Prospective Students

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Why Marketing?

You may be asking yourself: "What is Marketing and what all does marketing entail?" Marketing is the engine that drives business and our economy. Marketing is responsible for moving a product from where it is produced to where it is consumed. We do this by understanding the wants and needs of the consumer and users of the product and making sure the product is what they want, when they want it, and where they want it. Marketing is a "people person" discipline, with the goal of creating satisfied customers.

In the words of Phil Knight, CEO of Nike, "Now we understand that the most important thing we do is market the product. We've come around to saying that Nike is a marketing-oriented company, and the product is our most important marketing tool."

Robert W. Sarnoff, former head of NBC, said "Marketing is the foot on the accelerator, the hand on the throttle, the spur on the flank that keeps our economy surging forward."

While we generally think of marketing as a "business" activity, it is used extensively by both profit-seeking and non-profit organizations. Marketing is used by such organizations as the United Way, St. Jude Children's Hospital, The United States Marines, Western Kentucky University, and every other organization or institution that serves a public, spreads a message, or offers a service or idea.

What our Recent Graduates Say About Us:

"... the current marketing program has a tremendous faculty and staff. I can honestly say that in all my years here that I have not had a bad teacher that did not enjoy teaching the class..." -- Matthew Maresca

"... I think that the program has a lot of dedicated faculty that really have a lot of knowledge about marketing. Most of the professors have experiences from the real-world or can tell about experiences from the real-world to relate the marketing material to the classroom. The faculty knows the material well and most do not lecture from a book. That is really helpful." -- Katelyn Hellige

"I believe the relationships I created with many professors helped me throughout my four years here. Most of my professors had past experience with large corporations before coming to teach at WKU. They brought with them much of real world knowledge to share with us." -- Rana Johnson

"... I really appreciate how willing and flexible the teachers are in regards to assignments and tests, whether it is to reschedule a test because I missed it for an interview or if I needed extra help after class, all of my teachers would gladly help. Also, I believe the class sizes allow a better education because of again the relationships. Finally, the class projects are challenging allowing for real life experience and not just a small meaningless project that you would have in larger schools." -- Lauren McGee

"... You learn everything from how to conduct market research and interpret that research to breaking into markets and learning their strengths and weaknesses. It touches on strategy, selling, learning about consumers and their behaviors, communications in the marketing departments, purchasing, distributing, promoting, and so much more!" -- Megan Riffey

Teaching Excellence

At WKU, approximately 90% of all marketing classes are taught by full-time faculty with "real world" business experience, not by teaching assistants or part-time instructors. Eight out of eleven full-time marketing faculty have Ph.D. degrees from well-known universities in the United States, while the remaining three full-time faculty are Executives-in-Residence with twenty plus years of business experience at the executive level of national and international companies. The faculty bring many years of practical experience into the classroom and maintain close industry ties through their active participation in local and national professional organizations, applied research, and consulting. Many of our marketing faculty have received awards for teaching excellence. Our faculty bring many varied techniques to the classroom to maximize your learning experience, including guest speakers, plant tours, client-based projects, field trips, case work, and so on.

Personal Attention

You won't be treated like just another number at Western. Every marketing major is assigned a full-time marketing faculty member to serve as his or her career advisor and mentor. Marketing faculty schedule office hours to make themselves readily available to students for advising, career counseling, and classroom assistance.

Internships

We encourage our students to apply what they learn in the classroom by seeking valuable internship experience with a large variety of firms located in the greater Bowling Green area and elsewhere. Our students have interned with the Country Music Awards, Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce, Northwestern Mutual, Fruit of the Loom, Camping World, Consolidated Electrical Distributors, Sherman Williams, Marthon Oil, various advertising agencies...the list goes on.

Three Concentrations From Which To Choose

The Marketing Department is dedicated to offering the most up-to-date education for our students as they prepare for their careers. In an effort to maintain this standard, we continuously review our courses and our programs and update them as needed. As a Marketing major you can currently choose from one of three concentrations:

1. Strategic Marketing (a general Marketing degree which can be tailored to a student's specific interests and goals)
2. Sales (for those who want to enter the exciting and lucrative field of professional selling)
3. Social Media Marketing (our most recent addition, and one of the hottest employment areas in marketing, this concentration prepares students to work within organizations to maximize the effectiveness and impact of their social media programs)

American Marketing Association (AMA) Student Organization

We encourage all of our marketing students to join our AMA student organization. This organization gives students an opportunity to get acquainted with each other and the faculty in a more relaxed, social setting. The Marketing Club brings guest speakers to the campus from a variety of businesses in the greater Bowling Green area and engages in a repertoire of marketing related activities. AMA students also have the opportunity to attend the national AMA conference during the Spring semester.

Study Abroad Opportunities

Companies are increasingly expanding to serve global audiences and businesses appreciate international experience in their new hires. The Marketing Department strongly encourages our students to take advantage of study abroad opportunities. Recently, marketing professors have led trips to Australia, Ireland, and India. For more information on our Study Abroad Programs, visit our Study Abroad page.

Accredited Programs

The Gordon Ford College of Business is one of only 470 (out of over 1,400) business schools whose undergraduate and graduate business programs are fully accredited by the AACSB (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) as of August 2008. This helps assure that you will receive a high-quality business education. Leading employers also recognize the AACSB "stamp of approval" when recruiting new professionals.

For More Information:

Please contact Dr. Lukas Forbes, Interim Department Head at lukas.forbes@wku.edu