This is the preliminary (or launch) version of the 2023-2024 VCU Bulletin. This edition includes all programs
and courses approved by the publication deadline; however we may receive notification of additional program
approvals after the launch. The final edition and full PDF version will include these updates and will be available
in August prior to the beginning of the fall semester.
Bruce Huhmann, Ph.D.
Professor and chair
business.vcu.edu/academics/marketing
The Department of Marketing provides students with a comprehensive introduction to the many topics and concepts that make up today’s marketing professions. Additionally students have the opportunity to participate in high quality learning experiences that broaden traditional ideas of the classroom in projects, exercises and internship experiences that involve a variety of business organizations as well as state and local government agencies.
MKTG 222. Marketing and Society. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online). 3 credits. Ethical issues abound in marketing and business. Creative marketing tools (e.g., product innovation, social media, advertising or multicultural marketing campaigns) can benefit society and influence behaviors to improve well-being, social justice, the environment and individual ethics. But marketing and consumption have a dark side. This course explores ethical decision-making and frameworks; consumerism; legal and regulatory issues; harmful or controversial products; social marketing; corporate social responsibility; and how marketing and business can contribute to a better world.
MKTG 301. Marketing Principles. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 26 credit hours (sophomore standing). An introduction to the activities, set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large.
MKTG 302. Marketing and Brand Strategy. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). Students gain knowledge of and exposure to marketing managerial and brand strategy issues. Marketing majors should take this course in the semester immediately following the term in which they complete MKTG 301.
MKTG 310. Marketing Research. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisites: MKTG 301; and SCMA 301*, STAT 210 or STAT 212. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). Students receive an overview of the marketing research process. The course includes coverage of primary research, secondary data sources and marketing information systems. Students learn to apply research findings to marketing decisions. *Formerly MGMT 301.
MKTG 315. Buyer Behavior. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). Study of the relevant psychological, sociological and anthropological variables that shape buyers' activities and motivations in household and organizational decision-making. Throughout the course, students consider the issue of why consumers behave as they do in the marketplace and the nature of their choices as individual, family and institutional buyers.
MKTG 320. International Marketing. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). Designed to help students develop an understanding of international marketing policies and the differences among foreign marketing environments. Students compare and contrast domestic and international marketing and examine recent changes in the international marketing environment. Crosslisted as: INTL 320.
MKTG 325. Business-to-business Marketing. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). This course focuses on strategy development for marketers whose customers include other businesses, the government and/or institutions. It explores the buying behavior of these organizations and highlights how the product development and management processes for such customers differ from the processes used for consumer marketing.
MKTG 330. Integrated Marketing Communications. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). An overview of the steps required to develop an integrated marketing communications campaign. Topics include advertising, public relations, sales promotion, personal selling and direct marketing. Special emphasis is placed on the role of new technologies and interactive media.
MKTG 335. Introduction to Personal Selling. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 26 credit hours (sophomore standing). Examines the fundamental nature of personal selling in the promotion mix, including the sales process and the techniques used in performing the selling function.
MKTG 340. Retail Management. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). A comprehensive view of retailing and an application of marketing concepts in a practical retail managerial environment. Students learn to evaluate retail firms and to identify their strengths and weaknesses.
MKTG 350. Customer and Marketing Analytics. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301 with a minimum grade of C. Introduces tools to gain insights into customer interactions with brands, advertising, digital or social media marketing, and shopping or purchase contexts. Reviews data structure, analysis, synthesis and presentation techniques that aid marketing decision-making.
MKTG 360. Social Media Research. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 310. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed a minimum of 26 credit hours (sophomore standing). Observational techniques and analyses of social media texts and visuals provides marketers with insights on brand sentiment, the customer journey and competitor intelligence. Social media research can tell marketers why consumers engage in certain behaviors, make certain decisions and communicate about brands in different communities.
MKTG 430. Experiential Marketing. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisites: MKTG 301, MKTG 330 and junior standing. This course will introduce the student to topics and strategies involving brand experiences and experiential marketing tactics. Students will explore experiential marketing, a marketing strategy designed to cultivate positive brand-consumer experience through products, communication and staged brand experiences. Additional concepts to be examined include brand strategy, marketing and the five senses, event marketing, mobile marketing, ambush marketing, guerilla marketing, venues and sponsorships, sampling, premiums, technology, social media, and data collection.
