Bord Bia International Graduate Programme

The role of marketers has significantly changed over the past years, and marketing managers can now pull information from a seemingly endless sea of customer data that stem from traditional and digital market research, eCRM systems, websites or social media. Further, marketers can utilise an increasing number of digital research methodologies to collect this fast-growing volume of customer data. This module aims to highlight latest advances in research methods and to understand their benefits and limitations. You will learn how to translate business problems into research questions, and how to evaluate and implement appropriate research designs, and how to generate marketing insights from online and offline data.

This module emphasises the need for managers in every function and at each level to understand the key marketing challenges facing organisations and to explore options to effectively and profitably respond. Evidence from the marketplace is that firms who are driven by the market, customer insight, and who integrate marketing with their overall strategy, grow more and achieve higher profits. Together we will explore how marketing impacts on marketplace performance and is driven by customer insight. The core of what we will do will focus customers and the role of customer insight in driving effective marketing programmes. This module will also enhance your understanding of marketing from a strategic and customer perspective.

For food and beverage industry leaders, executives, entrepreneurs, and investors in Business- to-Business (B2B) markets this module is an opportunity to gain an understanding of the unique nature of customer value propositions in B2B markets and to gather leading-edge knowledge that they can immediately apply to their work.

The Internet has dramatically affected consumer behaviour and the way companies interact with and market to consumers. To succeed, companies need marketers with up- to-date knowledge of how to navigate the digital space. This course aims to provide the theoretical knowledge and practical insights for integrating digital marketing into the marketing mix, understanding and engaging online consumers, and monitoring and measuring the results of these efforts.

This module considers how distribution trends in the food industry are impacting the ability of Irish firms to sustainably compete in international food markets. Particular emphasis is placed upon practical understanding of how supply chain management decisions determine success and profitability in international markets. Reflecting the role and importance of Origin Green and sustainable supply chains to the Irish food industry, sustainability will be explored in particular. Based on a combination of lectures (both synchronous and asynchronous), in class discussions and case studies, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how the management of the supply chain determines organizational success.

Through this module, we will look at the drivers of the sustainable business movement, who are the key stakeholders, and how sustainability is now expanding into every core function. We will look at examples of the new sustainable business models now emerging. We will examine efforts to date, where the gaps remain, and explore greenwashing and how it materialises. We will gain an understanding of how businesses embed sustainability throughout their value chain and how they engage their stakeholders. We will study the evolution and direction of travel of sustainability policies, regulations, and stakeholder expectations.

This module challenges students to apply academic-based business knowledge as well as incompany experience to an applied, real-life business challenge/opportunity. The project is jointly designed and supported by UCD Smurfit School lecturers and the Bord Bia. Students are expected to work in teams and complete the project using the information available to them as well as any other useful sources. Students are expected to manage the process with a high level of autonomy and to use the module coordinator for advice and support as appropriate. The supervision of the projects will vary from project to project but includes a series of regular meetings with the module co-ordinator and regular interaction with the sponsor from Bord Bia.

This module has been designed to address the specific professional and career development needs of our Bord Bia International Graduates. In a considerably challenging global context, careful preparation for industry has never been more important. This requires the Graduates to have a clear understanding of the current needs and priorities of Irish food industry employers; to respond by building high performance capabilities in line with the challenges and career pathway opportunities that exist; to build self-awareness to leverage strengths and mitigate weaknesses; to develop an actionable career plan; and to know how to navigate the transition to industry successfully.

Damien McLoughlin is Anthony C. Cunningham Professor of Marketing and Associate Dean at UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. He has previously served on the faculty of the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and the Indian School of Business. For the past three years he has been a faculty member on the Harvard Business School Agribusiness seminar, an annual programme attended by 200 CEO’s and leaders from global food firms which seeks to highlight the best growth opportunities and most pressing challenges facing the industry. In the 2013 programme he wrote and led a case discussion on the strategy issues arising from Russia’s accession to the WTO. Damien has published more than seventy papers and a book on strategy and marketing issues. He has also written more than a dozen case studies, mainly relating to leadership and strategy issues in the food and agribusiness sector.

Andrew Keating B.A., MBS, PhD is a lecturer at UCD School of Business. Since 2000 he has been teaching in the areas of Consumer and Buyer Behaviour and Marketing Management, at undergraduate and post-graduate levels, and his teaching has been highly regarded at both levels. Andrew’s research interests focus mainly on business-to-business networks and strategic marketing for start-up companies.

His work has been published in international journals such as Consumption, Markets and Culture and the Journal of Consumer Behaviour. He is also a member of the STS (Science Technology and Society Group), an international cross-disciplinary research group.

 Dr. Marius Claudy is an Associate Professor of Marketing at UCD College of Business. His research is concerned with the adoption, diffusion and marketing of sustainable innovation, which he investigates in consumer as well as organisational contexts. His work has been disseminated in international journals like the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Journal of Product Innovation Management, or the Journal of Business Ethics. Marius is currently leading a multinational research project, which investigates how businesses implement ecological objectives into the development of new products and services, ultimately “creating more with less”. His research is sponsored by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA) and won the prestigious David L Wilemon Research award for best research proposal. Before Marius pursued an academic career he worked as an economist for the Department for Work and Pensions in London, during which he conducted strategic analyses in areas of social-welfare and labor market politics as well as climate change.

Julie is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the Smurfit School of Business, University College Dublin. Her work explores how to motivate good behaviours (e.g., recycling, charity) through humour, awe and other positive emotions rather than fear. Her other work explores a second interest, visual processing – specifically how visualising information helps and hinders people’s understanding.

Julie graduated summa cum laude from the University of Southern California with a Bachelor›s degree in Business. She went on to complete her PhD in Marketing from the University of Colorado, Boulder. She has industry experience in market research and statistical consulting. To learn more, visit her website at julieschiro.com.