Curriculum: Master of Science in Marketing

Explores the role of marketing research in marketing management. Students do hands-on assignments to develop their understanding of methods for designing and implementing marketing research projects, including collecting, analyzing, and summarizing data pertinent to solving marketing problems. Developing experience in key aspects of marketing research is stressed.

Consumer behavior is the study of human responses to products, services, and the marketing of these products and services. The topic is of critical importance to managers because the focus on the consumer is the key contribution of marketing to business practice; other business functions (e.g.,finance, accounting, production) ignore the consumer. Managers who really understand the consumer develop better products and services, and also market their products and services more effectively.

This course aims to develop a conceptual framework for strategic planning and introduce a handful of analytical tools. Importantly, strategy involves wrestling with knotty problems and testing solutions in a group context. Therefore, we develop descriptive familiarity and some analytical prowess around real problems and develop vital points of reference we can utilize in future, analogous circumstances. We analyze marketing cases that pivot on substantial, contemporary issues involving branding, market selection, business definition, program development and management, among others.

At UC's College of Business, the MS/Marketing Capstone faculty supervisor solicits proposals for projects from organizations (for-profit and not-for-profit) based on participating students' general areas of interest. After the project proposals are previewed and rated by students, the faculty supervisor assigns each student to a project for a five-month learning experience in which students address real marketing problems provided by various client organizations. The scope of these projects centers on any of the following: marketing planning, marketing research,branding and brand architecture initiatives, distribution or channel assessment/ alignment, customer relationship management (CRM) strategies and implementation, analysis of potential marketing initiatives, marketing for non-profits, healthcare marketing, new product development initiatives, and sports marketing. The prime objective of this course is to produce a "win-win"situation for students and clients: these assignments should prove to be valuable "real-world" learning experiences for students, and it is expected that each student will provide a valued output for the client organization.

This course focuses on how to create value and growth through innovation in new and existing markets. Students will learn the skills of innovation and how to apply those skills within the context of a marketing strategy framework. Students will apply innovation methods across the entire marketing management continuum including strategy, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and the 4P's. The course will be taught using interactive workshop methods and techniques throughout. Students will first experience these facilitation techniques while learning innovation.They will then learn and practice these techniques so that they can apply them routinely throughout their graduate experience and beyond.

Students will study the process of market analysis, customer needs assessment, new product concept development, and market launch strategy.

This course introduces design thinking as a business problem solving approach. It overviews design thinking techniques and has hands on practice applying these to classic business challenges. It fosters creativity and teamwork in the increasingly ambiguous business world in which today's business leaders must compete.

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to elements of advertising and promotion.The course is designed from the perspective of managers who will need to make decisions about marketing communications programs. Topics covered include: setting objectives, positioning, target audience selection, creative strategy, media strategy, advertising research and evaluation. The marketing communications program is seen as one part of the overall marketing mix. The material covered in the course is relevant for all types of organizations (large, small, public, or private).

Social influence refers to the attempt of one party to gain compliance from another party. It is a universal feature of human existence and widely practiced by sellers. This course will examine principles of social influence and their applications in marketing. Based on noted psychologist Robert B. Cialdini's authoritative book "Influence: Science and Practice" students will learn the psychological secrets underlying powerful persuasion techniques used by advertisers, sales professionals, direct marketers, politicians, religious cults, and others.

This course explores use of digital technologies as they are used for the marketing, selling, and the distribution of goods and services. New developments unfold rapidly in this arena, hence course content changes as appropriate. The goal is to develop an understanding of the opportunities and limitations of digital tools for marketing and how these tools support marketing strategy.

This course will explore a range of issues related to the strategic management of Brands including an overview of Brands and Brand Management, brand equity/brand positioning, designing and implementing Brand strategies, and managing Brand Equities across geographic boundaries. Emphasis will be on applying the Strategic Brand Management theory to practical application/case studies. The class will focus on Strategic Brand Management principles which are relevant across a wide range of Branding situations (consumable and non-consumable products, services, retail outlets,people, organizations, places, and even ideas like a political or social cause).

This course gives an overview of the retailing industry with an emphasis on the cutting edge strategies, technologies and success stories by major retailers originating in the U.S. and beyond. The course introduces retailing from both theoretical and managerial perspectives, with a special emphasis on the most current developments in the industry. Major topics covered include the basic principles of retailing, retailing research,winning strategies of successful retailers (including use of store atmospherics, customer service, CRM and technology) and their success stories, as well as the rampant globalization of the retailing industry.

The purpose of this course is to provide students with a foundation in Marketing. Concepts such as segmentation, targeting, positioning, customer and market analysis, and basic marketing planning will be introduced. This course cannot be used as an elective for Linder College of Business master's students.

This course provides an introduction to the fundamentals of economics at the graduate level for students without previous economics coursework. Students will be exposed to the essentials of both microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics topics to be discussed include the supply and demand mechanism,how markets are affected by regulation and taxation, costs of production, and how market structure affects outcomes. Macroeconomic topics to be discussed include the fundamental measures of the aggregate economy, the sources of economic growth, explaining short-run fluctuations in economic activity, and how government policies can affect these fluctuations. A particular focus will be to understand how fundamental economic principles at both the micro and macro level can affect companies, investments, industries, and national economies. This course may not be used as an elective course for Lindner College of Business Master's programs.

This course educates students in the fundamentals of finance and accounting. The methods covered are used extensively throughout the MBA program. Topics include: the accounting process that results in the preparation of financial statements for external users, techniques for analyzing a basic set of financial statements, using accounting information to support management decisions, and using time value of money techniques to evaluate capital asset decisions. (MS Accounting students cannot earn credit by taking this course.) This course cannot be used as an elective course for Lindner College of Business Master's programs.

Introduction to data analysis and statistical methods with focus on practical decisions using quantitative models in a spreadsheet environment. Topics include sources of data, descriptive and graphical statistical methods, probability, distributions, sampling and sampling distributions, estimation, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. This course may not be used as an elective course for Lindner College of Business Master's programs.

To influence consumers’ decisions, marketers first need to understand how those decisions are made. Such decisions would be quite easy to understand if we assume consumers (1) are perfectly accurate information processors, and (2) always choose options that maximize their happiness. In this course, you will learn how and why both of these assumptions are rarely true. Specifically, we will look at how things like risk and uncertainty, heuristics and biases, feelings and emotions, contextual factors, and even our evolutionary history lead consumers to both systematically deviate from traditional notions of rationality, and even define new ways in which we think about rationality itself.

Examining the strategic decisions and tactical elements of managing a product throughout its lifecycle.

This course aims to describe many phenomena in marketing. As consumers we develop a surface familiarity with the activities and institutions of the market place but we need a closer look at the players, decision-making issues, processes and key lessons from the commercial trading environment. We also intend to develop an understanding of system dynamics and causal linkages in the marketplace. Why do some products fail? How can we structure productive relationships? What will happen to prices when we intensify distribution or advertising? The course takes up these questions and more.