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Metropolitan State University (Home)

Marketing BS

College of Business and Management / Marketing, Supply Chain Operations Management, and International Business
Undergraduate major / Bachelor of Science

About The Program

Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs Logo

Marketing activities play a critical role in the achievement of an organization's missions and objectives. Students in the marketing major will study the demographic, psychographic, social, economic, technological, environmental and cultural factors that influence the demands for consumer and industrial goods and services.

This program offers courses related to marketing principles, buyer behavior, marketing research, marketing communications, international marketing, and others.  All of the courses in this major are designed to enhance students' understanding of marketing as a multifaceted and cross-functional discipline that plays a key role in an organization's vitality.  

This program can be completed on campus, online, or by combining on campus and online courses. Program requirements are the same, regardless of the delivery mode.

Why choose Metro State for your Marketing degree?

  • Award-Winning Student Success: Our marketing students, under the expert guidance of Dr. Minjung Park, proudly earned 3rd place at the 2024 American Marketing Association (AMA) Collegiate Competition, competing against nationally recognized universities across the country.
  • Cutting-Edge AI Integration in the Curriculum: Our marketing curriculum actively incorporates artificial intelligence (AI) tools and strategies, preparing students to thrive in the rapidly evolving marketing landscape.
  • Real-World Learning Through Partnerships with Leading Companies and Clients: Experience marketing in action through hands-on projects with real-world businesses. Our students engage in site visits, consulting projects, and client-based assignments, building valuable industry connections. Recent collaborations include a consulting project with Securian Financial in Saint Paul, providing students professional experience before graduation.
  • Faculty Actively Engaged in Marketing Research: Learn from faculty who are not just teachers, but active contributors to the field of marketing research. Our professors bring fresh, real-world insights directly into the classroom.

Student outcomes

A student majoring in Marketing will be able to: 

  • Develop primary research for use in making marketing decisions.
  • Assess brand strategy and ethics of an organization.
  • Apply buyer behavior theories and principles to a brand.
  • Create an integrated marketing communications plan.
  • Develop a successful global marketing plan.

Related programs

How to enroll

Current students: Declare this program

Once you’re admitted as an undergraduate student and have met any further admission requirements your chosen program may have, you may declare a major or declare an optional minor.

Future students: Apply now

Apply to Metropolitan State: Start the journey toward your Marketing BS now. Learn about the steps to enroll or, if you have questions about what Metropolitan State can offer you, request information, visit campus or chat with an admissions counselor.

Get started on your Marketing BS

More ways to earn your degree: Metropolitan State offers the flexibility you need to finish your degree. Through programs at our partner institutions, you can find a path to getting your Marketing BS that works best for you.

About your enrollment options

Program eligibility requirements

Students must complete major program courses with a grade of C- or better. The College of Business and Management Foundation Courses are prerequisites for many upper division College of Business and Management courses. Completing these courses early in your program will help you succeed and have the most valuable experience in other College of Business and Management courses.

Courses and Requirements

SKIP TO COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Marketing Major Residency Requirement: At least 16 credits from among the Major Required Courses and Major Electives must be completed at Metropolitan State. See also the CBM Policies page for requirements that are common to all programs.

Requirements (120 credits)

+ College of Business and Management Foundation (22 credits)

This course is the first information technology foundation course in the College of Management. It focuses on the technology literacy, managerial and business problem solving dimensions of computer based information systems. It provides students with an introduction to the fundamental terminology of the hardware, software and the people involved with computer based information systems. The course includes hands on computer lab time to introduce students to word processing, database, spread sheet, and Internet microcomputer applications. This course is designed specifically to prepare students for information technology competence as needed in College of Management courses.

Full course description for Fundamentals of Information Technology in Organizations

This course develops the fundamental concepts of algebra with an emphasis on the classification and analysis of linear, quadratic, polynomial, exponential and logarithmic functions. Applications to the natural and social sciences are given throughout. It aims to provide insights into the nature and utility of mathematics, and helps students develop mathematical reasoning skills.

