Curriculum

As the key to trade and commerce, marketing is the facilitator of exchange processes. Ultimately, it involves the flow of information (between buyers and sellers), product/service innovation (from sellers to buyers), and compensation (from buyers to sellers). Thoughtful marketing planning requires an understanding of the nature of marketing, buyer and seller decision processes, and the nuances of the marketplace. It also requires a working knowledge of the analytics behind marketing decisions so that such decisions can be justified. This course covers these topics and more, with broad coverage of digital, branding, and specific analytics.

Marketing communications are essential for connecting the many constituents of the marketing exchange process. The growth of digital marketing and social media platforms has changed the landscape as to how marketers communicate with their various audiences. Marketing messaging is no longer only a tool for communication, but also a tool for audience connection via search/SEO, engagement, and community building. Also, the rapid construction of marketing messages for social media requires marketers to have similar skill sets that were previously attributed to entire advertising agencies. As such, this course examines the array of communication elements available to modern marketers; the roles of communication content in informing, evoking emotion, storytelling, brand building, message delivery (sharing), and SEO; and the tools necessary to measure, evaluate, and discuss the effectiveness of various messaging components as they pertain to the overall marketing communications strategy.

There are many who say that "marketing is marketing, regardless of where and how it's done." Yet, the digital revolution has changed not only the tactics of marketing, but its strategies as well. As such, a course focused on various aspects of "eMarketing" is essential to attaining marketing mastery in today's digital marketing landscape. In this course, students learn how various companies and organizations utilize website, social media, mobile, and email marketing techniques. The course explores topics related to lead generation, e-commerce, funnel analysis, AB testing, website development, search marketing, and how online users react to online content. Finally, the course covers recent developments in online technologies, digital strategies, the segmentation of markets, eMarketing communication and promotion, and online brand management.

Marketing begins and ends with the buyer, whether the exchange takes place in a B2B, B2C, or C2C environment. An essential component of marketing is consumer insight -- not only the obvious needs and wants that are on the surface of conscious thought, but also the deeper, possibly unconscious, motives that drive human behavior at an implicit level. This course provide students with a fundamental understanding of concepts, theories, qualitative knowledge, and quantitative skills, as well as fosters experiential learning via hands-on projects and activities.

Marketers need accurate and timely information in order to derive the types of insights that assist in making sound marketing decisions and providing quality experiences to various target audiences. Although marketing research can provide this information, the digital marketplace has generated particular challenges and opportunities when it comes to conducting primary research. This course covers marketing research in general, and also explores how the digital environment has influenced research practices. The course also covers various methods of data gathering, data analysis, insight generation, and particular research issues related to brand management. 

The world of social media has moved the control of branding from the organization to the general public (or at least to influencers within that general public). As such, marketers have a particular need to understand how social media influences brand and product perceptions, as well as how it can be used to build brand communities, promote new ideas, tell stories, and engage audiences. This course covers these topics, as well as studies general aspects of social media marketing, assessment of metrics, how social can be used to segment and target markets, and overall social media marketing strategies.

The digital marketplace has provided marketers with more information than ever before, but the information is useless (or even worse, misleading) if it cannot be analyzed properly and efficiently. This course examines multiple aspects of marketing analytics, including the use of analysis techniques to provide marketing insights and solve marketing problems. Topics include data mining, segmentation, customer modeling, product/feature development, and the communication of data-derived insights via data visualization.

In a world of easy access to information, brands are much more than mere identifiers of a particular organization's products. They embody values, assist in storytelling, and contribute to the identities of their users (and avoiders). This course provides insights into how to create profitable brand strategies by building, measuring, and managing brand equity as well as how to address inherent challenges with customer transparency, professional integrity, the influence of outside forces (such as social media), and miscommunication. Challenges of brand management in the digital environment are covered, as well as analytics specific to branding.

One of the most complex challenges facing marketers is the integration of the various information channels and product channels. The additional communication opportunities provided by the digital marketspace have also complicated marketers' messaging, product delivery, customer service, and data gathering. The efficient and effective managing of marketing channels is essential to success in today's marketing environment. This course covers these areas, and guides students through various analytical techniques that will help them understand the movement and integration of both information and products through the various marketing channels.

Many unknowing businesspeople consider marketing to be mainly short-term focused and responsive to immediate market conditions, while others laud the ambiguous “long-term power of branding” as their rationale for lofty marketing expenditures. The truth is that marketing is both strategic and tactical. It not only can respond to market conditions, but it can influence them. This course is designed to help students develop strategic thinking and strategic processes that take into account digital marketing, brand development, and marketing analytics. While various digital marketing strategies will be discussed, the emphasis will be on developing skills to think strategically, plan strategically, and build strategic processes that are effective, efficient, and sufficiently agile to account for market changes in the fast-paced digital environment. The coursework focuses on the planning, execution, and reporting on a marketing communications project.