M.A. in Advertising and Marketing Communications

Locations

Advertising and marketing communications courses are offered at the following locations:

Continental United States

• St. Louis, MO
  • Home Campus

Program Description

The Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in advertising and marketing communications is intended for students who have both an interest and background in advertising and marketing communications. This degree provides additional theory and application for students who want to advance in their careers. The M.A. degree in advertising and marketing communications is a specialized concentration available to individuals who qualify for the program. Qualifications include an educational background or three years professional experience in this area. Students without educational background or experience in advertising and marketing communications are required to enroll in 6 credit hours of prerequisite coursework. The selection of prerequisites will be determined through consultation with an academic advisor. Students must earn a grade of "B" or better in the prerequisite courses before they will be allowed to enroll in graduate courses. The prerequisite courses do not count toward the 36 credit hours required for the degree, nor will they be considered as part of the credit hours required for advancement to candidacy. This degree is not intended to be production-oriented and therefore, students interested in developing a creative portfolio may wish to consider undergraduate coursework in advertising.

Prerequisite Courses

A student must have completed a minimum of 6 hours from the following undergraduate courses (or their equivalents). These requisites must be listed on an official transcript.

• ADVT 1940 Introduction to Marketing Communications
• ADVT 2550 Creative Strategies
• ADVT 2910 Writing for Advertising
• ADVT 4040 Advertising Production
• ADVT 4910 Advertising Research
• MNGT 3500 Marketing
• MNGT 3510 Advertising
• MNGT 4570 Marketing Research

Student Learning Outcomes

Successful graduates of this program will be able to:

• Demonstrate a working knowledge of the full spectrum of advertising and marketing communications activities and their organizational structure;
• Analyze a client's specific marketing situation and use critical thinking skills to determine appropriate marketing communications objectives, strategies, and tactics to accomplish the client's goals;
• Understand the essential role of traditional and non-traditional media to achieve advertising objectives;
• Evaluate the effectiveness of a marketing communications plan and give productive direction to a team;
• Stay competitive in the use of emerging technologies as applied to the field of advertising and marketing communications;
• Understand the influences of culture and international business practices to develop more socially responsible and effective global advertising and marketing communications;
• Challenge conventional thinking and current practices to foster breakthrough advertising and marketing communications strategies and concepts;
• Develop a forward-thinking mindset to anticipate and take advantage of changes in consumer trends, non-traditional media, and new technologies that affect marketing communications.

Program Curriculum

Advertising and Marketing Communications

Students choosing this degree may focus on either advertising or marketing communications or both. MEDC 5000 Media Communications is the requisite course in the advertising and marketing communications program. It examines communications theory and its application in mass media, as well as introduces students to the graduate program, describes program expectations, and discusses academic preparation for MEDC 6000 Seminar in Media Communications. Therefore, students must take this course even if they have academic and/or professional experience in media communications. Any variation from this curriculum should be approved in advance using a program option request. The required and elective courses may be taken as Directed Studies, subject to the conditions stated in the Directed Studies section listed under Academic Policies and Procedures and approved by the Director of Graduate Studies. Students taking courses that are a part of their approved curriculum and that are outside of the School of Communications should verify prerequisites with appropriate school or college.

The course of study for students working towards an M.A. in advertising and marketing communications is as follows:

Core Courses (21 credit hours)

• MEDC 5000 Media Communications (Requisite Course)
• MEDC 5310 Media and Culture
• MRKT 5940 Promotional Management
• ADVT 5321 Advertising Decision-Making
• MEDC 5350 Media Organization and Regulations
• MEDC 5400 Media Production Management
• MEDC 6000 Seminar in Media Communications

Emphasis Courses

A minimum of 15 credit hours must be completed from the following:

