PGP in Digital Media & Marketing Communications

We live our lives “in” the media. Thus, everyone has a view on what the media are, why they matter and how are they changing. But what exactly are the media? An economist, a computer scientist, a behavioral scientist, and a humanist will have a somewhat different answer to this question. Because of this interdisplinary interest, there has never been more interest and intrigue in the world around us to better understand the media. In this course you will make a start with developing a systematic understanding of the media and communications ecosystem.

Students will get a comprehensive understanding of the contemporary landscape of the media and communication industries including legacy media companies, and recently emerged digital platforms. Focus will be on understanding the economic logics of media and communication industries, both from the supply and demand side how these have evolved but also remained the same. Based on this understanding, students will survey Global as well as Indian media and communication industries. Pre-reads, lectures, and discussions (both structured and unstructured) will be the delivery method. This will be supplemented with cases as needed.

Consumer Insight focuses on understanding how consumers acquire and consume goods and services. The course features psychological, sociological and economic approaches to consumption at both the individual and societal level.  Emphasis is placed in identifying and understanding the key insights that drive human behavior, including the way people create and adopt meanings in their everyday behaviors. The course connects consumer insights to brand strategy and brand communications with an emphasis on uncovering insights and applying them to strategy.  

This is an introductory course on Management Concepts & Strategy (IMS). The course examines working of organizations and highlights the major functions of management and Strategic Management to equip students with basic principles of management. The course also deals with the fundamental understanding of the management, strategy formulation and implementation that are to be understood by any professional preparing to be at the work place.

Marketing in Digital Age course introduces students to the fundamentals of marketing practices and strategies in digital environments. It develops an understanding of consumer orientation and how marketing practices are centered on consumers and business outcomes. Students learn how the fundamental components of Marketing such as the 4 P’s (product, price, place and promotion) apply to digital, social, and mobile media platforms. Concepts covered in the course are utilized in many other courses in the programme, particularly with respect to the execution of digital marketing tactics. Students conduct several case study analyses to understand how marketing concepts apply to decision-making in digital marketing.

This course examines financial information necessary to perform the duties and responsibilities associated with marketing communications and media. The key areas covered include finance basics, financial management, financial analysis, and budgeting. It also includes applying management principles to the financial assets of an organisation, while also playing an important part in fiscal management.

Quantitative Methods introduces basic inferential statistics and the application of statistical analysis in marketing and media research. Students learn how to design and analyze research methodology to generate information for decisions making. The course covers concept explication, questionnaire design, sampling and survey research, experimental design, univariate and multivariate statistics, among others. Students learn to use a statistical software package for fundamentals of data analysis and creating visual displays to present research findings.

In this course, students learn the economic models that represent how media organizations attract audiences with content and make money by providing advertisers’ access to audiences. The course covers the interaction of media content, audience composition, and advertising spending. Emphasis is placed on large digital media platforms (e.g., Google, Facebook, Instagram, Tencent, etc.) and the development of programmatic media buying for advertising spending. Students learn about the role of media devices and how they evolve to create different consumer experiences.

Strategic Marketing Communications covers the principles and practices of brand communications. The course provides a formal strategic process for developing marketing communications and media plans and managing the communications between an organization and its stakeholders. Topics include customer orientation, understanding customers with behavioral data, market segmentation, the role of brands in marketing communications, integration of communications across media, and the allocation of marketing communication spending and measurement of behavioral and financial outcomes. Students conduct an extensive database analysis project with relevant statistical software.

Media Ethics and Policy introduces students to the many ways in which ethical issues in media can impact self and society. In a media-saturated world, the scenarios, venues, and opportunities wherein we are exposed to ethical conundrums or dilemmas are exponentially magnified. This course will adopt a multidisciplinary approach to decision-making and explore domain-specific issues and content-specific issues while seeking to situate them within a socio-legal-political lens. The course also examines issues related to privacy, intellectual property, copyrights, and trademark practices with an emphasis on modern media and technologies. 

Financial Accounting introduces basic concepts in corporate finance and financial reporting. Topics include financial statement analysis, budgeting, long-term forecasting, investment analysis and performance metrics such as return on investment. Emphasis is placed on understanding the financial foundations for decision-making in marketing communications and media, and how financial metrics are used to evaluate brands, customers, and marketing effectiveness.

Strategic Brand Management addresses the multi-faceted aspects of the design, creation, launch, and management of brands with the purpose of driving organizational growth through brand performance. Students learn to understand how supply chains operate and how brands interact with distributors and service delivery networks. The course emphasizes the development and execution of marketing mix planning to establish advertising, promotion, pricing, and distribution practices.

In 'Digital & Social Media Marketing' course, students will get a comprehensive understanding of the digital and social media marketing landscape including different platforms, media, tools, and metrics. Based on this understanding, students will learn how different marketing objectives of the organization can be accomplished through digital and social media marketing strategies. There will be a strong emphasis on encouraging students to gain hands-on experience and knowledge. Therefore, the course will involve tutorials and certifications to make students proficient in digital and social media marketing and more competitive in the job market and/or their professional careers.

