Marketing is the right fit if you're curious about how people think, enjoy creative problem-solving and want to shape real-world decisions. Marketing is ideal for students who enjoy bridging business thinking, storytelling and data. People who want to understand what drives behavior and then do something about it. If you're drawn to both the art and science of influence, marketing gives you a field that rewards exactly that.

Marketing is the one business discipline centered entirely on the customer. While accounting tracks value, finance allocates it and management organizes it, marketing creates it by understanding what people want and building meaningful connections between organizations and their audiences. It blends psychology, strategy, communication and data in ways no other business major does.

You'll build a versatile skill set that combines creative direction, analytical reasoning and strategic communication. Core competencies include consumer behavior analysis, digital marketing strategy, data interpretation, brand storytelling and AI-augmented campaign development. Graduates are equipped to translate consumer insight into effective marketing decisions and to lead creative teams in doing the same.

A marketing degree from the Fogelman College of Business and Economics prepares you for roles in brand strategy, digital marketing, customer experience, marketing analytics, content strategy and sales. Beyond those established paths, the program specifically prepares you for emerging roles at the intersection of data, AI and human insight, including campaign strategy, consumer intelligence and experience design. These are among the fastest-growing positions in the field.

Our marketing program combines three differentiators you won't find bundled elsewhere: a Consumer NeuroInsights Lab (C-NRL) with eye-tracking, EEG and biometric technology for real consumer research; integrated AI tools training that prepares students to direct (not just use) emerging technology; and a Memphis location that puts you inside a working marketplace of corporations, startups, nonprofits and creative agencies from day one. That combination of lab science, AI fluency and hands-on city access is genuinely distinctive.

Yes. Memphis is a major metropolitan business hub, and proximity to that market is a real advantage. Our marketing students complete internships while enrolled, building professional experience, and often job offers, before graduation. The city's mix of Fortune 500 companies, regional firms, nonprofits and agencies gives you access to a broad range of industries and roles without leaving for the summer.

Memphis is a living marketing laboratory. The city's unique mix of industries (logistics, healthcare, music, food, hospitality and nonprofits) gives students immediate access to real organizations with real marketing challenges. You don't just study how marketing works; you observe it, participate in it and build relationships inside it. Programs in smaller markets or more insular campuses can't offer that kind of applied urban context.

The program is built around adaptability, not just current tool proficiency. Marketing is changing faster than any curriculum can track, so the emphasis is on developing the strategic thinking, creative direction skills and learning agility that let graduates grow into roles that don't exist yet. AI fluency is integrated throughout, not as a separate tech elective, but as a core competency for modern marketing leadership.

The value is measurable: students gain hands-on experience through internships, applied projects and community partnerships while still enrolled. That means graduating with a professional network, a real portfolio and often a job opportunity already in hand. The program's connections to the Memphis business community, and the city's lower cost of living relative to major coastal markets, make this one of the stronger ROI options in marketing education.