Marketing, B.B.A.

MK 4305 – In teams of four to six, students act as social media consultants for real companies. After meeting with their clients and identifying objectives, the groups perform an audit and ultimately present a professional social media plan. Often the companies are so impressed that they invite students to share their findings with the rest of the organization or even the board. Some students have received full-time job offers as a result of the project.

MK 4310 – In groups of four to five people, students operate as miniature advertising agencies to complete a comprehensive national advertising plan. Each group consists of a representative from the four functional areas of advertising: account management, media, creative and research. The end product, which typically comprises 100 pages, is an excellent deliverable for students to bring to job interviews and, hopefully, land their first job in the industry.

MK 4315 – During what the instructor calls quick-fire sessions, a business leader briefly discusses his/her business to provide students a little background. Student groups receive approximately 1.5 hours to generate creative solutions for the business and then present those ideas in class. The instructor and the business leader judge the presentations based on their creativity and usefulness/feasibility.

The course culminates in a project that student groups, assigned by the instructor, complete for a company (their “client.”) The client visits class during the first half of the semester to brief students on the company and issues that need attention. Groups generate creative and feasible products and advertisements for the client and present those ideas during the last session of the semester. The instructor particularly looks for evidence that students use class-taught concepts and methods to back their recommendations.

MK 4900 – In groups of five to six people and under the supervision of the professor, students spend the semester developing marketing plans for actual clients that have asked the Department of Marketing for help. Typically, the clients are small businesses, often entrepreneurial start-ups. However, students also have completed projects for national clients such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the American Gas Association, Credit Karma and the American Petroleum Institute.