This course involves understanding of what media planning & buying constitutes and the terminologies associated with it. It will help students to get an overview of media planning functions and how they work within an integrated marketing system which deals with various stakeholders such as Platforms, Publishers, and Networks.

Content Creation and Storytelling addresses the processes and methods for developing branded content. This course combines marketing strategy, media tactics, and practical skills to enable strategically effective digital content creation. Students learn how brand storytelling is executed to create and disseminate content to media audiences and social media interactants. Students create a strategy for a brand and then develop multiple types of content including images, videos, email newsletters, and written stories, which collectively represent a coherent execution of brand strategy.

Creative Brand Building addresses the central role of creative ideas based on consumer inputs to form the foundation of brand communications strategy.  Students learn how concepts from cognitive and social psychology apply to the creation, evaluation of creative ideas, and brands positioning in the marketplace. Students participate in creative development exercises and practice converting insights into ideas that can be executed across digital media channels and platforms.

Digital Media Analytics and Metrics teaches students to understand and use digital analytic tools and methods. Emphasis is placed on how the tools and methods are used to evaluate digital marketing practices and help design digital strategies. The course features in-depth learning about digital media metrics including Google Analytics and other web and mobile metrics used to evaluate consumers’ use of digital devices, platforms, content consumption, and sharing. Many of the analytic tools involve the use of big data from devices, websites, and the Internet of Things. Students work directly with multiple software tools that analyze and visually represent analytic results. 

The goal of this course is to develop skills in formulating and implementing marketing strategies for brands and businesses. This will help students to gain 360 degrees understanding of the business from marketing perspective. The course will cover areas such as the selection of which businesses and segments to compete in, how to allocate resources across businesses, segments, and elements of the marketing mix, as well as other significant strategic issues facing today's managers in a dynamic competitive environment.

The course on 'Managing New Products' would teach students the modern tools, techniques, and methods for product design and development. It will provide students a clear understanding of the entire product development cycle, right from the product idea to eventual launch within an appropriate business model.

Business analytics enables organisations to make quicker, better, and more intelligent decisions for creating business value in the broadest sense. It is a process of transforming data into actions through analysis and insights in the context of organizational decision-making and problem-solving. The course will help students to gain an understanding of how managers use business analytics to formulate and solve business problems and to support managerial decision making.

Given the complex nature of B2B transactions, managers need to understand, learn, and adapt to combat the challenges of the businesses today. This course will help students to gain a comprehensive understanding of various issues such as: understanding organisational needs, segmenting & targeting markets, leveraging marketing channels for competitive advantage, focusing on efficiency and effectiveness, identifying synergies with various stakeholders, and augmenting sales performance among other things. It will offer marketing concepts and tools in a B2B context. 

This course introduces students to core concepts in business acceleration and entrepreneurship. It familiarizes students with frameworks for identifying opportunities and converting them into commercially viable products and services. The course integrates learning from across multiple disciplines of strategy, marketing, finance, and human resources to solve daily challenges of growth. This course is designed to help rethink the tenets of entrepreneurial growth.

In this course, students will learn about systematic approaches to negotiate effectively and strategically. It will help them to discover their personal style of negotiating and approaching challenging business situations. The course will deploy interactive pedagogical methods like role plays, mock negotiations, and case studies to enable students to understand the strategies and psychology underlying negotiations. 

Media Studio is designed with state of the art equipment used in newsrooms for students to gain extensive practice in the technology and process of content creation. Students will get hands-on training in the audio, video, and social construction of media and the associated best practices in audience research.

Production Control Lab will complement the media studio to mimic the environment and technological standards of the live creation of digital media and longer feature programming. Students will become skilled at lighting design, reading from a teleprompter, managing multiple audio and video inputs, in-ear communication and monitoring, robotic and person-operated cameras, pacing and voice, and collaborative construction of media at this lab.

Audio Editing Bay comprises acoustically treated rooms that will be equipped with sound-mixing consoles, associated software, surround sound, and amplification. These rooms will allow students to record and edit podcasts, and voice-overs for films and AR/VR applications.

Video Editing Bay includes state-of-the-art audio equipment and is also be outfitted for HD, Ultra-HD, and 4K video editing including Adobe Creative Suite software, a playback interface, a color console, and a professional reference monitor. In these rooms, students will be able to refine and edit video shorts, news pieces, feature-length stories, documentaries, and AR/VR content.
 

AR/VR (Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality) Lab particularly focuses on interaction technologies including virtual, augmented and mixed reality as well as mobile computing, epigenetic and evolutionary robotics, and haptic communication.

This lab provides exposure to students to the complexity, breadth, and depth of how vision works and how to make machines “see the way humans do” in different areas including healthcare, agriculture, retail, autonomous vehicles, drones, manufacturing, security, traffic management, remote sensing, defense applications, and so on.