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 is a marketing strategy course focusing on branding and brand management which are primarily but not exclusively conveyed through integrated marketing communications, which includes packaging, advertising, web sites, promotions, press releases, corporate facility design and layout, in-facility signage, employee attire, employee pamphlets, corporate policies, corporate communications, and annual reports; ALL firm-authored communication to its various constituents. We will be examining the creation of brands and brand management, evaluating the execution of planned and emergent corporate and marketing communications, and designing integrated, effective, new brand initiatives and communications. Some areas of the content you will be exceedingly familiar with e.g., advertising and corporate culture. Other areas you may be less familiar with e.g., corporate branding initiatives, event promotions, co-branding, product placements, consumption collectives, press releases, and pre-emptive actions designed to head-off potential governmental legislation or favor specific industry standards. We will be examining branding and IMC from many vantages, such as, the production firm, direct and indirect competitors, the advertising agency, marketing consultants, promoters, investors, employees, consumers, government, and society. Our goal is to gain a 360° perspective of branding and marketing communications. Our levels of analysis will shift from individuals to collectives. You will be responsible for conducting primary and secondary research, recognizing branding and communications theories in action, and creating effective brand strategies, corporate communications and marketing campaigns.

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
Usually offered: Fall 
Grading: Regular Grades
Required or Elective: Elective

Units: 2
Usually offered: Fall 
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
Usually offered: Fall B
Grading: Regular Grades
Required or Elective: Elective

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.

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
Usually offered: Spring 
Grading: Regular Grades
Required or Elective: Elective