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Fashion Marketing BA

Learn about the course below
Code
135W220
Start
September 2023
Duration
3 years full-time
6 years part-time
Attendance
Full-time or part-time
Fees
£9,250 (UK) *
£15,100 (EU / INT) *
Course leader

This is an interdisciplinary programme offered between the Business School and the Faculty of Arts and Creative Industries. The programme prepares graduates in the business-oriented fundamentals of Marketing and offers specific opportunities to apply this Marketing knowledge to the Fashion industry with a focus on promoting responsible consumption, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goal SDG12.

Why study Fashion Marketing BA at Middlesex University?

  • Students will learn and develop skills from both disciplinary perspectives.
  • Highly employable graduates in a unique position to shape the future fashion industry
  • Graduates can apply their interdisciplinary marketing perspectives to other lifestyle and cultural industries.
  • The need to address socially responsible claims in marketing has never been more urgent.

Course highlights

  • Conscious approach to creating more responsible codes of practice for the future fashion industry
  • This is a cross-faculty and interdisciplinary programme, taught across both School of Design and the School of Business in Middlesex University
  • Collaborative projects with BA Fashion and BA Marketing programmes
  • Students benefit from both marketing and fashion industry perspectives
  • Opportunities for 6-week work placement and an optional year-long industry placement

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What will you study on Fashion Marketing BA?

This collaborative programme capitalises on the synergy between the two areas of Fashion and Marketing, allowing students to look to marketing from a global fashion perspective and examine fashion with commercial insight.

Fashion Marketing BA enables the development of a curriculum focused on Inclusive Socio-economic Development and Enriching Lives through Culture in line with the Middlesex University Strategy and focuses on achieving United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 12 Responsible Consumption and Production.

What skills will you gain?

  • Development of marketing concepts and strategies
  • Research and critical thinking
  • Collaborative working between creative industries and business practices
  • Consultation and client delivery skills
  • Pitching ideas at appropriate fashion industry market segments
  • Market insight and analysis

Strategic engagement with new technology/social media

  • Year 1

    • Marketing Theory and Practice (30 Credits)

      This module defines key marketing theories, processes, and concepts, their strengths and weaknesses and their use in different organisational contexts. It analyses the role and function of marketing within organisations to identify market trends and explain marketing practice and fashion trends. The module recognises the role and importance of customers in marketing decision-making and applies marketing theory to suggest and justify marketing mix decisions.

    • Creativity, Branding and Digital Communication (30 Credits)

      This module introduces the students to the essentials of brand management and how it relates to the function of creative communications within an organisation to determine what a brand is and how it works. Throughout the module students will discover what brands mean to organisations, how to talk about brands, and consider multiple communication platforms used to create marketing strategies.

    • Business Ethics, Sustainability and Fashion (30 Credits)

      This module considers the role of Fashion Marketing in historical perspective in shaping the global production and consumption of clothing. The module considers how industrialisation, mass production and distribution have created exploitative contemporary fashion business systems and how the sustainable fashion sector evolved. We consider how Fashion Marketing has worked with both positive and negative impacts of the supply chain from both retail and consumer perspectives.

    • Fashion History and Social Identity (30 Credits)

      This module will introduce students to different ways of looking at and thinking about fashion, providing an introduction to key themes, narratives and concepts, and considering their historical and theoretical underpinnings. You will be encouraged to draw connections between fashions from the past and the present to encourage you to understand the rich cultural and social meanings of clothing and adornment in global fashion traditions. We cover a broad range of visual and material research methodologies, enabling you to be resourceful and explore different archives and historical collections in a hands-on way, making context the centre of students’ creative and professional practice.

  • Year 2

    • Socially Inclusive Marketing (15 Credits)

      Driving change through socially inclusive marketing there is a focus on identifying gaps in terms of industry and how brands represent the consumer. We explore the history, language, and the semiotics of fashion on a global scale. We examine evolving business models as adopted by both fast fashion and the luxury fashion markets to consider what is the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Fashion? How do fashion brands represent our LGBTQ+ community? Is disability visible? Are brands size-inclusive? Do they approach modest fashion? How do brands ensure their production is not exploitive?