Full course description for College Algebra

This course covers the basic principles and methods of statistics. It emphasizes techniques and applications in real-world problem solving and decision making. Topics include frequency distributions, measures of location and variation, probability, sampling, design of experiments, sampling distributions, interval estimation, hypothesis testing, correlation and regression.

Full course description for Statistics I

This course focuses on the economy as a whole and studies how government can affect the economy. After starting with principles of markets, the price system and supply and demand, the course covers national income accounting, business cycles, inflation, unemployment, fiscal policy, monetary policy and the Federal Reserve System, different approaches to economic growth, and the foundations of international trade.

Full course description for Macroeconomics

This course focuses on the interactions between the consumer and the producer. It begins with the theory of markets, supply and demand, and the price system. Then it covers demand elasticity, the costs of production including the various factor inputs, the four major market structures (pure competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly and monopoly), and ways to increase the competition in markets.

Full course description for Microeconomics

This course in financial accounting acquaints students with the "language of business" and the concepts and practices of accounting in order to understand, interpret, and analyze the financial accounting reports of economic entities. Topics include: economic context of accounting; introduction to basic financial statements with emphasis on the statement of cash flows; measurement fundamentals; analysis of financial statements; cash; receivables; inventories; investments in equity and debt securities including Consolidations; long-lived assets; current and long-term liabilities; stockholders' equity; and time value of money concepts and computations for decision making: international accounting practices are incorporated into every topic. This is not a bookkeeping course.

Full course description for Financial Accounting

+ College of Business and Management Business Core (20 credits)

This course surveys factors that marketing managers take into account when creating a marketing plan, including consumer behavior principles, market segmentation, product life cycle, packaging, branding, pricing, advertising, sales promotion, public relations, personal selling, product distribution methods and key laws affecting marketing practices. The course takes a practical approach to explaining how to identify marketing objectives and determine strategies for reaching them. It is useful to general business students, students who plan marketing management or marketing communications careers and those who wish to be better informed consumers. This course is also offered online. Prerequisite: Goal 1 writing requirement plus 30 credits must be satisfied.

Full course description for Marketing Principles

This course is designed to define the role of information systems in organizations, and in particular the roles of IS staff and end-users in developing and maintaining computer systems. The managerial aspects and implications of databases, telecommunications, hardware, software and e-commerce are included. Special attention is given to management information systems theories in the organizational setting including: infrastructure, transaction processing, operational reporting, decision support systems and executive information systems. Also included are all phases of the systems development life cycle (SDLC) as well as alternative development methodologies. The course prototypically includes analysis of real world business cases and post-implementation audit report of a recently completed management information system. All students taking this class must have completed as a prerequisite the MIS 100 Fundamentals of Information Technology in Organizations course or its approved…

Full course description for Principles of Management Information Systems

This course introduces the application to financial decision-making of mathematics, statistics, economic theory, and accounting procedures. The two central ideas are time value of money and the relationship between expected return and risk, and how these ideas are used to value bonds, stocks, and other financial securities, and to make capital investment decisions.

Full course description for Principles of Finance

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the fundamental concepts and techniques of production and operations management for both service and manufacturing organizations. It will address the role of operations in relation to other functions and the methods to increase organizational effectiveness and efficiency. Topics covered include: product and service design, capacity planning, design of work systems, location planning and analysis, material requirements planning, supply-chain management, enterprise resource planning, inventory management, total quality management, Six Sigma, lean enterprise and kaizen approaches, aggregate planning, just-in-time systems, scheduling, and project planning. Also included are tools and processes used in operations decisions such as forecasting, breakeven analysis, and critical path method using available software.

