Experiential Marketing Graduate Certificate

A hands-on course emphasizing the importance of data visualization in understanding data. Designed for those who have never used data visualization software before, this course will utilize Microsoft Power BI to prepare students to create reports and dashboards at all levels of an organization. Students will learn exploratory and explanatory data analysis and learn how to ask the right questions about what is needed in a visualization. Students will assess how data and design work together and learn which visualization to use in various situations. Students will learn how to balance the goals of their stakeholders with the needs of their end-users and be able to structure and organize a digital story for maximum impact.

The buyer behavior course examines the consumer decision process and the effect on consumer decision-making of external environmental influences (culture, subculture, social class, reference groups, family, and personal influences) and of internal psychological influences (personality and lifestyle, learning, motives, perception, and beliefs and attitudes). Applications of psychological, sociological, anthropological, and economic theories and models to the understanding of buyer behavior and the development of a marketing strategy.

This social media marketing course is designed to help the students understand how marketing has changed due to the rise of social media and changes in various underlying contextual factors such as dramatically increased speed of information dissemination across consumers and brands. The emphasis of this course is on understanding consumers’ social interactions, examining the various social media channels available to marketers, learning how to build social marketing strategies, and practicing how to track their effectiveness.

Students will be introduced to the contributions and potential of a graphic designer as part of a marketing team. The workflow, the technological tools utilized, useful terminology and project pacing will be covered. Students will be exposed to the visual problem-solving angle within marketing. In addition, basic design principles and the ability to identify effective design modules will be introduced.

Students will identify current and emerging career opportunities in the field of event management. They will learn relevant strategic, organizational communication theory as it relates to event planning and will gain significant practice in planning, designing and critiquing events through hands-on experience. Students will analyze ways in which organizations communicate their image and message through events and promotions, while considering key issues facing the event industry in today’s global society.