THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA GRADUATE CATALOG
Table of Contents > Manderson Graduate School of Business
7.6.12 MARKETING (MKT)
Head: Professor Robert M. Morgan, Office: 104 Alston Hall
 
MKT 300 or its equivalent is a prerequisite for all 400-level courses; MKT 518 or its equivalent is a prerequisite for all 500- and 600-level courses.
 
MKT 410 Product Development. Three hours.
This course has been designed to introduce students to the processes and tools of new product development. Skills learned in the course can be applied in a large or a small company or an entrepreneurial context. Topics include the role of new products in the organization, analysis of market opportunities, creative idea generation, concept screening, design, forecasting, manufacturing, and launch. A group project provides real-world product development experience.

MKT 411 Supply Chain Management. Three hours.
This course examines the role of intermediaries in channel strategies and the scope, methods, problems, and opportunities of implementing distribution strategies. Topics include pricing, costing, contracting, negotiating, and inter-organization management.

MKT 422 Distribution Management. Three hours.
Logistics, or supply chain management, is a system-based concept requiring the effective coordination of the flow of materials and goods from their points of origin to their end users. This course explores the key marketing tasks necessary to achieve an efficient logistics network: transportation, warehousing and materials handling, inventory management, forecasting, information and order processing, and simulation/modeling.

MKT 427 Business-to-Business Marketing. Three hours.
Business-to-business marketing involves effective selling of items like computers, office supplies, machinery, biochemicals, plastics, steel, packaging, pollution-control equipment, and transportation services to business and organizational markets. To familiarize students with the technologies, problems, opportunities, and strategies of business-to-business marketing, this course combines lectures, case and company discussions, guests, and projects. The course is for students interested in industrial sales, purchasing, and marketing management.

MKT 444 Promotional Management. Three hours.
Intensive investigation of underlying ideas, principles, and concepts that may be used to inform consumers of the availability and attributes of products and services. The course includes a comprehensive overview of promotional and sales management activities and tactics.

MKT 446 Measuring Marketing Effectiveness. Three hours.
Analytical tools and techniques used to manage marketing activities are examined, with emphasis on the factors underlying differences in marketing efficiency and effectiveness. The following activities and measurements are examined: natural versus functional accounts; contribution and segmental analysis; planning, budgeting, and controlling marketing operations; monitoring product/customer market performance; developing standard costs and modular databases; direct product profitability (DPP); and financial measurement techniques such as ROI, RONW, net present value, forward buys, and inventory carry costs.

MKT 455 International Marketing. Three hours.
An examination of the various political, economic, legal, and cultural systems and their effects on the global marketing of products and services, with particular focus on product, promotion, pricing, and distribution decisions.

MKT 460 Export/Import Management (same as IBA 460). Three hours.
The course includes a thorough examination of export/import management processes, and highlights the importance of management in international business strategy.

MKT 473 Marketing Research. Three hours.
Prerequisite: ST 260.
The application of research techniques and procedures for measuring market opportunities. Specific attention, in addition to descriptive analysis, is given to techniques of and criteria for the identification and selection of market segments.

MKT 487 Strategic Marketing. Three hours.
Prerequisites: Senior standing, MKT 313, and MKT 473 (general management majors may substitute MGT 319 for MKT 473).
Analysis of marketing problems as related to the managerial functions of planning, organizing, and controlling marketing operations.

MKT 488 Client-Based Projects in Marketing. Three hours
Prerequisite: 2.5 GPA
This course is devoted to the completion of real-world marketing projects for specific profit and not-for-profit clients. Project teams are comprised of a combination of graduate (MKT 581) and undergraduate (MKT 488) students. The scope of each project is determined by the needs of the client, but it typically is based in decision-making insights from marketing research and involves one or more of such marketing-oriented tasks as: (a) market segmentation and target marketing activities associated with a proposed new product, service, or strategic initiative; (b) evaluating the potential competitive advantage of a strategic or tactical move by the firm; (c) creation of and implementation of a plan for research, promotion, launch, pricing, and/or distribution for some aspect of the firm's business. Course emphasis is on marketing analysis, project management, client relationship building/maintenance skills, communications, decision making, and leadership.

MKT 491 Independent Study. Three hours.

MKT 492 Internship. Three hours.
Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing and a 2.5 or higher grade point average.
Students are selected competitively for assignments in approved business or public-sector organizations. The internship is administered through the College's Office of Student Services.

