Want a degree with vast employment opportunities? Every industry and most organizations rely on marketing of some kind. Learn about buyer behavior, marketing strategies and research, global audiences, promotion, and so much more. Prepare to work at marketing firms and ad agencies, or double major to prepare for a marketing career within a niche industry you love. Apply what you learn in real-world settings and enhance your resume.
Each year, GU faculty select a top marketing major to receive the Watson Tidball Marketing Award worth $1,000. Criteria for selection include academic standing, character leadership, and service and support to GU.
Faith-based
With a firm foundation in Christ, you have the potential to influence the marketplace for good. Christ’s teaching to “love your neighbor” includes colleagues and clients in business. Learn how to meet customers’ needs and help organizations thrive.
Get out there
Go beyond the classroom to learn from sales teams and advertising agencies in St. Louis and Chicago.
Why GU
Solve real-world problems. Apply for GU’s Experience First program and you could help local businesses solve real-world marketing problems. Build your resume and earn class credit at the same time.
Expand your skill set. Increasingly, marketers need strong digital media experience. Complete coursework that blends these two disciplines and expand your capabilities and value.
Get experience. Work one-on-one with your advisor to find the perfect practicum experience or internship for your career goals. Advisors can help you identify practicum opportunities nearby, far away, within your hometown, or right on GU’s campus.
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Success Stories
I decided to come to GU because I love the community here. I'm so thankful for the countless real-world applications and experiences I had in my marketing major. It gave me a taste of it all and helped me truly realize what it was I wanted to do after graduation. The professors, leaders, and school served as a pressure cooker for mine and others' success. We don't just read or write about problems or experiences in the business world, we're handed them on a platter and told "go" in the safety-net of the classroom. That's pretty special.
The marketing major requires successful completion of 60 credits. This major leads to the bachelor of science degree.
Marketing, BS Courses
Nature and purpose of accounting; basic accounting concepts and procedures, double entry bookkeeping, methods of processing, summarizing and classifying financial data; balance sheets and income statements. (Offered every semester.)
What makes some for-profit businesses and not-for-profit organizations excel while other fail to thrive? Often its due to the quality of management within the organization. Management of people is a distinct skill set that is critically important and these skills can be studied, understood, and practiced. In this course, students will learn the elements of business management, the theory behind them and practical tools with which to apply them. Key topics such as communication, leadership, teamwork, conflict management, change and more will be covered. No matter where a person works or volunteers, they will be able to contribute to the success of any organization when they have a clear understanding of management theory and techniques. Meets the general education social science or business management requirement. (Offered every semester.)
A study of contracts, torts, agency, bailments, and property with emphasis on the social forces that have and will affect our legal rights and duties. (Offered spring semester.)
This course is about applying analytical theory of business decision making to provide products and service design, capacity planning, process and location selection, inventory and supply management, quality assurance and scheduling. These real-world management tools will heighten the comprehension of business applications and provide a competitive edge in school and beyond.
Prerequisite: BUSN101, ECON102, and MATH 105, MATH 106, MATH 111, MATH 113, MATH 115, or PSYC 202.
Offered: Fall semester.
This course examines how national and local managers explain the development of their careers with a particular emphasis on leadership development, ethics, and the integration of faith in their management practice. These, together with the course material and group projects, help students develop appropriate career skills. In addition to the weekly speaker summaries, students write a business case study, make microfinance loans to overseas entrepreneurs, and develop individual career plans, resumes, and job search skills.
Prerequisite: BUSN 101 and ENTR 130.
Throughout this course cases will be read, discussed, and critiqued. Critical thinking skills will be necessary to successfully and comprehensively address the strategic issues depicted in the cases. Companies will be researched and potential actions will be put forth for consideration in this writing intensive course. In addition to the case and text assignments, students will be asked to create a case addressing a current issue that an entity is facing. Meets the general education upper division writing intensive requirement.
This course explores digital media as an experimental cultural practice, with an emphasis on critical approaches to art and technology. Experiments in digital imaging, digital audio, digital video, and multi-media authoring will be conducted. Students will produce independent digital media production projects, individually and in groups. Course meetings include seminar-style discussion of reading and other materials, critiques of student work, tech workshops, production studios (session in which we brainstorm, research ideas, and work on projects), and screenings. (Offered every semester.)
