Marketers create value that transforms the lives of consumers they serve. Marketers do this by working collaboratively with consumers to determine products with the right price through the most effective channel.
Marketing has evolved to emphasize engaging customers through the use of digital marketing tools. Leveraging sciences such as information retrieval and data analytics, marketers can move more quickly from analysis to strategy and help organizations to translate customer knowledge into strategic value for new products, social action, and innovation.
Marketing, B.S.B.A.
The landscape of marketing careers continues to adapt. While some of the traditional positions such as brand management, public relations, and personal selling are popular in the field, new marketing jobs such as digital marketing, marketing analytics, and content management have experienced rapid growth.
Imagine taking on one these responsibilities:
Digital Advertiser for a startup enterprise where you advertise your products on websites like Google, YouTube, Facebook, etc., and track the sales to determine the best promotion strategy.
Content Manager for a manufacturer such as Coca Cola where you design, create, and manage posts, pictures, and videos across all social media platforms, and engage with consumers regularly.
Marketing Analyst for an entertainment company such as Netflix where you team with data and other specialists to archive and mine years of stored digital content, looking for cyclical trends in viewing habits and changing tastes and sensibilities.
Innovation Specialist for a toy manufacturer such as Little Tykes where you will work with a diverse team of people to create meaningful value in customers lives.
Customer Relationship Manager for a retailer like Amazon or Target where you would track purchasing data and customer satisfaction both online and in store, and work to streamline every customer-store interaction.
As a Boler marketing major, you will benefit from the core knowledge, ethical grounding and advanced business and strategic skills needed to put the Jesuit tradition of being ”men and women for and with others” into action.
The liberal arts emphasis on broad knowledge, (science, philosophy, mathematics, history) coupled with critical thinking, and strong written and oral communication skills, will set you on the right path toward fulfilling your own personal calling, your career vocation. By mastering these skills, you will:
Grasp the changing economic, political, legal, ethical, and cultural contexts in which marketing strategies and solutions emerge
Approach marketing challenges strategically and ethically first, then implement tactically
Develop organized solutions, collaborative procedures, and rational communication tactics to bring your ideas to life
Learn to distinguish between the trivial and trendy, and promote change of lasting value
As you move through your business and marketing core and elective courses, you will develop:
Skills to communicate data-driven, strategic insights and recommendations to senior leadership
Skills necessary to identify and ethically solve problems in marketing
An ability to navigate the complexities of marketing problems in the dynamic market environments of for-profit and non-profit organizations locally and globally
An ability to apply data-driven decisions to address marketing problems and develop effective marketing strategies to sustain an organization
Command of the primary marketing content areas, including the marketing environment, segmentation, targeting, positioning, and socially responsible marketing
Students must complete the University’s Integrative Core Curriculum in addition to the Boler Core Curriculum. In completing the Integrative Core Curriculum, Boler College of Business students must take PL311 (Business Ethics) as one of the choices in the category of Jesuit Heritage.
Provides coverage of consumer behavior theories, frameworks, concepts, and tools to understand consumers and uncover insights relevant for business and policy. Students learn to generate original consumer insights to create real-world marketing recommendations. Topics drawn from psychology, social psychology, sociology, cultural anthropology, and behavioral economics. Offered spring semester only; should be taken in junior year. Prerequisite: MK 301 or MK 3301.
Course Code
MK 3309
Course Description
Explores the many opportunities for, and challenges of, engaging with customers through the ever-changing technological and economic environment. Emphasizes examining and using various digital methods, platforms, and tools in developing social media platforms and tools in developing and implementing strategic “inbound” marketing initiatives that are designed for engaging and collaborating with users. Should be taken in junior year. Prerequisite: MK 301 or MK 3301. Offered spring semester only; should be taken in junior year.
Course Code
MK 3381
Course Description
3 cr. Examines the implications of digital data for businesses and consumers. Focuses on analytics behind planning and evaluating digital marketing efforts. Topics include website analytics, organic search analytics, digital advertising analytics, social media analytics, translating analytical insights in actions, and marketing automation. Offered fall semester only; should be taken in senior year. 3 cr. Prerequisite: MK 301 or MK 3301.
Course Code
MK 4495
Course Description
Capstone marketing course in which students work with outside organizations to learn value co-creation strategies with stakeholders as a means for managing and growing an organization. A normative framework for justice in marketing provides a holistic perspective for developing leadership skills as marketers. Offered spring semester only; should be taken in senior year. Prerequisites or corequisites: MK 302 or MK 3302 and MK 309 or MK 3309 and MK 402 or MK 4402.
Students must take 24 major credits including all courses in the ‘Major Courses’ table along with a minimum of 3 courses from the Supplementary Courses table.
Supplementary Courses
Course Code
Course Name
Course Code
MK 3341
Course Description
Presents an integrated brand promotion (IBP) approach to advertising. IBP involves coordinating all promotional activities, including direct marketing, advertising, sales promotion, personal selling, public relations, publicity, and branded entertainment to create widespread brand exposure. Message development, placement, and timing are examined within the context of the role each type of promotion plays in marketing strategy development. Prerequisite: MK 301 or MK 3301. Offered: Fall semester only.
