Marketing Online Undergraduate Certificate Program

Finding and utilizing the right data and information to help with business decision-making - this skill is indispensable to any business professional, no matter the field or discipline of business. Students learn how to find data - the right data - efficiently and accurately, using advanced search methods. Students will harness major resources and utilize databases, government resources, and financial websites. Students will also learn to utilize a system for developing research questions, choosing the right resources to substantiate a research plan and evaluate and organize business data into useful forms.

This course provides insight into consumer behavior, and how consumers engage in the decision making process, including an in-depth study of the internal, external, and situational influences on consumer behavior such as culture, learning, personality and lifestyle, values and motivations. Students will learn to assess current brands' marketing strategies with respect to consumer behavior and will apply their knowledge of consumer behavior to the development of buyer personas for a client organization.

Through a mix of strategy, professional certification, and hands-on application students will delve into the digital marketing ecosystem and best practices in the discipline. Students will utilize digital platforms as part of a comprehensive and integrated marketing strategy. Students will work with an organization to conduct a digital audit and provide digital marketing recommendations.

The American Marketing Association defines Marketing as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. In this course, students will learn marketing terminology and principles including the marketing mix, marketing segmentation and how external forces impact marketing strategy as well as how marketing fits into the organization.The impact of ethical issues, diversity, globalization and social responsibility on marketing decisions will also be examined.

This course explores the promotional elements that can form the foundation of an integrated marketing communications campaign. Students will develop a resonant, data-driven and ethically sound Integrated Marketing Communications campaign for a real-world brand. Considering target audience analysis, marketing objectives, and situational context, they will design a strategic IMC campaign including the development of a positioning statement, big idea/theme, message strategy, media plan, and evaluation plan.

In the culminating course for the certificates, students will reframe knowledge and competencies from their certificate into a workable model that is applied through experiential learning models to a professional opportunity. Students will apply these competencies as professional best practice in a project that incorporates relevant research findings from the field.