Emphasis Program Descriptions

Marketing Emphasis

The Integrated Marketing Emphasis allows marketing students to learn important marketing skills and strategic concepts by addressing actual real-time concerns of a regional or national consumer brand. Typically the semester is divided into three phases:

• 1) Phase 1: Consumer Behavior, Exploratory Research and Marketing Strategy Exploratory Phase where students do a Situation Analysis of the client business, looking at competition and the industry, conducting exploratory interviews with current or prospective customers, depending on client objectives. From this they develop hypotheses and tentative strategies. Simultaneously, students study Consumer Behavior Theory and continually apply the conceptual theory to the client's target consumer behavior. This first phase culminates with presentations to the client.

• 2) Phase 2: Sales/Negotiations, Marketing Research Skills and Database/Internet Marketing: Part of the students develop, administer and interpret the results of an online survey conducted among client's current or prospective customers. The other group of students develops database marketing models or internet marketing projects. Results of these studies are then presented to the client. At the same time, all are developing sales and negotiations skills in a concurrent class.

• 3) Phase 3: Global Marketing, Marketing Law, and a choice of one execution -oriented class: Advertising, Retailing or Supply Chain. Application Phase where students in advertising class develop creative ideas to brand and communicate the program; students in retailing class look at retail execution details; Supply Chain students address basic supply chain issues facing the client. During this phase, all students also study Global Marketing and Marketing Law; however these classes have only limited application to the client. Final Advertising and retail presentations at the end of the semester.

Former clients include Idahoan Specialty Potatoes, KLIM snowmobile apparel, KLIM Dirt bike apparel, Idahoan Instant Flavored Mashed Potatoes and Backcountry.com (outdoor gear online)

Graduates are prepared for entry-level marketing positions in brand management, market research, sales, internet/database marketing, international marketing, retailing, etc.

Successful students develop strong skills in teamwork, problem-solving, applying marketing concepts to real-world problems and opportunities, analyzing data using excel and SPSS.  

Supply Chain Management

The Integrated Supply Chain Emphasis at Brigham Young University-Idaho is designed to prepare graduates for entry level positions and career growth across functions in the supply chain.  Students in this emphasis enroll in four integrated courses (12 credits total):

• Purchasing
• Advanced Operations
• Distribution
• Modeling and Analysis 

These courses roughly correspond to the SCOR Model of Plan-Source-Make-Deliver.  There is a heavy emphasis on real world application as learning is encouraged through the extensive use of case studies, simulations, projects, presentations, field trips, Excel-based modeling and analysis, and exposure to ERP and SCM applications.  BYU-Idaho has also launched a student chapter of APICS (American Production and Inventory Control Society) and is making certification training materials available to students who desire to work toward a CPIM (Certified in Production and Inventory Management) while in school.

Finance Emphasis

The objective of the Integrated Finance Emphasis is help students better prepare for the workplace.  During their senior year, students select from among three broad job areas for their particular area of focus.  The basic job areas include:

            1. Advanced Investments and Capital Markets

            2. Banking and Corporate Financial Management

            3. New Venture Funding

The method is to involve the student in a broad variety of courses as they apply to their particular area of focus.  Rather taking just four senior level finance courses which may have a more general direction, students take between seven and nine courses oriented specifically to their area of job focus.  A broader faculty group is involved in developing courses specific to the area of work focus.  For example, a business law professor is asked to develop and provide a one credit course on trusts, wills and estate planning for those students in the Retail Finance & Financial Planning focus. 

In addition, students in a particular area of work focus are also involved in a work experience project which allows them to integrate their coursework with real world application.  Retail Finance & Financial Planning students help with retirement and estate planning, Banking & Capital Markets students create detailed portfolio models with real-time links to the internet, and Corporate students perform projects to assist businesses with financial analysis and decision making.