MKT1705X: ace the component, not just read the notes
Your complete guide to National University of Singapore's principles of marketing course. See where the marks are, work real practice questions, and study with an AI tutor that knows MKT1705X.
Sia generates MKT1705X practice questions, walks through marketing environmental scanning and marketing intelligence step by step, and quizzes you on the material the component that weights most heavily.
Sharpen your argument
A local coffee chain says its target segment is 'young people who like good coffee' and its positioning is 'quality coffee at a fair price'. A tutorial asks you to critique this. What is the strongest criticism?
Test the segment against what makes a segment useful: it should be identifiable, reachable, substantial and responsive. 'Young people who like good coffee' fails on reachability and responsiveness, because you cannot buy media against it or predict how it will respond.
Say what a stronger version would look like: a segment defined by observable behaviour or occasion, and a position that names the trade-off the brand is making against a specific competitive frame.
Then check that the rest of the mix follows from it, which is the point of positioning in the first place.
The weaker choice: Reading positioning as a slogan rather than as a decision. A positioning statement is useful only if it implies what the firm will not do, and 'quality at a fair price' rules nothing out. The related trap is treating a demographic as a segment: age describes who someone is, not why they buy, and this course's segmentation material exists to separate the two. watch this!
One component decides 30% of your grade. The largest individual component, and the main chance to be assessed on your own work rather than the group's. This whole page is built around that.
Overview
What MKT1705X is, and where it sits
MKT1705X is the introduction to marketing at NUS Business School, and it is built around applying frameworks to real companies rather than reciting them. The stated objectives are threefold: a foundational understanding of marketing principles, exposure to real-world applications through analysing and solving problems faced by actual firms, and teamwork, with students working in groups to devise marketing solutions.
The semester follows the logic of a marketing plan. It opens with what marketing is, then environmental scanning and SWOT, marketing intelligence and research, and two weeks on consumer behaviour. From there it moves through segmentation and targeting, positioning and competitive advantage, growth strategies, two weeks on product and branding, integrated marketing communications, pricing, and distribution, closing on the evolution of business orientation models and societal marketing.
The delivery pattern is worth planning around: a two-hour lecture every week, but tutorials only every fortnight on an odd or even week rotation. Group project presentations run across Weeks 9 to 12 in tutorial slots. Students are also required to serve as subject pool participants in marketing research projects, which is an assessed component in its own right.
One structural feature separates this course from every other one in this guide: there is no examination. The entire grade is continuous, and most of it is judged work rather than marked answers.
Always treat your own course outline and the exam timetable as authoritative.
Difficulty & time commitment
Is MKT1705X hard, and how much time does it take?
MKT1705X is manageable if you keep a weekly rhythm and treat the back half as the main event. The pattern is consistent: it starts gently and steepens, and the heaviest assessment is the part that separates grades.
The difficulty curve and the assessment weighting point the same way: the back half is harder and worth more. Front-loading effort there is the highest-return decision in the course.
Is this course for you
Who tends to do well, and who tends to struggle
You will likely do well if
- You are comfortable being judged rather than marked. Almost every component is assessed on quality of thinking and delivery, not against an answer key.
- You can carry a group you did not choose, since tutors assign members.
- You speak up in tutorials. With only around six of them, 15% of the course rests on a handful of sessions.
- You enjoy applying frameworks to real companies, which is the course's stated method.
You may struggle if
- You prefer to be examined. There is no exam here to reward late consolidation.
- You are uncomfortable presenting. Fifteen percent is your individual delivery within the group presentation.
- You treat the video assignment as a formality. At 30% it is the single largest component and it is entirely yours.
- You skip a tutorial or two. The fortnightly rotation means each absence costs proportionally more than in a weekly course.
- Write your positioning statements so that they rule something out. A claim every competitor could make earns nothing.
- In the video assignment, show the reasoning rather than the conclusion; graders can see whether a framework was applied or decorated.
- Start the group project before the Week 9 presentations, since the branding, promotion and pricing lectures land in the same weeks.
- In tutorials, build on what someone else said rather than presenting a separate point. That is what a discussion mark rewards.
Syllabus
The 14 topics, week by week
The exam-weight marker on each topic shows where the marks concentrate. The amber topics carry the highest exam weight.