This course delivers economics from individually focused, microeconomics to the infrastructure focused, macroeconomics. This semester will provide a foundation for both business and non-business majors. Meets the general education social science or business management requirement. Offered: Fall semester.
This introductory course examines business from an entrepreneurial perspective. It will provide students with an introduction to the potential and pitfalls of entrepreneurship and its impact on the economic development within a community. Throughout the course, students will examine the various methods for starting up, managing and financing a new business enterprise. This process will culminate in the development of a viable business plan. The overarching goal of this course is to familiarize the student with business terminology in order to introduce him or her to the business program at Greenville University. Meets the general education social science or business management requirement. Offered: Every semester.
This course is an experience and project based course designed to encourage hands on innovation. Students will gain insight into the roles and responsibilities of entrepreneurs in organizations both large and small. Students will also engage in a semester long project on campus or with local partners to enhance their understanding of innovation, strategic planning, implementation strategy, research and development, product design, product marketing, and market research.
Prerequisites: ACCT 101, BUSN 101, BUSN 222, ECON 102, ENTR 130, and MRKT 201. Offered: Every semester.
Marketing is not just about advertising or social media posts. Its a broad field encompassing all aspects of discovering customer consumer and organizational buyers wants and needs and then meeting them. Setting the mission and strategies, understanding buyer behavior, reaching global markets, researching market options, and making decisions concerning the 4 Ps of marketing product, price, place, promotion are all critical areas to understand. Knowing terms and concepts is not enough, however, so application opportunities are given throughout the course. No matter in what field or in what position a person finds themselves, marketing is a part of it. Offered: Every semester.
Open to advanced students in management and marketing. From various theoretical perspectives including psychology, anthropology, economics, marketing, and sociology, the student examines how consumers move through decision processes from awareness to trial and brand loyalty. The course emphasizes the forming of marketing plans that will coordinate well with these processes. Cross listed with PSYC 332. (Offered fall semester.)
Prerequisite: PSYC 101. Offered: Fall semester,
Sales. Salespersons. Selling. For most people, those words conjure up images of a cigar-smoking car salesman in a plaid jacket forcefully pushing a broken-down vehicle on an unsuspecting buyer. Or, perhaps, it makes one think of a painful time when they stood uncomfortably at a neighbors door trying to sell something wrapping paper, chocolates, cookies, flowers for an organization fundraising project. Why do sales get such a bad rap when its a critical skill for everyone? This course will allow students to discover the importance of sales to every organization, to understand sales is an excellent profession for Christians, to learn sales skills and to practice them.
Prerequisite: MRKT 201. (Offered spring semester of odd calendar years.)
Advertising communicates messages to groups of consumers. Students learn how to reach groups efficiently, to design messages to inform persuasively, and to choose the best media for a particular product and consumer. They will design advertising messages for print and broadcast, and learn to design and budget an overall ad campaign.
Prerequisite: MRKT 201. (Offered spring semester of even calendar years.) Course Fee $100.
Beginning with theory as taught in MRKT 201 and ECON 102, students deal with selected marketing cases and learn to apply their theoretical principles. Work is both individual and in groups and includes the creation and development of a new product.
Prerequisite: MRKT 201. (Offered fall semester.)
Each department offers a practicum or internship course numbered 405. In this course the student applies theories and skills learned in the major. Each experience should include significant learning opportunities related to the student's major field. Two supervisors are involved, a work supervisor and an academic supervisor. Registration must occur prior to the activity. Forty to sixty hours of work experience is required for each credit awarded. The experience may be paid or unpaid. Letter grades will be assigned unless otherwise stated in the departmental description. Students must consult with their academic supervisor at least twice during the experience. A learning experience summary paper following departmental guidelines is required as well as a final interview with the academic supervisor. A maximum of twelve credits may be applied to the degree. Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing with a 2.0 G.P.A., 18 semester credits completed in the field and departmental approval.
Advances in biology have pushed the development of statistical methods and depended on those methods for decades. Biostatistics focuses on three core areas: 1) general statistical concepts; 2) correct use and interpretation of statistical methods commonly used in biological sciences; and 3) basic familiarity with the R statistical software language, which has become an important tool in dealing with many kinds of data, including genetic data. Meets the general education quantitative reasoning requirement.