• ADVT 4190 Advertising Research
• ADVT 4200 Media Planning, Buying, and Selling
• ADVT 5301 Marketing Communications: Sales Promotion
• ADVT 5302 Marketing Communications: Product Publicity
• ADVT 5303 Marketing Communications: Merchandising and Point-of-Purchase
• ADVT 5304 Marketing Communications: Direct & Internet
• ADVT 5305 Marketing Communications: Business-to-Business
• ADVT 5341 Writing for Advertising
• ADVT 5440 Media Buying and Market Analysis
• ADVT 5501 Creative Planning and Strategy
• ADVT 5502 Multinational Advertising
• MEDC 5300 Strategic Communications
• MEDC 5360 International Communications
• MEDC 5430 Media Communications Technology
• MEDC 5460 Media Research
• MEDC 5500 Professional Seminars
• MEDC 5550 Topics In Media Communications
• MEDC 5600 Introduction to Interactive Communications
• MEDC 5650 Special Topics in Interactive Media
• MRKT 5000 Marketing
• MRKT 5950 Consumer Behavior
• PBRL 5322 Public Relations
• PBRL 5323 Organizational Communications

Course Descriptions

ADVT 4190 Advertising Research (3)
This course introduces the fundamentals of advertising research. Students learn basic ad research theory and put it into practice by undertaking an actual research project. They learn the roles and subject matter of ad research including secondary sources and syndicated services. They also learn to conduct both qualitative and quantitative primary research, including planning, designing, sampling, data processing, analyzing, and reporting for an actual ad case study. Prerequisite: MNGT 3510 Advertising or MEDC 5321 Advertising Decision-Making for graduate students.

ADVT 4200 Media Planning, Buying, and Selling (3)
In this course students learn the role of media planning and buying to help fulfill marketing communications objectives. Students learn the components of a professional media plan for target reach; how media buying techniques differ by target audience; and how the media sales process works. The course emphasizes the media's role in the advertising process and the media's influence on current techniques used by advertising agency media departments representing consumer and business clients with national, regional, and local needs. Students prepare a professional media plan utilizing the principles and practices mastered throughout the course. Prerequisite: MNGT 3510 Advertising, ADVT 5321 Advertising Decision-Making for graduate students, or permission of instructor.

ADVT 5301 Marketing Communications: Sales Promotion (3)
This course explores the full range of trade and consumer sales-promotion activities and studies the application of these techniques in today's marketplace. Emphasis is placed on the comprehensive understanding of hands-on applications and the creation of a sales-promotion mix for a specific product. Prerequisite: MRKT 5940 Promotional Management.

ADVT 5302 Marketing Communications: Product Publicity (3)
This course examines the creation and execution of communication plans designed to gain favorable product publicity leading to sales. Creative, planning, and execution techniques are studied, as well as the use of appropriate communication tools such as special events, sponsorships, endorsements, online services, direct mail, telemarketing, and news releases. Prerequisite: MRKT 5940 Promotional Management.

ADVT 5303 Marketing Communications: Merchandising and Point-of-Purchase (3)
This course examines the function of retail merchandising activities in relation to the marketing mix. Emphasis is placed on identifying the various forms and functions of retail merchandising. Students will analyze the relative effectiveness of merchandising activities in relation to the product or service the activity supports. Prerequisite: MRKT 5940 Promotional Management.

ADVT 5304 Marketing Communications: Direct and Internet (3)
Students are introduced to the theories and techniques employed in direct-response marketing communications, including development, execution, and analysis of a direct mail campaign and exposure to related media such as print, broadcast, catalog, and telemarketing. The course also explores the role of new media, such as the Internet, in interactive marketing communications. Prerequisite: MRKT 5940 Promotional Management.

ADVT 5305 Marketing Communications: Business-to-Business (3)
This course examines marketing communications theories and practices for business-to-business products and services in contrast to consumer products and services, particularly packaged goods. Topics include market analysis, target identification, planning, and budgeting for communications with customers, suppliers, and intermediaries. Prerequisite: MRKT 5940 Promotional Management.

ADVT 5321 Advertising Decision-Making (3)
This course examines case studies that cover decision making in all aspects of advertising management: target and audience identification, strategic planning, objective-setting, creative strategy, media planning, budgeting, research, and agency/client relationships. Prerequisites: a minimum of 6 credit hours of undergraduate coursework in advertising theory and MRKT 5940 Promotional Management.

ADVT 5341 Writing for Advertising (3)
This course examines alternative creative strategies used to solve specific advertising problems, develops strategies for particular situations, and brainstorms creative concepts. The student adapts writing styles to specific advertising situations, product categories, and media. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications and MEDC 5321 Advertising Decision-Making.

