Marketing
An 18-credit business minor with five dedicated marketing courses — advertising, social media, consumer behavior, and marketing management — for students serious about the craft.
About the Minor
ACU’s Marketing Minor is the marketing-deep option in ACU’s family of business-school minors. Where the Business Minor covers marketing in a single course, the Marketing Minor walks through five dedicated marketing courses — Principles of Marketing (MKT 350), Advertising and Promotion (MKT 354), Social Media Marketing (MKT 382), Consumer Behavior (MKT 392), and Marketing Management (MKT 450) — with Introduction to Business (BUS 101) as the foundational gateway.
The minor builds the working command of marketing strategy, campaign development, audience understanding, and digital execution that real marketing careers require. You leave with both the conceptual frameworks marketing scholars use and the hands-on skills marketing teams actually need on day one.
Pairs especially naturally with Communication, Christian Ministries (for church/ministry communications and growth), Music (for artist branding and audience development), Sport Management, and any major where the work of reaching audiences shows up in the job description.
What You'll Learn
Apply Marketing Principles
Work through the foundational frameworks scholars and practitioners use to understand how marketing actually creates value.
Build Advertising and Promotion Campaigns
Develop the working skills to plan and execute advertising and promotional work across traditional and digital channels.
Execute Social Media Marketing
Apply current best practices for social media marketing across the major platforms and audience types.
Understand Consumer Behavior
Study how customers actually make decisions — the psychological, cultural, and contextual factors marketing depends on understanding.
Manage Marketing Strategy
Pull the pieces together through MKT 450 Marketing Management — the capstone-style course where strategy meets execution.
Marketing Through a Biblical Worldview
A Biblical Worldview takes marketing seriously — both as creative work that serves real customers and as work that comes with real ethical responsibilities.
Marketing as Service
At its best, marketing connects people with products, services, and ideas that actually serve them. A Biblical Worldview treats that as the working purpose of marketing — not manipulation, but genuine service through better matching of needs and offerings.
Equips you to evaluate marketing by whether it actually helps the people it reaches.Ethics in Persuasion
Marketing is fundamentally persuasive — and persuasion always comes with ethical responsibility. The minor's coverage of advertising, social media, and consumer behavior treats ethical questions as central, not as afterthoughts to the strategic work.
Prepares you to make hard calls in marketing roles where ethics rarely come pre-decided.Truth in Storytelling
Marketing tells stories — about products, brands, and the people who use them. A Biblical Worldview takes seriously that the stories we tell matter, and that honest storytelling serves customers and brands far better than clever spin."
Grounds your marketing work in honesty as a long-term strategy, not a constraint.Where This Minor Takes You
Marketing opens doors across advertising, brand work, digital and social media, communications, and any role where reaching audiences is part of the job.
Marketing Coordinator or Specialist
Step into entry-level and mid-level marketing roles at agencies, brands, and in-house marketing teams.
Social Media Manager
Move into social media coordinator and manager roles — the field MKT 382 directly prepares you for.
Brand Marketing and Communications
Serve in brand-management, internal-communications, or marketing-communications roles at organizations of any size.
Church and Ministry Communications
Lead communications, marketing, and digital ministry work at churches, parachurch organizations, and Christian nonprofits.
Sport, Music, and Arts Marketing
Pair the minor with Sport Management, Music, or related majors for industry-specific marketing roles.
Bridge to an MBA or Marketing MS
Build foundation for graduate study in marketing, marketing analytics, or general management.
Why Students Choose This Minor
The Marketing Minor at ACU stands out for the depth of dedicated marketing coursework — five MKT courses, not just one.
Five Marketing Courses
Principles, Advertising, Social Media, Consumer Behavior, and Marketing Management — actual depth, not just an introductory survey.
Social Media Marketing Required
MKT 382 is mandatory. Most marketing minors elsewhere leave social media as an optional elective or skip it entirely.
Consumer Behavior Built In
MKT 392 takes the psychology of customer decision-making seriously — uncommon at the undergraduate-minor level.
Marketing Management Capstone
MKT 450 sits at the top of the prereq chain, pulling the rest of the minor into strategic context.
Same Faculty as the BS Business Administration
Marketing Minor students sit in the same courses with the same professors as ACU's business majors.
Getting Started
The Marketing Minor has a clean prerequisite chain — BUS 101 first, then MKT 350, then the four upper-division MKT courses.
Talk With Your Academic Advisor
Map the 18 credits into your degree plan with attention to the BUS 101 → MKT 350 → MKT 354/382/392/450 prerequisite chain.
Take BUS 101 Early
BUS 101 Introduction to Business unlocks MKT 350. Schedule it freshman or sophomore year.
View BUS 101 →Add MKT 350 Sophomore or Junior Year
MKT 350 Principles of Marketing is the prerequisite for every upper-division MKT course in the minor. Take it before your senior year.
Sequence the Upper-Division MKT Courses
MKT 354, 382, 392, and 450 can be taken in nearly any order once MKT 350 is complete. Spread them across junior and senior year, ideally finishing with MKT 450 as the capstone.
Explore More Options
Ready to Get Serious About Marketing?
The Marketing Minor gives you the dedicated marketing depth — strategy, advertising, social, consumer behavior, management — that marketing careers and organizations actually require. Apply or reach out today.