    • Eco-fashion and Greenwashing (15 Credits)

      This module develops the concepts from socially inclusive marketing and analyses on how brands can market the environmental claims of fashion manufacturing responsibly. Eco-claims, standards, global labelling initiatives and certifications are identified and examined. The module considers the impacts of Circular Fashion, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) reporting on the fashion and textiles industries and the relationships between Fashion Marketing and environmental activism.

    • Brand Narratives: Concepts and practice (15 Credits)

      The module aims to will equip students with the key skills required for the management of brands in the digital age by providing a holistic view of branding concepts and theoretical frameworks. As brands continue to play an increasingly important role in creating and influencing consumer expectations, there is a need for brands to create greater emotional links with consumers in order to develop increased levels of loyalty and engagement. Students will explore the art of brand storytelling across multiple digital platforms, and the shared brand narrative approach which emotionally links with consumers aspirations, as well as create and nurture brand value in today’s globalised and dynamic digital era.

    • Fashion Experience (15 Credits)

      This module considers contemporary approaches to experimental and immersive marketing used to promote fashion brands and enables students to experiment with adopting sensory and digital approaches to marketing a responsible fashion brand of their choice.

    • Fashion Culture and Social Responsibility (30 Credits)

      To build upon the core academic research and communication skills introduced in the Fashion History and Social Identity module, students will develop specialist knowledge and understanding of critical issues in contemporary fashion, related to the production, consumption and mediation of fashion as a global aspect of both culture and industry. The module adopts a decolonial perspective to explore and develop how contemporary debates, themes and concepts influence the material, visual and consumer cultures of fashion, challenging dominant historical narratives and unpicking fashion’s mythologies from a global perspective. Students will develop their own independent research interests in contemporary fashion cultures and industry, and a critical awareness of the fashion industry, helping them to position their creative work in an ethically-informed, responsible, and culturally competent manner.

    • Fashion Industry Placement (30 Credits)

      This module will enable you to undertake a period of work experience within a field of fashion (marketing) scheduled at the start of the second term and running until the end of London Fashion Week. Academic staff support and encourage students in identifying possible career networks and areas of employment and develop key employment tools. The project set whilst on placement also asks students to investigate the organisation in terms of its ethical and sustainable focus and commitment and will give students practical industry experience to contextualise key themes across the programme.

  • Optional Sandwich Year

    • Internship Year (120 Credits)

      This optional module allows you to undertake a year-long internship in the field of fashion industry before returning for your final year of study. You will utilise an employment experience to provide an insight into the work methods and operation of a fashion business or freelance role in the field of your degree specialism. You will carefully document the experience engender an understanding of the principles of reflective practice and the application in a professional context and network building.

  • Year 3

    • New Venture Creation (15 Credits)

      This module is underpinned by the ethos that ‘Entrepreneurship’ is now a career choice for many students in these challenging, dynamic and uncertain times. This module is designed to foster entrepreneurial talent and encourage and develop entrepreneurial new venture management skills as a Marketing Consultant for the fashion industries. It also aims to make students aware of opportunities in the marketplace and how to use Effectual Entrepreneurship to implement and generate sustainable incomes in a world outside the academic environment.

    • Collaborative Practice: Fashion Marketing and Branding (15 Credits)

      This module offers the opportunity to develop collaborative peer communities across the Design and Marketing departments at Middlesex and wider networks of emerging designers and creatives. You will be tasked with gathering and analysing market insight to create original campaigns and strategy and position your live client within the industry. You will develop an understanding of the designer’s creative process, how to practice effective consultancy, and negotiate a valuable set of outcomes for your client.

    • Responsible Consumption: The Future (30 Credits)

      Adopting a collaborative design approach with live industry partners, this module focuses on strategic market and consumer research methodologies to identify and analyse emerging trends and initiatives evolving in the responsible fashion industry to anticipate and drive the future of responsible consumption. Students are encouraged and empowered to learn from mistakes, reflect on action, and employ iterative co-design approaches with multiple stakeholders to propose speculative futures for a more responsible fashion industry.

    • Visual Cultures Research Project (30 Credits)

      This project will allow students to engage with the identification, organisation and development of a substantial, in-depth, self-directed research project (Dissertation) with a clear and sustained critical argument. We encourage the pursuit of a research topic related to issues explored in students’ own practice in any area of fashion visual cultures. They will further develop critical awareness and self-reflection of historical and/or contemporary contexts of the discipline and research topic, building on primary and secondary research skills embedded at levels 4 and 5, and developing their ability to identify, analyse and critically evaluate appropriate sources and research methods.

