Marketing

Marketing is a specialization in business concerned with developing strategies and tactics to create value for customers. Marketing can involve many facets of business—everything from the conception and design of the product or service, to pricing, promotion and distribution.

At Duquesne, you will begin the marketing major by taking a three-course core curriculum, which includes sales fundamentals, buyer behavior and marketing research. You can then concentrate in one of three areas: Sports Marketing, Professional Selling and Marketing or Digital Marketing and Analytics.

 

Program Information

You will begin the marketing major by taking a three-course core curriculum, which includes sales fundamentals, buyer behavior, and marketing research.

Program Type

Major, Minor

Degree

Bachelor's

School

Palumbo-Donahue School of Business

Academic Department

Management and Marketing

Duration

4-year

Required Credit Hours

69

From Our Alumni

Heather Tom

"The Microsoft Excel course, during my freshman year, definitely set me apart from my coworkers who did not have the same experience. The on-the-job learning curve was not as steep for me because of the thoroughness of the course. As a result, I was easily able to navigate functions, formulas, and analyze large data sets."

Heather Tom B'19, Account Manager for Google

Marketing Minor

Students can earn a minor in each concentration of Marketing by completing MKTG 271, plus the following courses:

Sports Marketing
  • Sales Fundamentals
  • Sports Marketing & Promotion
  • Sports Management 
  • Sales and Revenue Generation

Professional Selling & Marketing
  • Sales Fundamentals
  • International Negotiation
  • Digital Sales & Marketing Tools
  • Sales and Revenue Generation

Digital Marketing & Analytics
  • Marketing Research
  • Digital Marketing
  • Digital Sales and Marketing Tools
  • Product Innovation

Marketing Concentrations

Digital Marketing and Analytics

Digital Marketing and Analytics is an important and growing area of marketing. Many companies and organizations are shifting their marketing efforts to digital methods. They also need to better understand analytical techniques to make sense of all the data available from these platforms. Students concentrating in this area will gain expertise in areas like search engine optimization, paid search campaigns, customer relationship management software and content marketing, which includes social media marketing.

Career opportunities are strong in this area, as students can work for marketing research firms, agencies that specialize in digital marketing strategy or for businesses looking to expand their reach in the digital domain.

Professional Selling

Professional Selling and Marketing is quickly becoming a great opportunity for students at Duquesne. The program connects theory to practice by utilizing the cutting-edge facilities of the Centers for Leadership in Professional Selling and Entrepreneurship.

Each year our students compete at top sales competitions throughout the country (including the Steel City Sales Challenge hosted by Duquesne!) where they gain access to many corporate sponsors.

Career opportunities in sales are plentiful, as demand for sales professionals is growing dramatically. You will have the opportunity to work for companies in the B2B sector of the economy, focusing on industries like technology, financial services and medical devices.

Sports Marketing

Sports Marketing is ideal for those students seeking to work in all areas of sports. To prepare for these careers, you will learn about sports marketing and promotion, sports management and the business of sports. The applied curriculum will sharpen your presentation skills as you learn about sales and marketing strategies for many types of organizations tied to the sports economy.

Career opportunities span a wide range of options from professional sports organizations like the NFL or NHL, to retailers like Dick's Sporting Goods. Additionally, our students have gone on to work in collegiate athletic departments or for companies that sponsor major sporting events like the NASCAR racing series.

 

Course Descriptions

Curriculum Guide
Marketing and Business Development is designed to educate students about the organizational functions of marketing and business development and their impact on organization success, society, and the economy. In this course, students acquire comprehensive knowledge about marketing concepts, programs, and strategies to develop sustainable relations with the market and create mutual value for the organization and its stakeholders. The course emphasizes business development which includes personal selling strategies, product and service innovation, strategic market system alliances and new market development. The challenges marketing professionals face are analyzed and ethical ways of approaching them are identified. Through the use of projects, written assignments, case discussions, and newsworthy marketing issues and trends, students are encouraged to apply the marketing process to managerial situations and opportunities.

This course introduces the fundamentals of salesmanship and the problems confronted by the sales manager. Emphasis will be placed on developing an understanding of production planning, pricing, market analysis and specific areas of sales management. Attention will be given to management of the sales force, recruitment, selection and ethical considerations. Software will be integrated into this course to reflect current trends in sales management and the selling function.

