Course Content

The main track of the curriculum revolves around 4 fundamental pillars: 

1. Strategic thinking and management:
   • Design-thinking and product development
   • Strategic Marketing Management
   • Strategic Brand Management
2. Data-driven decision-making and digital innovation:
   • Data analytics for marketing
   • Marketing & Engineering
   • Data manipulation and visualization with R
   • Digital marketing
3. Entrepreneurship and new business models: 
   • Reinventing your business model with Odyssey 3.14
   • Marketing business KPI and business planning
   • Pricing strategy
   • Optional: Startup launch courses in collaboration with HEC Startup Launchpad
4. Sustainability-driven marketing​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
5. Sustainable Marketing

In the second part of the curriculum, students can choose specialization courses to deepen their knowledge in a topical field of marketing and business. 

• Marketing specifics: 
  • Consumer behavior 
  • Marketing 4.0.
  • (R)e-tail strategies
  • B2B Marketing
  • Consumer neuroscience, AI & Ethics
• Business development for startups
• Data science and AI for Marketers
• Luxury management 
   

Along with the core courses’ curriculum, students follow seminars aiming at developing career-oriented skills and at supporting the personal growth necessary to any today’s leader. 

Professional career seminars: 

• Executive careers in marketing 

• Pitching your ideas 

• Job market workshops in collaboration with the Career Services 

Personal development seminars: 

INTAKE SEMINAR

• Intelligence Emotionnelle
• Pitching your ideas
• Negociation, The P&G persuasive selling method
• Leadership
• Soft Skills
• Presentation slides

All along the curriculum, students have the opportunity to apply newly acquired theoretical knowledge and frameworks in a real-life setting.

Business simulation:

Students participate in a marketing serious game in teams and develop new products they launch on the market within highly competitive environments. 

Business cases: 

• The L’Oréal Bootcamp: a two-day design-thinking marathon where students provide a readily implementable solution to a strategic marketing issue raised by one of L’Oréal brands. For example: 
  • how to develop customer-centricity in travel retail; 
  • how to respond to DNVBs in the luxury cosmetic division; 
  • how to make a hair color brand meaningful to younger generations; 
  • how to leverage an iconic brand to develop business while transiting towards sustainability. 

• The DDB Challenge: for a week, students provide strategic consultancy to one of DDB’s (advertising agency) clients on a hot marketing issue. For example:
  • how to make a theme park more customer-centric; 
  • how to launch a blockbuster in the video games industry.

Students wishing to launch their startup company while continuing their marketing education can do so.

First term: 

• Students follow core courses to acquire the necessary credits then apply to the startup launchpad. 
• In case of successful application, they can follow up with the HEC Startup launchpad courses. Should their application fail, they can go on with the marketing program curriculum.  

Second term: 

• Students accepted into the Launchpad follow the Launchpad courses and grab the opportunity to develop their startup project. 

For 10 weeks, students carry out a consulting project with a company to help them solve a strategic issue. Students work in teams, two days a week, meet with the company and provide output along the way in landmark meetings. A final presentation closes the consulting mission and provides a fully-documented answer to the issue raised by the partner company. 
 

When possible, students participate in a study trip where they can learn about local businesses and grab the opportunity to network locally with companies of interest. 

At the end of the program, students hand in a thesis on a topic of their choice. The thesis can be fully research-based or more practitioner-oriented. Each student benefits from the tutorship of a member of the HEC Paris faculty. 

The thesis is a one-of-kind opportunity to combine conceptual thinking, hands-on practice and business decision-making in the same exercise. 

It provides students with the opportunity to broaden their scope of interest, to deepen their expertise on a topic and to attract companies’ attention on the job market.

The professional experience requirement is satisfied when the student completes a professional experience of at least 4 months in fields related to their coursework at HEC Paris. It is, however, important to stress that this professional experience may not be an internship per se.

Our policy at HEC Paris is that the best type of internship is a full-time job! We strongly encourage our students to look for permanent hiring as soon as the academic year starts.

In order to maximize the students’ career opportunities, job market workshops aim to better prepare them for their job search and cover topics like CV presentation, assessment centers and handling interviews. This specific individual support complements the services brought by the Career department.

As an international business school, HEC Paris welcomes students from all over the world. Almost one hundred nationalities live on the campus. It's a fantastic opportunity to discover other cultures and to share exceptional moments, and it's important that students can communicate as much as they wish.

HEC Paris Learning Center of Languages aims at helping students to learn or strengthen any language they would like, providing a wide range of I.T. and print resources.

Students do not need to speak French to enroll in the program as all core courses and most electives are offered in English. However, some knowledge of French can be useful to enjoy the full HEC experience, become professionally bicultural and optimize networking with French students and alumni. This is why HEC Paris offers optional French language classes.

Prior to their studies, students may also register for a two week French language course (TEF certificate – all levels) in August. This is an exceptional opportunity to learn French before joining the Campus (extra fees are applicable).