W1 · Course introduction: what is marketing?
Chapters 1 and 2What marketing actually is beyond advertising, and the value it is supposed to create. No tutorial this week.
W2 · Marketing environmental scanning and SWOT analysis
Chapter 3Reading the environment a firm operates in, and organising what you find into something a decision can be based on.
W3 · Marketing intelligence and market research
Chapter 4Where marketing evidence comes from, and how research design shapes what it can tell you. Tutorials begin for odd-week groups, and group members are assigned.
W4 · Consumer behaviour, part 1
Chapter 5How buying decisions are actually made, and the psychology behind them. Tutorials begin for even-week groups.
W5 · Consumer behaviour, part 2; market segmentation and targeting
Chapters 5 and 7From understanding individual decisions to grouping the market and choosing who to serve. The pivot from analysis to strategy.
W6 · Public holiday week; tutorials continue
No lecture in the Semester 2 schedule because of the Chinese New Year holiday; even-week tutorials still run, followed by recess week.
W7 · Market positioning, competitive advantage and growth strategies
Chapter 7Claiming a distinct place in the customer's mind, and the routes a firm can take to grow from it.
W8 · Product and branding, part 1
Chapters 8 and 9What a product is beyond its physical form, and how a brand carries meaning and value.
W9 · Product and branding, part 2
Chapters 8 and 9Extending the branding material, while group project presentations begin in tutorials.
W10 · Promotions and integrated marketing communications
Chapters 14 to 17How the message reaches the market, and why the channels have to say the same thing. Group presentations continue.
W11 · Pricing strategies
Chapters 10 and 11How price is set as a strategic decision rather than a cost calculation, and what it signals about positioning.
W12 · Distribution and placement strategies
Chapters 12 and 13Getting the product to the customer, and how channel choices constrain everything else in the mix.
W13 · The evolution of business orientation models; societal marketing
How the discipline's own conception of its purpose has shifted, and what societal marketing asks of a firm.
W14 · Final tutorials
No lecture; even-week tutorial groups meet for the last discussion session.
How it's assessed
Assessment structure
| Component | Weight | Format & timing |
|---|---|---|
| Individual video assignment | 30% | Individual submission in video form. Across the semester. The largest individual component, and the main chance to be assessed on your own work rather than the group's. |
| Group project | 30% | Team project, with members assigned by tutors in the first tutorial. Presented in tutorials across Weeks 9 to 12. You do not choose your group; tutors assign members in Tutorial 1. |
| Class participation | 15% | Assessed in the fortnightly tutorials through discussion. No hardcopy submission is required for tutorial discussions. Fortnightly. Tutorials run on an odd or even week rotation, so there are only around six of them across the semester and each one carries weight. |
| Individual presentation for group project | 15% | Your individual delivery within the group presentation is marked separately from the group's work. Weeks 9 to 12. Splits the presentation into a shared component and a personal one. |
| Subject pool participation | 10% | Serving as a participant in marketing research projects run within the department. Across the semester. A required part of the course, described as exposure to current research interests in marketing. |
- No single-component hurdle is stated in the published outline. There is no examination in this course: the whole grade is continuous assessment.
- There is no examination. The mark is assembled from an individual video assignment, a group project with an individually marked presentation, class participation and subject pool participation.
- Calculator policy: Not applicable.
This is a coursework course. Coursework carries 100% of the grade and the individual video assignment is the single heaviest piece at 30%, so steady work across the semester decides your result more than any one sitting. The largest individual component, and the main chance to be assessed on your own work rather than the group's.
How to actually pass it
A weekly rhythm, two checklists, and the traps to avoid
The course rewards consistency over cramming, and practice over re-reading. Here is the loop that works, then what to have nailed before each exam.
The weekly loop
Before the mid-semester checklist
- What marketing is, beyond promotion
- Environmental scanning and SWOT applied to a real firm
- Marketing research: what different designs can and cannot establish
- Consumer behaviour, and segmentation and targeting built on it
Before the final heaviest topics
- Positioning and competitive advantage, stated so that they rule something out
- Product and branding across both weeks
- Integrated marketing communications and why consistency matters
- Pricing as a strategic rather than an arithmetic decision
- Distribution and channel choice
- Societal marketing and the evolution of business orientation
The mistakes that cost marks
Treating a demographic as a segment. Age or income describes who someone is, not why they buy. A segment has to be actionable, and the course's segmentation material is built to make that distinction.
