Our marketing degree programs combine foundations, concepts, and theoretical aspects of the discipline, but with an emphasis on practical and managerial applications in organizations and the community. Students have a range of opportunities to engage in practical, hands-on learning by participating in real-world projects, specialized classes, personalized independent studies, student organizations, and/or internships. The focus of this program, in addition to introducing and instilling marketing content, aims to develop students’ professional communication, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills.
Marketing is the foundation of every organization irrespective of the term used in practice (for example: brand manager, client relations, account executive, customer service, channel manager, salesperson, or product/service innovation manager). Simply put, marketing is where all of a company’s revenues and profits (or resources and clients in the case of not-for-profit organizations) are generated. Marketing has two distinct branches: strategic and behavioral. There is a good deal of commonality between the two as they complement each other by focusing specifically on providing the maximum value to customers. Marketing faculty members focus on their own areas of specialty and interests as they undertake research, engage in curriculum development, and implement pedagogy in their respective subfields. The result is a more streamlined approach to the discipline to share with our students.
The Department offers two timely and exciting specializations for the marketing major: (1) Digital Marketing and Analytics; and (2) Global Supply Chain. As firms have digitized, huge quantities of behavioral and performance data are being gathered that can better serve markets, target desired groups more efficiently, and/or offer new goods and services. The Digital Marketing and Analytics specialization prepares marketing majors to embrace this important aspect of business. Also, regardless of whether a firm markets locally or internationally, it directly and/or indirectly relies on global supply sources and must manage these effectively and efficiently to deliver goods and services to the marketplace. Our Global Supply Chain specialization is designed in recognition of the critical importance of international marketing channels in doing business domestically as well as in markets abroad.
Our international business and language (IBL) major combines studies in both international business and foreign languages. The curriculum features business core courses, international business electives, and intensive language study. Students who are majoring in IBL Spanish, French, and German are essentially double majoring, as the language requirement for IBL will also be sufficient for a BA in these three languages. There are also options to earn an IBL Mandarin degree and/or IBL Russian degree, with corresponding minors in the College of Arts and Sciences.
The IBL major requires a semester of study abroad in a target language country. It is typical for a student to study abroad in spring and then add a summer internship as part of their overseas experience. Graduates of this program work in a variety of positions in the private, governmental, and nonprofit sectors. Job placement has been 100% for over a decade.