Extreme Major Makeover: A Plan for Marketing Improvements to the Electronic Business Marketing Major
Date of Defense
4-19-2017
Date of Graduation
4-2017
Department
Business - Interdisciplinary
First Advisor
JoAnn Atkin
Second Advisor
Bidyut Hazarika
Abstract
This piece is a marketing plan that was written with the intent of improving and growing the Electronic Business Marketing major within the Haworth College of Business at Western Michigan University. The current program is 5 years old and prepares students for a multitude of careers paths such as eCommerce, programming, social marketing, and many more. All of these career fields have seen growth in the demand for skilled professionals that this major can produce over the past few years, yet the major itself has not reached the same levels of growth. In addition, students who are enrolled in the program have expressed opinions regarding a need to strengthen the degree program as a whole. These improvements needed to be two-pronged; strengthen the major so that graduates look better to employers and strengthen the major so that it is attractive to incoming students.
This marketing plan began with research to determine current knowledge and opinions regarding the Electronic Business Marketing major from students currently enrolled within the Business Information Systems department and Marketing department. This survey was e-mailed out to students and they chose whether to complete it or not. Once the information was collected, the objectives were established. This marketing plan would set out to double enrollment in the major within the next three years and also triple the awareness of the major for students within the business college.
As with all marketing plans, the next steps outlined the information that was necessary to create promotional strategies that would help reach the objectives. This included information such as an analysis of the competition in the marketplace, target market psychographics, an analysis of problems and opportunities, as well as an outline of the current thoughts about the major as collected from the survey.
Overall, this plan in an in-depth look at where the major has been, where it is currently, and where it could go in the future. It will be used to help grow the major into a world-class educational program that produces the best and brightest of the digital marketing field.
Recommended Citation
Sionkowski, Erin, "Extreme Major Makeover: A Plan for Marketing Improvements to the Electronic Business Marketing Major" (2017). Honors Theses. 2876.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/honors_theses/2876
Access Setting
Honors Thesis-Restricted