Marketing Master's Courses

This course is the introductory course to the Marketing Master’s Degree Program. It is designed to introduce students to the fundamentals of marketing in the context of a creative and innovative program design. Students will learn techniques for improving the flexibility and originality of their thinking and will explore approaches used by marketing practitioners to create and sustain organizational innovation.

The marketing management course is designed to serve as an introduction to the theory and practice of marketing. Students will improve their ability to develop effective marketing strategies and assess market opportunities, as well as design strategy implementation programs. In addition, students will have the opportunity to communicate and defend their recommendations and build upon the recommendations of their peers.

The marketing strategy course is designed to allow students to understand and develop marketing strategies for a real-world business or organization. Through case studies and in-class discussion, students will analyze the opportunities and challenges of selecting effective and efficient platforms and promotional tools. Special emphasis will be put on the synergies and effectiveness of the marketing mix.

The digital marketing course explores several aspects of the new digital marketing environment, including topics such as digital marketing analytics, search engine optimization, and 3D Printing. It will provide a richer understanding of the foundations of the new digital marketing landscape and a new set of stories, concepts, and tools to help the students digitally create, distribute, promote, and price goods and services.

During this final course, students will have the opportunity to apply the comprehensive skills they have built throughout their study of the concept and practice of marketing. Students will work with their advisor to choose a company or organization to take on as a “client.” Students will develop a marketing plan, creating a well-researched, creative, integrated plan for their client. Students will work individually with their advisor and client though team approaches will also be possible depending on clients and client needs. Students will convene at multiple points during the semester to provide oral updates, written assessments, a final plan, and a strategy pitch to fellow students.

This course focuses on several important areas impacting the dynamic nature of internet marketing by addressing the role of mobile marketing, social marketing and local marketing in today’s environment, the integration of e-commerce into the marketing activities, and the major problems and opportunities that e-commerce activities pose for the marketing manager.

A hands-on course emphasizing the importance of data visualization in understanding data. Designed for those who have never used data visualization software before, this course will utilize Microsoft Power BI to prepare students to create reports and dashboards at all levels of an organization. Students will learn exploratory and explanatory data analysis and learn how to ask the right questions about what is needed in a visualization. Students will assess how data and design work together and learn which visualization to use in various situations. Students will learn how to balance the goals of their stakeholders with the needs of their end-users and be able to structure and organize a digital story for maximum impact.

A survey and case study course emphasizing the importance of data privacy and security. We need to share data in organizations, but the more we share it, the more it becomes necessary to protect it. By the end of the course, students will understand the legal, social, and ethical ramifications of data security and privacy as well as the concepts behind data guardianship and custodianship and data permissions. Special attention will be given to industry-specific data privacy laws (HIPAA, FERPA, PCI DSS, etc.).

This social media marketing course is designed to help the students understand how marketing has changed due to the rise of social media and changes in various underlying contextual factors such as dramatically increased speed of information dissemination across consumers and brands. The emphasis of this course is on understanding consumers’ social interactions, examining the various social media channels available to marketers, learning how to build social marketing strategies, and practicing how to track their effectiveness.

The buyer behavior course examines the consumer decision process and the effect on consumer decision-making of external environmental influences (culture, subculture, social class, reference groups, family, and personal influences) and of internal psychological influences (personality and lifestyle, learning, motives, perception, and beliefs and attitudes). Applications of psychological, sociological, anthropological, and economic theories and models to the understanding of buyer behavior and the development of a marketing strategy.

A hands-on course emphasizing the importance of data visualization in understanding data. Designed for those who have never used data visualization software before, this course will utilize Microsoft Power BI to prepare students to create reports and dashboards at all levels of an organization. Students will learn exploratory and explanatory data analysis and learn how to ask the right questions about what is needed in a visualization. Students will assess how data and design work together and learn which visualization to use in various situations. Students will learn how to balance the goals of their stakeholders with the needs of their end-users and be able to structure and organize a digital story for maximum impact.

Students will identify current and emerging career opportunities in the field of event management. They will learn relevant strategic, organizational communication theory as it relates to event planning and will gain significant practice in planning, designing and critiquing events through hands-on experience. Students will analyze ways in which organizations communicate their image and message through events and promotions, while considering key issues facing the event industry in today’s global society.

Students will be introduced to the contributions and potential of a graphic designer as part of a marketing team. The workflow, the technological tools utilized, useful terminology and project pacing will be covered. Students will be exposed to the visual problem-solving angle within marketing. In addition, basic design principles and the ability to identify effective design modules will be introduced.

The buyer behavior course examines the consumer decision process and the effect on consumer decision-making of external environmental influences (culture, subculture, social class, reference groups, family, and personal influences) and of internal psychological influences (personality and lifestyle, learning, motives, perception, and beliefs and attitudes). Applications of psychological, sociological, anthropological, and economic theories and models to the understanding of buyer behavior and the development of a marketing strategy.

This social media marketing course is designed to help the students understand how marketing has changed due to the rise of social media and changes in various underlying contextual factors such as dramatically increased speed of information dissemination across consumers and brands. The emphasis of this course is on understanding consumers’ social interactions, examining the various social media channels available to marketers, learning how to build social marketing strategies, and practicing how to track their effectiveness.

