The Programme comprises of four key ‘courses’, all of which are compulsory/mandatory, as follows:-

• Retail Marketing Management & Customer Relations
• Marketing & Sales Management   
• Business Management & Administration
• Advanced Management & Administration Theory & Practice

Further details of each course comprising the Honours Diploma:

RETAIL MARKETING MANAGEMENT & CUSTOMER RELATIONS

• Scope and concepts of retail product management
• Products, retail product sectors, strategic project factors
• Retail product management: process and people
• Traditional and contemporary retail buying and purchasing
• Centralised, decentralised and international buying
• Category management, product category lifecycles
• Category management strategy and efficient customer response (ECR)
• Product range planning and selection
• Assortment (stocking) plans, consumer trends and new product development
• Brands and branding, concessions, price/value/specification criteria
• Managing the supply base, suppliers and sourcing
• Evaluating and monitoring suppliers, developing relationships
• Product quantity decisions and stock management
• Economic order quantity, stock management, forecasting, merchandising budgets
• Managing the response to sales, ordering and replenishment systems
• Allocating retail space to products - a planned framework
• Practical and customer considerations in space management and allocation
• Retail store and outlet design, materials, atmosphere, lighting, signs
• Store image, location, life-styling and strategic factors
• Visual merchandising, planning and positioning, product presentation
• Stores layout, displays, window displays, online merchandising
• Communicating the product offer, communication channels, advertising
• Promotional product planning, publicity, personal communications, packaging
• Evaluating retail product management performance
• Assessment of profitability, sales, productivity, cost reduction, negotiation, quality performance
• Ethical retailing and customers, sustainable and ethical product management and supply

 MARKETING & SALES MANAGEMENT

• The principles of selling and salesmanship - achieving sales, income, profit.
• Internal sales personnel and commercial travelling salespeople.
• The methods of selling: creating interest, giving demonstrations, making sales transactions.
• Types and categories of consumers, commercial and corporate buyers.
• Making ongoing sales, building customer relationships, generating and following up sales leads. 
• The principles of management: recruiting, training, remunerating, controlling and motivating sales personnel.
• Building effective sales teams, setting and monitoring sales targets, deciding upon sales areas.
• The organisation and control of sales teams, and the special issues regarding travelling salesmen.
• Market research: consumer research, market surveys, advertising research; their meanings, importance and the activities involved.
• Reasons for undertaking and the types of test marketing.
• Techniques and importance of sales forecasting.
• Planning, budgeting, budgetary control in sales and marketing, variances and their implications.
• Segmentation of markets, the role of brands, psychology in sales and marketing.
• Channels of distribution; which to choose, advantages and disadvantages; wholesale, retail, franchise. 
• Credit and setting terms, credit limits, control over credit customers.
• The types and purposes of different discounts allowed: trade, quantity, cash, others.
• Sales forecasting and planning in connection with the product life cycle (PLC). 
• Pricing strategies, factors in setting prices, the objectives of pricing.
• Direct and indirect advertising and publicity, media and their importance, sales promotion, roles and management of public relations; sales letters & literature, direct marketing.
• The Internet as a marketing and sales tool; website design, social media.
• The sales office, records, graphs, statistics, collection and analysis of data, computerised sales data.
• Export selling, international marketing, customs duties, researching overseas markets, expansion of markets and the customer-base.

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION

• Capital and the financing of businesses, sources of capital, share issues.
• Working capital, cash and funds flow; revenue, income, expenditure, overheads.
• Business units: sole-proprietors, partnership firms, limited liability companies.
• Board of Directors, formation, responsibilities and duties.
• Business organisation; structure, reporting, spans of control.
• Business environment, trading enterprises; factors in business location.
• Planning and forecasting in business, the business plan; starting or taking over a business.
• Budgeting and budgetary control, the master budget and sub-budgets.
• Management of personnel: recruiting, selecting, inducting, training, controlling, remunerating.
• Motivation, human resources; health and safety in the workplace, communication, job analysis.
• Principles of selling, sales and marketing management, market research, sales promotion.
• Prices and pricing policy.
• Office management, office organisation, set-up, equipment, data and information.
• Production management, production methods, materials handling.
• Credit, credit control, credit limits and bad debts; discounts: trade, quantity, others.
• Stock and inventory control, stocktaking.
• Purchasing and resourcing, suppliers. 
• Financial accounting, books of account, interpretation, accounting ratios.

