John Cabot University: the Academic Experience

Course Descriptions

Unless otherwise indicated, all courses carry three semester hours of credit. Please note that not all courses are offered every semester or every year. Students should consult with their Academic Advisors to determine the frequency with which courses are offered and preplan their programs accordingly.

Courses numbered 100-299 are freshman, sophomore, or other introductory level courses. Courses numbered 300-399 are junior or senior level courses, requiring background in the material. Courses numbered 400-499 are senior level courses. Students should ensure that they have completed the prerequisites listed at the end of many course descriptions.

Graduate course descriptions

The University reserves the right to cancel courses with insufficient enrollment, and the curriculum is subject to change as a result of ongoing curricular revisions and program development.

Honors Courses

Students who achieve high levels of academic excellence (minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5) have the option of taking specially designated “Honors Courses.” Please see Course Schedules and Syllabi to see which Honors Courses are currently being offered. Click here to learn more about Honors Courses at John Cabot University

For-Credit Research Assistantships

Students undertaking a for-credit research assistantship have an opportunity to deepen their research skills, while sustaining a more advanced research project in a specific disciplinary area. Research assistants may earn one unit of academic credit (on a P/NP basis) for the completion of at least 45 hours of work. They must complete at least 90% of their work before the end of the semester in which they are registered in order to receive a passing grade. Learn more about For-Credit Research Assistantships

EXP One Credit Courses

These 1 credit courses are designed to provide students with opportunities to acquire useful technical or professional skills, or to engage in academic topics they may enjoy exploring. This particular set of courses aims at encouraging students to think out of the box and break intellectual boundaries. Read through our offerings – which will be updated regularly – and venture into unknown fields! EXP courses can be found in the drop down menu below, grouped under EXP One Credit Courses.

EXP 1 credit courses will normally be offered on four Fridays, designated for each semester. These courses cannot be used to fulfill general distribution requirements, or as Major Electives, or towards the fulfillment of Minor requirements; they can only be taken as general electives. Students can take a maximum of three 1 credit courses within the 120 credit graduation requirement.

Course Search:


BUS/MKT 322 Multimedia Strategic Communications

This course introduces students to the art and craft of multimedia storytelling for strategic business communications in the profit sector. It provides background and analysis for how storytelling has evolved in the digital landscape, requiring communicators to rethink concepts of audience, engagement, use of trusted sources, and dynamic updating. In this context, students will take part in the hands-on, beginning-to-end creation of multimedia projects. Depending on each project’s concept, content, and goals, various techniques will be explored and utilized for content management and creative presentations. A key challenge to strategic communications—dissemination, making stories stand out in today’s sea of content—will be incorporated from the start into decision making and production.

EC/MKT 361 Applied Data Analytics (Prerequisite: MA 208)

This course will examine current trends in data science, including those in big data analytics, and how it can be used to improve decision-making across different fields, such as business, economics, social and political sciences. We will investigate real-world examples and cases to place data science techniques in context and to develop data-analytic thinking. Students will be provided with a practical toolkit that will enable them to design and realize a data science project using statistical software.

EC/MKT 361 Applied Data Analytics (Prerequisite: MA 208)

This course will examine current trends in data science, including those in big dat analytics, and how it can be used to improve decision-making across different fields, such as business, economics, social and political sciences. We will investigate real-world examples and cases to place data science techniques in context and to develop data-analytic thinking. Students will be provided with a practical toolkit that will enable them to design and realize a data science project using statistical software.

MKT 281/381 Independent Study in Marketing

MKT 301 Principles of Marketing (Prerequisites: EC 201, MA 208)

This course will give students a solid understanding of the fundamentals of the strategic marketing planning process including methods and tools of market assessment, customer segmentation analysis, development of the value proposition, positioning and planning of marketing tactics designed to deliver value to targeted stakeholders. Emphasis is placed on the need to align marketing principles and theories with the management skills needed for the preparation of a marketing plan. Other topics include consumer behavior, marketing research and consumer insights, promotions, pricing, and e-marketing. Students will be able to analyze opportunities and threats in both the macro and micro-environments. In this course, students will begin to learn how to conduct a competitive analysis, analyze environmental trend, and develop competitive marketing strategies.

