This chapter considers how, as learners and marketing professionals, we can continue to adapt our skills to be competitive in a dynamic marketplace. We will not focus the discussion on specific technologies since they tend to be short-lived in their original form, either becoming obsolete or evolving to meet changing needs. Neither will we seek to identify trends in individual industry sectors or currently recognised professions (e.g., teachers, lawyers, engineers, or artists). Instead, we will discuss workplace competencies which fit a wide range of contexts from those working as freelancers on a gigging basis, entrepreneurs developing highly flexible ventures, and those working for large organisations which may be seeking to become more diverse or more integrated in their business operations. The employment market is in constant flux, customer attitudes are frequently changing, and our competition is global. How can we secure our future employment in the face of competitors that we cannot see, customers we do not fully understand, and markets in turmoil for myriad reasons? I will not even try to offer any certainty or insight into what the future holds, but I can be certain that over the last 20 years or so of my career, digital technologies have given me many opportunities which include the ability to work independently or in teams as I prefer, work when and how I choose, and maintain a healthy work–life balance which maximises the benefit I get from time with my friends and family.

This chapter establishes the key digital technologies that have emerged within and across the structure of the Internet and the World Wide Web. We also discuss how these technologies have caused disruption to established markets but also have created new opportunities for growth. The technologies have also changed the ways that organisations relate to their customers and vice versa, a relationship which is overseen by the marketing function of an organisation. The fundamental changes in consumers, markets, and organisations that have resulted from the emergence of digital technologies call for a radical rethink of the diverse and detailed knowledge, behaviours, and skills we need to succeed as marketers in this new environment.

This chapter aims to dispel two common misunderstandings of marketing. The first is that ‘marketing’ is just advertising or sales. Hopefully, now that you have reached Chapter 7 via product, price, people (in the form of customers), process, physical experience, place, and partnerships, we may have convinced you that marketing is a complex, sophisticated, and dynamic discipline that adds significant value to organisations and the customers that they serve. The second misunderstanding is that simply by having a website or a social media account, your message is ubiquitous and compelling. Yes, your message will be ubiquitous since the Internet is a global entity. However, whether it even reaches the intended target audience and gains their attention can be a lottery given the plethora of media platforms used by many organisations to send out frequent marketing messages. So, while digital technologies offer simple and relatively cheap communications platforms, they can be hugely wasteful of time, effort, and money that the organisation could put to better use. This chapter will help you to focus upon a few disciplines to gain real value from your communications activity rather than being falsely content that once the ‘send’, ‘post’, or ‘share’ icon has been clicked, everything will be OK because our message is now ‘out there’.

This chapter looks in detail at the beginning of the digital marketing process and how the key ‘fuel’ of data is created, collected, analysed, and utilised to support the organisation’s goals. These processes require an understanding of how our online behaviours are tracked and the challenges to the organisation making use of this data, sometimes collecting and exploiting personal data to subsequently influence the subject’s decisions and actions. Having real-time and historical data that can be interrogated in depth to see key trends informs the strategic approach of the organisation. Additionally, granular detail of the behaviours of customers and consumers helps us to track and predict purchase behaviours to make sure that the right offering is in the right place at the right time, with a purchasing action triggered by the right stimulus. Overall, this ability to amass, interrogate, and interpret data sets over time gives us some idea of future directions of market needs, hopefully ahead of our competitors.

This chapter introduces some language concepts at the semiotic level. This helps to see language systems as socially constructed and also as responding to communicative need. It is foundational in our exploration of critical thinking; it helps us to question assumptions made about how we frame our communicative world as ‘natural’ or ‘given’. If we can see language as the mechanism of representation and referentiality, then we can consider alternatives and we can see how the use of language is often at the heart of conflicting narratives and perceptions. Indeed, sometimes language is the problem. Being articulate in Academic English enables us to express our ideas, to understand, to analyse and respond to, other people’s usage of language. First, let’s look at the fundamentals of referentiality and language use.

In this chapter, we look at the basics of referencing and citation: the conventional ways of identifying our sources and for showing where we have applied them in our work. Referencing conventions are catalogued in a relatively small number of documentation styles that are common across different academic disciplines – for example, APA 7, Chicago 17 and MLA 9 styles, which are outlined in this chapter. The chapter is organised in seven different parts. First, we explore the reasons for referencing in academic writing and we look at the different documentation styles used to format references and citations. Next, we survey the essential features that make up a reference and offer some ways of dealing with sources that may not conform to standard referencing templates. We provide detailed instructions on presenting references and citations in the APA 7, Chicago 17 and MLA 9 styles, including using in-text citations and discursive footnotes. The final part of the chapter looks at composing and formatting reference lists.

The ability to respond critically to any text is a learnt ability which needs some innate ability before it can be developed. That is, critical thinking is a variegated talent, linked to intelligence and curiosity, which is hard-wired into the human brain but is not always fostered equally. We are all different according to aspects of biology, intelligence and personality. Likewise, we are all different according to our experience of being encouraged to use these natural abilities. Indeed, there is even some evidence that critical thinking is an ability that is only really developed at all after the teenage years. This idea is consistent with other theories of literacy, which state that there must be an inherent ability to decode language before it can be developed, and that any form of literacy is incremental. That means that each layer of literacy builds on previous levels, and that we must be cognitively ready for each stage. Critical literacy is, therefore, a higher level of literacy which builds on foundational forms of literacy. We need to be able to decode language systems at the semiotic, denotational and connotational levels in order to produce sense. Once we produce this meaning through textual reception, we can start to definitively question what we are being told, building on whatever latent critical ability we already have.

In this chapter, we address the aspects of style and presentation that students most commonly encounter in preparing their essays for submission. What may seem like minor details of writing, like ellipses, italics and quotation marks, are actually aspects of clarity. They explain in shorthand form the nature of your material and how you are using it. As with the referencing conventions we looked at in the previous chapter, common style conventions are understood by other academic readers and are part of engaging in an academic conversation. The chapter is organised A–Z by topic so that you can locate the information you need quickly and easily when you encounter a style query in the course of your writing. However, the unique circumstances of your own writing assignments means that you will occasionally have to make judgements about how to present your information.

There is, typically, some resistance when the word grammar is mentioned, especially if it is in the context of a textbook. That is because grammar is often seen as something that must be forced on students. As with most ideas of freedom, compulsion in grammatical education is resisted when people see no value in it. Another reason for resistance to grammar is because formal grammar (beyond a few basics) was dropped from the education system in many English-speaking countries around 30 years ago, and it is thus unfamiliar, or even ‘strange’. Generations of students have been convinced that they do not need to ‘do’ grammar, since they can already speak the language quite fluently. There is even the belief, articulated by people who are most typically monolingual in English, which is that grammar is only for people who need to be taught how to speak English; that is other people.

In this chapter, we examine some basic principles for doing academic research. After defining primary, secondary and tertiary sources, we consider the different roles each source type plays in your research and the value of commonly used sources like journal articles and academic books. A research plan, as outlined in this chapter, plays a crucial role in your essay-writing timeline. It lays out your research strategy, so that you have a clear idea of what material you need and where you will find it. More than this, a research plan progresses your reading from most foundational to most sophisticated so that you can approach your highest value sources – such as journal articles – with more confidence.