    • Consultancy Project (30 Credits)

      This module builds on learning from prior modules and provides further collaborative experience working on a live client-driven consultancy project. External clients will provide the project brief and students will work in teams to develop practical solutions. This is an opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge to real organisations and facilitate the practice of effective team working, problem solving reflective and presentation skills. You will also develop an understanding of the complexities relating to client management and project deliverables.

How is Fashion Marketing BA taught?

An interactive mix of lectures, seminars, workshops, computer labs, client-led briefs, industry placement, collaborative peer projects, small group and individual tutorials. This rich mix of modes of learning prepares graduates to work and an interdisciplinary variety of settings with confidence.

Assessment

  • This course is assessed via 100% coursework to reflect an authentic approach to working in the fashion marketing industries
  • A variety of live projects, presentations, written reports, brand audits, pitch decks, digital dashboards
  • Peer assessment, self-assessment may also be used throughout projects
  • Dissertation is presented as a choice between visual essay, oral presentation, or written essay
  1. UK & EU
  2. International
  3. How to apply

The fees below refer to students commencing in 2023/24:

UK students

Full-time students: £9,250 (UK)

International students

Full-time students: £15,100 (EU / INT)

For more information and to answer your frequently asked questions, please visit our postgraduate funding page.

Loans and Bursaries

UK students can apply for a tuition fee loan which covers your fees and is only repayable after your graduate. In addition, UK students may be eligible for additional grants and loans including those from:

The Department for Education - on the Department for Education website you will find a full list of designated ITT subjects and funding offers

How can Fashion Marketing BA support your career?

This is a new programme designed to educate graduates for the following careers and destinations

  • Fashion Marketing Consultant
  • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Consultant
  • Marketing in the Metaverse
  • Brand Analyst
  • Brand Manager
  • Digital Marketing
  • Client Relationship Management
  • Data Analytics
  • Social Media Manager
  • E-commerce
  • Freelance content creator
  • Video and Social

Active practice-based learning

  • This new course is delivered to reflect an authentic practice-based approach to working in the fashion marketing industries.
  • A variety of live projects, presentations, written reports, brand audits, pitch decks, digital dashboards.
  • Staff Links with industry
  • Fashion industry collaborations include: The FACE Magazine, Buffalo Magazine, DUST magazine, British Fashion Council, Student Fabric Initiative, Andrew Davis from Perfect Magazine
  • Fashion students have done placements with: Dazed and Confused, Richard Quinn, Show Studio, Beauty Papers, Gareth Pugh, Jenny Packham and Scandinavian Vogue.

Emma Dick
Interim Head of Department

Emma Dick is the Interim Head of the Design Department at Middlesex University, and a Director of Inclusive Trade Ltd, a sustainability-first “eco-commerce” platform connecting vetted MSMEs to businesses and consumers globally, which aims to eliminate greenwashing and enable trust between consumers and brands. Her research practice aims to bring together the disciplines of textiles, business, and development and is often focused geographically on Asia (Bhutan, Turkey, Central and South-East Asia). She is interested in how global issues of the postcolonial intersect with ideas of the postmodern to foreground issues of ethics and appropriation in cross-border trade and the global business of fashion.

Matt Ryalls
Senior Lecturer

Matt Ryalls is Senior Lecturer in BA (Hons) Fashion Communication &Styling. He studied Fashion Design at Central St. Martins and has worked as a stylist and Fashion Editor for Arena, Dazed & Confused, Exit, Nylon, POP and The Face magazines, in addition he has collaborated with numerous designers on runway presentations internationally.

Matt publishes Animé, a print publication of photography, illustration, interviews and prose that explores themes of identity, sexuality and gender.

Dr Michael Kourtoubelides
Lecturer

Dr Michael Kourtoubelides is a lecturer in marketing, global marketing and fashion marketing modules. His interest and teaching areas include retail marketing and fashion brands. Prior to joining Middlesex University, Michael was programme leader at London Metropolitan University. Michael has a PhD in Business and Marketing.

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