Course Code
MK 3361
Course Description
Provides a fundamental understanding of international marketing. Analyzes the scope, opportunities, and challenges associated with marketing across international borders, with a particular emphasis on non-western countries. Prerequisite: MK 301 or MK 3301.
Course Code
MK 3362
Course Description
Frames the Boler Belize Project, which focuses on developing social innovation and entrepreneurial skills. Students learn about international entrepreneurship in poverty conditions, how to apply a microenterprise business model framework in international settings, and how to analyze the economic, social and cultural milieu of an impoverished country. Includes an optional trip to Belize during spring break. Offered: Spring semester only.
Course Code
MK 3370
Course Description
A project-oriented course that focuses on applied knowledge in the production of meaning using visual communications to solve marketing problems. Students learn to develop, refine, and execute visual communication strategies, including creative concept generation, integrated multimedia, typography, informational graphics, copywriting, layout design and brand semiotics. Prerequisite: MK 301 or MK 3301.
Course Code
MK 3382
Course Description
An in-depth focus on advanced business intelligence (BI) and “power query” tools as they are used in the process of translating data into information and insights. Hands-on classroom work and assignments using BI software provide a learning tool to better understand data access, retrieval, preparation, summarization, and reporting. Data sets enhance a business (and often marketing) context to the concepts and analyses. Prerequisite: BI 200 or BI 2200, EC 210 or EC 2210 (or other comparable statistics class). Restricted to Marketing majors only.
Course Code
MK 4405
Course Description
Study of contemporary issues in marketing not covered in depth in other department courses. Specific topic, method of presentation, and requirements designated by the seminar leader. Prerequisite: MK 301 or MK 3301 or as announced.
Course Code
MK 4498
Course Description
Research project supervised by a member of the department willing to act as advisor. The student selects an aspect of marketing, establishes goals, and develops a plan of study. The plan must be approved by the chair and filed with the dean’s office. Consult the chair for department guidelines established for such study.Prerequisite: Marketing major, overall GPA of 3.0 or higher, and permission of Department Chair and faculty member.
Course Code
MOL 3325
Course Description
Introduction to managing people and teams in organizations. Basic concepts in the behavioral sciences, behavioral principles of management, and applying this information to organizational life. Topics may include contributions of important theories, management functions, motivation, leadership, attitudes, group dynamics, global management behavior, and organizational change. Prerequisite: MHR 301 or MHR 3301 (may also be taken concurrently) or MHR 352 or MHR 3352.
Course Code
SCM 3328
Course Description
Analysis of business supply chain functions such as transportation, warehousing, inventory management, ordering, and customer satisfaction, with emphasis on interactions between these functions. Focus on problem solving with analytic tools. Prerequisite or corequisite: SCM 301 or SCM 3301 or permission of instructor.
Course Code
MOL 4495
Course Description
Study special issues and advanced management and organizational leadership topics. Topics include employee well-being, diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, people analytics, employment law, organizational development, leadership, ethics, sustainability, and other trends in management and organizational leadership. Students research a topic of choice. Prerequisites or corequisites: MHR 376 or MOL 3376, MHR 453 or MOL 4453, MHR 470 or MOL 4470, Senior standing, or permission of Department Chair.
Course Code
SCM 4440
Course Description
The design and implementation of supply chains to maximize their effectiveness and efficiency. Focus on the analysis and design activities of the supply chain development process and introduction to system implementation and maintenance issues. Prerequisites: BI 200 or BI 2200 and SCM 328 or SCM 3328 and one of (SCM 330 or SCM 3330, SCM 350 or SCM 3350, or SCM 361 or SCM 3361.
Course Code
IB 4495
Course Description
The capstone course of the IBLC major. Students are confronted with a series of problems that they solve initially for a company in the U.S., and then for a company abroad. Emphasis is on how the solutions need to change as a function of culture. Should be taken in the spring semester of senior year. Prerequisite: IB 3301 or IB 301.
*Students must choose between MOL 3325 OR SCM 3328.
MK 4402 and MK 4495 are to be taken in the senior year. (MK 4402 is Fall Only and MK 4495 is Spring Only).
Professional Experience:
Majors must have relevant professional work or volunteer experience prior to graduation. This requirement must be satisfied by competing Boler Professional Development (BPD) 4490.
Recent Placements
B_inspired | Digital Marketing Agency by Boler Students
B_inspired is a digital marketing agency powered by the students of Boler College of Business, John Carroll University.
B_inspired is a digital marketing agency powered by students from John Carroll University. The team of student consultants works under the guidance of faculty members to help clients strengthen and optimize their online presence, customer engagement, and business outcomes.
We encourage every Boler student to earn Bloomberg Certification. By completing the (free) self-paced Bloomberg Market Concepts (BMC) e-learning course, you gain a credential that tells employers you have a firm grasp of the gold standard financial markets data platform.