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Undergraduate Marketing Analytics Specialization

Coveted expertise for a high-demand field

The field of marketing analytics is witnessing worldwide growth. Demand for knowledgeable managers with ability to use big data analysis to make effective decisions is growing rapidly. McKinsey & Company forecast a shortage of 1.5 million such managers in the United States alone and PwC suggests that firms will therefore need to compete fiercely for individuals with strong analytics skills and business knowledge.

Marketing and customer analytics are becoming instrumental to the functioning of companies in our data-filled age. Having students prepared with an understanding of the fields, and how to use modern tools such as R, is extremely helpful to companies like Lenati. These are the same techniques and tools we use when we at Lenati consult with Fortune 500 companies.
Jonathan Nolis, Director of Insights and Analytics, Lenati

Foster’s Seattle Connection makes marketing undergrads particularly well suited to explore real-world opportunities and challenges from the countless innovative companies using the most innovative practices in business analytics, including Amazon, Microsoft, Expedia, Starbucks, and beyond.

The field of (Marketing) Analytics is witnessing worldwide growth and has been called the “sexiest job of the 21st century” (Harvard Business Review). Demand for managers with ability to use (big) data analysis to make effective decisions is growing rapidly. McKinsey & Company forecast a shortage of 1.5 million such managers in the United States alone and PwC suggests that firms will therefore need to compete fiercely for individuals with strong analytics skills and business knowledge. The Foster School of Business is particularly well suited to address these needs as the Seattle metro area is home to several major companies who use the most innovative practices in business analytics such as Amazon, Microsoft, Expedia, and Starbucks.

Customer analytics are at the core of every important decision in a modern organization. Mastering analytical thinking and having hands-on experience with large data sets and analytics tools are major advantages for anyone entering the workforce in product management, marketing, finance or operations.
John Busby, Head of Analytics and Insights, AmazonFresh

Marketing analytics courses

To prepare students for these opportunities, the Marketing Analytics Specialization trains students how to use cutting edge analytics to better direct a wide variety of marketing decisions.

Leaders are expected to make smart decisions. But today’s world has a new problem – it’s overwhelmed by data. With the right tools and analytics background you can pull out insights to make decisions faster and smarter than your peers. Customer and Marketing analytics courses from UW Foster’s School of Business will give you the exposure and analytics background for real-world problems to tackle tomorrow’s challenges.
John Gagnon, Sales Director for Bing Ads, Microsoft

A common theme throughout the specialization is the use of real data and the implementation of models using the free programming language “R.” R is quickly becoming the standard in this area of technology and, like open-source platforms like Wikipedia, provides an adept user with a very large set of existing code and packages to be used in the quest to extract insights from marketing data. A key benefit of learning to use R is that students can take the models they learned in the specialization to their careers without the need to buy costly software.

The specialization in Marketing Analytics consists of four courses: Customer Analytics (MKTG 462), Analytics for Marketing Decisions (MKTG 464), Digital Marketing Analytics (MKTG 466) and Pricing Strategy Analytics (MKTG 468). To complete the specialization, students are expected to take at least three of these four courses.

  • Customer Analytics (MKTG 462) introduces statistical modeling and coding techniques that help individuals manage the customer relationship from acquisition to development to retention. Special attention is directed to models that help firms appropriately value customers and target them with the right offer at the right time.
  • Analytics for Marketing Decisions (MKTG 464) identifies analytic models that can be applied to real, large-scale databases to improve and automate firm-level marketing decisions. In particular, analytics are used to improve decisions around product design, pricing, promotion/advertising, and digital and mobile channel management.
  • Digital Marketing Analytics (MKTG 466) covers search and display advertising, email marketing, attribution models, social media strategies, and two-sided platforms. The course takes a quantitative and data-driven approach for analyzing and improving digital marketing strategies.
  • Pricing Strategy Analytics (MKTG 468) blends marketing strategy, micro-economic theory, and data analytics to formulate actionable pricing strategies. The course combines cases and data analytics assignments to teach students how to design and execute pricing decisions and co-ordinate these decisions with other marketing decisions.

Note that while these courses are designed to be taken in sequence, they can also be taken as standalone courses (i.e., they are not required as prerequisites for each other).