A new Master of Science in Marketing will prepare students to turn potential customers into loyal brand advocates, the USC Marshall School of Business announced.

The degree, designed to develop and enhance students’ innovative marketing skills and to help them build deep, interdisciplinary expertise, will benefit managers and those with a few years of work experience who are eager to earn an advanced degree in a one-year, full-time program, or a two-year, part-time option.

“Marketing crosses all disciplinary boundaries, and the modern marketer must have polished technical skill and deep topical knowledge,” said USC Marshall Dean James G. Ellis. “USC Marshall’s Master of Science in Marketing offers both, leveraging the resources of an elite business school and providing access to coursework across one of the world’s most prominent research universities.”

Foundation in fundamentals

Establishing a strong foundation in business fundamentals, including marketing management, marketing strategy and business analytics or market demand and sales forecasting, students in the program will build on that foundation with other marketing courses. Expanding into other business disciplines, students can choose from electives ranging from data warehousing, business intelligence and data mining to technology commercialization.

The MS curriculum takes full advantage of the breadth of offerings at USC, with cross-disciplinary electives including case studies in digital entertainment, visual storytelling, the television industry, digital technologies and the entertainment industry, foundations in health education and promotion, public health policy, and politics and health care ventures. These courses are taken through some of the most renowned professional schools at USC: the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the Keck School of Medicine, the Price School of Public Policy and the School of Cinematic Arts.

Tailor-made study

“We want our marketing students to be able to tailor their study to their particular interests, whether that is in digital entertainment, health care or public policy,” said Diane Badame, academic director of the full-time MBA program and professor of clinical marketing, who is spearheading the new degree program. “Students in our marketing program will gain artistry and analytics that will position them for success in this rapidly evolving discipline.”

As a culminating experience, MS in Marketing students will collaborate to craft an innovative marketing strategy for prospective employers.

The marketing program is now accepting applications for summer 2015 from working professionals with bachelor or advanced degrees and at least two years of experience.

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