MKT 302 Service Marketing (Prerequisite: MKT 301)

This course offers key insights into the rapidly growing service sector industry. The course is challenging and requires students to apply their knowledge and skills for the effective management of service design and delivery.  Central issues addressed in the course include identifying differences between service and product marketing; understanding how customers assess service quality/ satisfaction; applying the GAPS model to assess service failure;  understanding of the theory of relationship marketing and using related tools and techniques for keeping customers and encouraging loyalty.

MKT 304 New Product Management (Prerequisite: MKT 301)

This course investigates the process of new product development and product management, starting from idea and concept generation through to project evaluation and development. The course is designed to be an interactive workshop for new product development, allowing students to explore market opportunities and propose new concepts to the market.

MKT 305 Market and Marketing Research (Prerequisite: MKT 301; Recommended: MA 209 )

This course covers the basic methods and techniques of marketing research. It discusses the tools and techniques for gathering, analyzing, and using data to aid marketing decision-making. The course covers topics such as problem definition, research design formulation, measurement, research instrument development, sampling techniques, data collection, data analysis and interpretation, and presentation of research findings. Students learn how to develop a marketing research project, formulate research hypotheses, collect primary and secondary data, develop a database, analyze data, write a report, and present results and recommendations.

MKT 310 Consumer Behavior (Prerequisite: MKT 301)

This course focuses on the study of consumer decision-making processes, consumer behavior models and their impact on the development of marketing strategies and tactics. Topics discussed include consumers’ impact on marketing strategy, consumer involvement, cultural influences on consumer decision making, perception, learning, memory, attitudes and persuasion, situational effects, and the social power of groups and collective decision making. The emphasis is on understanding how the consumer decision-making process works and how it may be influenced by organizations. Teaching methodology includes case studies and an emphasis on experiential research.

MKT 320 Integrated Marketing Communications (Prerequisite: MKT 301)

This course explores the impact of communications when it is implemented through different marketing channels. Typically, students work in groups to address a real-life challenge. Class work and discussion take place against the backdrop of real-world situations and the growing need for organizations to be both sustainable and profitable. Environment, Social and Governance issues are analyzed at length.


MKT 321 Advertising Management (Prerequisites: Junior Standing, EN 110, MKT 301; Recommended: MGT 301)

This course addresses the strategies and steps needed to create successful, ethical, and creative advertising, while emphasizing the role of advertising as a communication process. The student will learn about the advertising process from both the "client" and "agency" perspectives, and gain hands-on experience in crafting written and visual advertising messages based on sound marketing and creative strategies. The student is expected to be able to use primary and secondary research and the information tools of communications professionals.

MKT 330 International Marketing (Prerequisite: MKT 301)

This course examines the process of planning and conducting marketing across national borders in a global environment. Topics include factors in assessing world marketing opportunities, international marketing of products, international pricing, international distribution, and global promotion program development in dynamic world markets. Marketing practices which various businesses adapt to the international environment are studied. Attention is also given to comparative marketing systems and planning and organizing for export-import operations.

MKT 335 Retailing Applied to Fashion Industry (Prerequisite: MKT 301 )

This course focuses on issues related to retail management in the fashion industry and requires both an understanding of marketing principles as well as channel management concepts. The course reviews basic concepts related to retail business such as operations, logistics, retail channels management, retail controlling and strategic location development, which develop the student’s ability to understand performance indicators and measure store performance. Students are encouraged to focus on retail buying and stock planning, in order to fully understand how to manage in-store product life cycles. Teaching methodology is project-based and teamwork is emphasized. Teams will be required to apply fashion retailing concepts to companies’ planning processes through a proposed retail project, which will require a written strategic retail plan that is adapted to the Italian fashion market.

