After years one and two which included mandatory business courses so that students could get a taste of the overall business environment and what it consists of. Students could choose specialization courses in years 3 and 4. Two specialization courses per semester were allowed including mandatory electives. Below is a list and short description of year 3 marketing courses.
Year 2 Courses
International Marketing came after an introductory marketing course in year 1. This course was a 50/50 theory and simulation class which involved creating groups and using an online Country Manager simulation. Here we simulated a toothpaste company entering the Latin American market . For “8 years” students needed to entry one Latin American market (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Mexico, etc.) and later expand into more with the “Allsmile” toothpaste brand. Decision topics included:
- Market Entry/Exit
- Distribution
- SKUs and Pricing
- Advertising
- Production
At the end of the simulation we present using powerpoint and through a written report our decisions on these above topics and end results of the simulation.
Year 3 Courses
In the fall term I took a Professional Sales & Negotiation course. This course compromised of theory on ways to approach different situations that required negotiation when selling products to B2B businesses and retailers. We examined the negotiation process and learned to use different strategies for selling through role playing exercises in order to develop, strengthen and manage customer relationships. In particular, we focused on how to strategically approach different leader ship personalities such as Drivers, Expressive, Analytical, and Amiable buyers.
In the Buyer Behaviour course, we focused on psychological and physical factors that influence consumer purchase decisions in order to gain an understanding of how these factors affect consumer decision making process. Based off this knowledge, we learned how to apply it to develop marketing strategies that matched the needs and wants of target markets. Learning topics include; perception, learning and memory, motivation, personality, self, and lifestyle, values, influence variables, decision making, buying and disposing, etc. Testing our knowledge included analyzing cases and applying theory.
The winter semester consisted of Advertising, Branding & Marketing which involved learning about integrated marketing communications, strategic planning, and measuring performance. The aim was to learn how to strategically establish a company identity and create a unified message through Branding and Advertising strategies. For our final project we needed to create and integrated marketing communications plan for the Royal Bank of Canada, which sent representatives to watch our presentation and question us on our plan decisions.
In the Business of Social media we studied how the growth of social platforms has impacted Marketing around the world. It focused on why and how to strategically and effectively integrate social media into marketing through. We learned to use social media management tools such as Hootsuite, as well as Google Analytics and Facebook Business Insider. The final project consisted of creating a group Social Media campaign that included campaign objectives, target market, strategy, metrics and tracking. For the project we created a simulated Instagram campaign video and posts which we uploaded through Hootsuite and pre-scheduled using the Hootsuite content calendar.
Our final marketing course for the year was Media design for Marketers and in this course we learned basic design principles and how to the use of design software would help build and support a brand’s identity. We learned to use Adobe Indesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, and WordPress for our portfolios. The final project consisted of a portfolio with our designs which included a Moodboard, brochures, posters, and Logos.
