This course provides students with a sound understanding of marketing communication tools, message and content creation, media planning, psychological foundations of learning and memory, as well as ethical considerations in advertising.

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to research and evaluate a company's communication strategy as well as develop their own effective communication strategies. Specifically, they will be able to assess existing tools with regards to their own objectives and target groups. Students will also familiarize themselves with a wide range of marketing communications and learn to distinguish between different types. Moreover, they will be able to choose marketing instruments that are suitable for specific communication objectives as well as understand how integrated marketing communication works. Students will also acquire fundamental knowledge of psychological theories about learning, memory, attitude formation and communication. In addition, students will be introduced to the basics of media planning including the evaluation and computation of important key performance indicators (reach, weight, effectiveness, contact chances, frequency etc.), important strategic steps to be taken, channel selection and interpretation as well as selection of different media plans. Finally, we will also talk about ethical, legal and societal boundaries of marketing communication.

Attendance is mandatory (maximum 2 absence sessions).

This course is condensed into eight individual sessions and aims to equip students with relevant knowledge as well as skills. It will combine interactive lecture elements with group and individual tasks. Teaching methods include but are not restricted to:

1. conventional lecture elements
2. classroom discussions
3. case analyses
4. practitioner talks

Throughout, students will be asked to tackle and prepare various tasks. Attendance and participation is expected throughout the course.

Assessments reflect the learning goals of this module.

Overall, students can achieve a maximum of 100 points, which are distributed as follows:

Written examinations - 30 points each: There will be two written examinations, each one dealing with a subset of the lecture topics. The first exam will take place on April 4 and the second one on May 16.

Individual assignment - 40 points: Students will have to work on individual assignments that reflect the various topics discussed in class. Topics and information will be distributed in class.

The final grade will be determined as follows:

• 0-59 points - fail (nicht genügend)
• 60-69 points - pass (genügend)
• 70-79 points - satisfactory (befriedigend)
• 80-89 points - good (gut)
• 90-100 - points - excellent (sehr gut)