Core Courses
MC 510 Marketing Foundations: The Art of Marketing
This course provides students with a holistic examination of the theory and practice of marketing. Learning will concentrate on how marketing can transform how companies look at customers and how innovation and creativity can enhance competitive performance. Topics include: how to interpret overall company business plans; how products/services are designed, created, tested, produced, priced, positioned and distributed; market segmentation and product life cycles; the economic foundations of marketing; and sales and cost-benefit analyses. Marketing models from contemporary thought-leaders and case studies are employed.
MC 514 The Marketing Communication Plan: Developing Transformative Marketing Strategies
In this course, students learn how to identify and evaluate the full gamut of competitive strategic alternatives in both business to business and business to consumer marketing using a wide variety of analytic tools to develop and analyze consumer insights. Based on this analysis, the major elements of a communication plan are put in place: media, message, target audiences, testable objectives, and budgets. Students learn to measure consumer and business target audiences by their demographic, psychographic and attitudinal characteristics and to analyze the style and appeal of messages within campaigns. Students also learn how to develop a balanced marketing communication plan utilizing the multitude of vehicles available to reach a target audience using the latest today’s technological tools and media.
MC 516 Marketing and Advertising Research: Building Consumer Insight Through Research
This course is an introduction to the purposes and methods of research. The course is a state-of-the-art hands-on course that concentrates on how research provides critical information for marketing and communication decisions. Topics include identification of the research problem, research design, data-gathering techniques, sampling procedures, data analysis, and report preparation. The course exposes the student to basic statistical methods using both qualitative and quantitative research methodology.
MC 520 Understanding the Target Audience
Understanding the demographics and psychographics of target audiences is essential to an effective marketing communication strategy. From data to information to insightful strategic marketing, this course covers what’s important to know to make more effective marketing decisions. Social, cultural, psychological and attitudinal factors are explored with particular attention to motivation, how attitudes are shaped and altered, how information is processed, and the role of learning in the formation of purchasing decisions. Theories and models of consumer behavior are examined to develop incisive insights into consumer behavior that can build strong brands.
MC 522 Media Strategy and Implementation for the 21st Century
This course focuses the massive transformations based on new technologies that are occurring in today’s communication environment, and the wide variety of consumer contact points it generates. Students will develop an understanding of how the industry is organized and how marketing communications flow from the source company to the target audience. The course examines the major aspects of developing and evaluating media plans, beginning with the development of media strategies that flow from overall marketing communication goals. The course analyzes various media from the perspectives of cost, targeting, audience characteristics, and the nature of product/service. The course also includes examinations of information sources, such as Arbitron, Nielsen, and Simmons, and software, such as Manas, IMS, Telmar, Adware, and Tapscan.
MC 524 Creative Strategies
This course deals with translating business and marketing strategies into creative executions that deliver effective messages to the intended target audience. The course focuses on the analysis of consumer information for meaningful insights, and translating those insights into incisive strategies for execution in print, TV, radio, direct mail, Internet, and other delivery vehicles to consumer and business audiences. Based on the development of creative goals and strategies, the major elements of advertising are studied: the central idea to be communicated (unique selling proposition, positioning, brand personality, or campaign theme), the appeal of the creative concept (informational, news, emotional), and the style or approach of the creative message (slice of life, testimonial, corporate image, celebrity presenter). The creative process of “brainstorming” is used to hone creative thinking skills to see beyond existing paradigms to develop innovative executions capable of transforming consumer attitudes and beliefs.
MC 536 Practicum
This capstone course is designed to integrate all the skills learned in the Marketing Communication program in a practical context. Student teams will compete as mini agencies with an assignment from a major Chicago-area marketer. Briefed in detail by their client, they will develop a marketing strategy and a complete, detailed marketing communication plan. Based on secondary research and original research conducted by the teams, the marketing communication plan will include a media plan, a creative program, budget recommendations, and recommendations for the use of public relations, database marketing, promotion, online marketing, event marketing, as well as other media vehicles. Teams will make formal presentations of their plans to client senior management.
Electives
MC 503 Strategic Brand Management
The most valuable assets that a company has are the brands that it is developed and invested in over time. Students will explore the components of a brand, it’s equity and emotional benefits and an understanding of how to develop a meaningful “brand relationship” with the customer or prospect to optimize the brand or brand portfolio. The class will also explore the various aspects required to champion a new product or service from development to launch by optimizing the execution through all the marketing efforts of the firm. Students will address positioning, channel strategies, trade promotion, budgeting as a part of the planning process, new product development, packaging and merchandising and the management of agency relationships. Like people, brands have unique personalities that differentiate them and drive their ability to grow or limits their ability to expand.
MC 533 Database & Direct Marketing
This course introduces the students to the critical nature of information gathered in real-time directly from important constituencies or third party sources. It explores the ability of data based marketing to match consumers with products based on behaviors. Students learn to access and analyze database information, as well as develop programs to illicit a direct and immediate response using a variety of direct to consumer/direct to business tools including electronic marketing.
MC 535 Sales Promotion & Alternate Media Techniques
This course provides an overview of the more specialized applications and techniques of alternative media channels including public relations, event marketing, social media, “free media” and sales promotion, and how they fit into an overall marketing communication plan. Special emphasis is given to an overview of strategically sound merchandising and sales promotion programs, and how they can enhance the other communication efforts of the company or brand.
MC 546 Communication Strategies for Emerging Technologies
Using the Internet and other new technologies is governed by an entirely different set of parameters. This course explores the different skill sets involved in marketing in an on-line environment, from search engine optimization, social media networks, to permission email marketing, with its own intricate set of rules. With more money invested in search engine marketing than network television, companies are finding that the Web is among the most important media vehicles in their marketing arsenal.
MC 555 Marketing Analytics
With the proliferation of data has come new and exciting ways to manipulate that data to significantly enhance our marketing efforts. More and more, analytics is being applied to seek answers to marketing and advertising issues. Marketing Analytics can be used to optimize strategies, commercial messages, as well as visual content of that message. Students will use proprietary software in simulated class exercises to seek optimal strategies and messages for class projects.
MC 556 Customer Relationship Management
In a world where it costs five times as much to acquire a customer as it does to keep and existing relationship, companies are learning the value of managing the relationships they current have. Using the tools of database management, new tactics of digital communication are being developed to reduce attrition and maximize lifetime value of customers. Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) is making e-business a part of all business, basically changing the ways companies operate. This course will engage the student in developing and measuring the effectiveness of CRM plans across a variety of media including the emerging social media.
Last modified: 01/19/2012 15:22:06
