Curriculum

CURRICULUM DESIGN

The strength of this programme lies in the strong and contemporary curriculum, the knowledge and experience of the core and visiting faculty, the exposure to industry and the diverse profiles of students. The curriculum is flexible and is updated annually in consultation with practicing managers to ensure inclusion of current practices and cases. The students are, thus, exposed to the latest domain knowledge in the management and communication areas.

MICA also maintains industry interaction across various activities like training, consultancy and joint research through student bodies such as MICAMINDS, MICANVAS and the MICA Lecture Series. The individual research and consultancy that faculty undertake contribute to the depth of learning in the post-graduate programme. The intellectual capital available at MICA provides a challenging environment for the students in terms of rigour and conceptualization required successfully complete the programme.

The students are equipped to manage the entire integrated marketing process of a business, including:
- commissioning research,
- seeking consumer insights,
- formulating brand and marketing strategies,
- evaluating media options,
- analyzing sales and distribution channels
- advertising
- Data and information analytics

DURATION

The PGPCM is a two-year residential programme. Each academic year begins in July and ends in March of the following year. An academic year is divided into three terms of 12 weeks each. The summer vacation at the end of the first year is usually devoted to industry internship. Placement activities commence towards the end of the second academic year.

ORIENTATION PROGRAMME

From 2006, MICA introduced a three-week pre-course orientation programme. The objectives were:
• To bring all students to a common minimum level of understanding and appreciation of the basics of social sciences, since they come from diverse academic backgrounds.
• To reduce the load of basic management education in the two-year programme allowing greater concentration on communications management
Students were advised to attend certain course modules of the orientation programme based on their performance in a diagnostic test.

CORE AND FOUNDATION COURSES

These are compulsory courses offered in the first year and are largely based on foundation and perspective building approaches. The Foundation courses are intended to provide a broadbased perspective in general management. Core courses help students develop an integrated view of managerial problems and perspectives. They are designed to help them comprehend and apply various concepts and techniques. See detailed list (link to courses list)

CONCENTRATION COURSES

The concentration courses are based on a career building approach, keeping in mind industry’s need for professionals with clear career interests. These intend to enable students to develop specific skills and perspectives in their chosen career paths in the field of communications management i.e. account planning and management, brand management, marketing research, media management or the emerging areas of public relations, retail management, broadcasting and design communications management.

ELECTIVE COURSES

The elective courses are extensions of Foundation Courses and are intended to provide advanced learning opportunities to the students to sharpen their general management perspective and skills. These electives broaden the student’s horizon and help in the development of a well-rounded character. Students are required to study a minimum of five electives in each academic year

SUMMER INTERNSHIP

The internship provides students with an opportunity to gain work experience in an area of concentration or interest while receiving credit towards their diploma. The summer internship is organised for 8-10 weeks in various advertising agencies, media and marketing organizations during the summer break at the end of the first year of the programme. No student is admitted to the second year without completing the summer internship.

RURAL RESEARCH PROJECT

Rural markets are already ahead of urban markets in terms of volumes and growth rate in a host of mass¬based goods. This can largely be attributed to marketing efforts targeted at rural India. A rural marketing orientation requires a holistic understanding of the rural contexts and customers. The rural research project is designed to provide students with an appreciation of the challenges in communicating with rural customers. Students are required to live in villages for 15 days and study the structure and dynamics of communication.

CUSTOMER WATCH

This is intended as a learning opportunity with all its immediacy and unpredictability. The student will spend 5-7 days at a retail site as an observer. During this period, the student will keep a diary to make observations on aspects of consumer behaviour as well as details like gender, age and group size of visitors, brands asked for, brands bought and so on. Notes will have to be kept on complaint handling procedures, bargaining and other aspects.

In addition, workshops are organized in different areas, and students can attend these based on their interests. These are non-credit components of the course. Remedial classes and tutorials can also be fixed with the faculty members responsible for the course in question.

COMMUNICATION IN URBAN SITUATIONS AND CONTEXTS

This module has been introduced after the experience gained from MICA's rural project. It is envisaged to enable the student to also gain a deeper perspective of the urban segment. Therefore, this activity focuses on the study of select urban situations and contexts, apart from the projects done during the regular course and internship.

The methodology is a combination of different data collection instruments including observation, live-in ethnography, focus group discussions and surveys. The duration will be spread over the second and third terms and the summer break. The urban locations would be in Ahmedabad, places of internship and hometowns in urban India.

SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS

Numerous workshops and seminars are organized in different course areas. Students can attend these based on their interests. These form the non-credit components of the course.

CURRICULUM

YEAR 1

ORIENTATION COURSE

- Principles of Economics
- Basic Accounting
- Management Principles and Practices
- Behavioural Sciences
- Case Study: Learning tool
- Research Methods
- Knowledge Exchange and Information Centre
- Basic Mathematics and Statistics
- Principles of Marketing
- Written and Oral Communication
- Theories and Models of Communications
- Campus Orientation

TERM I

• Managerial Economics and Decision Sciences
• Creativity and Innovation Management
• Individual and Group Dynamics
• Managerial Accounting and Costing
• Advanced Marketing Management
• Language, Culture and Communication
• Communications Research

TERM II

• Models of Decision Making (Accounting, Mathematics and Statistics)
• Business Strategy, Policy, Ethics
• Media Economics
• Managerial Accounting and Costing
• Integrated Marketing Communications -1
• Consumer Behaviour
• Media Management

TERM III

• Organizational Dynamics
• lntegrated Marketing
• Brand Management
• Marketing Research and Consumer Insight
• Integrated Marketing Communications -2
• Sales and Supply Logistics
• Media Planning and Buying
• Urban Retail Study

ELECTIVES (a minimum of two Credits)

• Corporate Venturing and Entrepreneurship
• Product Management (Brand Management)
• Media Analytics

CAPSTONE RESEARCH PROJECT

YEAR 2

TERM IV

CORE COURSES

• Crafting Dissertation
• Dissertation
• Integrated Marketing Project
• Markstrat (three days)
• Consumer Insight Mining

CONCENTRATION COURSES

• Brand Communications Strategies – I
• Product Management
• Strategic Brand Management
• Statistical Methods and Data Analysis
• Applied Areas in Marketing Research
• Marketing Research Project
• Media Strategies
• Media Marketing

ELECTIVE COURSES

• Film Appreciation and Communications Management
Retail management
Innovation management
Logistics and Supply Chain Management

TERM V

CORE COURSES

• Dissertation
IM Project (+ field visit equal to 10 sessions)

CONCENTRATION COURSES

• Brand Communications Strategies - II
• Brand Valuation
• Brand Science
• International Marketing
• Technology Enabled Relationship Marketing
• Advanced Qualitative Research
• Modelling in Marketing Research
• Online Research and Data Analytics
• Media Research
• New Media
• Media Ethics, Law and Policy
• Media Economics

ELECTIVE COURSES

• Return on Marketing Investment
• Corporate Communications and Reputation Management
• Communications Management for Financial Services
• Venture Incubation (project)

TERM VI

CORE COURSES

Dissertation

CONCENTRATION COURSES

• Brand Communications Strategies - III
• Advanced Marketing Seminar
• Managing Marketing Research
• Media Project
• One-day Workshop on Research Software

ELECTIVE COURSES

• Metaphors and Narratives
• Managing Change
• Career Roles and Identity
• Organizational Leadership (project)
• Management Consulting
• Venture Incubation (project)
• Leadership, Culture and Communications
• Knowledge Management