Advanced Professional Selling emulates a typical sales-training class in order to prepare you for the launch of their careers. It features a minimal amount of lecture and does not require a textbook. Instead, techniques are taught and skills honed through role-plays, in-class exercises and detailed feedback. The objective is to equip you with the tools needed to stand out in a future training class, and to succeed in an initial sales assignment.

Business markets account for most of the economic activity nationally and globally, and present tremendous employment opportunities for business school graduates.

This course takes an applied approach and familiarizes students with current business-to-business (B2B) marketing activities and strategy. Students learn about organizational buying centers, buyer journeys, buyer personas, customer centricity, lead scoring, and content marketing. The course uses a combination of class discussions, assignments, and case studies. Students also participate in a field-value-assessment project, where they conduct primary research with B2B customers to develop a content marketing campaign.

Throughout the course, students prepare for the modern B2B marketing landscape through a focus on leveraging technology and forging strategic relationships.

Why do some people choose to carry their own water bottles and re-fill them for free, while others buy bottled water? How do we select a charity to support, or a TV show to watch?

The objective of the class is to develop a thorough understanding of the choices consumers make every day. Explore key theories in the behavioral sciences that help illuminate consumer decision-making, with real-life applications drawn from case studies and in-class experiments. Also learn data-collection techniques that can support the design of a repositioning strategy for a client-organization. The course not only promotes better marketing of products and ideas, but also more informed personal decision-making and consumption.

This course focuses on customer relationship management (CRM), which views customers as assets of the firm and the goal is to create value for both customers and businesses. Students will gain experience using analytics and technology to make data-driven decisions that improve sales and marketing.

Students will explore digital marketing design, utilizing industry-standard tools to craft compelling materials that engage audiences and drive conversions. Through hands-on projects, they will integrate product details and calls to action, honing skills in visual harmony, typography, and editing to deliver impactful assets aligned with brand objectives. Emphasizing visual marketing principles, students will develop a versatile portfolio targeting diverse buyer journey stages, mastering design techniques for consistent brand presentation across traditional and digital platforms.

The Digital Marketing Practicum course offers a "hybrid experience" that blends features of a traditional course with those of a digital-marketing internship. You will work in an agency setting to plan and execute campaigns for clients. These may involve paid search, display advertising, paid social and other campaign types. Experience is gathered managing client relationships while using real data and market conditions to determine the effectiveness of campaigns. Visits from guest speakers create additional opportunities to network and learn from digital-marketing professionals. This is not a lecture-based class, but rather a "learn-through- doing" experience in which you will acquire an array of digital-marketing skills, including professional certification. Eligibility is determined through a competitive application process.

The Global Marketing course introduces you to the wealth of international and multinational marketing careers currently available. It encourages them to work toward the adoption of a global mindset and cross-cultural competency when marketing abroad. At the end of the semester, you will have developed a comprehensive marketing plan directed toward an audience in another country.

Combine advertising, sales promotions, packaging, public relations, publicity, personal selling, digital marketing, social media marketing, direct marketing and event sponsorship to create a campaign for James Madison University or a similar client. Create, plan, implement and evaluate a client-oriented proposal that displays a consistent theme. Using programs such as Canva, Piktochart, Adobe Spark and Vimeo, create and develop a logo in a variety of media, spanning broadcast, print and digital channels. The resulting creative executions will be portfolio-ready.

The course is designed to provide a broad overview of the relationship between logistics and marketing functions in a global context. In an experiential learning environment, you develop both “hard” technical skills (such as data-driven problem-solving) and “soft” skills (such as business communications and teamwork). You will develop an Amazon-seller business by sourcing products from overseas and transporting them to Amazon Fulfillment Centers. Finally, you'll create a plan to optimize end-user searches on Amazon. The course includes guest presentations from several logistics professionals and a field trip to the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Winchester, VA.

Analytical expertise is greatly sought after by employers who seek to improve the quality of their marketing decisions, and thereby make more efficient use of resources and increase brand-impact. The course covers current approaches to the analysis of data derived from surveys and experiments, as well as “big data.” While the course employs popular statistical and analytical tools such as R, Tableau and SPSS Modeler, it does not require any previous knowledge of coding or analytics.