ADVANCED MANAGEMENT & ADMINISTRATION THEORY & PRACTICE

• The evolution of management theory, principles of management.
• The classical and early theorists; Fayol, Weber, Taylor, Mayo, scientific management, authority, discipline, modern developments.
• Organisational theory: objectives, categories, ownership, environmental factors and interaction.
• Open and closed systems theory.
• Coordination, cooperation, structure, control.
• Communication and communication theories and channels.
• Organisational structures, planning, growth and development, organisation charts.
• Systems and systems diagrams. 
• Duties and responsibilities of executives, delegation, responsibility.
• Mission, vision, values, MBWA.
• Motivational theory: human relations, social psychology; self-realisation, motivation-hygiene, expectancy theory. 
• The theories of Argyis, Maslow, McGregor, Likert, Herzberg, Vroom, Handy; intrinsic and extrinsic factors.
• Leadership theory: traits, style, contingency; theorists. 
• Building and developing workgroups, group behaviour, norms, cohesiveness.
• Managing change, creating and managing culture.
• Moss Kanter, learning organisations and entrepreneurship.
• Strategic management; the theories of Fayol, Chandler, Andrews, Ansoff, BCG, Porter, SWOT.
• Environmental and competitive barriers to entry, industrial competitiveness.
• Corporate objectives, policies, business ethics, social responsibilities.

WHAT IS INCLUDED IN THE FEE FOR THIS HONOURS GROUP DIPLOMA PROGRAMME

 Your CIC Fee includes:-

• Your enrolment/registration with Cambridge International College, and your own high-quality, professionally produced and illustrated comprehensive International CIC Core Study Publications for each of the four (4) ‘courses’ of study.
• CIC’s detailed, professional ‘Study & Training Guide’ with full instructions on how to study to achieve success and gain top results.  The Guide includes detailed advice on how to answer Tests and Examinations.
• Training Tests, Questions and Exercises (which can be used as ‘Past Papers/Questions’), and Recommended Answers for most of them.
• An Examination set for each of the 4 core courses; each Examination is sat under Invigilation/Supervision in your own area - full details, guidance and explanation of how your Examinations will be arranged and how Invigilation is conducted will be provided when you register.  Note, CIC arranges Examinations in over a hundred countries worldwide for thousands of Members every year; it is a flexible, straightforward process and will be arranged when YOU are ready to write your Examination.
• A prestigious Cambridge International College Diploma on successful completion of Study & Training and on passing the Examination for EACH of the 4 core courses, PLUS the International Honours Group Diploma when all 4 courses have been completed - this is a total of 5 awards - 4 individual Diplomas plus the Honours Diploma.
• Your personal page on CIC’s Member Services website with access to results, despatch details, advice and guidance, and more: www.cambridgeinternationalcollege.co.uk
• Regular information and news including: Newsletters with details of special offers and new Programs and much more; and Competition Forms; by email and post.
• Everything needed for your Study & Training success is included in the CIC Fee.

Additionally:

Further Study and Training Advice, and Assistance is available before, during and after CIC Study & Training; Members may ask CIC’s team of experienced Consultants for advice on further study and Programmes to improve career prospects and advancement. 

CIC’s experienced and helpful staff can assist with numerous special requests, such as reference/recommendation letters and transcripts, and more, by post and email.

• Advertising & Public Relations Diploma 12 months (flexible)
• Marketing Administration Honours (Higher) Diploma 21 months (flexible)
• Marketing Administration (BMA) Baccalaureate 2 years (flexible)
• Marketing Administration EBA: Executive Business Administration 3 years (flexible)
• Purchasing & Resourcing Management Diploma 12 months (flexible)

This Programme provides students and professionals with very useful and practical knowledge, insights and awareness of the contemporary challenges facing retail managers - and provides the skills to understand and tackle these challenges.  Covering a wide breadth of retail, merchandising, supply-chain and customer-focused operations, it provides access to employment in three key areas: the people, process and products involved in the wide retail management environment; product planning, supply chain and stocking/inventory; designing retail spaces and stores, merchandising and making visual the products on offer, communications, advertising and performance appraisal; specialisations and careers can be forged in any of those areas and more, or in all of them (such as for business and retail outlet owners and managers).

This Honours Diploma Programme skills and knowledge which are suited to, if needed, undertaking related and similar study areas as are covered by this interesting and varied syllabus.   These include further retail, merchandising, sales and marketing, branding, advertising, public relations and international marketing courses; as well as for studies on strategic management, purchasing and supply chain management, ethics and product development courses.  

There is a wide range of options for further study - see the "Related Courses" section for suggestions – which include the ‘wider’ syllabus ABA & Baccalaureate Programmes and the EBA Programme, and more. You are welcome to ask the College for advice, and of course you can see details of these Programmes on this website.