Part-Time curriculum

Learn to thrive in the digital world of modern marketing—in just four or five courses.

The Part-Time Graduate Certificate in Marketing—designed for working professionals in the Boston area—can help position you to stay ahead in a field that is constantly evolving. Whether you're a seasoned marketing professional looking to expand your knowledge base or someone new to marketing aiming to jump-start your entry into the field, this program will prepare you to become an adaptable, forward-thinking marketer in today's dynamic business world.

As you're learning, you'll set the pace. Evening classes run Monday through Thursday, and you can choose from 5:20 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. class times. You can finish in as little as one year, or if you need to go slower in order to accommodate your work and family commitments, you can finish your certificate over a longer period of up to three years.

Tailor your curriculum to your needs

At Northeastern, we're laser-focused on the tech economy—that means you'll get the most relevant, forward-looking perspective on digital marketing tools and trends. You'll interact with students and faculty from a wide range of backgrounds and work experiences so you can truly develop a global mindset.

The Graduate Certificate in Marketing is a great way to gain business skills you can use immediately and also pave the way toward a future master's degree, including the Part-Time MBA.

Curriculum

Required Course

Focuses on marketing analysis and planning. Emphasizes analysis of customer needs and company and competitor capabilities. This analysis forms the basis of a sound marketing strategy that provides value to customers in a way superior to competitors. Discusses how to deliver this strategy through the development of an intergrated marketing program covering product offerings, pricing, promotion, and distribution. Includes professional accounting students.

MKTG 6200 | 3 Hours

Electives (Select 3 or 4)

Provides an overview of the major qualitative and quantitative marketing research methodologies available to marketing managers. Explores customer relationship management (CRM) and multivariate statistical techniques including conjoint analysis, customer satisfaction, and service quality measurement.

MKTG 6210 | 3 Hours

Develops understanding of the opportunities and challenges facing the international marketing executive, the decision-making process in marketing goods abroad, and the environmental forces—economic, cultural, and political—affecting the marketing process in the international marketplace.

MKTG 6212 | 3 Hours

Focuses on the challenges and decisions new-product managers face as they take ideas through the new-product-development process. Companies need to create, develop, and market new products and services continually to compete effectively in a rapidly changing environment. Provides an overview of the new-product-development process, with an emphasis on customer involvement in this process. Provides detailed insights on such topics as new-product strategy, idea generation, idea selection and evaluation, concept development and testing, product development and testing, and market testing.

MKTG 6214 | 3 Hours

Offers an advanced course in defining and managing an organization's product-market strategy. Intended for marketing specialists and nonspecialists interested in incorporating a market focus from a general management or consulting perspective. Emphasizes using market information to choose and manage the company's relationships with customers and competitors in a complex, changing environment, as well as the practical concerns of implementing and evaluating marketing strategy.

MKTG 6216 | 3 Hours

Examines how both service organizations and product organizations require a distinctive approach to marketing strategy in a world where all organizations increasingly depend on service excellence and customer engagement for competitive advantage. The world economy is dominated by services; in the United States, a large percentage of the labor force and the GDP is accounted for by services. Covers why people are essential to success, why expectations are important to consumers, and how physical and virtual environments influence delivery of value to customers. This practice-oriented course focuses on active skill building and tool development that is quickly and directly applicable to students' future careers.

MKTG 6218 | 3 Hours

Explores the latest trends in technology and new media, their effect on marketing goods and services, and how to deliver value to the customer using the latest technological innovations. Examines the latest trends in digital marketing, such as mobile marketing, and how the mobile platform can be used for branding purposes and to enhance customer relationships. Explores topics such as branding and advertising via mobile phones, online social networks and communities, technology adoption in global emerging markets, and how the Internet empowers customers and enables firms to engage in customer advocacy. Also examines how marketing research is conducted for technological innovations and ethical concerns that arise with technology usage, such as privacy and security issues, identity theft, and the role of trust in digital marketing.

MKTG 6222 | 3 Hours

Offers students an opportunity to obtain an in-depth understanding of the brand-building process amid radical changes in today's marketing communications platforms. Exposes students to concepts, frameworks, and theories critical to developing branding and advertising strategy in the twenty-first century, including brand positioning, target audiences definition, creative advertising, integrated marketing communications, the influence of social media, and assessing marketing and media effectiveness.

MKTG 6223 | 3 Hours

Covers business-to-business marketing and the key roles of managing relationships with large buyers, going to market, and the sales organization. Begins with an understanding of why and how firms, institutions, and organizations purchase products and services and the importance of the multifunctional buying center. Covers a proven selling process and presents compelling solutions to customers. Going-to-market topics include managing value-added resellers and distributors. Intended for all interested in marketing: future product managers who must rely on the sales force and distributors to introduce new products and promotions, future sales managers, and marketing executives who must manage the marketing-sales interface.

MKTG 6224 | 3 Hours

Focuses on the consumer as the key element of marketing strategy and application. Explores demographic, lifestyle, social, and cultural trends and their impact on consumer attitudes, motivations, and behavior. Other topics include group dynamics, family, learning, personality, and emotions and their impact on the business world. Offers an in-depth look at the consumer decision process as a model to guide the planning and evaluation of marketing strategies.

MKTG 6226 | 3 Hours

Introduces how to measure, analyze, and evaluate the profit impact of marketing actions (MAP) by bringing together marketing, strategy, and finance. Your organization is going to spend millions on a new marketing or strategic initiative, but how will you know if it is working? Marketing performance measurement and feedback systems enable managers to take smarter risks by assessing experimental projects and forecasting the profit potential of bigger, bolder initiatives. Offers students an opportunity to explore systems that summarize marketing productivity and suggest steps for performance improvement in marketing strategy and tactics.

MKTG 6230 | 3 Hours

Offers students an opportunity to understand the importance of using an analytical approach to support marketing decision making in organizations and approaches to implementation practice. Focuses on identifying and acquiring the right data for addressing different marketing challenges; building skills necessary for conducting relevant quantitative analyses; and using insights to make better marketing decisions. Topics may include product innovation, market identification and segmentation, customer valuation, media attribution models, and assessment of digital and social media. Students are expected to apply statistical concepts and have the opportunity to use SPSS, Python, and/or R for analyzing marketing data sets.

MKTG 6234 | 3 Hours

The following is a sample curriculum and is subject to change. Enrolled students should reference the academic catalog for current program requirements.