Master's of Marketing Program Outline

This non-credit orientation is a foundation-building experience that introduces and refreshes the skills necessary for success in your Master's Degree Program. You'll learn how to navigate ProQuest, Ashworth College's online library, and review the distinguishing characteristics of academic journals and other publications. Internet research skills are polished enabling you to identify credible and unbiased Web sites for your research. Emphasis is placed on submission requirements, project structures, and writing formats used throughout your coursework, and APA writing style. The final portion of this course provides you the opportunity to research and explore the various career fields in the world of Marketing.

Discover how marketing serves as a foundation for making critical decisions related to identifying customers, delineating which needs to satisfy, developing products and services that satisfy these needs, setting prices, using appropriate communications, staging sales promotions, managing the sales force, selecting channels of distribution, maintaining funding and coordinating partnerships. Concepts presented are directed to the marketplace realities of the 21st century, including global marketing.

In this course you'll probe the psyche of consumers worldwide. Go beyond the "act of buying" by examining consumers' diverse attitudes and personalities and the experiences of buyers and owners. Find out how products, services and consumption activities contribute to the broader society. Discover how consumers as individuals, as decision-makers and as members of subcultures behave, develop opinions, act and react; and use this knowledge to formulate workable marketing strategies.

Learn the differences between exploratory and conclusive research; the advantages, limitations and sources of secondary data; and the methodologies and uses of qualitative and quantitative research and observational and experimental techniques. Discover how to design questionnaires, conduct sampling, analyze data, test hypotheses, perform regression equations, use multivariate techniques and present research results. Emphasis is placed on the effective use of technology in data analysis.

Develop your own leadership potential by discovering the qualities, talents and vision that leaders need to survive and grow in a changing world. Examine the evolution and practical application of leadership and motivation theories and techniques. Case studies reveal how executives motivate others to succeed.

An in-depth view of the impact of public interest and government regulation on business activities. Emphasis is placed on the legal ramifications of corporate governance, citing court cases and judicial decisions that reveal the law's interface with business actions. Thought-provoking examples further demonstrate the law's broad influence on the day-to-day decisions involved in business operations and management.

Discover how companies develop their image, identity and brands that create customer relationships, resulting in sales and profits. This course addresses integrated marketing communications and the challenges of our complex media environment, fragmented commercial message clutter and increasing competition; and explores effective solutions through illuminating case studies. The economic, legal and social influences involved in contemporary advertising practice are examined as well.

A comprehensive examination of the theory, principles and processes that guide the practice of public relations in a variety of professional settings. Concepts, models and issues are amplified via discussion of contemporary examples of PR functions in business, industry, government, the military, non-profit organizations, health care, education, associations, professional societies and labor unions.

A close, in-depth exploration of practical strategies for building, measuring and managing brand equity. Based on the premise that brands are among a company's most valuable assets, this course focuses on concepts and techniques to improve the long-term profitability of brand strategies. Using an integrated marketing approach, current thinking from academia and industry is examined, providing insights to assist managers in day-to-day and long-term brand decisions. Case studies based on contemporary brands illuminate successful tactics and results from a consumer perspective.

Issues, practices and strategies of marketing a variety of services, based on a model that establishes strong customer relationships as the foundation for achieving a competitive advantage. Standard marketing topics are discussed in light of the characteristic intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability of services. Examine approaches to service measurement; quality; service recovery; performance measurement; customer coproduction; and integrating marketing with other functions.

Marketing globally presents exciting challenges due to its reliance on the marketing environment variances of foreign countries. This course focuses on the cultural dimensions that directly impact key marketing decisions. Theoretical foundations of market segmentation, competition and positioning are complemented with a close look at export options; licensing; research methods; emerging markets; global product and service standardization; and global pricing, distribution, advertising and e-commerce issues.

Identify, examine and evaluate ethical issues in advertising and marketing in order to improve ethical judgment. Emphasis is placed on ethical concepts and theories as applied to target marketing, research, product issues, pricing, selling, advertising, management and business decision-making.

Take an engaging look at the organization, its structure and its relationship to the economic, political and social environments. Examine geopolitical events, consumer trends, competitive strategy, information technology and other issues and their impact on business activities. Study a model of strategic management to address timely, complex organization-wide issues that pertain to actual corporations. Conclude with a final project and exam.