College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of Pennsylvania
• New York University
• Vanderbilt University
• Georgetown University
• University of Notre Dame

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of Michigan—Ann Arbor
• University of Texas—Austin
• Indiana University—Bloomington
• University of California—Berkeley
• University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill

Classes in the Major

Advertising. Since a lot of marketing students head off into the world of advertising and marketing, it's important for them to know the basics. These courses will ask you to explore different techniques in branding and selling. There are many different forms of advertising—print, digital, commercial—and you'll take a look at which concepts are best used in each. Ways to interact with different users will be covered too. You'll most likely have to choose some courses on successful (and not-so-successful) ad campaigns to see what works. There's a fine line between a jingle being catchy, and driving people mad with how firmly it becomes lodged in their heads.

Retail Marketing. Have you ever noticed that most prices in stores end in .99? Products are always $3.99 or $29.99 instead of being $4 or $30. Why? It's only a penny different. That's because studies show that our brains interpret that price—even though it's only a cent lower—as much lower than the higher price. It gets put in a category in our brains more similar to $3 and $20 instead of the higher price. Pretty tricky, right? Strategies like this are covered in retail marketing courses. You'll go over pricing and costs, and figure out the best way to market to your target demographic. You wouldn't use the same techniques on a grandma as you would on a kid. Retail marketing courses will show you the small yet significant differences between grandmothers and small children.

Visual Communication. Did you know that villains are lit from below to make them seem more evil? Or that when things move from right to left, it seems like a difficult journey? In your visual communication courses, you'll go over these tidbits and much more. A lot of the way we communicate with one another through images relies on perceptions and perspectives—ours, culture's, history's, you name it. These courses will teach you all about Lester's 6 major perspectives as well as the ideas behind graphicacy and gestalt. Marketing might be about selling a product, but it's also about figuring out what speaks to a consumer. These courses teach you how to talk through images.

International Business. Have you ever noticed they drive on the other side of the road in England? Or that some cultures bow before greeting people? It's easy to pick up on these cultural differences when you're traveling, but not all businesses know them intuitively. Sleeping at your desk is acceptable in Japanese culture, but would be seen as very inappropriate around these parts. International business courses will give you tips on how to interact with people across the globe, while also teaching you about the different laws and markets available elsewhere. Thinking about a global brand is a must, and these courses will help you get there. Plus, you'll learn not to put your foot in your mouth when marketing overseas. Unless that is the custom there.

Psychology. Studying psychology can help you with subliminal advertising and getting into people's heads. But really, it's kind of hard to fully understand how people will respond to products and large-scale companies if you don't know how they respond in social groups, or what their deepest, darkest personal desires are. (To own every single Apple product that is released, no matter how frivolous.) Psychology and marketing are interrelated, because at the end of the day, you've got to understand people to get them to buy stuff.

Once you study how people behave and respond, it makes your job as a marketing major a whole lot easier. Although, we still can't interpret people's dreams. Over to you, Freud.