Writing a positioning statement nobody could disagree with. If every competitor could claim it, it is not a position. It should imply what the firm will not do.
Coasting on the group. Fifteen percent of the mark is your individual delivery within the group presentation, and it is marked separately from the group's work.
Leaving subject pool participation to the end of semester. It is 10% of the course and depends on research projects being available, which they may not be in the final weeks.
Teaching team
Who teaches MKT1705X
The bios below are factual. We do not rate lecturers; any star ratings are submitted by students who have taken MKT1705X.
Canley Yong Yoon Mei
Listed as the lecturer for MKT1705X in the Department of Marketing for Semester 2 of AY2025/2026.
Teaching team as listed in the course materials reviewed. AskSia does not rate lecturers; star ratings are submitted by students who have taken MKT1705X.
Formula & concept sheet
The vocabulary and formulas you must own
- Marketing
- Creating, communicating and delivering value to customers, of which promotion is only one part.
- Environmental scanning
- Systematically reading the forces outside the firm that shape what it can do.
- SWOT analysis
- Organising strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats so that a decision can follow from them.
- Market research
- Gathering evidence about customers and markets, with the design determining what it can support.
- Consumer behaviour
- How buying decisions are actually made, which the standard economic account only partly captures.
- Segmentation
- Dividing a market into groups that differ in how they respond, not merely in who they are.
- Targeting
- Choosing which segments to serve, and accepting that others are not being served.
- Positioning
- The distinct place a brand occupies in the customer's mind relative to competitors; useful only if it rules something out.
- Marketing mix
- Product, price, place and promotion, which have to be consistent with the position claimed.
- Brand equity
- The value a brand name adds beyond the product's functional attributes.
- Integrated marketing communications
- Coordinating channels so that they carry a consistent message.
- Societal marketing
- The view that marketing should weigh long-run consumer and social welfare alongside firm profit.
Common acronyms: {'term': 'SWOT', 'def': 'Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats'} · {'term': 'IMC', 'def': 'Integrated marketing communications'} · {'term': 'STP', 'def': 'Segmentation, targeting and positioning'} · {'term': '4Ps', 'def': 'Product, price, place and promotion, the marketing mix'} · {'term': 'CA', 'def': 'Continuous assessment, which is all of this course'}.
Set texts
The prescribed reading
The syllabus references map straight onto these.
Principles of Marketing: An Asian Perspective, 5th edition
Kotler, Armstrong, Ang, Tan and Leong (Pearson, 2022).
Where it fits
Prerequisites, related courses & why it matters
No prerequisites stated in the published outline. MKT1705X is the introductory marketing course in the NUS Business School core, and the material is also offered under the MKT1003X code in some programme structures.
Your MKT1705X study toolkit
Study the course with Sia, not just read about it
Each tool already knows MKT1705X: your syllabus, your texts, and where the marks are. Grouped by how you study, from first contact to exam week.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is there an exam in MKT1705X?
No. The course is entirely continuous assessment: individual video assignment 30%, group project 30%, class participation 15%, individual presentation for the group project 15%, and subject pool participation 10%.
Can I choose my group?
No. Tutors assign group members in the first tutorial, in Week 3 for odd-week groups and Week 4 for even-week groups.
What is subject pool participation?
You serve as a participant in marketing research projects run in the department. The outline describes it as exposure to current research interests in marketing, and it carries 10% of the course mark.
How often are tutorials?
Every fortnight, on an odd or even week rotation, alongside a weekly two-hour lecture. Because there are only around six tutorials, each one carries real weight for the participation component.
What is the textbook?
Kotler, Armstrong, Ang, Tan and Leong, Principles of Marketing: An Asian Perspective, 5th edition, Pearson. The weekly schedule maps directly onto its chapters.
When are the group presentations?
Across Weeks 9 to 12 in tutorial slots, which overlaps with the branding, promotion and pricing lectures. Plan the project work to be largely finished before that stretch.
Study MKT1705X with Sia
Work through marketing environmental scanning, marketing intelligence, consumer behaviour and the rest of the course with a tutor that knows it and quizzes you on the topics the assessments weight most heavily.
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