Market Research and Analytics

Organizations are created through the process of communication, whether in the form of verbal agreements, written policies or enacted behaviors. As a result, organizational communication is highly interdisciplinary. It is inextricably linked to management, sociology, psychology and organizational behavior.

Managing Communication is about the process of understanding the systems, structures and processes that are integral to creating and maintaining organizations. This survey course will work through a model of organizational design to touch on a wide variety of the macro-level areas of the field of organizational communication, including the organizational structure, partnerships, networks, teams, culture and reward systems.

An understanding of research methods is essential to successfully navigate the current professional business world. In this course we consider research from both a qualitative and quantitative perspective.

The course is designed around the principle that the best way to learn is via doing. Each week students apply the instructional materials to a range of problems simulating real-world scenarios. The course presents a range of methodological approaches, and multiple opportunities are provided to tailor the assignments to student personal interests.

More and more organizations find they have to be much more strategic in their communication with their stakeholders. No more can a company or a nonprofit focus on its key messages at the expense of stakeholder perception. This class simulates the issues and stakeholders a U.S. publicly held company has to deal with on a regular basis. The class members play the role of the chief communication officer and create data-based strategic communication plans. Students work both on group and individual assignments throughout the semester.

Understanding of fundamental methodological issues about big data: types, platforms, tools, analysis techniques, and relevant theoretical frameworks.

In an increasingly saturated digital environment, with shifting patterns of media consumption and new modes of communication, today’s marketing and communication practitioners must possess an understanding of these forces and be able to apply communication constructs in new and innovative ways.

This course is designed to provide students with critical perspectives about new media technologies, social marketing communication and consumer behaviors online. In addition to evaluating theories and observing brand interactions online, students are provided with opportunities to gain practical, hands-on experience in creating online elements as part of digital marketing campaigns.

Throughout this course, you will learn how to think critically about research by asking good questions and applying rigorous methods and models to data. You will also practice using research to answer business questions. As industries become increasingly competitive, organizations are relying more and more on data to make more informed decisions. This reality requires individuals who understand not only how to interpret data, but how research can be designed to optimize the quality of research findings.

This course has been designed to provide you with grounding in the overall process of research design, to build your competence as a communicator of complex research findings, as well as to help you gain practical skills in some of the most common research methods.You will have the opportunity to learn course concepts through the development of a marketing research project for a client. Throughout the semester you will work with a team and use research to answer your client’s questions and provide recommendations. The final product will be presented to your clients.

Engage the theory and practice of social influence processes used every day to inform, change people’s attitudes, change behavioral intentions, change behaviors, and/or change beliefs and norms. This course reviews traditional social psychological communication theories as well as current trends such as viral advertising, word of mouth, “influencer” campaigns, uses of social media, games (both “serious games” and “alternative reality games”) and transmedia narratives. Students will learn how to be effective in persuading an audience, understand why audiences respond to messages the way they do as well as the underlying processes or theories that explain success and failure in a persuasion campaign.

In this course you will engage in detailed research-orientated examination of a topic. Topic selection is guided via a discussion with your instructor to design an achievable research goal that fulfills the goals of the program and your goals as an individual.

This course serves as the capstone experience of the program and as such is oriented to allow you to produce your best work while demonstrating what you have learned in the program. Due to the individually tailored and student-oriented research projects, each student engages in very different work, which results in very different final deliverables.