Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• QST MK 486: Digital Marketing Strategy
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: (QSTMK323) - Digital Marketing Strategy equips students with tools, mindset, and trends to make decisions about digital marketing strategy and tactics, including positioning products and services for success, acquiring and engaging customers, and measuring the performance of near-term campaigns and longer-term customer value.
• QST MK 487: Branding
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST MK323. Pre-req for SHA students: SHA HF260 - Explores the art and science of branding, and the strategies through which companies can create, capture, and sustain shareholder value through brands. Through a mixture of theory and real-world cases, the course examines brands from the perspectives of the cultures and consumers who help create them, and the companies who manage them over time. Basic branding disciplines including positioning and repositioning, brand equity measurement, brand leverage, integrated brand communications, brand stewardship, and brand architecture are considered, as are more contemporary topics such as brand parodies, brand community, and branded entertainment. Particular attention is paid to branding challenges associated with today's interconnected, consumer-empowered, and transparent web-enabled world. 4 cr.
• QST MK 498: Directed Study: Marketing
  Directed study in Marketing. 2 or 4 cr. Application available on Undergraduate Program website.
• QST MK 542: Digital Marketing Analytics
  Undergraduate Prerequisites: QST MK323. Pre-req for SHA students: SHA HF260; CAS MA115 (or MA113); CAS MA116 - This is an introductory course on Digital Marketing emphasizing analytics that seeks to familiarize students with digital marketing tactics. At the heart of marketing lies consumers and their marketing journey through the stages of awareness, intent, conversion and finally retention. In this course, we will learn how digital has revolutionized the interactions between firms and consumers along this journey. Digital offers powerful tactics to reach consumers along the funnel: online display ads raise awareness, search listings reach consumers with intent, on-site e-commerce marketing facilitate conversion, and social medial both energizes and retains customers. The course develops essential data analytics skills--critical thinking, data mining, experimental analysis and design--applied to ad campaign, ad attribution, and social media data.
• QST MK 723: Marketing Management
  This course provides a practical understanding of how business strategies and tactics are driven by marketing's dual focus on customers and competition. Students will learn how to leverage marketing tools and emerging technologies in the creation (e.g., customer insight, product and service design, branding), delivery (e.g., communication and distribution), and capture (e.g., pricing, customer life time value) of marketplace value. Across business contexts including B2C, B2B, products versus services, global versus domestic markets, small/medium/large organizations, for-profit versus social enterprises, the course builds the fundamental skills involved in analyzing market challenges and opportunities and making decisions for the formulation and implementation of successful and sustainable marketing programs.
• QST MK 724: Marketing Management
  Graduate Prerequisites: QST AC710 or AC711 (previous or concurrent) - This course provides a practical understanding of how business strategies and tactics are driven by marketing's dual focus on customers and competition. Students will learn how to leverage marketing tools and emerging technologies in the creation (e.g., customer insight, product and service design, branding), delivery (e.g., communication and distribution), and capture (e.g., pricing, customer life time value) of marketplace value. Across business contexts including B2C, B2B, products versus services, global versus domestic markets, small/medium/large organizations, for-profit versus social enterprises, the course builds the fundamental skills involved in analyzing market challenges and opportunities and making decisions for the formulation and implementation of successful and sustainable marketing programs.
• QST MK 820: Consultative Selling
  This course equips students to sell complex products and services via consultative selling integrated with digital customer engagement. Students learn through examples and role play to execute a five-step approach: 1. Connecting with Prospects through networking, social, and door-opening conversations, 2. Understanding Needs by qualifying leads, undertaking research and discovery conversations, 3. Addressing Needs by writing differentiating proposals and winning in the room 4. Closing the Sale by gaining buyer commitment, pricing-to- value and seamless contracting, 5. Building Trusted Relationships through personal engagement and customer blueprinting. Sessions are highly interactive featuring: Discussions with guest experts; Case studies; an RFP simulation; Role playing including "The Price is Right Game"; Video shorts; Student stories; Real- world best practices; and pitfalls.
