Life as a Strategic Marketing student at Cranfield University

Hello there! My name is Andrea, and I’m an Italian student enrolled in the MSc in Strategic Marketing at Cranfield University. I have just finished my exams and about to fly back home to spend the Christmas break with my family. It has been three intense and eventful months, in which I learned a lot and got to meet great people. This is also the first time I am writing a blog, so please bare with me, and I hope you enjoy my summary of term one at Cranfield University.

My journey at Cranfield University began last May when I decided to visit the university before enrolling into my program. I reached out to the School of Management, which organised me a tour of the campus and a private meeting with the Strategic Marketing Course Director. The staff were super nice, and I was impressed by how big the campus is and the many facilities it offers. The meeting was also very enlightening: Ahmed gave me great insights about the program and convinced me that studying at Cranfield was the right choice.

The masters course looks at different aspects of marketing such as branding, digital marketing and customer relationship management to give students an all-around and deep knowledge to become successful marketers. The best bit about the program is its practical focus: throughout the semester, I worked on a sales plan for a live client as part of a group project, and my role was to develop a sustainable business model to help the company increase its revenue. However, my favourite class was “Retailing and Omnichannel Management” because we studied how retailers manage their store space and atmospheric stimuli to create a pleasant shopping experience for customers. Overall, I am very satisfied about the subjects from term 1 and I’m looking forward to starting next semester to learn about managing brands and digital marketing.

During the semester, I attended events held by marketing professionals and managers from big companies who came to Cranfield to provide students with real-life examples and applications of what we are studying. My favourite seminar was the one about the fashion industry trends held by the market research firm Mintel. The masterclass revolved around consumer behaviour and the new market trends and challenges, which I found extremely interesting and insightful. Aside from course-based events, there are lots of activities organised by the Cranfield Students’ Association (CSA) throughout the year, such as discos and trips. However, I have spent most of my free time at the gym (I am quite a gym freak myself ahah) and in London because I love the city and have friends who live there.

Speaking of friends, I have met some really cool people so far. There are many international students in my course, which makes the learning experience much more stimulating and cross-cultural. We often work in groups where everyone shares their own insights and ideas based on their experience and culture. These activities also helped me to get to know my classmates, and it was truly thanked to this that I met Jackie and Christina, who are now my closest friends. We have made some trips across the UK during the semester, and we usually go shopping together since we are very passionate about fashion.

As far as my accommodation is concerned, I rented a room in a shared house at Cranfield village. I wanted to live on-campus, but unfortunately, the dormitory was already full by the time I applied. At first, I was worried that living off-campus would prevent me from meeting new people and attending events, but I couldn’t be more wrong: the village is only a 5-minutes bus ride or 15 minutes by bike from the university, which means I can quickly go there whenever I want without relying on the bus schedule. Plus, I made friends with students living at the village too, who I often hang out with in the weekends. Not to mention that the best advantage of living in a small village is that everything is within walking distance – no need to go through the hassle of catching the tube or the bus to get to the nearest supermarket.

I would like to finish off this post by showing you this sunset picture I took from my room window last month. It was quite a nice and rare event for UK standards, and it proves that the weather here can still surprise you sometimes.

Hope you enjoyed this blog post about my experience at Cranfield University so far. Term 2 is about to start, and I’m looking forward to keeping you posted about my journey.

More posts are coming up, so stay tuned!