Marketing Program

St. Bonaventure University

We prepare our Marketing majors to be knowledgeable and ethical members of a career path that the Bureau of Labor Statistics projects will see steady growth through the end of the decade,

Why the demand?

Students gathered around a computer screen

How many times a day do you do a Google search? What pops up when you do, and why?

Today's marketing professionals need to know not only how to craft an online message, but how to optimize the chance that it lands high on the list of results generated by an online search engine. Then there's Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and other social media outlets; an industry of its own, with an audience — a customer base, if you will — in the millions.

Today's marketers are innovators and integrators who can communicate effectively across a broad media spectrum.

Other factors driving demand:

Competition: People are more cost-conscious and more selective today, so firms place a high priority on marketing their message. Even nonprofits, such as universities and hospitals, are competing for the attention of a more discerning consumer.
Policy change: Deregulation has brought competition to banking, transportation and other major industries. To stay competitive, they commit major resources to marketing initiatives.

It all came together

Marketing alumni Krystin Troyer Ryan and Patricia Nessle credit their St. Bonaventure education and training for making them feel comfortable and competent in their jobs "right off the bat."

Experiential learning with a solid business core

Majors begin with courses in the liberal arts and core business courses in marketing, organizational behavior, quantitative analysis, economics, finance, business law, and accounting.

Your junior and senior years will focus on higher-level required courses and electives, such as consumer behavior, marketing research and international marketing.

All students prepare a marketing plan for a client as a degree requirement, and they graduate with a range of projects demonstrating their skills and job readiness.

The program includes an advertising course called American Advertising Federation, in which students create a national advertising campaign for a real national advertiser, then present it at a national AAF competition in New York.

In addition to AAF, we have a host of additional nationally recognized student clubs and organizations.

Learn by doing through a required internship

All Marketing majors complete a 15-hour, 3-credit internship, which may be completed in an on- or off-campus setting. You will be guided through this process by the director of our own School of Business Internship Program.

Program Information

The School of Business offers a BBA in Marketing and a minor in Marketing.

Bachelor of Business Administration in Marketing

Marketing majors develop a broad working knowledge of the theory and practice of marketing. Program flexibility and adaptability to special interests is provided by electives within and outside the major.

Upon successful completion of the Marketing program at St. Bonaventure University, graduates will:

define the term "marketing" and explain its role and importance in an individual firm and the overall economy;
develop insight about creative selection of target markets and business decisions related to product, price, promotion, and place (i.e., the marketing mix) to meet the needs of a target market;
identify the key theories and frameworks from behavioral sciences that help marketers understand consumer behavior;
understand the internal and external influences on consumer behavior;
understand the relationship between a marketing communications strategy and other levels of an institution’s strategy;
understand the various roles that exist, from the marketing department to advertising agencies;
understand how search engines work;
understand the mechanics of paid search ranking;
implement a primary data collection project designed specifically to solve specific managerial problems;
run basic analyses for the collected primary data;
assess the internal capabilities and external environments of businesses, including a business audit, market and competitive analysis, and strategic positioning;
identify pricing strategies that capture value for the firm.

Marketing minor

For non-majors, the 18-hour Marketing minor is one of nine School of Business minors offering students an opportunity to study a specific area of business in more detail.

Students present at College Sport Research Institute Conference

Mar 28, 2025 | St. Bonaventure University Sports Management majors junior Hayden Watt and senior Logan Armstrong presented their research titled “The Island of Misfit Basketball Teams: Examining the Haves and Have-Nots of the NIL Era” at the College Sport Research Institute Conference on March 21 in Columbia, South Carolina.

��'s Gratz will present research at two summer conferences

Mar 21, 2025 | Dr. Elizabeth T. Gratz, assistant professor of Marketing, will collaborate with fellow track members at the 2025 Transformative Consumer Research (TCR) dialogical conference, June 12-15 in Washington, D.C., in a track titled "Improving Marketplace Access for All: Learning from those with Invisible Disabilities."

��'s Tripathi publishes paper on stock earnings announcements

Mar 21, 2025 | Dr. Janhavi Shankar Tripathi, assistant professor of Finance, has published a new paper titled “The Impact of Earnings Announcements Before and After Regular Market Hours on Asset Price Dynamics in the Fintech Era” (with Dr. Erick W. Rengifo, Fordham University) in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management.

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St. Bonaventure University