Academic Programs
Department of Marketing
Dr. Irvine Clarke, III, Head
Location: Zane Showker Hall, Room 535
Phone: (540) 568-3049
E-mail: clarkeix@jmu.edu
Web site: http://www.jmu.edu/cob/marketing/
Professors
K. Bahn, C. Bolfing, I. Clarke, T. Flaherty, R. Reid, K. Williamson
Associate Professors
D. Boyd, W. Faranda, V. Larsen, R. Shelton, K. Webb
Assistant Professors
R. Cereola, J. Guthrie, K. Huggins, M. Tokman
Instructor
S. Hertzenberg, R. McMillen, M. Quinn, C. Snyder
Mission Statement
Career Opportunities
Co-curricular Activities and Organizations
Special Admissions Requirements
Degree and Major Requirements
Transfer Credit Policy
Minor Requirements
Mission Statement
The Marketing Department prepares students for entry-level career positions by developing specialized skills in the management of customer relationships through the creation, communication, and delivery of value to customers. Students majoring in marketing are introduced to the marketing management process, which is a systematic review of the principal activities required to understand:
- the context in which products and services must be marketed,
- customer needs,
- strategic options,
- marketing program development and
- evaluation of marketing effectiveness.
The marketing curriculum focuses on traditional and online marketing skills needed in various business settings and industries. The curriculum seeks to develop competence in five areas: factual and conceptual knowledge, problem solving skills, communications skills, experiential learning and use of information technology.
Students will be prepared to enter corporate, small business or not-for-profit environments with highly valued skills and an understanding of the need for continuous learning.
Goals
- To deliver a solid foundation of the concepts and theories of the marketing discipline, including market environmental issues; strategic market planning, implementation and evaluation; marketing research; buyer behavior and market segmentation; and development of marketing programs.
- To engage students in critical thinking processes, requiring in-depth analysis of qualitative and quantitative market data and development of subsequent marketing strategies based on this analysis.
- To enable students to evaluate marketing alternatives and commit to a course of action, using financial, organizational, environmental and ethical criteria as bases for decision making.
- To teach students a variety of information technology tools and techniques to improve marketing and overall business performance and deliver greater value to customers.
- To facilitate students' continuing development of verbal, written and listening communication skills.
- To develop students' marketing-based interpersonal skills, such as group-based negotiation, consensus building, delegation and performance evaluation.
- To integrate classroom study with exposure to industry practices throughout the marketing curriculum and ensure marketing students access to experiential learning opportunities in all marketing career tracks.
- Consulting—marketing assistant, data analysis and sales.
- Retailing—store management, merchandise buying and analysis, Internet sales and visual merchandising.
- Consumer marketing and business-to-business marketing—sales, direct marketing, market analysis, product development specialist, Web-based marketing, account representative and customer relations management (CRM).
- Communications—advertising account management, account manager/director, communications management, technical writing, media planning and coordination, sales, and public relations.
- Marketing research—database management, market research analyst and project management.
- Product/Brand management—business-to-business sales, product specialist, channel development and promotional marketing.
- Not for profit marketing—fund-raising, public relations and customer service.
- Sports/events marketing—merchandising, contracts administration, event marketing, trade show management and e-commerce marketing.
Co-curricular Activities and Organizations
- Madison Marketing Association. This student club is affiliated with the American Marketing Association, a national marketing association for marketing professionals, faculty and students. MMA is open to all JMU students. MMA is comprehensive with its marketing programming and offers students information and activities in direct marketing, retailing and marketing management.
- Pi Sigma Epsilon. PSE is a professional fraternity, which focuses on programming and extracurricular experiences in marketing, personal selling, and sales management.
- Mu Kappa Tau. This is an honorary marketing fraternity for students with high scholastic records. Admission is by invitation only. The club invites speakers and engages in joint programming with other JMU student organizations.
Special Admissions Requirements
Admission to the marketing major may be limited and competitive if student enrollment exceeds available resources.
Only those students who have been formally admitted to the College of Business will be considered for admission into the marketing department.
Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing
Marketing majors conform to the general structure of the B.B.A. degree program. The B.B.A. degree in marketing requires a minimum of 120 credit hours of undergraduate course work.
