Graduate Marketing Science Course Descriptions

This course provides students with the skills and knowledge necessary for developing innovative and creative thinking strategies to improve digital marketing planning and execution. Emphasis is placed upon learning critical skills to identify and facilitate innovative behavior and collaboration within the organization that will increase sustainable business growth and strengthen abilities to respond to organizational changes and challenges. Course lectures, reading and projects span theory and practice and draw upon examples from multiple industry sectors and delivery channels.

MS-505. Consumer Decision Making. 3 Credits.

The option gives graduate students the opportunities to work on real-world business consulting projects with local businesses that build upon the science, research and application of consumer behavior data and analysis, extending to strategic planning and identifying relevant tactics to carry out strategies. Prerequisites: MS-510.

MS-510. The Influence and Persuasion of Consumers. 3 Credits.

Understanding the factors that drive consumers in the mobile world. The components that help to influence positive decisions about their relationships, careers and challenges in daily life. Students in this course examine major concepts related to influence and persuasion as well as the relationship among attitudes, beliefs and behavior that influence consumers in the ever-changing mobile environment. Students will analyze and discuss the influence of product offerings and behavioral habits. They will also examine how mobile behavioral data can be developed and tested in the influence and persuasion processes. Students apply principles of influence and persuasion to case studies and to real-life experiences.

MS-515. Applied Market Research and Analysis. 3 Credits.

This comprehensive tool course will guide students through the basic concepts of experimental design and analysis techniques for marketing tests in traditional and evolving media channels. It will cover the following topics: What, when and why to test; assessing marketing test results including direct mail, banner ads, landing pages, email tests, subject line test, PPC mobile and geo data; measuring website and mobile effectiveness; determining the appropriate level of confidence for test assessment; following rules for assessing smaller marketing-research tests; full-factorial test design considerations, A/B split tests, multivariate testing; establishing online baselines and metrics. Other areas of emphasis include using analysis of variance (ANOVA), and assessing element interactions, B-to-B testing and considerations. In addition, these will be included: acknowledging the five rules of test design; determining the appropriate size for tests; seasonality testing considerations, day-parting online testing and cost-benefit analysis, and bridging test results from one test series to another.

MS-518. Marketing Intelligence: Industry Analysis and Strategy. 3 Credits.

Overview of marketing or marketing management with an emphasis placed on enabling the marketing manager to create strategies that "fit" the product/service to the organization's distinctive competencies and its target market. Development of decision-making skills in marketing and provides an overview of the strategic marketing management process. Different methods are used to address and exemplify the many issues and problems that are involved in creating and implementing the marketing strategy in today's ever-changing market place.

MS-520. Foundations of Social and Mobile Techniques. 3 Credits.

The course covers concepts and techniques for retrieving, exploring, visualizing, and analyzing social network and social media data, website and mobile usage, behavioral patterns and clickstream data. Students learn to use key metrics to assess goals and return on investment, perform social network analysis to identify important social actors, subgroups, and network properties in social media. The course will look at mobile technologies, and consider their impact on digital marketing, as well as other business contexts. The potential for social and mobile technology to serve as a new profit center for firms will be explored. Student assignments will involve the hands-on use and application of social and mobile technologies. The final group project will consist of a social/mobile marketing application for a specific company or product. This course builds on student skills in integrated marketing communications by examining the role of social media and mobile communications as potential components of a campaign. Students will learn to research and write a situation analysis incorporating research in the digital arena, segment and target for digital strategies and understand consumer behavior and advertising responses to social media and mobile communications. When feasible students will explore social media and mobile platforms, social media and mobile communication strategies, SMS communications, mobile web sites and mobile search will successfully integrate digital with traditional media. Students will work with a client to evaluate their current social media and mobile executions and develop digital strategies aimed at specific goals for a brand.

MS-523. Behavioral Research Methods. 3 Credits.

This course will guide the marketer through both quantitative and qualitative techniques for maximizing the brand and customer relationships in an integrated-marketing environment. It will cover the following topics: Sampling techniques used in marketing: how and why to sample, types of sampling. The measures of central tendency and dispersion: how to develop and assess these measures to better understand potential data issues prior to analysis. Graphical representation of marketing data: the use of bar charts, pie charts, line charts, and other methods for showing consumer data and purchase data. Important distributional properties of marketing data: the central-limit theorem and the normal distribution. Marketing-test design and analysis: sample-size estimation and test assessment via hypothesis testing. Full factorial test design: the rules of test design. Market-research survey design and execution: types of surveys, types of questions, and test planning. Research-analysis methods: choice modeling/conjoint analysis, rank correlations. Types and usage of syndicated data: Nielsen, IRI, Simmons, and other data sources. Sizing a market: how to assess opportunities in the marketplace via online research and online services. ROI analysis: the various methods of calculating return on marketing investment, campaign management spreadsheets, calculations, marketing goals. Competitive research methods and tracking: various qualitative and quantitative techniques to assess competition in the marketplace.

MS-530. Mobile Marketing Mindset. 3 Credits.

