Master of Science in Marketing Communication Management Online

Strategy is the heart and soul of any business. The essence of business strategy is to understand your organization's uniqueness and order-winning criteria. This course will focus on how classic strategy paradigms such as differentiation; brand creation; core competency expertise; speed to market; value migration and leadership in the areas of cost reduction, technology and innovation are linked to a sustained competitive advantage. In addition, the course will examine how changes in the competitive landscape such as globalization, the rapid diffusion of technology, excess capacity, shifting marketplace demographics, increasing cost transparencies, the erosion of pricing power and the commoditization and unbundling of products/services; are creating both problems and unique opportunities. Utilizing lectures, assigned readings, small group projects, case studies and a business simulation, the students will become proficient at business strategy analysis, creation and implementation within an ethical framework.

Communication is crucial to the success of all leaders, but as you climb within an organization the ability to write and speak effectively is magnified. One needs to be able to talk, write and present effectively to a diverse group of stakeholders, such as customers, supervisors, subordinates, peers, buyers, etc. And while business leaders have marketing strategies, expansion strategies, finance strategies, even exit strategies, successful leaders also have communication strategies. This course explores how individuals can develop and execute effective communication strategies for a variety of business settings. The course emphasizes the essentials of developing personal communication skills, inclusive of persuasive verbal and written communication, influence mapping, and communicating for buy-in. Students study audience analysis, communicator credibility, message construction and delivery, and are given the opportunity to learn best practices in presentation skills, particularly important for those wishing to pursue entrepreneurial interests. Globalization confronts almost every aspect of business from recruiting and managing a diverse staff to providing products and services, which cross language, time, and cultural barriers. This course delves into the two areas impacting a leader’s success in the global arena: technology and culture.

This course focuses on the critical role that public relations and public relations professionals play as strategic thinkers and business partners in driving organizational strategies and marketing goals. The course provides a structural and practical framework for understanding and effectively employing contemporary public relations, and investigates the challenges of communication and problem-solving across a range of organizations and cross-cultural settings. Trends affecting public relations globally are explored and the integration of marketing and public relations with internal communications is stressed to ensure consistent organizational support and image. Students will engage in critical analysis and discussion of public relations case studies with emphasis on applying course principles in their evaluation. Major topics include, but are not limited to, public relations role in the marketing communications mix, traditional public relations activities, today’s public relations activities, proactive public relations techniques, developing and executing a Public Relations Plan, and case studies, best practices and current events. Refer to college catalog for complete course description.

Marketing activity is the engine that creates value in a business. It provides the focus for interfacing with customers, and is the database for knowledge about customers, consumers and competitors. Marketing focuses on both the achievement of short-term sales as well as the long-term relationship of a company to its customers, thus its critical role to the generation of revenue and profit for a firm. This course emphasizes the role of marketing in creating value for customers, which in turn creates value for owners, shareholders and employees. The course teaches what business managers need to know to create strategies that achieve competitive advantage for products and services. Topics taught in this course include (but are not limited to) analyzing market opportunities, competitive analysis, customer relationship management (CRM), customer decision-making, value of brand, product/service management, segmentation and target selection, product positioning, customer acquisition and retention, and social media leverage. At the conclusion of the course, students will understand (a) how companies create, capture and sustain competitive advantage in the marketplace, (b) the sources of value in product/service offerings and how they evolve over time, (c) the role of technology, operations and distribution in delivering value, and (d) effective responses to preempt, deter or effectively counter competitive moves.

This course examines the economic, legal, fiscal, political, epidemiological and evolving global factors that influence health care delivery systems. Inter-professional health communication, collaboration, and the utilization of health information technology in promoting public health are explored. The impact of innovation as a driver of health care change is emphasized. Important components include access and utilization, sociopolitical advocacy, community engagement, and empowerment for safe, quality health services. Ethical and legal implications of health care decisions and the responsibility of creating a caring environment will also be examined. The course covers current challenges faced by the U.S. health care delivery system and how health policy, both historically and today with the Affordable Health Care Act has sought to address these challenges. Finally, the future of health care delivery in the U.S. and health policy will be explored. By the end of this course, students should be able to (a) discuss issues of media law and ethics critically, including contract law, intellectual property and advertising law, (b) to find and use legal materials, (c) to spot issues of media law and ethics when faced with common situations as a marketer, (d) develop an ethical basis for making marketing decisions, (e) understand the historical, theoretical, legal and societal contexts within which marketing practitioners work.

