Dr Alison Lawson

Faculty: Business, Computing and Law

School: Derby Business School

Subject Area: Marketing

Supporting the Faculty and School vision

The best way for me to help achieve the vision is to provide the best quality experience possible to every student I meet. This means preparing up-to-date and interesting teaching materials, using a variety of teaching and learning methods, setting relevant and interesting assignments, enabling skills development and encouraging employer engagement. It also means good pastoral care of the students - making time to be there when they need me and helping them to achieve their goals. Well qualified and satisfied Derby graduates will spread good word of mouth about Derby and impress employers, helping us to achieve the vision.

Teaching responsibilities

I teach on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in marketing. I am module leader for Media Management, Services Ingenuity, Copywriting and Creativity and Writing for Marketing and Mixed Media. I also teach on other modules including Public Relations, Consumer Behaviour, Sales and Key Account Management, Marketing Metrics and Fashion and Trends and Marketing. In addition, I supervise students on the Independent Studies module on undergraduate and postgraduate programmes, helping them to develop research ideas, conduct their own research and form new knowledge.

Professional interests

I'm interested in marketing in the publishing industry, how media is used in marketing and in how students feel about their experience of learning. 

Research interests

My research interests include the use of media (especially traditional print media) in marketing, marketing in the publishing industry and consumption of media. I'm also interested in why students choose to study marketing and in the links between what students learn and the knowledge and skills employers need them to have. As an educator I'm also interested in the effect of the widening participation agenda on learners' identities.

Membership of professional bodies and advisory committees

• Member of the Academy of Marketing
• Member of the Arts, Heritage, Nonprofit and Social Marketing SIG, Academy of Marketing
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Recent Conferences

• Lawson, A. (2012) Learner identities in undergraduates: a case study, British Educational Research Association (Bera) conference, Manchester University, 5 September 2012.

• Lawson, A. (2012) Is there a link between learner identity and subject choice in undergraduate marketing students?, Academy of Marketing Conference, University of Southampton, 3 July 2012.

• Longbottom, D., Hilton, J. and Lawson, A. (2011) The role of deep emotions in service improvement initiatives: a summary of literature and a survey of critical factors, Academy of Marketing Conference, Liverpool University, July 2011.

• Education for employment and life symposium chair at the British Educational Research Association (Bera) conference, Warwick University, 3 September 2010.

• Supporting practitioner engagement in research, presented at the Research Celebration Day, City College Norwich, July 2010.
• Connected resources for research and practice, presented at the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers, Hinckley, 10 November 2009.

Additional Interests and Activities

I want students to have the best time of their lives while they're at university. It's a time that they learn their subject, have fun and learn about other people from other backgrounds, share experiences and broaden their horizons.

I believe research is important for academic credibility and it must have a provable impact in order to make a difference to anyone. Even projects with potential for small-scale impact should have tailored dissemination plans.

Personally, I'm passionate about getting communication right - putting the audience first, not making assumptions about what is already known and using plain English rather than jargon.

Undergraduate qualifications

• BA (Hons) Publishing and German, Oxford Brookes University

Postgraduate qualifications

• Master of Business Administration (MBA), Keele University
• Postgraduate Programme in Learning and Teaching, University of Derby

Research qualifications

• PhD on the impact of ICT on roles, systems and processes in UK book publishing, University of Manchester

Research posts

Institution	Project	Dates
NFER	Membership survey and analysis for the Institute for Learning	July 2009 to January 2010

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