This course covers the search strategies of consumer behavior and motivations that differ in the mobile environment, particularly in how Short Message Service (SMS) and Multimedia Message Service (MMS) are used in marketing communications. The course also examines the usage and impacts of Location-Based Marketing (LBM). Near Field Communications (NFC) will also be explored in such venues as kiosks, point-of-purchase posters, debit card terminals and turnstile and promotions.

MS-533. Enterprise Design Thinking. 3 Credits.

Students will learn a robust framework for applying design thinking techniques to key issues facing organizations across industries. Key skills developed include shared goal setting and decision-making, processes for continuous innovation, and the alignment of multi-disciplinary teams around the real needs and experiences of users and customers. Through instruction, experiential learning and an industry-recognized methodology, students will gain practice in the successful application of design thinking techniques to address common business problems.

MS-615. Revenue Management and Consumer Pricing. 3 Credits.

This course, led by a faculty member with experience as a C-Suite executive, focuses on the role of the C-Suite as senior management and how the competing demands of that role shape the divisions and departments of the company and, inevitably, the management and budget for marketing. Understanding the impact of the value exchange between the consumer and the business. The course will be taught through lectures, readings, case-study discussions, and class exercises designed to build students' understanding of the subject matter. The real-world examples and case studies will give students hands-on experience in applying the learning to challenges they will face in their future. Prerequisites: MS-515.

MS-620. Integrated Marketing with Mobile Communications, Devices and Apps. 3 Credits.

This course will take a strategic approach to the study of Customer Relationship Marketing, providing students with the knowledge to plan, manage and assess a CRM program from a non-technical perspective and to understand the strategic options for managing the customer experience for maximum customer equity. CRM enables a company to move from a product-based to a customer-based strategy, so that instead of focusing on product differentiation as the basis of competition, it can focus on increasing the value of its best customers. Students will learn how CRM has evolved and can take the form of customer-loyalty programs, relational database management, and total quality management. Students also will study the role of CRM within the process that contemporary marketers refer to as managing customer experience, which entails considering how to deliver the most positive experiences of the brand and its products/services to target customers, new customers and existing customers. To provide students with CRM theory as well as practical application to marketing challenges, the course will comprise 4 areas: Developing methods and Criteria for a CRM Program, Planning the CRM Program-including goal setting and selection of methodologies, Implementing the CRM Program, and Metrics for Program Success. Through reading of case studies of business challenges involving the use of CRM, as well as technical and peer-reviewed articles on the latest theories and methodologies for relationship management, students will learn why, when, and how to use CRM as a strategy for increasing customer equity in the form of incremental revenue from sales, increased profit, or improved Return on Investment (ROI), and improving the value exchange with consumers. Prerequisites: MS-520.

MS-630. Web Analytics: Email, Clickstream and SEO. 3 Credits.

In this course, students will learn the various online business models, how to optimize them to meet business objectives, and how to analyze, data and results. The subject areas to be covered include search-engine marketing, website optimization, website submission, link-marketing strategies, pay-per-click advertising campaigns, e-mail marketing tactics, affiliate marketing, customer web logs, online testing of banner ads, landing pages, other digital formats, software options for web mining, analyzing click-stream data, mobile technology and the key metrics for measuring consumer behavior online, including basket analysis and other techniques of association. When feasible, students in this course participate in the Google Challenge, a worldwide competition sponsored by Google for the application of search metrics to a local business Analytics. Prerequisites: MS-515 OR DS-660.

MS-640. Digital Marketing Analytics and User Experience. 3 Credits.

This course prepares students to turn business data into actionable information. Students will work with software integrate data, develop the ability to transform, analysis and create visualization of consumer behavior. As well as use technology in the context of their applications to sales, marketing impacts, the user experience and how it impacts the value exchange. Students will work through the course on a hands-on approach, guided by the instructor and using software and assigned readings/videos. They will prepare and analyze real-world data sets to learn how to develop strategic recommendations for managerial actions. Students who successfully complete the course requirements will be able to develop a 360-degree picture of the consumer/customer. To manage data the massive amount of data and carry out protocols for data access, data cleansing, and data preparation. Students also will be able to apply techniques for converting data to information, including data exploration, summarization, visualization, analyze data, interactive exploratory analytics and introductory predictive analytics. Prerequisites: MS-630.

MS-650. Capstone Consulting Engagement. 3 Credits.

The option gives graduate students the opportunities to work on real-world business consulting projects with local businesses that build upon the science, research and application of consumer behavior data and analysis, extending to strategic planning and identifying relevant tactics to carry out strategies. Prerequisites: MS-500 MS-510 MS-515 MS-518 MS-630.

DS-597. Applied Research Experience. 0 Credits.

The Applied Research Experience is a learning experience that gives Data Science Institute students the opportunity to conduct real-world consulting and research projects with businesses and organizations, that build upon the science, theory, and application of data and analysis. This non-credit course fulfills the business experience requirement for the program for those students who do not have a current work role that fulfills the requirement. For Traditional programs.

DS-598. Applied Work Experience and Curricular Practical Training. 0 Credits.

The Applied Work Experience/Curricular Practical Training course is an academic component that accompanies students' industry work experience and Curricular Practical Training. Students whose current work role has been approved by the Program Director as directly related to their program of study should register for this non-credit course each term during which they are working.