Social media has played a large part in changing business communications. With the creation of new tools and channels more people are publishing and contributing to online conversations. The mass adoption of social tools has led to varying types of interactions and the maintenance of online relationships; both personal and commercial. As the traditional online audience has morphed into the content creator, businesses must contend with consumers creating, altering and even enhancing their marketing efforts. This course, in contrast to the tactically-oriented elective course, explores the strategic implications, challenges and opportunities offered by the world of social media. The objective of this course is for students to learn how varying sets of social media tools work together as an integrated system and actively apply these concepts to their own present and prospective professional circumstances. Through the use of presentations, discussions and dialogues, assigned readings, case studies, and student projects the students explore implications of social media and integration of the knowledge and skills around social media to apply them in a business setting. Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to integrate their understanding of social media and its respective dimensions in business marketing challenges and will have mastered the pervasive impact that social media has on business marketing.

The Capstone Seminar is the culminating experience in Manhattanville's graduate business programs. Students in their last semester from different business disciplines participate in the same class, allowing students to see how their discipline fits in with others in a business organization. The Capstone Seminar emphasizes research and writing in a business context.

This class provides a comprehensive overview of project management. Students learn how to effectively plan, manage, and control projects that encompass both individual and group efforts in business settings. Basic concepts and tools of project management, such as the work breakdown structure, scheduling, creating milestones, Gantt charts, managing cost, and stakeholder considerations are introduced. The course will include a series of discussion on each of the core knowledge areas and process groups associated with the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Students will also learn more about the social side of project management, including team building, managing virtual teams and developing and implementing effective project communications. In addition, this class draws upon concepts, models, tools and technologies associated with formal project management methodology, including MS Project and the emergence of social networking and learning tools. Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to integrate the technical and soft skill sides of project management to prioritize goals, write a project charter, create a work breakdown structure, establish reliable project budgets and schedules, implement project tracking techniques, manage teams, and create effective strategies to control the project budget, schedule, and quality.

Nothing is more central to a business than the products and/or services it sells. And, for the majority of businesses, whether small entrepreneurial firms or large established companies, this mandates growth and innovation. The business leader must now be an innovator, ever more important given the rapid evolution in products and business models. Yet, the strategies and processes used to determine which products to make, how to make them or where to get them, and how to bring them to market are not well understood by many firms. Generating Growth and Innovation confronts head on the challenges from the cultural, processes and growth perspective, and helps frame innovation and growth for managers and business leaders from the following perspectives.

This course focuses on strategic and creative management of brands. It examines how innovative managers create brands that connect with customers by studying customer lifestyles, tapping into cultural meanings, managing customer experiences, and executing brand strategies, including brand naming and visual identity to advertising, new media, retail, packaging, product innovation and service. Topics will include: how companies create, capture and sustain competitive advantage through branding and brand equity; the branding process and building a customer relationship; brand building through customer networks; brand valuation and analytics; brand architecture, including building a global brand and brand extensions; brand research and measurement; how to survive a brand crisis; roles and responsibilities of brand managers Class will combine case studies, practical management tools, industry speaker perspectives, and small group exercises. Upon successful completion of this course, students are expected to have learned the following: the creative and strategic nature of branding, the practical frameworks for managing a brand and experience project, and tools for implementing a brand strategy in visual identity, communications, and new media. Students are evaluated for their ability to master new concepts, think strategically, and generate truly creative solutions to everyday branding challenges. Refer to college catalog for full course description.

This course explores the role, structure and operation of the corporate communications function within the organization. Students will analyze business models and strategies to determine the most effective corporate communications structure for a given business or organization. They will learn to staff the function through the filter of required competencies, corporate culture, resources, and strategic business objectives, as well as how to select and obtain quality work from external vendors. Students will also become familiar with the major corporate communications activities and how functional roles can be integrated to form a seamless internal and external voice for the organization. Emphasis will be placed on developing and managing the budget against committed activities and maximizing the resources available to achieve objectives. Students will learn to manage communications teams and projects, and will study the traits of high-performance corporate communications organizations through case studies. In order to generate and demonstrate the value of communications and Public Relations to senior management, students will learn how to measure and evaluate communications programs. Refer to college catalog for full course description.

Using a variety of digital channels to understand the customer's journey, marketing analytics is about leveraging insight from data to make more efficient and effective decisions, so that marketing dollars are not wasted and adjustments to campaigns can be made quickly. In order to fully accomplish this, marketers need to understand the tools that focus on customer behavior, customer intelligence, marketing optimization and data visualization.