Full course description for Introduction to Operations Management

+ Required (20 credits)

This course is designed to give both marketing management and marketing communications students an opportunity to study principles of the behavioral sciences of psychology, sociology and anthropology, and how they are used in creating marketing and communications plans aimed at consumer or professional buyers. Specific topics include perception processes, lifestyle analysis, personality, psychographics, motivational analysis and the influence of groups on their members' buying behaviors.

Full course description for Consumer and Professional Buyer Behavior

This course is designed to provide insights into digital marketing strategy and various digital channels. Students will gain an understanding of the trends, concepts, and tools of digital marketing that companies use to engage with current customers and attract new. This course covers topics such as Search Engine Optimization (SEO), online advertising, social media marketing, email marketing, and similar topics.

Full course description for Digital Marketing

This course teaches a strategic approach to understanding and executing the full array of marketing communications. Topics include the essential role of integrated marketing communications (IMC) within the marketing function, product and service positioning, and the advantages, disadvantages and uses of various promotional tools such as advertising, sales promotion, publicity, public relations, personal selling and direct marketing. Special attention will be given to the constant changing role of interactive media. The course will focus on the process of developing effective IMC strategies that satisfy both promotional objectives and marketing goals, and developing an IMC plan.

Full course description for Integrated Marketing Communications

This course examines the processes and techniques used in gathering, analyzing and reporting information that forms the basis for managerial and marketing decision making. The course content includes the study of both secondary research methods and primary research methods, with the emphasis on survey methods. There is a strong statistical analysis component, and students learn to use SPSS, statistical software used extensively in organizations that perform quantitative research. Students design and implement a marketing research study.

Full course description for Marketing Research

This course introduces students to the concepts and disciplines of international marketing. Students develop an understanding of the international environment and its impact on marketing. Topics include: social and cultural influences, political, legal and financial considerations, exporting and importing; organizational alternatives, information sources, market-entry strategies, pricing and distribution, sales and communications practices, counter trade, and other current international marketing issues. Major geographic marketing areas are discussed.

Full course description for International Marketing

+ Electives (4 credits)

Any MKTG course or one of the following courses:

This course addresses the laws that regularly affect day-to-day marketing and advertising practices. Topics include the cases, statutes and regulatory agencies that create liability for advertising copy and layout, and those dealing with acquiring and protecting trade names, trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, copyrights and patents, and the laws which define and create liability for unfair competitive practices.

Full course description for Marketing and Advertising Law

This course is for people who want to understand how public relations establishes relationships with various stakeholders through communication. It outlines elements of the public relations process: research and planning, setting objectives, developing strategies, implementing programs and evaluating results. Overlap: COMM 381T Public Relations Theory Seminar.

Full course description for Public Relations Principles

This course gives students a contemporary background in digital marketing analytics. The course integrates two areas: marketing analytics and digital marketing. Students will be able to develop marketing decisions in a richer, and more powerful, way using a quantitative, data-driven approach. They learn how to develop marketing goals, from the consumer journey, that measure the brand¿s success. Then, students conduct different statistical analyses that interpret how well marketing goals are met. These different statistical analyses allow students to get a very practical understanding about how to make the types of complex and important decisions needed for 21st century marketing management.

Full course description for Advanced Digital Marketing Analytics

In advertising and marketing today, copywriting is more important than ever. Effective copy needs to cut through the clutter whether for digital or traditional media. This course focuses on learning how to write compelling copy incorporating positioning, audience research, creative briefs, features and benefits, creation of an advertising premise (USP) and copy organization. It also covers content development, design basics, working relationships and digital and traditional advertising production terminology/best practices

Full course description for Advertising Copywriting, Design and Production

+ College of Business and Management Capstone (4 credits)

This advanced course uses the case study approach to develop systems and techniques for analyzing the internal strengths and weaknesses of diverse organizations and the external environments in which they operate. Students craft strategies and develop implementation plans that apply organizational resources to opportunities and threats in its external environment. This course should be taken during the last semester of a student's program.

Full course description for Case Studies in Strategic Management