Undergraduate Marketing Major

Why pursue a major in Marketing?

Marketing straddles many different disciplines (economics, psychology, statistics, sociology to name a few) and brings together theories and methods from all these areas to help organizations to understand, influence and predict consumer behaviour. Marketing activities touch every aspect of our lives and are vital to the very survival of organizations. From the marketing of fast moving consumer goods (FMCGs), durable goods, services (such as airlines, banks, telecommunication companies), people, places and ideas (such as celebrities, or Singapore, or the idea of giving ex-prisoners a second chance) to marketing research, advertising, and consulting, there is a wide range of applicability of these theories and methods. The marketing major prepares you for an entry level job in a wide variety of industries world-wide. Across these industries and careers,  marketing jobs can potentially can make good use of almost every different kind of aptitude  - quantitative, creative, people oriented, communication and research/analysis. Marketing fits well, academically, as well as career-wise, with a wide variety of other SMU majors (but perhaps especially finance, operations, strategy, corporate communications, information systems, economics and psychology).

The requirements of the Marketing Major

Completing a marketing major at  SMU involves taking six  courses.
 
Core course:

• MKTG 101: Marketing - an introduction to the marketing discipline

Required courses:

• MKTG 102: Consumer Behaviour - the study of how marketing activities affect consumer perception, attention, learning, memory, attitudes and decision making, at both a micro and macro level.
• MKTG 103: Marketing Research – understanding how to conduct research on consumers, especially focused on survey research methods, from defining research problems, to designing questionnaires, sampling schemes,  coding and analyzing data, and reporting  

These courses must be taken at SMU (i.e. not on exchange) and can be completed anytime over your SMU tenure.
 
Elective courses (any four based on current requirements):

A variety of elective courses such as Strategic Brand Management, Advertising, Marketing Channels and New Retail , Pricing, Marketing Strategy, New Product Development, Services Marketing, Customer Relationship Management, Digital Marketing and Marketing Analytics are offered regularly. Any three of them need to be taken to complete the marketing elective. Most electives only require MKTG 101 as a pre-requisite, but please check course outlines for specific exclusions or requirements. Elective courses may also be taken on exchange, as long as the Office of Global Learning approves your chosen course as a marketing elective. The matrix below suggests electives appropriate for various marketing career choices.

(Note that this is a representative listing of electives; not all courses listed are currently offered)