MKTG 435. Selling in the Business Marketplace. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisites: MKTG 301 and MKTG 335. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). This course focuses on selling strategy and tactics for sales managers and field sales representatives whose customers include other businesses, government and/or institutions. Areas of concentration include preparing for, and conducting, effective business-to-business sales calls, including prospecting, scheduling customer sales meetings, needs identification, presentation and securing new business.
MKTG 440. Contemporary Pricing. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 26 credit hours (sophomore standing). This course explores contemporary pricing issues in marketing. Topics covered include core concepts of price, including understanding what price is; determinants of price, including cost, demand, value, and other internal firm and external marketing factors; and customer/organizational responses to prices. Also examined is how price is integrated into product, place and promotion decisions.
MKTG 442. Services Marketing. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours. 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. This course is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). Students develop both a theoretical and practical understanding of "the service product," including the role of customer service in retail and industrial settings. Students learn techniques for analyzing and improving service system design. Students develop an understanding of "quality" as it relates to service products, and they exercise a number of approaches for assessing and improving perceived service quality.
MKTG 445. Nonprofit Marketing. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). Examines the relationship between marketing and organizational success in the nonprofit sector, as well as the impact of nonprofit organizations on local, national and global economies. Through real-world applications, students learn to combine marketing strategies and tactics with civic engagement, community service and corporate social responsibility. Students must complete a minimum of 20 service-learning hours with the nonprofit organization that is the focus of the course.
MKTG 448. Digital Marketing. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed a minimum of 54 credit hours (junior standing). Examines social media, mobile and Internet marketing as necessary ingredients to successful marketing strategy. Analyzes and applies digital techniques for market evaluation, consumer and competitive analysis, market comparison and selection, and effective marketing communication design and delivery. Crosslisted as: INTL 448.
MKTG 450. Product Development and Management. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). Study of the role of marketing in developing and managing products. Essential concepts include the use of project teams for product development and the application of a new product development process. Topics include innovation, technology, listening to the voice of the customer, product design, branding, positioning and product life-cycle management.
MKTG 470. Field Project in Marketing. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 field experience hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). Students take part in a real-world project under faculty supervision, with the topic announced in advance. Examples include conducting a marketing research project, creating an advertising campaign, writing a marketing case study about an existing business and developing a marketing plan.
MKTG 475. Honors Seminar in Marketing. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Prerequisites: MKTG 301 and permission of department chair. Enrollment is restricted to students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing). Students conduct research about major firms in the Richmond region. Chief marketing officers of these firms teach students about current marketing issues and evaluate the students' projects.
MKTG 485. Internship in Selling. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 field experience hours. 3 credits. Enrollment is restricted to degree-seeking students who have completed at least 54 credit hours (junior standing) while maintaining a minimum GPA of 2.5. The course provides the student an opportunity to work in a general selling capacity with a regionally based enterprise. This work experience contributes to the student’s development of knowledge, skills and abilities in the selling discipline.
MKTG 491. Topics in Marketing. 1-3 Hours.
Semester course; 1-3 lecture hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 1-3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. For marketing majors, a maximum total of six credits for all topics courses. An in-depth study of a selected business topic, to be announced in advance.
MKTG 492. Independent Study in Marketing. 1-3 Hours.
Semester course; 1-3 independent study hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 1-3 credits. Prerequisite: MKTG 301. For marketing majors, a maximum total of three credits for all MKTG 492 courses. Enrollment requires junior standing and permission of adviser and department chair prior to course registration. Intensive study or research under supervision of a faculty member in an area not covered in depth or contained in the regular curriculum.
MKTG 493. Internship in Marketing. 3 Hours.
Semester course; 3 field experience hours (delivered online, face-to-face or hybrid). 3 credits. Enrollment is restricted to students with senior standing in the major offering the internship and permission of the department chair. Intention to enroll must be indicated to the instructor prior to or during advance registration for semester of credit. Involves students in a meaningful experience in a setting appropriate to the major.