Marketing (MKTG)

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The Department of Marketing offers a B.S. degree with a major in marketing. The marketing major prepares students for careers which involve planning, implementing, organizing, and/or controlling the activities required in the exchange of goods and services with customers. The major provides students with the conceptual, analytical, communication, and quantitative skills necessary for careers in marketing. Students may pursue a general marketing plan of study or one of three areas of study. Areas of study focus on a distinct area of marketing and prepare students for careers in those specific fields.

The professional sales area of study offers students instruction dedicated to preparing them for entry-level sales positions and careers in sales management. Courses provide students with concepts of selling theory, applied skills, and frequent in-class and out-of-class contact with professional business people, including a Sales Advisory Board.

The digital marketing area of study offers students a curriculum to prepare for careers with direct marketing service bureaus, direct marketing production houses, Web marketers, advertising agencies, and corporations using interactive marketing, direct marketing, or Web-based marketing. Dedicated laboratory facilities provide students with hands-on training in database analysis, Web-based marketing technologies, and geodemographic information systems.

Marketing Learning Goals and Objectives

Graduates of the Bachelor of Science in Marketing program are expected to achieve these learning goals and objectives in addition to the College of Business Undergraduate Learning Goals and Objectives.

Graduates of the Marketing program will have:

1. The ability to apply marketing concepts. Graduates must demonstrate an understanding of the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to attract and retain customers. Key marketing concepts include those related to product, pricing, promotion, distribution, sales, management, market and business environments, and customer relationships and target markets.

2. Mastery of problem solving and critical thinking skills. Graduates must demonstrate marketing related problem solving and critical thinking skills using qualitative and/or quantitative tools. Graduates will demonstrate the ability to develop feasible solutions within fluid and situation specific business environments. Specific skills to demonstrate problem solving and critical thinking skills include analyzing key factors leading to the identification of a problem/ opportunity, conducting appropriate analyses to generate information, and utilizing generated information to develop suitable potential solutions to marketing problems based upon available resources and restrictions.

3. Mastery of written communication skills. Graduates must demonstrate the ability to collect, organize, interpret, and coherently present information in written format. Graduates will use proper grammar and language in developing business memos, formal business letters, business proposals, and business reports.

4. Mastery of oral communication skills. Graduates must demonstrate the ability to collect, organize, interpret, and coherently present information in an oral format. Graduates will use situation appropriate grammar, language, and professionalism to effectively convince and/or persuade and audience.

5. The ability to understand and effectively apply marketing metrics. Graduates must demonstrate an understanding of key marketing metrics and ability to utilize marketing metrics effectively in the analysis and solving of marketing problems. Specific skills graduates should master might include the ability to perform break-even point analysis, ratio analysis and other key metric analysis. Other key metrics analysis could include those relating to: 1) marketing planning and customers (e.g., market growth rates, market share, marketing cost per unit, customer acquisition costs, and return on investment); 2) product, price, and promotion offerings (e.g., new product purchase rates, advertising to sales rations, gross rating points, response rates, conversion rates, costs per click, transactions per customer, and average transaction size); and 3) sales efforts( e.g., sales turnover rates, sales performance quotas, sales variances, and straight/ profit based commissions).

6. The ability to work effectively in teams. Graduates must possess the ability to work effectively with a group of other individuals to accomplish a mutual goal and produce high quality outcomes while recognizing the benefits and difficulties of working in teams. Specific skills graduates demonstrate include goal commitment, mutual respect, effective communication, flexibility and productivity.

7. Understanding of the global business environment. Graduates must demonstrate and understanding of the global forces that shape firms’ domestic and global marketing strategies. Such forces would include those related to political, legal, economic, cultural, and financial variables.

8. Ethical awareness. Graduates must demonstrate an awareness of and personal philosophy toward ethical practices.

Department Requirements

The Department of Marketing’s retention policy is competitive based on a student’s overall GPA and satisfactory completion of FINA 320, MGMT 335, MKTG 295, and OMIS 338 as evidenced by a grade of C or better. To graduate as a marketing major, a student must earn a grade of at least C in each course required in the major, which includes courses in the Foundations of Business and Business Core, and any additional upper-level required courses outside of marketing, required MKTG courses, and all electives required for the major.

All marketing majors must satisfactorily complete a portfolio of a selected collection of their marketing assignments to be turned in no later than the last week of classes in the semester that they graduate. Instructions for portfolio content may be found in the Department of Marketing.

To graduate as a marketing major or with a marketing minor, a transfer student will be required to take at least 12 semester hours of 300- and 400-level MKTG courses at NIU.

Marketing majors and minors may repeat a maximum of two 300- or 400-level MKTG courses.

Internship in Marketing

Marketing majors may submit an application for a marketing internship in their junior or senior year, preferably by February 1, for a summer internship. Applications will be reviewed by the departmental internship coordinator and approved on the basis of academic GPA (of approximately 2.75 overall GPA and approximately 3.00 GPA or above in the major), instructor recommendations, professional promise, demonstrated interest, and the completion of a minimum of 6 semester hours of marketing taken at NIU. Credit earned in the internship may not be used to fulfill the 9 semester-hour marketing electives requirement. Internships are available in leading companies selected by the internship coordinator. A student receives 3-6 semester hours of S/U credit for the internship based on a planned series of learning activities arranged and approved by the internship coordinator.

Marketing Faculty

Geoffrey L. Gordon, Ph.D., University of Kentucky, professor, chair
Timothy W. Aurand, Ed.D., Northern Illinois University, professor, James E. Thompson Professor of Marketing
Elisa Fredericks, Ph.D., University of Illinois, Chicago, associate professor
Mark D. Groza, Ph.D., University of Massachusetts, assistant professor, Enterprise Holdings Professor of Sales
Mya P. Groza, Ph.D., University of Wyoming, associate professor
Vijaykumar Krishnan Palghat, Ph.D., University of Cincinnati, associate professsor
Robert M. Peterson, Ph.D., University of Memphis, professor, White Lodging Professor of Sales
Paul R. Prabhaker, Ph.D., University of Rochester, professor
Denise D. Schoenbachler, Ph.D., University of Kentucky, professor
Ursula Y. Sullivan, Ph.D., Northwestern University, associate professor

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