Marketers don't promote just products anymore; they promote ideas, causes, places, services, performances, groups, and people. Many Southern graduates work in the social services, in healthcare, in state and local government, and in politics and the arts. Almost every organization needs help writing and designing ads, creating a media campaign, buying ad time, expanding into new markets, and speaking effectively with the media. Marketing professionals add value to their organizations and help them survive in the marketplace.

The exciting thing about marketing is that it requires a range of skills -- creativity in advertising, interpersonal skills in sales force management, and quantitative skills in research analysis. There's room for every personality type in this field, left- and right-brain thinkers, introverts and extroverts.

In a recent survey, local professionals revealed that they want graduates with skills in analysis, problem-solving, qualitative and quantitative research, and teamwork.

Southern offers the right combination of courses to help students develop these skills. Southern's hands-on approach means more than simply learning the names of advertising techniques. Instead, students form teams and design an emergency plan to promote the brand of a real-life ailing company. After learning the principles of consumer behavior, they survey the buying habits of their classmates and try to understand how that information can be useful to a company.

For example, one student interested in sports marketing took an internship at the New Haven Coliseum, helping its operators design a game plan to increase bookings and therefore the economic vitality of downtown. Another student interested in healthcare interned at Yale-New Haven Hospital, helping write a market potential report while the hospital considered whether it should open an in-vitro fertilization clinic.