• QST MK 835: ECommerce Strategy
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTMK723 OR QSTMK724) - This course examines eCommerce as a business model, a field of operations, and a set of disciplines. We will explore the fundamentals of eCommerce and the strategic importance of an eCommerce program within a company's overall strategy. Relevant topics will be explored using case studies, team projects, as well as a final exam. 1.5 cr
• QST MK 842: Machine Learning for Business Analytics
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTMK723 OR QSTMK724) - This course introduces students to the foundational machine learning techniques that are transforming the way we do business. Machine learning relies on interdisciplinary techniques from statistics, linear algebra, and optimization to detect structure in large volumes of data and solve prediction problems. Students will gain a theoretical understanding of why the algorithms work, when they fail, and how they create value. They will also gain hands-on experience training machine learning models in Python and deriving insights and making predictions from real-world data. Prior programming experience (or IS833/IS834) is strongly recommended. Note: The course was previously offered under the title "Digital Marketing Analytics," but does not overlap with MK876; students may take both courses for credit.
• QST MK 845: Social Media Marketing
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTMK723 OR QSTMK724) - Digital technologies have transformed the marketing communications paradigm and the consumer decision making process. In particular, within this new paradigm, consumers are more likely to learn about new products and services from other consumers via online word-of-mouth and have more power to co-create products, experiences, and brand meaning with manufacturers and service providers. This course examines the implications of these changes for marketers. Specifically, the course examines how digital technology can be used to (a) engage consumers prior to purchase; (b) to enhance and augment the consumption experience; and (c) to build ongoing and long-lasting relationships with consumers post-purchase. These topics will be explored using case studies and a client-based project, as well as a final exam.
• QST MK 852: Data Driven Marketing Decisions
  Graduate Prerequisites: QST MK723 or MK724, QST QM716 or QM717 - This course will focus on developing marketing strategies driven by marketing analytics. Topics covered include market segmentation, targeting, and positioning, and new product development. The course will draw on and extend students' understanding of issues related to quantitative analysis and principles of marketing. The course will use a combination of cases, lectures, and a hands-on project to develop these skills.
• QST MK 854: Brand Management
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTMK723 OR QSTMK724) - This is a course about branding, and the ways that brands acquire and sustain value in the marketplace. Cases, readings, in-class discussions, and team/individual assignments are designed to provide: An appreciation of the strategic discipline of branding and its role in creating shareholder value; an understanding of brands as co-creations of consumers, marketers, and cultures, and brand management as a collaborative process of meaning management; a sound foundation in consumer-brand behavior to inform brand decisions; and a capacity to think creatively and precisely about the strategies and tactics involved in building, leveraging, defending, and sustaining strong brands. Select topics may include brand equity, brand (re)positioning, brand relationships, brand loyalty, brand community, open source branding, branded entertainment and other cultural branding strategies, internal branding, brand architecture design and portfolio strategy, brand leverage and extensions, brand metrics, crisis management, and brand stewardship. Guest speakers from branding services, consulting, and practice provide insights throughout the course. While this course has obvious relevance for those contemplating brand management careers in product or service markets, it is appropriate for a range of future professionals within for-profit and not-for-profit C2C and B2B worlds, and others who share a simple passion for branding.
• QST MK 856: Consumer Insights
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTMK723 OR QSTMK724) - Marketing, in particular, begins and ends with the consumer -- from determining consumer needs to ensuring customer satisfaction. In this course, we will explore the most recent scientific research in marketing, psychology, and behavioral economics related to consumer behavior. We will develop your ability to understand and influence what people want, how people decide what and when to buy, and whether people will be satisfied or dissatisfied with their decisions. These psychological insights are particularly useful for marketing strategy, brand positioning, and marketing communication decisions, but also yield insight into common biases in judgment and decision making, beyond marketing, to which you would otherwise fall prey. Why people are willing to drive across town to save $5 on a tank of gasoline, for example, when they would not drive a minute to save $5 on a refrigerator. We will discuss some of these applications in class. In addition, we will examine the methodology of market research (specific to consumer behavior) to build the tools you will need to interpret and base decisions on it. Readings will include primary empirical research articles (e.g., Journal of Consumer Research articles), business journal articles, and research reviews (e.g., Harvard Business Review articles). The course includes lecture, discussion, an exam, and a team term project.
