Masters in International Marketing

Immersion is a combination of learning academic fundamentals, leadership development, building new relationships, and forging a sense of community, all while orienting yourself with the city and campus.

The focus on the customer is one of the most important aspects of marketing in today’s exceptionally competitive world, because understanding the prospective customer drives almost all areas of marketing. You will explore the ways in which customers make decisions, how they find and evaluate potential purchases, and then how they purchase and use the products and services they choose. You’ll consider concepts around customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction and the various ways that customers learn, perceive, and live their lives as they relate to companies developing better marketing plans and programs. You will also study the roles and impact of culture, social groups, and lifestyles on a customer’s purchasing decisions.

Marketing communications have been revolutionized by the creation of the World Wide Web. You will examine the full range of digital marketing platforms and activities, defining best practices, exploring channels that are appropriate for products and services, and examining the potential for continued disruption and change. You will cover many topics, including the history of the web and web marketing, the digital customer journey, online marketing, SEO, and linkages between the online and offline worlds. You’ll also explore how to create marketing products and experiences and the concept of lean marketing, as well as how the growth of technology will lead to new opportunities and challenges.

A brand is a uniquely identified promise of value, which can develop into a relationship that consistently and competitively satisfies the desires of the stakeholders. A strong brand simplifies the consumer decision-making process both cognitively and practically. Organizations of all kinds have come to realize that one of their most valuable assets is their brand or portfolio of brands. Creating strong brands that deliver on promises and values, as well as maintaining and enhancing the strength of those brands over time, is critical for business success. Still, branding presents significant challenges for brand managers and other marketing professionals. The primary goal is for you to develop branding and brand management knowledge and skills. You will learn how to make branding decisions, develop a strategic brand plan, and oversee successful management of brands.

In social marketing, the goal is to transition deep-seated attitudes into behaviors that benefit the individual and society. You will be encouraged to consider some of the key behavioral challenges facing society and businesses today and to develop specific, targeted, socially driven market strategies to change them. From energy use to potable water to the development of healthcare initiatives, in both developed and emerging markets, social marketing is becoming an increasingly critical tool for managers in the 21st century.

Explore the modern practice of marketing analytics, which is the process of translating available data into decision-guiding, competitively advantageous decision supports. This entails developing basic familiarity with applicable data sources and data types, thus acquiring an understanding of how statistical methodologies are used to draw robust and generalizable inferences from the available data. You will become acquainted with the general marketing strategy logic that governs the process of translating statistical/ data analytic outcomes into specific marketing tactics. Focus-wise, you will address three core dimensions of marketing: new customer acquisition, current customer retention/customer loyalty, and marketing mix optimization.

In the next ten years the rise of new exponential technologies will change economics and daily life around the world. Making sense of the possibilities requires a future mindset that can understand and act in rapidly shifting digital contexts, organizations, and technologies. Hult students will build competencies in the mindsets and approaches of the new digital economy, exploring the contexts in which digitally forward organizations define new opportunities—and how they turn these opportunities into learning and growth.

The business development and sales functions are critically important to any company. The best products and services, supported by highly technical systems and processes, and managed by experienced professionals, will ultimately fail if the company doesn’t have a competitive function for generating leads, managing markets, and converting prospects into revenues. As a result of the explosion of channels and outlets today, business development has become very complex and sophisticated. Marketing professionals must design and implement nuanced channel strategies to enable high performance business development. You will look at how to design a strategy that integrates a sales management framework, which enables sales planning and the development of processes to ensure successful account engagement.

From a strategic perspective, marketing is comprehensive and includes not only the understanding of marketing terminology but also a method of applying it in a competitive environment. Marketing is dynamic and requires constant awareness of the marketplace, including both the point of view of the customer and the competition faced. The objective of marketing strategies is to achieve a competitive advantage for your company and its products and services. You will focus on the dynamics of the marketplace and competition, and will explore new concepts and fresh insights while developing new skills. Marketing strategies are the result of experience, education, and creative thinking.

Business professionals need to understand the vital role that innovation of products and services plays in the success of all companies. There are significant risks associated with product and service innovation, and expertise in marketing and design are critical skills for marketing managers. You will examine the issues, strategies, and approaches associated with developing, introducing, and managing new goods and services in the global marketplace. You will also learn methods of identifying business opportunities, idea generation, concept development, market testing, and introducing innovations to the marketplace.

Build on the skills and models introduced during immersion and specifically focus on growth mindset, interpersonal influence, and team collaboration. Through interactive and collaborative learning, you’ll build skills in communication, relationship building, persuasion, negotiation, and conflict resolution. The workshops are a companion to Hult’s peer feedback process and can provide input on your development priorities.

Your core challenge in the spring is the capstone to your core courses and demands the utmost creativity. Building upon themes established throughout the program, the Future Challenge calls upon students to harness disruptive technology to create a compelling new business opportunity, either for your own startup or for an existing company. You’ll prepare for the Future Challenge by learning about the disruptive technologies themselves (e.g. blockchain, gene editing, artificial intelligence). You and your team are then given three weeks to develop innovative business ideas utilizing a disruptive technology. Winning teams will present their ideas to external judges who include senior executives, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists.

Choose from a broad range of topics, or specialize in a particular subject area: marketing, finance, entrepreneurship, business analytics, or disruptive technology. You can take electives at up to two of any of our global campus locations in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai, Shanghai, and New York.

Study at up to two campuses and gain on-the-ground international business experience.