Further training in marketing: market dictates content

The range of continuing education courses offered in the marketing department is diverse.FROM ROBERT WILDIThe BVS St. Gallen training center cannot come up with an innovation banger in the subject area of marketing this year. "We have been offering all our marketing training courses for many years now," says principal Myrtha a Marca. "However, all learning content is permanently adapted to the changing requirements of the economy by our specialist board members and developed accordingly," she adds.Whether it's the Markom certificate course, the basic marketing specialist program or the postgraduate marketing manager course, the education center aims to stay on the ball at all levels in order to impart cutting-edge knowledge to graduates, not wisdom from the day before yesterday. "Our students are confronted with concrete practical projects early on, which they work on interactively and implement directly in their companies," explains Myrtha a Marca. The institute's examination system is also oriented toward topicality. "Our students are not only examined at the end of their studies, but at regular intervals throughout their continuing education," says the principal.HWZ: Premiere for the CAS Brand LeadershipWhat applies to the BVS St. Gallen training center must be the claim of every provider of continuing education who wants to survive in the competitive market. The existing CAS Sales and Marketing Management course at FHS St. Gallen has also been revised as part of the conceptual overhaul of the entire Executive MBA program. The thematic content has been sharpened and focuses on the strategic topics of sales, key account and marketing management," explains Pius Küng, course director and lecturer. As a result, he says, the profile of this certificate course is even more clearly focused on national and international sales via various channels, taking into account the strategic design options. "In addition, the course highlights the interconnections with other important areas and topics, discusses them and thus makes them comprehensible," says Pius Küng. This applies in particular to the topics of strategic marketing, including product management and branding, as well as controlling, he adds. The aforementioned innovations will apply at the FHS from 2014.The Center for Marketing at the HWZ Hochschule für Wirtschaft in Zurich is focusing on three courses in particular this year: the eleventh implementation of the Executive MBA Marketing, the second edition of the CAS Luxury Management, and the premiere of the CAS Brand Leadership.Of course, refreshing and renewing the content is also part of the basic understanding of efficient continuing education for the HWZ. "As in every year, we have further developed the content of the EMBA Marketing in 2014. For the design of this year's CAS Luxury Management, we took into account feedback from students from last year's program, among other things, and this year's program will be conducted entirely in English," explains Michael Grund, Head of the Center for Marketing at the HWZ.ZHAW: New MAS Marketing Management courseThe Institute for Marketing Management (IMM) at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) also has something new to offer. In fall 2014, the MAS Marketing Management program will be offered for the first time. It is made up of four CAS modules. "This modular structure offers participants the opportunity to tailor the master's program to their individual tastes," says Brian Rüeger, head of IMM. The MAS Marketing Management is aimed both at strategically oriented generalists in management positions and at experts who already have specialized knowledge in marketing, communication, service or sales.Parallel to the launch of the new master's program, the ZHAW has renewed and further developed the content of existing programs such as the MAS Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and the MAS Product Management. Both programs start in August/September and last two years each. "With our MAS CRM, we aim to always reflect the latest trends in customer relationship management and to convey them to participants in an attractive way," says Brian Rüeger. The MAS Product Management is designed to provide product managers with holistic skills to sustainably establish their product portfolio on the market.Sawi, HSLU, Migros Club Schools: New and renewedThe new course "Project Manager Marketing & Communication", which the Swiss Training Center for Marketing, Advertising and Communication (SAWI) is launching in 2014, is also aimed at people with practical experience in marketing management, primarily from the SME sector. "For this target group, the course offers a sound knowledge transfer of the basics in marketing and communication," explains Michael Broglin, Head of Marketing and Courses. The Institute for Communication and Marketing IKM at the Lucerne School of Business also offers new courses. The CAS Online Shop and Sales Management and the CAS Online Media and Campaign Management are both being offered for the first time this year at the Institute in Central Switzerland. For example, the Online Marketing Manager course has been extensively revised for this year and supplemented with the new subject "Conversion Rate Optimization". "Optimizing a website or individual elements of it is becoming increasingly important, which is why we decided to integrate this subject into the course," explains Ursula Brunner, project manager for marketing and sales training at the coordination of club schools/leisure facilities.Another innovation: from now on, the club schools will offer graduates of the course more individual coaching for their diploma thesis. "Different subject areas have to be interlinked, which is quite demanding after all," reasons Brunner.She says it representative of the entire development in marketing. The communication content as well as channels are becoming more and more diverse, complex and demanding. If you want to keep up, you have to be trained accordingly - and find the right offers for this.