Examines the methods used by business management to obtain the information needed to support marketing decisions: selection of target market, design of product, distribution, promotion, and pricing policy. These methods include exploratory (qualitative) research, conclusive (quantitative) research, sampling theory and application, and various statistical techniques used to support marketing research (regression, correlation, analysis of variance and contingency analysis).
Event marketing is a fast-growing field that requires professional knowledge and skills. Event Marketing and Planning will examine the foundation of sports, corporate and traditional event management including finance, operations, marketing, ticketing and sponsorship. The course will address major trends and successful business practices in event marketing today.
This course uses theories and research that explain and predict consumer and organizational buying behavior. The course examines concepts that have implications for marketing management decisions, including individual and group decision-making, socio-cultural and psychological factors that influence consumer attitudes, and consumer research. Projects are assigned to allow students to apply theoretical concepts to real world challenges and experiences.
This course provides a foundation and information for the software as a service (SAAS) application salesforce.com (SFDC). Students will each have their own individual log-in credentials to an instance of SFDC and will work through the curriculum for Salesforce Fundamentals for Business Administration. Upon completion of the curriculum, students will earn their certification and badge as a SFDC Business Administration Specialist. Use cases, real-world examples, and other technologies will be discussed throughout the semester. Prerequisite: MKTG 373 Sales Fundamentals.
Helps students develop skills in analyzing economic and non-economic factors for identifying and evaluating foreign market opportunities; this course will allow students to become familiar with different approaches for segmenting international markets; it will encourage students to develop skills in formulating product, price, distribution, and promotion strategies in the context of business outside the United States; and this course will help develop skills in undertaking international strategic marketing planning.
This course has a dual focus - exploring the marketing of services and investigating the techniques to improve customer service. Students develop an understanding that in order to have a satisfactory service encounter both service providers and customers must work at creating a Collaborative Service Culture. In this environment, Discretionary Collaborative Behaviors are performed by an employee or a customer to help each other and thus contribute to the effective functioning of the relationship. Students build a knowledge base with regard to the services marketing concepts of: service encounters (regarding the role the service provider and the customer play), relationship marketing, satisfaction (the causes and how to measure), customer expectations, service rules, complaint behavior, and service design and operations. Upon completion of this course, students not only develop an understanding of, from the servicer's point of view, what it takes to effectively market a service for complete customer satisfaction, but also, from the consumer's point of view, what it takes to get the best service as a customer and be treated as a company's favorite customer.
This course provides the basic level of marketing analytics methodology following an integrated approach practiced in business. As managers assimilate technology into their decision making, and customers' expectations of how they want to be sold to and served are changing, enterprises not oriented around analytical processes and not leading in their use of technology will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage. While in the past, analytical models focused on "stovepipe" sales, marketing, and service applications, business survival in today's environment demands cross-functional solutions that integrate a wide range of applications into a unified decision support system designed around the analytical marketing models. This course is built around marketing analytics applied to common core functional components: Sales: includes one or more applications for strategic marketing management, including sales forecasting at the macro and micro environmental level, goal setting, and formulating the optimal marketing mix. Marketing: includes one or more applications for strategic marketing management, including scenario writing via forecasting at the macro and micro environmental level, goal setting, formulating the optimal marketing mix, profiling and segmenting customers, management of marketing campaigns from design to execution to fulfillment, and analysis tools for tracking program effectiveness. Customer Service: includes Web-based CRM, customer support, and service modules, problem tracking, and critical customer management. Meeting the course objectives flows from mastering data procurement and validation i.e., mastering basic methods to acquire, store, and analyze information from customers and firms. Case/simulation exercises are used to enable students to understand the elements of marketing analytic decision support for marketing management including interface with marketing research, profiling the external environment, generation of customer lifetime value, service performance, and advertising impact. The course concludes with a marketing analytic decision support project.
Introduces the fundamentals of salesmanship and the problems confronted by the sales manager. Emphasis will be placed on developing an understanding of the sales model, production planning, pricing, market analysis and specific areas of sales management. Attention will be given to management of the sales force, recruitment, selection and ethical considerations.
This course examines methods and tools leading to successful product development and commercialization, as well as the maintenance of existing products and product lines, including product positioning, design, marketing mix, testing, forecasting and product launch, plus product strategy and product life cycle management, using case studies and computer simulations.