Prerequisite: MATH106. (Offered spring semester.)
Course content focuses upon basic concepts and operations in descriptive and inferential statistics. The areas of study will include measures of central tendency and dispersion, probability, correlation and regression analysis, parametric (t-tests and ANOVA) and non-parametric (chi-square) tests of significance. A basic introduction to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software is provided. Cross listed with SCWK 202. Meets the general education quantitative reasoning requirement.
Course content focuses upon basic concepts and operations in descriptive and inferential statistics. The areas of study will include measures of central tendency and dispersion, probability, correlation and regression analysis, parametric (t-tests and ANOVA) and non-parametric (chi-square) tests of significance. A basic introduction to Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software is provided. Cross listed with PSYC 202. Meets the general education quantitative reasoning requirement. (Offered every semester.)
Cost accounting fundamentals and cost accounting systems for management control will be covered. Emphasis will be on decision making for planning and control, and product costing for inventory valuation and income determination.
Prerequisite: ACCT201. (Offered fall semester of even calendar years.)
Reviews accounting theory and the application of that theory to the preparation of accounting statements. Examines the four primary financial statements-income statement, balance sheet, statement of cash flows, and statement of retained earnings. Prerequisite: ACCT101. (Offered fall semester of odd calendar years.)
A continuation of the study of financial information for the purpose of preparing financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles. This course deals with accounting issues related to the proper accounting treatments of balance sheet assets and liabilities.
Prerequisite: ACCT314. (Offered spring semester of even calendar years.)
Study of federal personal and corporate income tax, state income tax issues, U.S. tax structure, and the application of tax laws to specific situations. Students will gain knowledge of individual tax laws, forms, and tables.
A study of the standards and procedures used in examining financial statements and supporting records. Emphasis on the evaluation of internal control. Also covered are the auditor's responsibilities to clients and third parties, and the ethical framework in which he/she operates.
Prerequisite: ACCT201. (Offered spring semester of odd calendar years.)
This course will provide the student with substantial experience in preparing federal tax returns. The number of credits for this course is variable; however, for each credit, the student is expected to spend 40 hours preparing income tax forms for others. This will be done primarily during evenings and weekends. Tax forms may be prepared through the Greenville College Tax Assistance Program (GC-TAP), the St. Louis Tax Assistance Program (St. Louis-TAP), or the Bond County Senior Citizens Center. Because of the relatively limited number of people in Bond County who will utilize this service, the student must expect to spend some Saturdays in St. Louis preparing tax returns.
Prerequisite: ACCT317. (Offered spring semester.)
Data Analytics explores how accounting data and other metrics can be linked to financial performance. In this course, students will determine what drives financial performance, and learn to make accurate predictions, and deploy data to deliver insight into the accounting process, as well as other areas of business, such as corporate strategy and risk management. After completion of Data Analytics, students will be able to make competent business decisions concerning the efficacy of accounting processes and procedures, and apply what theyve learned to create value for business organizations in an increasingly data driven and technological world. Cross listed with BUSN 340.
Prerequisite: ACCT 101. (Offered spring semester of even calendar years.)
This course teaches economic issues related to human integration (food, feed, fuel, and recreation) with the environment (waste remediation). Topics include conflicts in the use of land, air, and water; property rights; and public policy. These challenges show up in day to day operations as climate change, world poverty, water quality, genetic modification (GMOs), organic food, and renewable energy. This course looks at emerging issues in the context of historical production through the lens of a solid analytical framework. Upon completion, there will be a sense of confidence in the annual rhythm of global agribusiness benefits and costs.
Prerequisite: AGRI 201 Offered Fall semester.
Regression and linear programming are the currency of building new visions and changing the world. Modeling historic and potential dynamic systems allows new scenarios to be explored without first investing in capital. In addition, students need an understanding of life-cycle assessment and equilibrium-seeking models. Farm Production Planning looms at static relationships in a single time frame; Biosystems Modeling adds time to the analysis.
Prerequisites: AGRI 115 and AGRI 201. (Offered fall of odd calendar years.)
