A bachelor degree in
marketing is probably
one of the oddest
degrees you're going to
earn. Marketing is one
of those things that
takes quite a few skills
and yet doesn't really
fall into any one
category. You really
have to be able to do
quite a few things very
well. That's why the
curriculum for a
marketing degree is
quite diverse.
In order to get your
bachelor degree in
marketing you have to
take your main marketing
courses, which in most
colleges are simply
called marketing 1
through marketing 4.
Each course usually
takes two semesters. The
marketing courses
themselves usually teach
the principals of
advertising. They'll
walk you through
developing a product and
then developing an
advertising campaign for
that product. This
usually comes in year
four, where you will
also have to do a major
research paper on an
established company and
how they market their
products. The analysis
gets pretty in depth.
But there is more to a
bachelor degree in
marketing than just
taking marketing
courses. As I said, many
skills are needed to be
a good marketer. You
also need to be in
possession of some
pretty good writing
skills. So a bachelor
degree in marketing will
usually require you to
take quite a few English
related courses
including creative
writing. This is
absolutely critical if
you're going to be a
good marketer.
Marketing also requires
that a person have a
pretty good business
background as marketing
is a good part of
business. So, a bachelor
degree in marketing will
usually also require you
to take several basic
courses in business such
as economics and
finance. You might even
take some business
management courses.
As most students take 32
courses in the course of
their four years in
college, the above alone
only takes up a small
fraction of the
curriculum. You have to
figure four marketing 8
marketing courses, 4
business courses and 4
English courses. This
still leaves the average
marketing major with 16
courses left to take in
his four-year program.
How does he fill these
in?
Well, as with most
bachelor programs, there
are a number of
"elective" courses that
you can take. In the
case of getting your
bachelor degree in
marketing, you'd
probably want to take a
course or two in
psychology. Why? It's
probably a good idea to
get a basic
understanding of how
people behave if you're
going to try to come up
with a marketing plan or
advertising campaign
that is going to appeal
to most people.
It may not be a bad idea
also to take some
courses in basic math.
Why? Well, you're going
to have to figure out
advertising budgets and
may need to be able to
do some simple
percentages. If you've
forgotten this stuff
from high school, you
may want at least to
take a refresher course.
A marketer who can't add
is not a good thing to
be.
After you finally do get
your bachelor degree in
marketing, there are a
world of opportunities
open to the creative
mind. Get ready for a
very exciting life.