MKT 340 Digital Marketing (Prerequisites: Junior Standing, MKT 301)

This course approaches Internet marketing from a marketing management perspective. The course looks at the Internet both as a tool to be used in the marketing planning process and as an element of a company’s marketing mix. The course explores how traditional marketing concepts such as market segmentation, research, the 4Ps, and relationship marketing are applied using the Internet and other electronic marketing techniques, including mobile marketing and social media marketing, as well as digital commerce and web analytics.

MKT 350 Marketing for Non-Profit Organizations (Prerequisites: Junior Standing, EN 110 with a grade of C or above)

To some, marketing is the business function that identifies an organization's customer needs and wants, determines which target markets it can serve best, and designs appropriate products, services, and programs to serve these markets. However, marketing is much more than an isolated business function - it is a philosophy that guides the entire organization. The goal of marketing is to create satisfaction by building value-laden relationships with stakeholders as well as customers. This course will provide an introduction to marketing as a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want by creating and exchanging products, services, and/or value with others (Kotler 2000). More specifically, this course will identify and examine processes for assessing, establishing, and maintaining value-creating relationships among suppliers, providers, and consumers of non-profit organizations. Through case methodology, the course will place particular emphasis on forging productive exchange relationships with donors and clients.

MKT 355 Social Marketing and Fundraising (Prerequisite: Junior Standing)

This course introduces students to the conceptual frameworks, ethics, and practice associated with social marketing. This course explores how classic marketing techniques can be effectively applied beyond traditional corporate settings, in not-for-profit organizations. Students will gain an understanding of the basic principles of social marketing, and then will address fundraising and resource development as well as social communication campaigns. Fundraising is the application of marketing principles to generate funds that enable not-for-profit organizations to achieve their objectives and cover their expenses. Social communication campaigns deal with creating awareness of the not-for-profit organization’s mission and services and influencing specific target audiences to behave differently for a social purpose. At the end of the course, students will gain an understanding of the financial analysis needed for program management and performance review. The course offers students a valuable opportunity to implement the marketing concepts in an original and growing sector, where the objectives are broader than simple profit maximization, and social, ethical, and political factors play a major role.

MKT 360 Brand Management (MKT 301)

During the course, students will undertake studies on strategic and operational brand management. Topics will cover brand assessment, goal setting, building brand equity, benefit-based segmentation and targeting, buyer persona, brand communication and media planning, integrated marketing strategies and brand measurement and strategic brand audit. The course will leverage case discussions, team work and active research by students.

MKT 365 Business-to-Business Marketing (Prerequisite: MKT 301)

The objective of this course is to expose students to the environment of business-to-business (B2B) marketing from a global perspective, with emphasis on how it differs from the consumer (B2C) marketing context. Concepts, models and analytical tools are studied in the areas of business-to business marketing analysis and strategy; managing business-to-business marketing processes; and putting business-to-business marketing into practice.

MKT 370 Entrepreneurial Marketing

A dramatically new form of marketing has emerged. Recent years have witnessed the use of such terms as subversive marketing, disruptive marketing, radical marketing, guerrilla marketing, viral marketing, and expeditionary marketing. This course represents an attempt to bring together these perspectives by providing an integrative framework called “entrepreneurial marketing” (EM). With EM, marketing is approached not as a set of tools (a technology) for facilitating transactions or responding to change, but as a vehicle for fundamentally redefining products, services, and markets in ways that produce a sustainable competitive advantage. EM represents a strategic type of marketing built around six core elements: innovation, calculated risk-taking, resource leveraging, strategic flexibility, customer intensity, and the creation of industry change. Conditions in the marketplace environment drive the need for entrepreneurial marketing (turbulence, discontinuities, rapid changes in technology, economics, competition, etc.), while organizational culture can hinder or facilitate the firm's ability to demonstrate high levels of EM.