This social media marketing course is designed to help the students understand how marketing has changed due to the rise of social media and changes in various underlying contextual factors such as dramatically increased speed of information dissemination across consumers and brands. The emphasis of this course is on understanding consumers’ social interactions, examining the various social media channels available to marketers, learning how to build social marketing strategies, and practicing how to track their effectiveness.

An intermediate statistics course focusing on techniques used in data analytics. Introduces key statistical methods for applying data analytics. Introduces statistical thinking – starting with a question and using data and software tools to form a reasonable conclusion. Covers statistical analysis of both categorical and quantitative data. Most analysis will be performed using SAS software. Topics include statistical distributions, probability density functions, model accuracy analysis, bootstrapping, and sampling techniques.

A hands-on data analytics course for structured data using SAS Enterprise Miner. Covers the skills that are required to assemble analysis flow diagrams using the rich tool set of SAS Enterprise Miner for both pattern discovery (segmentation, association, and sequence analyses) and predictive modeling (decision tree, regression, and neural network models). Course includes defining a SAS Enterprise Miner project and explore data graphically, modifying data for better analysis results, building, and understanding predictive models such as decision trees and regression models, comparing and explaining complex models, generating, and using score code, applying association and sequence discovery to transaction data. Upon completion, students will have a set of practical data analytics skills and know how to apply these skills in a variety of business environment and with many types of structured data.

A hands-on course emphasizing the importance of data visualization in understanding data. Designed for those who have never used data visualization software before, this course will utilize Microsoft Power BI to prepare students to create reports and dashboards at all levels of an organization. Students will learn exploratory and explanatory data analysis and learn how to ask the right questions about what is needed in a visualization. Students will assess how data and design work together and learn which visualization to use in various situations. Students will learn how to balance the goals of their stakeholders with the needs of their end-users and be able to structure and organize a digital story for maximum impact.

A survey and case study course emphasizing the importance of data privacy and security. We need to share data in organizations, but the more we share it, the more it becomes necessary to protect it. By the end of the course, students will understand the legal, social, and ethical ramifications of data security and privacy as well as the concepts behind data guardianship and custodianship and data permissions. Special attention will be given to industry-specific data privacy laws (HIPAA, FERPA, PCI DSS, etc.).

Introduces the key concepts of data analytics and data science as applied to solving data-centered business problems in many industries. Emphasizes principles and methods covering the process from envisioning the problem to applying data science techniques to deploying the results to improve a business and help make decisions. Topics include an introduction to data-analytic thinking; application of data science solutions to business problems; achieving and sustaining competitive advantage with data science. Students will read and analyze data analytics case studies in various industries.

An intermediate statistics course focusing on techniques used in data analytics. Introduces key statistical methods for applying data analytics. Introduces statistical thinking – starting with a question and using data and software tools to form a reasonable conclusion. Covers statistical analysis of both categorical and quantitative data. Most analysis will be performed using SAS software. Topics include statistical distributions, probability density functions, model accuracy analysis, bootstrapping, and sampling techniques.

A hands-on data analytics course for structured data using SAS Enterprise Miner. Covers the skills that are required to assemble analysis flow diagrams using the rich tool set of SAS Enterprise Miner for both pattern discovery (segmentation, association, and sequence analyses) and predictive modeling (decision tree, regression, and neural network models). Course includes defining a SAS Enterprise Miner project and explore data graphically, modifying data for better analysis results, building, and understanding predictive models such as decision trees and regression models, comparing and explaining complex models, generating, and using score code, applying association and sequence discovery to transaction data. Upon completion, students will have a set of practical data analytics skills and know how to apply these skills in a variety of business environment and with many types of structured data.

A hands-on course emphasizing the importance of data visualization in understanding data. Designed for those who have never used data visualization software before, this course will utilize Microsoft Power BI to prepare students to create reports and dashboards at all levels of an organization. Students will learn exploratory and explanatory data analysis and learn how to ask the right questions about what is needed in a visualization. Students will assess how data and design work together and learn which visualization to use in various situations. Students will learn how to balance the goals of their stakeholders with the needs of their end-users and be able to structure and organize a digital story for maximum impact.

A survey and case study course emphasizing the importance of data privacy and security. We need to share data in organizations, but the more we share it, the more it becomes necessary to protect it. By the end of the course, students will understand the legal, social, and ethical ramifications of data security and privacy as well as the concepts behind data guardianship and custodianship and data permissions. Special attention will be given to industry-specific data privacy laws (HIPAA, FERPA, PCI DSS, etc.).

For this pathway, students suggest a set of five elective courses with a rationale for how those courses will strengthen their marketing skills.

Students may select electives from the MPS in Data Analytics or M.S. in Marketing, including:

• DAN 601 – Data Analytics: Tools & Concepts
• DAN 602 – Statistics for Data Analytics
• DAN 603 – Data Mining
• DAN 604 – Database & Data Warehouse Concepts
• DAN 605 – Visualization & Digital Storytelling
• DAN 607 – Security, Privacy & Ethics in Data Analytics
• DAN 608 – Emerging Topics in Data Analytics
• DAN 609 – Python for Data Analysts
• MKT 505 – Buyer Behavior
• MKT 612 – E-Commerce
• MKT 617 – Social Media Marketing
• MKT 619 – Sports Marketing
• MKT 620 – Role of Graphic Design in Marketing
• MKT 623 – Strategic Event Planning & Management
• MKT 625 – Entrepreneurship