Marketing Specialization

The specialization aims to enhance students’ analytic and strategic skills, in order to learn how to adapt in a constantly changing environment, integrating both tradition and novelty in terms of media, channels or market studies. Students will be equipped with a strong theoretical foundation thanks to courses taught by world-class researchers, while working alongside experienced professionals and consultants to ensure a ‘hands on’ experience. The combination of theory and practice will promote success upon entry into the job market and throughout graduates’ entire career.

Balance Between Theory and Application

The objective of the program is to equip students with the necessary knowledge and techniques that will enable them to successfully solve a broad set of marketing problems. With this objective in mind, the Marketing faculty is composed both of academics who publish leading research and recognized professionals who bring a wealth of knowledge from real-life cases.

Strong Connection with the Business and Marketing Community

Participants will be given frequent opportunities to gain real “hands-on” experience and to interact with key players from the business world through conferences, workshops, projects, internships and career fairs organized on campus. They will also be given the chance to put their newly acquired knowledge into practice through business cases with well-known companies, offering them an invaluable opportunity to enrich their skills.

Career Outlook

HEC’s Marketing graduates receive multiple job offers and have a 100% employment rate within 6 months. Our specialization in Marketing will also provide a pathway to a successful career beyond the boundaries of marketing in international firms such as consulting, pharmaceutical, regional and national agencies, and NGOs. Such a wide range of career possibilities and fields make this specialization a perfect fit for aspiring brand managers and product developers in today’s fast moving and diverse marketplace

The Marketing Specialization is divided in two main phases:

• the first phase (September-December) is dedicated to the necessary tools and knowledge required to successfully address today’s main marketing challenges
• the second phase (January-April) aims to provide our students with a strong added value in the areas of their choice thanks to electives on specific sectors; such as luxury, health care or consultancy; or on specific topics for which they may wish to gain a deeper insight.

In addition, students will be immersed in real-life business through hands-on seminars and live case-studies.

The Marketing Specialization’s curriculum is common with HEC’s MSc in Marketing. Both populations are grouped within the same promotion and have access to the same courses.

Core Courses

• Big Data

This module introduces concepts related to the rich and complex ecosystem of Big Data. It studies the technologies of transformation and exploration of data, by distributing either data or their treatment and exploiting these data.

• Business for Business 1: Creating Value, Switching to Solutions

The whole course pivots on the key concept of “Value”; it successively covers the issues of understanding, creating, delivering and appropriating value. Second, the course focuses on the offering of solutions and on the shift from B2B to B4B (from “BtoB” to “BforB”). Last, it examines the key issue of access to customers / prospects, whatever their number.

• Business for Business 2: Gaining Access and Engaging Customers

The objective of this course is to give students an understanding of the key specificities of Business Marketing, and to encourage them to think about potential careers in this wide-open field.

• Business Plan

This course trains participants to build and to present a relevant Business Plan (group work) in real conditions.

• Consumer Behavior

The objective of this course is to help students think differently (and better) about how consumers make judgments and choices and how these choices ultimately affect their well-being. It uses insights from economics, psychology, and sociology to better understand and predict consumer behavior.

• Consumer Intelligence

The purpose of the course s to understand the ways companies get their consumer knowledge and transform it into decision-making tools.

• Digital Marketing

This course allows marketers to understand what is at stake for companies and how to bring value in the Digital field for their future job.

• Managing a Career in International Marketing and Sales

The objectives of this course are to outline and illustrate the career choices of HEC graduates enter into a sales and marketing career.

• Managing Innovation for Growth

This course examines three facets of innovation management: exploring, executing, and leveraging innovation.

• Marketing Fundamentals

This core class offers a toolkit of marketing analysis methods and frameworks supporting subsequent decision-making.

• Marketing through Social Media

This course offers students a theoretically informed understanding of how social media can be leveraged both in B2C and B2B contexts to better understand, connect with, and accompany one’s customers.

• Pricing Strategy

The objective of the course is to provide participants with the necessary insights, skills and confidence to make superior pricing decisions. The course takes a multi-disciplinary approach, combining insights from marketing, economics and psychology.

• Retail Marketing and Distribution

This course aims at providing students with a deeper knowledge and understanding of:

- the current issues and strategies in the retail sector,
- the action levers retailers may use to optimize their marketing mix,
- the relationships between manufacturers and retailers,
- the digital impact on this sector.

• Sales Force Management

This course examines the elements of an effective sales force as a key component of the organization's total marketing effort.

• Strategic Brand Management

The course aims at familiarizing students with the latest brand management principles, concepts and methods.

• Strategic Marketing Simulation

This simulation will help you learn, practice, and test marketing strategy concepts. The course will introduce concepts related to the ability of a company to create and manage a leadership position in its market.

All core courses are taught in English.

Elective Courses

• Corporate Social Responsibility and Marketing
• Data Analytics
• Health Marketing
• Inbound Marketing : Evolution or Revolution
• Luxury Strategies
• Managing a Parisian Fashion Brand
• Neuroscience & Marketing
• NPISim (New Product Introduction Simulation)
• Conseil en vente et marketing (in French)
• La communication des marques au 21e siècle : nouvelle vague (in French)
• HEC Paris Startup Launchpad

Professional Thesis

Students must write a master thesis to graduate from this specialization. It represents an important component of the learning experience. The objective of the thesis is to explore cutting-edge research implementation in daily practice within a highly competitive marketing environment.

Professional Experience

The professional experience requirement is satisfied through the completion of at least 4 months in a course-related field. It is, however, important to stress that this professional experience may not be an internship per se but a full-time job.