ADVT 5440 Media Buying and Market Analysis (3)
This course focuses on the use of qualitative and quantitative research methods used to determine which media are best suited for purchase in an advertising campaign. Market research is combined with print and electronic media analysis using mathematical models. Topics included are ratings for electronic media, circulation of print media, and techniques for evaluating inter-media plans as part of marketing and advertising strategies. Prerequisite: MEDC 5321 Advertising Decision-Making.

ADVT 5501 Creative Planning and Strategy (3)
This course emphasizes the importance of critical thinking in the planning and development of message strategy for advertising and other marketing communications tools. Class discussions explore the decision-making process and development of criteria for evaluation of alternative message strategies. Emphasis is also placed on the relationship between strategy and tactics. Students must be prepared to present and defend their positions. Prerequisites: MEDC 5000 Media Communications and MEDC 5321 Advertising Decision-Making.

ADVT 5502 Multinational Advertising (3)
This course focuses on the major components in the process of developing multinational advertising programs/campaigns, including client-agent structure, audience identification and segmentation, objective setting, media strategy, creative strategy, research, and budgeting. Each of these steps must be considered within the context of different cultural, political, and legal environments. Prerequisite: MEDC 5321 Advertising Decision-Making.

MRKT 5000 Marketing (3)
Students examine the character and importance of the marketing process, its essential functions, and the institutions exercising those functions. Course content focuses on the major policies that underlie the activities of marketing institutions and the social, economic, and political implications of such policies. Prerequisite: There are no formal prerequisites for this course. However, it is assumed the student has adequate writing, mathematical, and analytical skills.

MRKT 5940 Promotional Management (3)
Students examine the use of all available promotional vehicles to communicate to potential customers the messages that support the objectives of the marketing plan. Each of the four elements of the promotion mix is covered: advertising, publicity, sales promotion, and personal selling. Specific focus is applied to building differentiated value perceptions in the customers in relation to competitors' products. Students who intend to take MRKT 5950 Consumer Behavior as an elective should take it before MRKT 5940 Promotional Management. Prerequisite: MRKT 5000 Marketing.

MRKT 5950 Consumer Behavior (3)
The course includes an analysis of consumer motivation, buyer behavior and perceptions, market adjustment, and product innovation relative to current theories of consumer market behavior and product reactions. Communication vehicles necessary to target specific marketing strategies to address unique consumer buyer behavior traits are an integral part of this course. Prerequisite: MRKT 5000 Marketing.

MEDC 5000 Media Communications (Requisite Course) (3)
This is the requisite course in the advertising and marketing communications program. Students examine communications theory and its application to mass media. Consideration is given to the distinctive characteristics of each of the major mass communications systems, including print, radio, film, television, and interactive media. The course introduces students to the graduate program and describes program expectations as well as introduces research methodologies used throughout the program and discusses academic preparation for MEDC 6000 Seminar in Media Communications. Therefore, students must take this course even if they have academic and/or professional experience in media communications. Prerequisite: students should have an educational background or professional experience in media communications, or they must enroll in 6 credit hours of additional preparatory undergraduate coursework, as determined by an academic advisor.

MEDC 5300 Strategic Communications (3)
This course is taught from a top-management perspective regarding the strategic role of communications, and the communications manager, in achieving the company mission and measurable bottom-line results. It introduces students to an integrated approach to managing all communications functions, including all direct and indirect communications requirements for both internal and external audiences and intermediaries, such as customers, suppliers, distributors, employees, shareholders, competitors, politicians, analysts, journalists and lobbyists. It encompasses the functional areas of marketing communications, organizational communications, media relations, investor relations, government relations and corporate branding. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications.

MEDC 5310 Media and Culture (3)
This course examines the mass media as it reflects and influences the attitudes, values, behaviors, myths, and preoccupations that define a given culture. The course considers the functions of mass media in society and the effect on the individual. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications.

MEDC 5350 Media Organization and Regulations (3)
The student examines the legal structure of the media communications industry. The course focuses on the formation, rationale, and implications of policies that form the basis of media law and regulation. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications.