MKT 372 Sales Management and Professional Selling (Prerequisite: MKT 301)

The course will look at managing a professional sales force and optimizing the investments made in the organization’s interactions with its most important asset: customers. Sales is a mission critical function for all organizations. Considering the recent evolution of markets, characterized by stagnation, hyper-competition, shortening of product life cycles, difficulties in creating sustainable competitive advantages, sophistication of buyers, sales are becoming increasingly strategic and their management a sophisticated set of activities. According to this modern evolution of markets and consumer behaviors, companies are fundamentally rethinking the role, nature, strategy, objectives, structures and processes of sales management to face these competitive challenges. Sales organizations, especially in multinational companies, are characterized by deep sales transformation and sales excellence programs aimed at increasing the ability of sales organizations to manage the complexity of the markets and increase their productivity. Sales are now increasingly less art and more science: the natural talent and the de-structuring that characterized the commercial roles in the past are increasingly supported (sometimes replaced) by solid methodological foundations and analytical rigor for planning, conducting and monitoring commercial activities. 

MKT 398 Internship: Marketing Field ((Prerequisites: GPA of 3.0 or higher; Junior Standing; Internship in the field of Marketing obtained through the Career Services Center)

The For Credit (FC) Internship course combines academic learning with a short-term (part-time with a minimum of 150 hours) internship. Field experience allows participants to combine academic learning with hands-on work experience. For-Credit internships are unpaid. The organization or firm must be sponsored by the JCU Career Services Center (CSC). After being selected for an internship and having the CSC verify the course requirements are met, the intern may enroll in the Internship course corresponding to the academic discipline of interest. Course requirements include attending the internship class which will is scheduled for 20 in-class hours over the semester or summer session, verification of the minimum number of hours worked in the internship by the CSC; completion of a daily internship log; in-depth interview with the internship sponsor or organization; and a 2500 to 3500 word “White Paper” presenting a position or solution to a problem encountered by their employer. This course is graded on a “pass/no pass” basis. During the Fall and Spring semesters the course will begin the 3rd week of classes; in Summer it begins the 1st week of classes and ends at end of the Summer II Mini session. Students will determine with the Registrar’s Office or their Advisor which semester corresponds most closely with the timing of their internship. This course may be taken only once for academic credit.

MKT 399 Special Topics in Marketing (Prerequisites: Junior Standing, MKT 301)

An in-depth treatment of a current area of special concern within the field of Marketing. Topics may vary.
May be taken more than once for credit with different topics.

MKT 482 Independent Research in Marketing (Prerequisite: Senior Standing; Recommended: at least one major elective in the area of concentration)

MKT 490 Strategic Marketing Management (Prerequisites for Marketing majors: Senior Standing and completion of all other Marketing core courses. Prerequisites for Business majors: MA 208; Recommended: MKT 301, MKT 305, MKT 310)

This course involves the analytical integration of material covered in previous marketing courses. It develops skills in diagnosing marketing problems, formulating and selecting strategic alternatives, and recognizing problems inherent in strategy implementation. The development of a comprehensive marketing plan is a major requirement of the course.

MKT/EC 399 Special Topics in Marketing and Economics

M-MKT 375 Marketing Consulting Lab (Prerequisites: Junior Standing, MKT 301)

The main goal of this course is to prepare students for problem solving in the workplace and learn how to submit a marketing consulting proposal. In this course, student teams will consult a client company. They will analyze strengths and weaknesses of the business and conduct an accurate environmental analysis. Each team will assess internal and external forces, including competition, and their impact on the performance of the client, after which they will determine the best positioning strategy and customize the marketing mix. The outcome will be a consulting proposal that each team will have to present to their client.

M-MKT 399 Special Topics in Marketing (Prerequisites: Junior Standing, MKT 301)

An in-depth treatment of a current area of special concern within the field of Marketing. Topics may vary.
May be taken more than once for credit with different topics.