Degree Requirements
| Degree Requirements | Credit Hours |
| General Education requirements1 | 41 |
| B.B.A. lower-level core courses | 23-30 |
| B.B.A. upper-level core courses | 15 |
| Marketing major requirements | 24 |
| Non-business electives | 10-12 |
120 |
|
1 The General Education program contains a set of requirements each student must fulfill. The number of credit hours necessary to fulfill these requirements may vary.
Fifty percent of this work, or 60 credit hours, must be taken outside of the College of Business. In counting the 60 credit hours of non-business courses, B.B.A. students may include all hours taken in general education (usually 41), up to a total of nine hours in economics (GECON courses must be counted as economics), and three hours of COB 191, Business and Economics Statistics. The remaining hours, to bring the total to 60 must be taken from any department outside the College of Business. Students should carefully select these non-business electives to help them gain additional knowledge and expertise for their careers and personal lives.
Major Requirements
Students planning to major in marketing must complete the 23-30 hour, lower-division B.B.A. core curriculum set forth on Page 63 prior to enrolling in upper-division core courses, normally taken in the first semester of the junior year. It is expected that the lower-division core curriculum will be completed during the first two years of study along with all, or most, of the university general education curriculum. Failing to complete all lower-division core requirements on time will delay enrollment in upper-division core and major courses. Additional required courses are determined by the chosen concentration.
Concentrations
As a result of marketing being such a broad field there are many areas of specialization. Students majoring in marketing commit to a course of study and obtain career-specific knowledge and skills by selecting a concentration. Presently, concentrations include:
- Business to Business Marketing
- Business to Consumer Marketing
- Business to Business Marketing Concentration
The business to business marketing concentration is designed for marketing majors who wish a more in-depth review of the issues facing businesses that market products and services to other businesses and organizations. This concentration will focus on the development of knowledge and problem-solving skills relating to business segmentation and buying processes, product and channel development and professional selling, and sales management.
Students interested in sales and sales management may be responsible for increasing sales and if successful will advance to assume management responsibilities. Product development deals with marketing related to a specific product. Activities may involve planning and development, production and distribution, direct marketing and other types of promotion. The business to business marketing concentration is the ideal concentration for a job in sales, customer service, account management and product development.
| Required Courses | Credit Hours |
| MKTG 384. Integrated Marketing Communications | 3 |
| MKTG 385. Buyer Behavior | 3 |
| MKTG 430. Professional Selling | 3 |
| MKTG 450. Business Marketing | 3 |
| MKTG 480. Product Development and Management | 3 |
| MKTG 482. Database Marketing | 3 |
| MKTG 485. Marketing Management | 3 |
| Choose one marketing elective from the following: | 3 |
| MKTG 405. Survey Research | |
| MKTG 460. Global Marketing | |
| MKTG 470. Strategic Internet Marketing | |
| MKTG 494. Marketing Internship |
Business to Consumer Marketing Concentration
The business to consumer marketing concentration is designed for marketing majors who want in-depth study, analysis, development and marketing of goods and services for sale to consumers using store, catalog and electronic buying methods. Students will develop knowledge, market skills and experience relating to store management, site management, consumer segmentation, Internet marketing and development of marketing strategies for reaching consumer markets.
Graduates in business-to-consumer marketing will be suited to begin careers in relationship marketing, merchandise management, new business creation, customer service operations, catalog marketing, retailing, Internet marketing, not-for-profit marketing and promotional account management positions.
| Required Courses | Credit Hours |
| MKTG 384. Integrated Marketing Communications | 3 |
| MKTG 385. Buyer Behavior | 3 |
| MKTG 388. Retail Marketing | 3 |
| MKTG 482. Database Marketing | 3 |
| MKTG 485. Marketing Management | 3 |
| Choose one of the following: | 3 |
| MKTG 440. Retail Strategy and Buying | |
| MKTG 470. Strategic Internet Marketing1 | |
| Choose two marketing electives from the following list: | 6 |
| MKTG 386. Services Marketing | |
| MKTG 430. Professional Selling | |
| MKTG 440. Retail Strategy and Buying1 | |
| MKTG 460. Global Marketing | |
| MKTG 470. Strategic Internet Marketing1 | |
| MKTG 494. Marketing Internship |
1 Courses cannot be double-counted toward the major.
Recommended Schedule for Majors
Marketing majors should follow the course schedule below to complete the final two years of their program. It is possible to deviate from this program but care must be taken to ensure that all course prerequisites are met.
