Marketing Courses I Recommend Taking for Communication Majors

As a fellow communication major, I know how you feel.  After some quick research when I was in your position, I decided to take some marketing courses.  These courses exceeded my expectations, and today, I am a Loyola Marketing Ambassador with a marketing minor. 

In these marketing courses, I have gained valuable friendships, engaged in leadership opportunities, built professional connections, earned essential skillsets that complement my communication major, and landed multiple internships. 

Here are four marketing courses that are worth checking out: 

1. MK240 (Introduction to) Marketing (3 Credits) 
2. MK349 Customer Experience Management: Disney Tour (3 Credits)
3. MK440 Selling Concepts and Strategies (3 Credits)
4. MK441 Customer Research & Analytics (3 Credits) 

MK240 (Introduction to) Marketing 

This marketing course offers a glimpse of marketing.  Marketing is a broad field that encompasses a variety of different career paths, including and overlapping with communication specializations such as public relations, advertising, marketing research, and digital marketing, among others.  

MK240 provides a basic understanding of marketing’s role in today’s business world.  Each week, students read a chapter of the textbook paired with an engaging article from the Wall Street Journal.  I found these articles with real-life examples extremely helpful in understanding and memorizing the marketing concepts of the week.  This course also provides networking opportunities through group projects and potential guest speakers.  

Test The Water

Building a solid foundation of marketing knowledge allows you to make informed decisions when determining whether to minor in marketing or pursue a marketing-related career.  It should be noted that MK240 is a prerequisite for ALL marketing courses so if any other marketing courses interest you, you need to start here. 

Course Code: MK240
Offered Term: Fall & Spring Term 
Prerequisites: None 

MK349 Customer Experience Management (CXM): Disney Tour  

The CXM: Disney Tour is undoubtedly one of the most eye-opening experiences I have ever had.  This is a short course – with just three lectures, one group presentation, and a week spent at Walt Disney World, you will learn how companies design and manage touchpoints for customers. 

What Harvard Business Review Says About CXM

According to Harvard Business Review, organizations that are able to identify key customer journeys and redesign customer’s complete experience are able to: (Rawson and Duncan and Jones, 2017) 

1. Enhance customer and employee satisfaction.
2. Increase revenue and lower costs.
3. Improve collaborations across the organization. 

How is CXM Relevant to a Communication Major? 

Learning about CXM is a huge asset and is highly applicable in the communications field.  An experienced communication professional knows the need of learning about the audience before creating content and strategies and finding suitable channels for the messages.  The CXM course offers tools and group project-based exercises for students to imagine customer personas, create journeys, and design touchpoints that learn and describe their customers and manage their experience. 

My classmates and I were able to snap a shot in front of the Cinderella Castle before our morning seminar at the Magic Kingdom.  The seminars do not take place in a classroom, instead, we get to walk around the theme park and learn the art of immersive storytelling as well as collaborative theme park design firsthand.  On top of that, we also have the opportunity to venture behind the scenes and discover how Disney creates magic for customers.

 

My Favorite Part of the Disney Tour

Aside from the fact that our classroom is at Walt Disney World, my favorite part of this Study Tour is discovering Easter Eggs around the parks. The Disney professionals who led our seminars would show us hidden details with historical ties and clever setups.  It is safe to say that the CXM Disney Tour is truly magical and made me feel like a kid again! 

Course Code: MK349 
Offered Term: Spring Term 
Prerequisites: MK240 or BH240 

Learn more about the Disney course in this blog post.  

MK440 Selling Concepts and Strategies

This is a course about selling – but it is not what you think.  

Let’s face it, salespeople often get a bad reputation.  I am guilty of filtering ads or people who try to sell products.  But selling is an essential part of our daily lives.  Aside from the business part, selling requires interpersonal and persuasive communication skills to develop and build relationships. 

Even if you are not interested in selling a product or a service, what about selling yourself to potential friends or employers? 

What Can I Expect?

• Build your own elevator pitch and practice public speaking.
• Learn to earn customers’ trust and create value for both parties.
• Polish your resume and cover letter.
• Identify social styles and adapt to different communication styles.
• Interview a professional and make valuable connections. 

How is Selling Relevant to a Communication Major? 

As a communication major with a specialization in public relations and advertising, I realized the importance of effective communication and a customer-oriented perspective.  This course teaches you how to actively listen, observe non-verbal communication, ask the right questions, and empathize with others.  These are valuable skill sets that will help you communicate persuasively and build meaningful relationships.  

Course Code: MK440 
Offered Term: Fall & Spring Term 
Prerequisites: MK240 or BH240 

MK441 Customer Research & Analytics 

Hear me out – customer research is fun. This course has changed my preconceived idea that research is boring and all about number crunching. 

In an ever-evolving field, marketing and advertising campaigns require a deep understanding of customers and the ability to create meaningful messages that resonate with them. Customer research and analytics are crucial in making data-driven decisions and creating effective campaigns.

Do I Need to be Good at Math?

Don’t worry, this course utilizes Excel to organize data and perform data analysis and DOES NOT require you to calculate by heart. While both statistical and nonstatistical methods will be discussed in detail, the focus will not be on technical sophistication. Instead, this course focuses on the marketing research process and methods to better understand customers’ needs and wants. 

What Can I Expect?

• Identify the role of marketing research in developing effective campaigns
• Learn and practice many useful and interesting Excel tricks
• Understand common methods and techniques for data collections
• Design a questionnaire and learn to ask the right questions
• Conduct a marketing research project in a group 

How is Marketing Research Relevant to a Communication Major?

Customer research and analytics provide the essential tools for communication majors to understand target audiences, make data-driven decisions, measure campaign effectiveness, stay ahead of the curve, and identify new opportunities.  

In fact, MK441 helped me land the position and thrive as a member of the research team in my Senior Capstone Course in Advertising (CM403) – a requirement for all communication majors.  

Course Code: MK441 
Offered Term: Fall & Spring Term 
Prerequisites: EC220 or ST110 or ST210 or equivalent, MK240 or BH240 

What are you waiting for?
Sign up for a marketing class today to expand your skillsets! 

Contact Professor Marie Yeh if you are interested in becoming a marketing major or minor.