·Data-driven decision making and rigor are important goals in the learning of marketing decision-making

“Why did the marketer get off the trampoline? He was worried about his bounce rate.”

Note: The digital version of the course schedule is provided for ease of access. For more details, please refer to the PDF versions of the syllabus and project guidelines available on Canvas.

Preface

Over the years, one of my top priorities has been equipping my students with practical, hands-on skills they can showcase in national-level competitions and apply in their future careers. I am incredibly proud of my students for demonstrating exceptional analytical abilities, teamwork, and critical thinking while participating in various national and regional competitions.🌟

Ref: Young, 2024. CSUB teams win top prizes in National Marketing Research/Analytics Competition. https://news.csub.edu/csub-teams-win-top-prizes-in-national-marketing-researchanalytics-competition

Parker and Hashem, 2021.CSUB’s first team participated in 2021 Virtual Business Analytics Competition. https://news.csub.edu/csubs-first-team-participated-in-2021-virtual-business-analytics-competition

2021 Business Analytics Competition. https://manhattan.edu/academics/schools-and-departments/school-of-business/business-analytics-competition/previous/2021-bac.php

Luiz, 2022. CSUB holds first Digital Marketing and Business Analytics Hackathon. https://news.csub.edu/csub-holds-first-digital-marketing-and-business-analytics-hackathon.

Course Schedule

Note: You will be participating in the 2025 Marketing Research Competition, organized by MRC, Quirk’s Media, and The Insights Association. our students secured 2nd and 3rd place nationally in the spring 2024 Marketing Research Competition! The presentation dates may be adjusted according to the competition schedule.

You may have an opportunity to pursue a different project. However, it must be preapproved by the instructor.

Subject to Change Statement

Schedule and assignments are subject to change as our course moves forward. Students are expected to regularly check the Blackboard course area for announcements and updates about the course. Students are also expected to check their email accounts daily for any announcements, changes, etc.

This tentative course schedule is created using R & R Markdown. Some trivia facts about R: - 1. R is free. - 2. R is one of the top two most common programming languages in business analytics (Harvard Business School). - 3. There are about 100,000 job advertisements for R-related roles in the US (e.g., Indeed.com). - 4. Many business/marketing analytics jobs may require basic R or Python programming skills ESEGBA (2022).

WeekDatesTopicsDue
Week 18.25-9.01Introduction & Chapter 1Discussion 1
Week 29.02-9.08Chapters 16 & 17Discussion 2
Week 39.08-9.15Chapter 2 & Section 3 (Tableau for Business Users)Discussion 3/Assignment 1
Week 49.15-9.22Chapters 6 & 7 and & Section 4 (Tableau for Business Users)Discussion 4/Project Proposal
Week 59.22-9.29Chapter 8 & Section 5 (Tableau for Business Users)Discussion 5/Self-paced Certificate 1
Week 69.29-10.06Chapter 9 & Section 8 (Tableau for Business Users)Discussion 6
Week 710.06-10.13Chapter 10Discussion 7/Assignment 2
Week 810.13-10.20Chapter 14Discussion 8/Self-paced Certificate 2
Week 910.20-10.27Chapter 15Discussion 9/Assignment 3
Week 1010.27-11.03Chapter 11Assignment 4
Week 1111.03-11.10Chapter 12Discussion 9/Project presentations
Week 1211.10-11.17Chapter 13Discussion 10/Assignment 5
Week 1311.17-11.25project sessionAssignment 6
Week 1411.26-11.28Advanced topics/Individual meetingsDiscussion 11/Individual meetings
Week 1512.01-12.08Dashboard & API Designproject session/Dashboard design
Week 1612.08-12.15Course warp-up/Project presentationsCourse wrap-up/Project presentations

Grading Policy

Note@: Your instructor may request a limited number of free coupons for you to earn DataCamp certificates by the start of week 2. All my previous students have successfully achieved certification through DataCamp by completing these self-paced online courses.

Tell me and I will forget, show me and I may remember; let me do it and I will understand. In a duration of 2 weeks time we remember only 90% of what we actually participate in. The more the involvement, the more we learn and remember in the long run. I hope that the course note will be a start-up point for you to take a deep dive into the art and science of marketing. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please get in touch with me.

“Differences of habit and language are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.”
— Albus Dumbledore
“When you visualize, then you materialize.”
—Denis Waitley
“our degrees aren’t as valuable as your skills.
— Richard Feynman
“If you want to master something, teach it.”
— Richard Feynman
“If you don’t make mistakes, you’re doing it wrong. If you don’t correct those mistakes, you’re doing it really wrong. If you can’t accept that you’re mistaken, you’re not doing it at all..”
— Richard Feynman
“If you thought that science was certain - well, that is just an error on your part.”
— Richard Feynman
“Learning is synthesizing seemingly divergent ideas and data.’ –Terry Heick.”
— Richard Feynman

This course schedule is published using R (the most popular open source programming language for business students) and R Markdown. R Markdown is a R package designed by Xie, Allaire, and Grolemund (2023) for generating html webpages and PDFLaTex files. Here is the website if you would like to publish your own book or project using R and Bookdown (https://bookdown.org/yihui/rmarkdown/). You might also consider developing your own website or writing your paper or thesis using R and R Markdown.