e.g. complete studying abroad, relevant professional experience or an expert opinion.

• The passing of the assessment of suitability. This is executed on the basis of three documents.

1) A CV (maximum 2 pages)

2) A Letter of Intent (maximum 2 pages), including a description of the applicant’s expectations and the personal motivation regarding the degree program

3) A short description (maximum 2 pages) of a current Case Study accessible by public media of the applicant’s own choice. This may be e.g. an acquisition, a diversification or a location decision by a known company, thus a process where the applicant recognizes an important question regarding management or marketing. Further information on the case study can be found here.

• The standard language of instruction is German. Applicants need to be able to follow lectures and take exams in German language. The prerequisite for this is a knowledge of German at the language level C1 or TestDaF TDN4.
• Since many of the case studies dealt with in the courses are written in English, a found knowledge of English is essential.