The course provides an opportunity to satisfy a marketing elective requirement while working in a meaningful and relevant position for a marketing-related organization. Work is submitted digitally through Canvas with no requirement for face-to-face meetings. This allows you to work for an organization located in any state-approved by the university. The internship can be either paid or unpaid, and is intended to contribute meaningfully to your overall career preparedness by enabling the practical application of skills and concepts learned in the classroom.

This capstone course focuses on advanced development of analytical and decision-making skills as they apply to specific issues, opportunities and problems that affect organizations.

For example, should a company extend an existing product-line? What price should a company set for an innovative product it is preparing to introduce? After a six-month period of test-marketing, should a company proceed with a nationwide rollout of a new product?

Marketing managers face decisions such as these on a regular basis, and often must proceed despite having only limited time and information. Through analysis of multiple case-situations and participation in a complex marketing simulation, the course sharpens skills needed starting with the very first job after graduation.

This course focuses on marketing’s role in the innovation process. Opportunities to create new businesses are explored from ideation to launch, with an emphasis on product-development processes and supporting theories. The course methodology includes directed readings and discussions, along with a product-development project.

The global marketplace is viewed from a perspective which focuses on the value provided to the consumer by the retailers in the supply chain. Retailers are defined as businesses that sell directly to the consumer. The course addresses both the goods-based and services-based sectors of the retail world. You'll gain an understanding of the different channels available to retailers and how to select the ones that best address the retailer’s target market, including brick-and-mortar, websites and apps. You'll also explore the technology platforms employed by retailers, including RFID, beacons, apps and Wifi. Collages and ethnographic research provide a window on the consumer decision-making process and illuminate how retailers can use the insights gained from them to build customer loyalty. Everyone will be assigned to a group that creates a business plan for an innovative retail establishment.

Professional sales is one of the many communication channels marketers use to reach an intended audience. The course focuses on organizations as sales-targets. The honing of presentation and listening skills can have benefits that go beyond a sales call, elevating the quality of interviews for internships and jobs.

The course provides an environment in which to practice the skills needed to succeed as a trainer, coach and mentor of students enrolled in MKTG 430-Professional Selling. Eligibility is restricted to those who have already completed and excelled in MKTG 430, as attested to by an instructor recommendation. Expectations include the delivery of two classroom presentations, and the successful organization and management of classroom role-playing and on-campus sales competitions.

The majority of marketing graduates will spend their careers working for service organizations, which require a distinctive approach in terms of their development and execution. This course lays the groundwork for you to become a more discerning and effective consumer, creator and manager of services. Assignments include case-study analyses and self-assessment of your own service experiences. A preferred technique for mapping the design of a service is presented. You will chart current events in the services world that relate directly to the concepts to which they have been introduced in class and in course materials. Throughout the course, emphasis is placed on the development of relationships that secure long-term customer loyalty and profitable repeat business.

Experience is gained developing a strategic social-media marketing plan in an agency setting with an actual client. Consideration is given to the evolving social-media environment and its influence. At the end of the semester, agencies will pitch their marketing plans to the client. Along the way, you will learn the theory behind social networks and examine how such networks are used by consumers and marketers. You will also practice conducting social- media audits, creating social-media campaigns, developing tactics for engaging customers across relevant social-media channels and determining how to manage and measure the effectiveness of campaigns. Other class exercises include the assembly of a personal brand, obtaining professional certification and learning from digital-marketing professionals through guest presentations.

The course facilitates the exploration of new topics and/or unique situations in marketing. Course content varies depending on the instructor and topic of interest. For information about the course, consult with your academic advisor in the CoB Advising Support Center.

The course teaches the use of some common tools of the Internet -- especially those related to website creation, promotion and evaluation. It is a hands-on class in which you create personal-branding websites and learn the principles of website design. Other topics include the formulation of an SEO (Search Engine Optimization) strategy and its application to your own websites. Reports from Google Analytics are run and read, and business models such as PPC (pay-per-click) and display advertising are also employed. Email marketing is taught as a tool for website promotion. Campaigns are conducted using MailChimp, with the focus on driving website traffic. In addition to learning how to use these tools, you'll complete two industry-recognized certifications in HubSpot Academy.