MKT 493 Special Topics in Marketing. Three hours.
The courses offer the faculty a chance to present material of interest to themselves and to marketing students.

MKT 510 Product Design and Management. Three hours.
An intensive investigation of the process of new product development, including its role in the organization, analysis of market opportunities, creative idea generation, concept screening, design, forecasting, manufacturing, and launch. Teaching emphasis is on processes, tools, and techniques. A group project provides real-world product development experience.

MKT 511 Supply Chain Management. Three hours.
Prerequisite: MKT 518 or equivalent.
MKT 511 is a graduate (master's) level counterpart to MKT 411 Supply Chain Management. Its focus is on providing a managerial perspective of best practice supply chain management. The course encompasses the collaborative strategies and planning processes needed to build and manage supply chains for systemic effectiveness and efficiency. It will be offered coterminously with MKT 411 during each spring semester. The target students for MKT 511 are M.B.A.'s with marketing concentrations and master of arts (M.A.) and master of science (M.S.C.) students in marketing. Graduate students in other degree programs may also enroll as an elective for graduate credit.

MKT 518 Survey of Marketing. Three hours.
Prerequisite: Admission to the M.B.A. program.
A combination of lectures and cases is used to examine and analyze the marketing process. Emphasis is on decision making: the refinement of skills needed to recognize and solve marketing problems, and to effectively communicate recommendations both within and without the organization. The following components of the marketing mix are examined: product management, pricing, promotion, personal selling, buyer behavior, marketing channels, distribution, and segmentation.
 
MKT 519 Survey of Marketing. Three hours.
Same as MKT 518 for non-MBA students.

MKT 521 Seminar in Retailing Management. Three hours.
A critical, decision-oriented seminar on the issues involved in retailing management. The focus is on current readings, case analyses, and guest speakers.

MKT 522 Strategic Logistics Management. Three hours.
Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.
A study of the role of logistics in national and multinational business. Logistics-system elements and their interrelationships are reviewed, including trade-offs. A variety of analytical tools and techniques for solving logistical problems is presented, and the use of customer service to achieve differential advantage in the marketplace is explored. Students use case analyses, actual industry studies, and computer simulations to create practical solutions.

MKT 528 (M.B.A.) Measuring Marketing Effectiveness. Three hours.
Prerequisite: Proficiency in LOTUS 1–2-3 or its equivalent.
Tools and techniques of managing and measuring marketing activities are examined. Topics include contribution and segmental analysis; planning, budgeting, and controlling components in the marketing mix; monitoring product/customer market performance; developing analytical databases; and financial measurement techniques such as ROI, net present value, forward buying, and inventory carrying costs. Students use a computer-based decision support system (DSS) to analyze many concepts taught in this course.

MKT 530 Advanced Marketing Analysis. Three hours.
This course for Master of Science in Marketing and second-year M.B.A. students concerns the generation of marketing research results to help make marketing decisions. The course is designed to complement and build on the skills acquired in Marketing 518, the Survey of Marketing course. The core of Marketing 530 is decision-relevant data—planning its acquisition, getting it from a variety of internal, secondary, and primary sources, analyzing it, and using it as the basis of decisions. The course also provides students with marketing analytics-centered skills (ANOVA, regression, factor, and cluster analysis). Knowledge developed in the courses can be applied in the fields of market management, product management, and project management. This course also helps prepare students to successfully complete team-based projects (Marketing 581) in the spring semester.

MKT 531 Services Marketing. Three hours.
An examination of how service firms achieve and maintain marketing excellence.

MKT 538 Sales Management. Three hours.
The purpose of the course is to familiarize students with the problems and tasks faced by sales managers, to present principles and applications of effective sales management, and to develop students' ability to critically analyze and provide solutions to problems of sales management.

MKT 544 Promotional Strategy Management. Three hours.
An analysis of the promotion mix and how it can be utilized to achieve managerial objectives.

MKT 555 Global Marketing Management (same as IBA 555). Three hours.
The objective of this course is to investigate the effects of cultural similarities and differences on marketing practices worldwide. Also examined are the effects of market idiosyncrasies on globally oriented product, promotion, pricing, and distribution strategies.