• QST MK 864: Pricing Strategy and Tactics
  Graduate Prerequisites: QST MK723 or MK724, QST PL727 or PL730, QST QM716 or QM717 - This course focuses on the practical needs of the marketing manager making pricing decisions. Students learn the techniques of strategic analysis necessary to price more profitably by evaluating the price sensitivity of buyers, determining relevant costs, anticipating and influencing competitors' pricing and formulating an appropriate pricing strategy.
• QST MK 867: Purpose-Led Marketing
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTMK723 OR QSTMK724) - Globalization, increasing transparency in business operations and the prevalence of social media have forever changed the way stakeholders view and interact with organizations. Societal and business imperatives are not only often considered compatible; they can be increasingly viewed as one and the same. People today often communicate, organize and engage based on mutual interests, and, generally, place greater trust in organizations and individuals that work for a better world. Marketing has often been referred to as the "science of sales." Whether you are selling a product, an intervention or an idea, it can be a powerful tool for advancing social change in today's dynamic environment. The strategic integration of a relevant social purpose into a product, business or nonprofit organization through brand-building citizenship activities can drive consumer and donor recall, consideration, acquisition, retention and propensity to recommend. However, these efforts do not usually constitute a "silver bullet" and may not be the best solution to a business problem or societal need at all. In the worst cases, ill-conceived citizenship marketing strategies can result in damaging consequences. Practitioners must be pragmatic when engaging in marketing social change. Understanding how to apply best practice, identify opportunities, address challenges, engage stakeholders and innovate strategically are essential skills in this rapidly evolving sector. The purpose of this course is to provide students with an in-depth understanding of how marketing principles can be applied to create both short-term and lasting social change. Students will explore dimensions of the modern landscapes of brand, corporate and nonprofit "citizenship" and how they relate to marketing. Areas of study include: cause-related marketing and cause branding; nonprofit branding and social movements, as well as corporate social responsibility and shared value creation.
• QST MK 870: Luxury Marketing
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTMK723 OR QSTMK724) - Introduction to the marketing of luxury goods and services. It explores the origin, the history, and the evolution of luxury and gives an overview of the global luxury industry. It highlights the specificities of marketing in the luxury sector. Luxury brands must manage a number of inherent paradoxes and tensions. Differences in a mass versus luxury marketing approach are discussed. Finally, the course focuses on examining the main challenges with which luxury brands are currently confronted. As markets are becoming increasingly polarized, the course is relevant to a wide range of marketing and business professionals who may have to "premiumize" their offerings or revitalize their brands through an upscale positioning. Through a combination of interactive discussions, cases, practical examples, and individual assignments, the course enables participants to take both a theoretical and practical approach to the luxury industry and its marketing practices.
• QST MK 876: Digital Marketing Analytics
  Graduate Prerequisites: (QSTMK723 OR QSTMK724) - This is an introductory course on digital marketing analytics that inform digital marketing tactics, including online display ads, search listings, on-site e-commerce marketing and social media marketing. The course introduces methods that can be used to assess how specific tactics are moving consumers along the path to purchase.
• QST MK 878: Customer Analytics
  Graduate Prerequisites: QST MK723 or MK724, QST QM716 or QM717, QST MK852 or IS833 - The course will focus on managing marketing spend from the perspective of a marketing manager. The first module of the course is on customer analytics and will cover the fundamental frameworks needed for customer-centric marketing with topics such as customer lifetime value, customer acquisition and retention, and customer equity. The second module of the course focuses on assessing marketing performance and will cover decision support tools that can help brand and product managers make decisions with regard to marketing spending including advertising, pricing, and promotions. The course will require quantitative skills and will use a combination of cases, lectures, and a hands-on project.
• QST MK 895: Action Learning Directed Study in Marketing
  ALDS: MARKETING
• QST MK 898: Directed Study: Marketing
  Graduate Prerequisites: Consent of instructor and the department chair - Graduate-level directed study in Marketing. 1, 2, or 3 cr. Application available on the Graduate Center website.