Third Year
| First Semester | Credit Hours |
| COB 300A. Integrated Functional Systems: Management | 3 |
| COB 300B. Integrated Functional Systems: Finance | 3 |
| COB 300C. Integrated Functional Systems: Operations | 3 |
| COB 300D. Integrated Functional Systems: Marketing | 3 |
| General Education courses or non-business electives | 3 |
15 |
|
| Second Semester | Credit Hours |
| MKTG 384. Integrated Marketing Communications | 3 |
| MKTG 385. Buyer Behavior | 3 |
| Marketing concentration course | 3 |
| Free elective | 3 |
| Non-business elective | 3 |
15 |
|
Fourth Year
| First Semester | Credit Hours |
| MKTG 482. Database Marketing | 3 |
| Marketing concentration courses | 6 |
| General Education or non-business elective | 6 |
15 |
|
| Second Semester | Credit Hours |
| COB 487. Business Policy | 3 |
| Marketing concentration course | 3 |
| MKTG 485. Marketing Management | 3 |
| General Education or non-business electives | 6 |
15 |
|
Transfer Credit Policy
The marketing program will accept no more than two courses for transfer credit toward the major. In addition to this general College of Business policy, there are restrictions on which courses will be accepted for transfer credit, depending on the selected concentration.
Students concentrating in business to business marketing must take the following courses at JMU:
MKTG 384. Integrated Marketing Communications
MKTG 405. Survey Research
MKTG 450. Business Marketing
MKTG 470. Strategic Internet Marketing
MKTG 480. Product Development and Management
MKTG 482. Database Marketing
MKTG 485. Marketing Management
Students concentrating in Business to Consumer Marketing must take the following courses at JMU:
MKTG 384. Integrated Marketing Communications
MKTG 470. Strategic Internet Marketing
MKTG 482. Database Marketing
MKTG 485. Marketing Management
European Marketing Minor
This minor in European marketing is targeted to non-business majors and earned exclusively through participation in a summer session in Antwerp, Belgium. It is not offered at any other time of the year. The curriculum offers non-business majors an opportunity to develop a specialization in marketing within the unique European marketplace. The experiential philosophy of this minor requires students to learn about marketing in a European context, through classroom contact as well as visiting European business, governmental institutions, and cultural/historical sites as part of the requirements for each class. Since the experiential components cannot be accomplished outside of Europe, the minor will not be offered on the Harrisonburg campus.
Except for MKTG 380, only courses taken in Antwerp will count toward this minor. Except for MKTG 380, courses taken at JMU in Harrisonburg will not count towards a European marketing minor. Since COB 301 is taught only in Belgium, and not at JMU in Harrisonburg, no substitutions will be permitted.
To participate in the European marketing minor, students must:
- be a non-B.B.A. major.
- have junior standing (complete at least 56 hours).
- have a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or better before beginning the summer semester in Belgium.
- be accepted to the Semester in Antwerp program.
Specifically, the minor will consist of six courses and 18 hours. Students will take MKTG 380 at JMU in Harrisonburg, then complete 15 hours during a summer session in Belgium.
| Required Courses | Credit Hours |
| MKTG 380. Principles of Marketing | 3 |
| MTKG 380 is the prerequisite for all of the following marketing | |
| courses. Therefore, this course must be successfully completed | |
| before participating in the semester in Antwerp. Typically, | |
| students will take this course during the spring semester prior | |
| to the summer experience. | |
| COB 301. European Integration, Culture and History | 3 |
| MKTG 384. Integrated Marketing Communications | 3 |
| MKTG 385. Buyer Behavior | 3 |
| MKTG 460. Global Marketing | 3 |
| MKTG 485. Marketing Management | 3 |
18 |
|