MEDC 5360 International Communications (3)
This course focuses on the history, issues, and future of international communications. The class considers individual media systems, including different understandings of the role of the media, freedom of press and information in different areas of the world, parity between distribution of news and the shaping of the public mind, international stereotyping, and international propaganda. The course also examines the relationship between national and global media systems and the role of international communications in the development of the new world order. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications.

MEDC 5400 Media Production Management (3)
This course exposes the student to the principles of management, planning, and execution of media-oriented activities and events. The student examines the role and functions of the producer of media-oriented projects: pre-production organization and research; proposal writing; scheduling; union regulations; budgeting; and staff, crew, and talent coordination. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications.

MEDC 5430 Media Communications Technology (3)
The student explores new technologies in mass communications and the choices that these technologies present in the area of media communications. Course content focuses on the impact of interactive video, computers, and videotext on business and government and the increasing reliance on the management and communication of information. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications.

MEDC 5460 Media Research (3)
The course introduces students to the major research methodologies, communication theories, and topics of study within media research. Theories, models, and methods are applied toward the development of research projects. Students discuss and examine qualitative and quantitative methods of media research employed by various aspects of the media. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications. MEDC 5310 Media and Culture recommended.

MEDC 5500 Professional Seminars (1-3)
Students may supplement the core and elective courses in media communications with professional seminars designed to examine contemporary issues in this field. Course may be repeated for credit if content differs. Graduate students may apply to substitute 3 seminar credit hours for one emphasis course using a program option request form. Prerequisite: Undergraduate seniors require permission of academic
advisor.

MEDC 5550 Topics in Media Communications (3)
This course offers a variety of topics to address emerging theories, practices, and applications in the field of communications. Topics are timely and of interest to professionals currently working in or pursuing media-related careers. Classes may focus on such topics as graduate-level writing, research and critical thinking; media literacy and video production; ethical issues in the media, account planning for advertising and public relations, applications for podcasting and blogs, creating cultural change through organizational communications, etc. Prerequisite may vary with the topic. May be repeated once for credit if content differs and is appropriate for student's course of study.

MEDC 5600 Introduction to Interactive Communications (3)
A practical introduction to interactive media. The course will address concept, design and production strategies, technical aspects of production and publication, and practical applications of interactive media in educational, commercial, and public environments. Students will create flowcharts, treatments, and scripts, and will publish their final project as a design document. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications.

MEDC 5650 Special Topics in Interactive Media (3)
This course will address current and significant issues in interactive media and interactive communications. The course focuses on existing theories and practices, with emphasis on new and emerging topics and technologies in this field. The course topics could include computer-based training, games and entertainment, journalism on the Internet, and interactive narrative writing. Prerequisites: MEDC 5000 Media Communications and MEDC 5600 Introduction to Interactive Communications recommended. Can be repeated for credit if content varies.

MEDC 6000 Seminar in Media Communications (3)
In this course, students synthesize and integrate the learning experiences acquired in all previous media communications courses and research current topics relative to production of a thesis document. Also, current topics in media communications are shared in a seminar setting. Techniques used to accomplish these goals may vary. Prerequisite: Completion of all other graduate courses in program. This should be the last course taken before graduation. Any exceptions must be approved prior to registration by submitting a program option request to be signed by the Director of Graduate Studies and the Dean of the School of Communications.

PBRL 5322 Public Relations (3)
This course integrates communications strategy with organizational mission statements, demonstrates stakeholder and issues management techniques, and considers ethical dilemmas in public relations situations. Public relations cases are examined in order to learn effective strategic and tactical answers to public-perception problems and opportunities. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications and 6 hours of undergraduate coursework in public relations.

PBRL 5323 Organizational Communications (3)
This course considers the relationship of organizational mission, employee values, organizational cultures, and motivation. Both formal and informal communication networks are studied as they pertain to appropriate use of media to communicate with employees or volunteers. Students examine case studies showing proactive employee information efforts. Prerequisite: MEDC 5000 Media Communications and PBRL 5322 Public Relations or MEDC 5300 Strategic Communications.