Master's in Marketing Program Overview, Curriculum and Courses
Transform your career—and the future of marketing.
Understand what makes consumers tick, and learn how to improve their experiences online, in stores and everywhere they go.
In our STEM-designated Master’s in Marketing, the only program of its kind in Arizona, you’ll learn to develop pricing strategies, build integrated marketing plans, and conduct market research. And with the ability to complete the program in as little as 12 months, you’ll be on the fast-track to leadership positions in fields like advertising, product development, market research and more.
12-16
months to complete your degree
#8
graduate marketing program in the U.S. (QS)
2
dual degrees available
MSM/MBA and MSM/MSBA
What You’ll Learn
The MS Marketing program equips students with a comprehensive understanding of essential marketing principles, strategic decision-making, and analytical skills. Key learning outcomes include:
- Analyzing Markets and Customers: Gain the ability to evaluate markets and customer behavior to inform decisions about product development, pricing, promotion, and distribution.
- Applying Statistical Tools for Data Analysis: Learn foundational concepts in probability, distribution, and statistical methods. Topics include descriptive statistics, sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, statistical inferences, regression analysis, and their applications. Develop proficiency in selecting and applying statistical tools correctly, with hands-on experience using SPSS for analysis.
- Developing Marketing Strategies: Learn to create and execute strategies focused on customer value, loyalty, competitive positioning, and integrated branding and digital marketing efforts.
- Conducting Marketing Research: Build expertise in designing, evaluating, and applying research to address management information needs and support strategic decisions.
By mastering these skills, students will be prepared for leadership roles in a dynamic and competitive marketing industry.
The Curriculum
Your courses will be taught by pioneering marketing researchers studying everything from perceptions of “coolness” in communications to the effects of childhood exposure to advertising. You’ll dive right in with coursework in marketing statistics, relationship marketing and marketing management.
While planning your classes, keep in mind that classes in the Fall are only offered in the Fall, and classes in the Spring and only offered in the Spring.
Core Courses
This course is designed as an advanced level introduction to the basic principles and concepts in marketing. The goal is to expose you to these concepts as they are used in a wide variety of settings, including consumer goods firms, manufacturing and service industries, small and large businesses. The course will give you an overview of marketing strategy issues, elements of a market situation analysis (company, customers, and competition) as well as the fundamental elements of the marketing mix – product, price, placement (distribution) and promotion. You will be challenged to apply the principles you learn in class to current and real world marketing issues. As with any class, the knowledge that you take away from the class will be determined in large part by the degree to which you pursue an understanding of the materials covered. This includes reading the assigned materials, asking informed questions, and interacting with your peers as you prepare assignments.
This course will provide you with an overview of the issues involved in acquiring, analyzing, and interpreting marketing research data. More specifically, you will gain familiarity with exploratory research (including projective techniques and focus groups), descriptive research (including observational and survey research), and causal research (including experimentation and test marketing). You will also gain skills in the statistical analysis and reporting of quantitative data. The emphasis will be on the interpretation and proper use of these techniques for actual marketing problems such as segmentation, customer analysis, advertising effectiveness, and product design.
Strategic approaches in customer relationship management to include customer identification, acquisition, development, attrition and retention. Analytical tools are used to explore customer databases, lifetime value of customers, and return on marketing investment.
Elective Courses
This course is designed to introduce students to the complexities of social media marketing through revealing foundational theories and associated concepts of collective behavior, social influence, and social media marketing. This is essentially a marketing strategy course. The primary focus of this course will be on understanding: consumers, social interactions, the impact technology has on marketplace relationships, the various social media channels available to marketers, how to build social media marketing strategies, and how to track their effectiveness. Our levels of analysis will shift from individuals to collectives. You will be responsible for conducting primary and secondary research, recognizing course theories in action, creating effective social media marketing campaigns, and managing social media marketing efforts.
Units: 3
Grading: Regular Grades
Required or Elective: Elective
This course is designed to introduce students to the advance models of research in marketing decision making. Students are exposed to a variety of econometrics models including linear and nonlinear models; dichotomous, dummies, count models, panel regression, and mixed models. The students become familiarized with the casual inferences and experimental design (AB testing). Students are given opportunities to combine what they have learned in previous statistics courses and the methods in this course to analyze data sets related to marketing research and decision making. The course offers development of skills to understand and choose the appropriate method to analyze data and communicate the findings effectively.
Units: 3
Grading: Regular Grades
Required or Elective: Elective
To create and capture value for their firms, marketers use the 4 Ps of the marketing mix – (1) the product, (2) its promotion, (3) its distribution, and (4) its pricing. The first three elements create value for the customer while the last one captures value for the company. If effective product development, promotion and distribution sow the seeds of business success, effective pricing is the harvest. Although effective pricing can never compensate for poor execution of the first three elements, ineffective pricing can surely prevent those efforts from resulting in financial success. The contemporary business world is replete with examples of companies that create great value for their customers yet fail to capture that value in their earnings. One reason is their failure to integrate their value-creating activities with their pricing decisions.
Formulating and implementing strategy for growth; analyzing and influencing market structure; developing, pricing, testing new entries; managing the portfolio.
Units: 3
Grading: Regular Grades
Required or Elective: Elective
Required Internship (Fall 2024 Cohorts & Prior)
After working with our world-renowned faculty and gaining in-depth knowledge about marketing, students will implement everything they learned during an internship with a local or globally-owned company. Internships should be in a position that is marketing-focused and in an area that interests the student. Internship positions will be 20 hours a week and students will work from the beginning of summer to the end. Students will receive course credit for the work they complete during their internship. Completing an internship is a mandatory part of this program’s curriculum as MKTG 909 Internship (6 units, required). Summer Tuition applies if a student chooses to complete the internship over Summer.
International students must register for an internship in order to take Curricular Practical Training (CPT).
International students who wish to take an internship must submit the required paperwork to the International Students Services Office (ISS). For deadline and paperwork information, please visit the ISS website for the CPT packet you will be required to submit to ISS.
LEARN MORE ABOUT COMPLETING AN INTERNSHIP
Track Elective Courses (Fall 2025 Cohorts & Later)
Students who started the MS Marketing program beginning Fall 2025 and later can choose from two different tracks to focus on a specific aspect of marketing:
* Track electives are for emphasis purposes only; they will not appear on your official degree or transcript.
Marketing Analytics | Brand Management |
---|---|
Connected Customer Strategy (MKTG 555A) | Management of Marketing Communications (MKTG 530) |
Generative AI & Customer Insights (MKTG 570) | Brand Management (MKTG 553) |
Marketing Predictive and Visual Analytics (MKTG 542) |
Career Management Course
All MS Marketing students are required to complete a Career Management course, an integral part of the program designed to equip you with essential skills for navigating the competitive job market. This course provides a comprehensive toolkit of strategies and resources to successfully manage your career during graduate studies and beyond.
The course focuses on developing key professional skills, including crafting impactful resumes and cover letters, building a unique personal brand, networking effectively, mastering interview techniques, and employing proven job search strategies.
Offered as a 1-unit BNAD course, this requirement is designed to be completed in a single semester, ensuring students are career-ready by the time they graduate.