In this class, students will draw upon the insights and experience from industry practitioners. Managers and leaders in the agribusiness field will share how they developed their careers, leadership qualities, and ethics in today's society, and how their faith is integrated with their management style. The students' own leadership skills will be developed as they explore different views of several issues, and the changes associated with those issues in agriculture.
Prerequisite: AGRI 301 Offered: Spring semester.
A course designed to provide students with an understanding of the theories, principles, and practices of personnel management. (Offered spring semester.)
Data Analytics explores how accounting data and other metrics can be linked to financial performance. In this course, students will determine what drives financial performance, and learn to make accurate predictions, and deploy data to deliver insight into the accounting process, as well as other areas of business, such as corporate strategy and risk management. After completion of Data Analytics, students will be able to make competent business decisions concerning the efficacy of accounting processes and procedures, and apply what theyve learned to create value for business organizations in an increasingly data driven and technological world. Cross listed with ACCT 340.
Prerequisite: ACCT 101. (Offered spring semester of even calendar years.)
Students will understand the forces of globalization, why nations trade, problems of trade restrictions and international payments, and multinational corporations as international change agents. They will work from the manager's perspective to discover how working internationally affects the functional areas of business through influences of the land, the political environment, and the cultural heritage of the people. Meets the general education global foundations requirement.
Prerequisite: Open to any upper division student. (Offered spring semester.)
Strategic Management explores how companies analyze their strategic environments, identify strategic choices and implement chosen strategies. Analytical tools include employing frameworks to analyze internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. The course is taught through an online strategic management simulation in which students compete in teams to enable them to evaluate their effectiveness in developing and implementing strategies for the firm. (Offered fall semester.)
Introduces the student to corporate financial management through the study of financial systems, techniques of financial analysis and working capital decisions, financial forecasting, financing current assets, capital budgeting, the cost of capital and the target capital structure quantity, statistical decision making, and financial techniques. Prereq: ACCT 201 and ECON 202.
A study of the basic principles and elements of two and three dimensional form and composition. Alternate discussions and projects designed to acquaint the student with materials and techniques in the plastic arts. Three double periods. (Offered every semester.)
Studio work in beginning drawing from still life and nature. Basic experiences with form description using a wide range of media. Three double periods. Meets the general education creative and performing arts requirement. (Offered Fall semester.)
This course will introduce students to computers and programming. It will begin with a study of computer hardware and software relationships, and a review of common operating systems in use today, with a detailed review of microcomputer operating systems. Then programming language construction and principles will be covered, culminating in problem solving and algorithm development in a high level computing language with several programming projects. (Offered spring semester.)
This course reviews the overview of the technical and aesthetic issues relevant to the design profession. Studio work and research will be assigned. Specific focus on problems in visual organization, typography, and design theory as an expressive design element will be studied. Course content will concentrate on fostering creative thinking along with prescribed techniques and media. Three double or two triple periods. Cross listed with ARTD 230.
Prerequisite: ARTD 111. (Offered fall semester.)
Instruction on the primary components of web design including: information architecture, usability, web technologies, and visual communication. Special attention is given to design, content creation, website development, and project management.
Prerequisite: ARTD 111 and DMDA 120. (Offered fall semester.)
Through lecturers, demonstrations, research and studio work, this course encourages an in-depth study of the business aspects of the design profession. Common professional design problems are emphasized. Cross listed with ARTD 330.
Prerequisite: DMDA 230. (Offered spring semester of even calendar years.)
An introductory course in the craft of writing poetry, fiction, and non-fiction with careful consideration of published works, writing exercises, and workshops in each genre. May be taken concurrently with ENGL 105. Meets the general education creative and performing arts requirement. (Offered fall semester of even calendar years.) Corequisite: ENGL 105 or HONR 105.
This course is an introduction to the discipline and craft of storytelling using multimedia methods. Students explore the major formal elements and components of storytelling using visual, print, and auditory mediums. Students will gain a better understanding of the spiritual, social, and economic roles of storytelling both in terms of storytelling as a powerful tool for gaining an understanding of the world and oneself and as a professional craft. Meets the general education creative and performing arts requirement.
Prerequisite: ENGL 105. (Offered in the fall semester.)
