M.S. Marketing Research Curriculum

 

CURRICULUM OVERVIEW

The MS in Marketing Research program at the College of Business at the University of Texas in Arlington equips students with comprehensive skills to transform data into actionable business insights. This specialized curriculum balances theoretical knowledge with practical application, preparing graduates to lead data-driven decision-making in today's complex marketing landscape.

Throughout this program, students will:

  • Master both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies to uncover consumer motivations and behavior patterns
  • Develop advanced statistical and analytical skills for predictive modeling and data interpretation
  • Learn to design effective research studies that yield reliable, decision-relevant information
  • Gain expertise in contemporary research tools, including social media analytics and customer relationship management systems
  • Build essential business communication skills to translate complex findings into clear, persuasive recommendations

The curriculum integrates foundational marketing principles with cutting-edge analytical techniques, ensuring graduates can address real-world business challenges through sophisticated research approaches. Whether pursuing careers in marketing research firms, corporate insights departments, or strategic consulting, students emerge with the technical expertise and strategic perspective needed to drive marketing success through evidence-based decision-making.

Topics in Required Courses (8)

In today’s fast-moving business world, good decisions start with asking the right questions, and knowing how to find the answers. This course offers a look behind the scenes of marketing, focusing on what kind of information decision-makers really need and how research helps guide smart choices.

Learn how to plan research that matters, create surveys that get honest responses, and collect strong, reliable data. Key topics include writing clear survey questions, choosing who to ask, designing experiments, managing data collection, and understanding results in a meaningful way.

Every marketing decision starts with one key question: What does the customer want, and why? This course explores the world of consumer behavior through the lens of a marketing consultant, someone who needs to deeply understand people in order to build strategies that work.

By drawing on ideas from psychology, sociology, and other behavioral sciences, the course looks at how customers think, feel, and act in the marketplace. Real-world examples and research-based discussions help connect these ideas to everyday marketing challenges.

From product choices to brand loyalty, uncover what drives customer decisions, and how that insight can shape smarter marketing strategies.

Every customer choice has a reason behind it. This course focuses on discovering those reasons by using hands-on, qualitative research to explore what motivates people, or what gets in their way.

Learn how to plan and run research projects that look closely at real customer experiences. Use methods like interviews, focus groups, usability tests, and journey maps to better understand thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

Build skills in asking the right questions, spotting patterns, and turning what people say into useful ideas for businesses. Learn how to share those findings in a clear way that helps teams make better decisions.

Advanced statistical learning for business analytics is designed to prepare students to become competent producers and consumers of predictive analytics and statistical information and to use evidenced based managerial decision making in their careers. They will be able to recognize the strengths and weaknesses of applicable techniques and when additional expertise is required.

This course is designed to gain essential skills for data-driven business and marketing decisions with a focus on analysis techniques such as factor analysis, multiple regression, discriminant analysis, logistic regression, and conjoint analysis. Students develop practical skills in interpreting data to solve complex marketing problems. 

Master advanced multivariate techniques to solve real-world business challenges. This course covers cluster analysis, MANOVA, multidimensional scaling, correspondence analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling, with hands-on software training for effective analysis and interpretation. This course equips students with essential tools for high-impact decision-making in complex business environments.

Research applied to business, a.k.a. marketing research or insights research, is always evolving, and staying current means learning the latest methods, tools, and best practices. This course offers an in-depth look at the techniques most in demand by research firms and corporate teams.

Content adapts each year to reflect emerging trends in both qualitative and quantitative research. Through lectures, expert insights, and real-world case studies, the course builds a strong foundation in the skills needed to succeed in today’s research-driven market.

Topics in Elective Courses (4)

This course offers a hands-on opportunity to apply key managerial and analytical tools in real-world business situations. Through case studies, explore how to identify core company problems, evaluate possible solutions, and recommend clear, strategic actions.

Each case encourages critical thinking, creative problem-solving, and practical decision-making, building the confidence and skills needed to tackle complex business challenges.

Every product has a story, from idea to launch to lasting success or eventual phase-out. This course focuses on managing a firm’s product or service offerings with smart, strategic decisions at every stage.

Explore how new products are developed and screened, how existing products are evaluated, and how product lines and mixes are shaped. Key topics include product planning, branding, and decisions around when to improve, expand, or remove a product. Special attention is given to setting clear criteria for product decisions and using information systems to guide, test, and track product performance.

Ideal for understanding how to build and manage offerings that truly meet market needs.

Building lasting customer relationships starts with understanding the data behind every interaction. This course introduces key concepts in customer relationship management and explores how analytics can solve real-world marketing challenges.

Topics include marketing databases, systems for collecting and storing customer data, and tools for analyzing and reporting detailed information. Focus is placed on using customer insights to improve satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability.

Through case studies and hands-on data projects, the course shows how meaningful connections are built, one data point at a time.

The course studies social media as a tool for listening to engaging with customers and other significant audiences and for delivering marketing communications. Through interactive class projects students will learn best practices for managing social media channels and platforms. The course discusses examines the fundamentals for developing crafting a social media marketing plan and examines including metrics for monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of social media campaigns. Ethical and legal issues related to privacy, security, content and crowdsourcing are also presented.

Insights professionals work for companies or clients whose core business is providing services. This course examines conceptual frameworks and management practices particularly relevant to organizations in service industries, including health care, education, financial services, retailing, non-profit organizations, and others in which the core product is a service instead of a good. The course focuses on many concepts and theories from the service marketing industry and analyzes their value in crafting marketing strategies. Emphasis is on problem solving unique to these types of organizations.

Business communication is an essential skill for many insights professionals. Courses offered in the Spring and Fall integrate theoretical foundations with practical applications of business communication for today's workplace. Students develop advanced communication skills tailored for marketing, management, economics, finance, and information systems environments.

Core elements include analysis of effective communication theories including conflict resolution and emotional intelligence, research methodologies and techniques for crafting professional business reports, development of persuasive presentation skills incorporating multimedia elements and data visualization and practical applications of communication strategies within specific business contexts

The courses will emphasize both written and oral communication competencies essential for career advancement, providing students with the specialized communication toolkit needed to succeed in contemporary business environments.

Students without a business degree or quantitative analysis experience will be required to take preparatory courses to get them ready for the more advanced classes.

Preparatory course are mainly in two areas:

Foundations of Analytics

Introduction to statistical learning for business analytics, designed to prepare graduate students to become competent consumers of data analytics and statistical information that they will encounter in their professional and personal lives. Students should be able to perform basic statistical analyses and to think critically when interpreting statistical results. Topics include data visualization, spreadsheet analytics, descriptive statistics, probability, estimations, hypothesis testing, and simple regression.

 

Marketing

Activities involved in marketing. Emphasis is on developing a managerial point of view in planning and evaluating marketing decisions of the firm. Analyzes decisions with respect to products, price, channel, and promotional variables and considers questions relating to cost efficiency, demand, social responsibility and regulations.

Interest Form

Do you want to learn more about the MS in Marketing Research degree program? Submit this interest form.

Interest Form

Contact MSMR

701 S. West St., Ste. 234
UTA Box 19467
Arlington, Texas 76019

Michaela Mora, MSMR, UXMC, IPC
Program Director
Assistant Professor of Practice
michaela.mora@uta.edu

Connect With Us

facebook logo  instagram logo  linkedin logo  youtube logo