Marketing Management (Digital Marketing and Brand Strategy Option)

Explore research tools and techniques needed to execute various marketing research projects. Emphasis will be on how marketing research fits into the strategic planning process; conducting situation analyses and exploratory research; identifying and locating sources of secondary data including Internet and other online resources; evaluating and selecting appropriate methods for conducting primary research; designing data gathering tools; conducting effective survey fieldwork; and tabulating, analyzing and reporting of primary research findings. Students will be required to complete a major multi-method marketing research project.
Prerequisite(s):

• No prerequisites are required for this course.

​This course will provide strategic context for the other tactical courses in the program. The students will learn how to identify a business problem and learn how to develop a marketing objective to solve that problem. Focus will be on analyzing company, industry, consumer and competitive information to provide a sound foundation for developing strategic marketing communications alternatives. Core to the learning will be understanding the difference between strategic and tactical executions and demonstrating how to develop channel agnostic strategies. Additionally, students will learn the components of branding and how to use brand development tools. Students will learn how to position and brand products and services in order to prevent them from being turned into commodities and understand that all marketing communications campaigns serve the larger mission of developing a brand.
Prerequisite(s):

• Completion of all second-level MKTG courses

​In this course, students will look at opportunities for owned marketing communications channels to increase customer acquisition, conversion, retention, and advocacy as part of an integrated marketing communications (IMC) campaign. Students will identify resources and tools to audit, plan, produce, distribute, and manage effective marketing assets that develop strong customer relationships and deliver a solid return on investment. Students will explore and apply best practices and tactics for a variety of current, relevant owned media channels—including websites and landing pages, email marketing, and content marketing (blogs, infographics, whitepapers, video, collateral, etc.)—for both B2B and B2C organizations. As part of a cross-course team project (with Brand and Campaign Strategy, Consumer Experience Marketing, Earned Marketing Opportunities, and Paid Media Opportunities), students will follow a systematic approach to the analysis of owned media using a current marketing communications case study.
Prerequisite(s):

• Completion of all second-level MKTG courses

​In Paid Media Planning and Buying, students will explore and evaluate major advertising media, including traditional (broadcast, print, and out-of-home), display, video, audio, native, social media, search, and programmatic. Using data-driven advertising strategies, students plan paid media marketing communications campaigns, including media selection, estimating, and buying. In labs, students will practice targeting, executing, and optimizing campaigns with key advertising platforms, such as Facebook Ads, DSPs, Google Ads, and more. As part of a cross-course team project (with Brand and Campaign Strategy, Consumer Experience Marketing, Owned Marketing Communications, and Earned Marketing Opportunities), students will follow a systematic approach to the analysis of paid media using a current marketing communications case study.
Prerequisite(s):

• Completion of all second-level MKTG courses

​Consumer Experience Marketing is built on the premise that all successful marketing communications campaigns are built on a solid foundation of understanding the consumers they serve. This course will begin with the basics of segmentation, targeting and positioning and expand to encompass developing user personas and the data driven insights that lead to successful tactical decisions. Learning how to develop a customer journey map and use it throughout the tactical courses is a primary learning objective. The learning in this course is expected to carry over to the tactical marketing communications courses of owned, earned and paid to provide greater consistency and student clarity.
Prerequisite(s):

• Completion of all second-level MKTG courses

​In Earned Marketing Opportunities, students will explore a variety of concepts, tools, and techniques to generate publicity in an increasingly complex media world—including building and leveraging relationships with the press and traditional/broadcast media, influencers, and customers—for B2B, B2C, and not-for-profit organizations. Students will analyze and plan PR campaigns across communication channels, considering established digital and social platforms, emerging media environments, events and experiential marketing. As part of a cross-course team project (with Brand and Campaign Strategy, Consumer Experience Marketing, Owned Marketing Communications, and Paid Media Opportunities), students will follow a systematic approach to the analysis of earned media using a current marketing communications case study.
Prerequisite(s):

• Completion of all second-level MKTG courses

​The ability to clearly communicate your thinking and convey ideas is essential to success in the marketing communications industry. In this course students will hone their oral pitching skills and formal and informal writing skills. All work will be individual to ensure that every student is learning these critical skills (vs. benefiting from one or two proficient team members in group projects). This course is for students to strengthen their public speaking and writing skills, and their authentic voices as professionals.
Prerequisite(s):

• Completion of all Level 2 MKTG courses

Presents a capstone course in which students work in teams of five or six to develop and present to a client a comprehensive promotion campaign with real world constraints. Students incorporate theoretical concepts of marketing and promotions into practical applications in developing their client's campaign. Students practise "pitching" the account in competition with other teams.
Prerequisite(s):

• All Level 3 courses.

The four day per week 10-week internship provides students with a work experience position in a wide spectrum of industry sectors within the digital marketing field. On-the-job performance is fully evaluated. Prerequisite(s): All Level 3 and 4A courses (this is a capstone course).
Prerequisite(s):

• No prerequisites are required for this course.

This course will introduce students to the creative process. Students will apply design thinking skills to develop deep customer understanding and empathy, to develop creative problem-solving skills, break through creative blocks and generate new ideas, and to move from ideation to development of marketing collateral through the process of ideation, prototyping, and iteration. Students will learn how to manage creative projects and teams, including how to assess and critique creative work. In the second part of the course, students will apply their design thinking skills and develop their creative production skills through a portfolio project in one of four streams: copywriting (content marketing production, copywriting, blogging, writing for social, etc.), imagery (basic graphic design using Adobe Creative Suite), website production (using WordPress), or audio and video (videos or podcasts, using iMovie, Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premiere Pro CC or Garageband or Adobe Audition).
Prerequisite(s):

• Completion of all third-level MKTG courses

This course teaches students to read and analyze current events to uncover relevant and emerging trends in marketing communications. Learning takes place through discussion of recent social and political events and their impact on and response from brands through their marketing communications. Additionally, students study emerging platforms and channels for communications. The goal of this course is for students to be fluent in the issues impacting the industry and enter the industry confidently able to contribute to the conversation.
Prerequisite(s):

• Completion of all third-level MKTG courses

​This course guides students through the fundamental management concepts, practices, and behavioural characteristics needed to successfully launch, lead, and realize benefits from projects in marketing and sales departments. Effective managers possess the business, leadership, and technical skills necessary to manage teams, schedules, risks, budgets, scope, and stakeholders to produce expected outcomes with a desired value. Students analyze the impact of organizational project and change management theory and explore project management with a practical, hands-on approach through case studies, team assignments, and individual contributions. A key and often overlooked challenge for project managers is the ability to manage without direct influence, gaining the support of stakeholders and access to resources not directly under their control. The course simulates a project in its project team framework, group accountability, and schedule deadlines.​
Prerequisite(s):

• Completion of all Level 3 MKTG courses

​This course explores the concepts, tools, and techniques for the collection, analysis, optimization, and visualization of marketing campaign and user data. Students will learn to organize, interpret, and analyze various data sets from multiple campaign channels, including websites, e-commerce, social media, video, and apps, to create reports, dashboards, and data visualizations. In addition, students will be introduced to key areas of customer analytics: descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, and prescriptive analytics. The goal is to provide future marketers with the data skills to generate and communicate customer insights, aid in campaign decision-making, and support data-driven marketing strategies.
Prerequisite(s):

• Completion of all third-level MKTG courses