MKT 581 Project Management in Marketing. Three hours.
Prerequisite: MKT 530.
This course is devoted entirely to the completion of real-world marketing projects for specific organizational clients. Teams are created based on skills and interests as well as the needs of the clients. The scope of each project is determined by the needs of the client, but it typically is based in decision-making insights from marketing research and involves one or more of such marketing-oriented tasks as:
market segmentation and target marketing activities associated with a proposed new product, service, or strategic initiative;
the gathering and application of marketing research pertinent to an important GO/NO GO decision by the firm;
gauging specific reaction from the potential customer market regarding a proposed new initiative by the client;
evaluating the potential competitive advantage of a strategic or tactical move by the firm;
creation of and implementation of a plan for research, promotion, launch, pricing, and/or distribution for some aspect of the firm’s business.
This course is unique. It allows students to use the skills and knowledge that they have acquired in graduate marketing courses as well as build new skills in marketing analysis, project management, client relationship building/maintenance skills, communications, decision-making, and leadership.

MKT 591 Independent Study in Marketing. Three hours.

MKT 592 Internship in Marketing. Three hours.

MKT 597 Special Topics in Marketing. Variable credit.

MKT 598 Research Methods I. Three hours.
A course that provides the student with an understanding of the principles, tools, and techniques of research in the fields of human resources management and marketing.

MKT 599 Thesis Supervision. Variable credit.

MKT 613 Behavioral Theory and Qualitative Methodology. Three hours.
This course focuses on the use of qualitative methodology as a way to ground theory, in combination with a focus on the application of consumer psychological and behavioral topics in such contexts as services, retailing, shopping, and relationship marketing. Offered spring semester, every other year.

MKT 627 Inter-Organizational Systems. Three hours.
An examination of inter-organizational distribution systems stressing the evolution of channel theory. Theoretical explanations of structural dynamics and the analysis of channel behavioral constructs (e.g., channel power, conflict, and leadership) are stressed. Offered every other year.

MKT 661 History of Marketing Thought. Three hours.
The study of the development of marketing ideas, concepts, and theories from 1900 to the present. The influence and contribution of individuals to marketing concepts will be stressed. Offered according to demand.

MKT 674 Measurement and Structural Equation Modeling. Three hours.
Prerequisite: ST 550.
A course that covers measurement theory and how it is applied in scientific research. Students learn to construct effective questionnaires, to develop psychometrically-sound measures of constructs, and to assess measure reliability and validity. Quantitative methods, including exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling, are emphasized. Offered fall semester.

MKT 679 Theory Development and Testing (same as MGT 679). Three hours.
Prerequisites: MKT 674, ST 550, and ST 551.
The course presents the causal models approach to theory construction. Emphasis is given to integrating verbal approaches to theory building with the construction of simultaneous equation mathematical models with causal interpretations. Offered fall semester.

MKT 685 Theory of Market Development. Three hours.
Prerequisite: MKT 518 or equivalent.
A study of the spatial and temporal dimensions of marketing activity, including a study of the location and development of markets, extent and shape of market areas, models of the location process, consumer spatial behavior, and probabilistic choice modeling.

MKT 688 Survey of Marketing Topics. Three hours.
Prerequisites: MKT 518.
This course surveys several marketing topics. These include some data analysis tools, such as discriminant analysis, cluster analysis, perceptual mapping, and conjoint analysis; an introduction to some substantitive topics, such as segmentation, new product diffusion, supply chain management, and attitude-to-the-ad; plus a brief overview of some selected marketing modeling topics. Offered fall semester, every other year.

MKT 690 Behavioral Theory and Methodology. Three hours.
This course begins with an examination of theory and theory development. It then follows with a consideration of various methodological approaches, with a heavy focus on experimental design. Finally, throughout, substantive behavioral and marketing topics are considered in detail, including attitudes and persuasion, advertising and branding effects, judgment and decision making, and the role of affect and emotions. Offered fall semester, every other year.

MKT 691 Graduate Seminars in Marketing: Marketing Strategy. Three hours.
Prerequisite: MKT 518 or equivalent.
Through the reading of this course, we will explore in depth several specific areas that are informed by strategic marketing thought. We will not only trace the development of theory in marketing strategy, but chart several courses for future research.

MKT 698 Research in Marketing. Three hours.

MKT 699 Dissertation Supervision. Variable credit. Three-hour minimum.

THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA GRADUATE CATALOG

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Update: Sep. 2007