Diploma in Business Practice (Digital Marketing and Branding)

Entrepreneurship

This module introduces students to the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Designed specifically to equip students with core foundational know-how in setting up a business, this programme brings students through the value creation process from generating and evaluating various business ideas to other key topics such as marketing and sales, as well as the finance and legal aspects of setting up a business.

Students will be encouraged to learn experientially and develop the attributes, ways of thinking and behaviour of the entrepreneur. They will gain first-hand practical insights through case studies that expose them to real-world entrepreneurial practices. From there, they will learn how to apply the concepts learned within their classes to solving real-life examples or situations.

Management Accounting

Management accounting is an area of finance where accounting and financial information within an organisation is leveraged to provide managers as well as employees with the basis to make informed business decisions, allowing them to be better equipped in both management and control functions. This module focuses on cost management to ensure that a company or specific project is profitable.

You will learn to evaluate the financial viability of a project, review the financial success of a project or company, carry out costing and budgeting, and design financial models using spreadsheets. The learning scope also covers a wide range of topics, including the basics of accounting, costing concepts, costing systems, data and variance analysis, capital budgeting, revenue and pricing management, cost-volume-profit analysis, forecasting, and budgeting.

Microeconomics

Microeconomics applies to all individuals across the business spheres: (a) Consumer - the buyer and user of end products; (b) Producer - the party who makes/sells products; and (c) Government - the one who intervenes in the marketplace. This module aims to explain choices made under scarcity, along with its implications on the behaviour of prices and quantities in individual markets.

It describes how individuals, markets, and institutions make their choices given finite resources and the impact they have on one another, shedding light on the interlocking relationships among various entities in the marketplace. The module enables students to apply basic microeconomic concepts to explain everyday phenomena in the marketplace. Learning areas covered include price and quantity determination, how firms make strategic choices, and government intervention in the marketplace during market failure.

Design Thinking for Business Innovation

This module is a practice-based introduction to the design thinking methodology. You will explore how to build upon design thinking theories as well as frameworks to solve business problems and identify growth opportunities.

Through case studies and hands-on assignments, you will learn and practice the methodologies that can be tapped upon to take creative ideas from cradle to consumers. The topics covered in this module include ethnography and semiotics, design ideation, system modelling, and disruptive technologies.

Digital Business Models

This module gives an overview of the various types of digital commerce models and how technology is disrupting traditional business models. Participants will explore how software developers are the engine of digital business models and the key forces shaping the digital economy. Throughout the module, participants will also explore and leverage emerging business opportunities in the digital economy.

Sales Analytics

Businesses need to comprehend and forecast how customers purchase products and services. They also need to understand the way consumers react to marketing initiatives. Through this module, you will study analytics’ role in driving marketing, allowing businesses to maximise their effectiveness while optimising return on investment.

Through case studies, you will get to examine how businesses leverage data, statistical computation, and machine learning to forecast sales as well as marketing impact. This module will also equip you with the knowledge to use probabilistic models and optimisation tools to model customer demand forecasts, pricing sensitivity, and lifetime value. It will also discuss how to use data to make optimal decisions when designing new products, marketing segmentation, and strategy.

E-Commerce Operations

This module examines the various E-commerce platforms in a digital business ecosystem where providers and consumers exchange goods and services, amid social interactions. You will explore various business-to-consumer, business-to-business, as well as consumer-to-consumer E-commerce platforms, evaluate platform strategies that are essential to digital business, and develop an E-commerce platform.

Through this module, you will also be equipped with the operational knowledge and competencies to tap into E-commerce platforms effectively.

Digital Media Analytics

This module introduces various digital media analytical tools, along with their purposes. You will also learn to uncover and organise trends for insights, which can be leveraged for business planning and decision-making involving communication strategies or business operations. The module will provide you with the opportunity to explore how to analyse data from various sources, carry out extrapolation of data, and conduct an evaluation on sentiment analytics.

The learning scope also includes decision-making based on analytics. This covers the selection of key performance indicators and targets for campaigns as well as business operations. You will also be equipped with the competencies to monitor the effectiveness of communications strategies, assess long-term targets and come up with follow-up actions.

Digital Media Engagement Strategies

Audiences today seek content from multiple sources. As such, media professionals must learn to communicate effectively across platforms. This module introduces a range of concepts and techniques that are useful in writing and creating content for online audiences found on digital media platforms.

You will be guided to strategically integrate digital media tools as part of the content creation process. The module also demonstrates how these tools can be employed to drive traffic and attract readers. Not only that, you will also get to explore ways in which design and storytelling can be used on digital media platforms to facilitate targeted messaging, delivering multiplied and measurable results.

The module includes hands-on learning experience where you will get to design news content as well as communication strategies for major digital platforms, including web, social media, and mobile.

Digital Media Communication

Digital technologies heavily influence the operations of the media industry. Media professionals must have a critical understanding of how these digital tools are consumed and used in communication work. Through hands-on activities, you will learn technical skills and approaches to work with raw information related to digital technology across a range of topics.

You will also develop a deeper understanding of the thinking process that prefaces product creation. Topic areas such as websites and social networking platforms, user interface for website and mobile sites designing, online advertising, viral marketing campaigns, along with web and social media analytics, will also be discussed.

Consumer Behaviour

This module examines the consumer decision-making process and will equip you with the fundamentals of consumer psychology ‒ how consumers think, feel and behave. You will also get to explore ways to apply your understanding of consumer psychology to marketing.

Through this module, you will be learning about the social, cultural, and marketing influences on consumers’ selection and use of products as well as services. Topics such as consumer motivation, perception, learning, micro and macro influences on consumers’ decisions will also be covered. Furthermore, applications of consumer psychology will be discussed.

Digital Marketing

This module examines the impact of Digital Marketing on today’s consumer decision-making and purchasing process. Using the theories of marketing and brand building, students will learn to develop and manage a digital marketing strategy and discover the role of online reputation and sentiment management as a critical component of an effective digital marketing strategy.

This module will equip students with the strategic, creative and operational knowledge of the various digital media strategies that are essential in driving effective digital traffic.

Branding, Advertising and Promotion

This module examines the dynamic elements of branding to communicate the essence of the organisation and its offerings to the consumers. Using the strategic brand management process, students will learn the development and management of elements such as name, slogan and logo. This module enables students to position branding strategies to successfully shape consumer perceptions.

It includes creative decisions in developing an advertising campaign, selecting the media and evaluating the effectiveness. It also covers a complete suite of sales promotion tools to equip students with the knowledge in planning, strategy formulation and management of an integrated marketing communications campaign.

Visual Storytelling

Visual Storytelling presents various theories and techniques of telling stories visually, intending to enable students to create effective visual sequences of their own. Storyboarding and video editing are covered extensively, and, through analysis, discussion, and practice, students develop the ability to create, select, and place images in sequence so as to maximise the dramatic effect of a work.

Single-Camera Production

Single-Camera Production introduces students to the tools, techniques and processes used in capturing and creating audio-visual material for videos and digital media works. The module emphasises hands-on skills by familiarising students with the use of industry-relevant media production tools and techniques, as well as fundamental industry-standard processes.

Graphic Design

This module looks at basic elements and principles of design, ways in which these elements/principles can be managed to express the designer’s intention more clearly, and various techniques commonly used to make design more effective. Students also learn the meaning and usage of design terminology, can define and explain how basic design elements and principles function, and use this knowledge/skill to critique design works.

Students develop the confidence to express their opinions and feelings about a design’s effectiveness, and learn to apply these understandings when developing their own solutions to given design problems. Each student also designs and builds a simple portfolio site for his/her own work.