This is an archived copy of the 2023-2024 catalog. To access the most recent version of the catalog, please visit http://coursecatalog.bucknell.edu.

Markets, Innovation & Design (MIDE)

The Markets, Innovation & Design (MIDE) program will expose students to the orchestration, design, logic and strategy underlying organizations’ key marketing practices. The MIDE program will highlight the complex interplay that takes place between market research/analysis of consumer-product relationships and the strategic management of the marketing mix or brands. Students pursuing the MIDE program will augment their core understanding of management functions with an interdisciplinary examination of some of the creative, analytical and technical processes that combine to generate ideas and transform them into images, products and services that powerfully shape our culture.

The MIDE program will foster student development of a deep appreciation for the interdisciplinary roots and connections among creative and technical design, marketing and innovation. Moreover, the program will enhance creative thinking and acting. In addition to gaining a better understanding of how their surroundings are constructed, students will cultivate a habit of trying to envision how their world can be improved. Students will also learn quantitative, empathic, interpretive and visual methods to assess the relationships between consumers/users and their environments, with a particular focus on remedying unmet needs and filling gaps between current and ideal circumstances. As they learn more about the overall design process, students also will have the opportunity to practice techniques such as role playing, sketching, creative narrative, prototyping and simulation that will help them transform ideas into reality.

In the spring of their sophomore year, all BSBA students will, in consultation with their advisers, select a major from the Freeman College of Management departments and will complete the specific major requirements in addition to the Freeman College core curriculum requirements. Transferring between majors within the Freeman College of Management is possible as long as the student will be able to meet all degree requirements of the new major and still graduate on schedule.

Markets, Innovation & Design Requirements

Beyond completion of the Freeman College core curriculum requirements, all MIDE majors must take the following courses:

MIDE Core Requirements

MIDE 300Markets, Innovation, and Design1
MIDE 301Understanding Consumers1
MIDE 302Design Realization1
MIDE 304Marketing Management1


MIDE Electives

Beyond these core MIDE courses, all MIDE majors must choose three program-related electives.

The MIDE program is designed to be sufficiently flexible to enable students to pursue a wide range of interests and career scenarios, such as work in market research, brand management, marketing management, public relations, communications, product design, global consumer culture and issues of innovation. Therefore, besides taking the MIDE core (the four courses noted above), students are required to choose, with consultation and approval from their faculty adviser, three program-related electives from courses available elsewhere at the University, outside the Freeman College of Management. These choices will depend on what makes the most sense given a student's underlying interests. For example, a student contemplating a career in advertising might select three electives from courses such as Introduction to Visual Culture, Film Production, Popular Culture, Political Economy of Media & Advertising, Digital Photography, or Introduction to Creative Writing. The essential idea behind this loose elective structure is to give students the latitude to delve further into their own intellectual interests in relation to the program’s learning objectives. These program-related electives enable students (with the help of their advisers) to apply a more specialized and individualized signature to their program of study. This feature, too, is part of the creativity and innovation embedded in the MIDE program.

Culminating Experience

All BSBA majors must satisfy the Culminating Experience component of the Freeman College of Management General Education Curriculum. MIDE majors typically fulfill this requirement by successfully completing MIDE 304 Marketing Management.

Drawing upon their professional and liberal education, Freeman College of Management students will be able to collaboratively create positive societal impacts through:

Analysis

  • Students will demonstrate the ability to understand organizations and analyze them rigorously.

Integrity

  • Students will possess the judgment, vision and integrity necessary to serve society and their professions.

Morality

  • Students will identify creative and morally responsible solutions to organizational and societal issues.

In addition to the learning goals listed above, graduates of the Markets, Innovation, & Design program will complete a curriculum designed to help them achieve the following specific learning objectives:

  1. They will understand the basic principles of marketing, innovation, & design and how these academic disciplines and fields of practice are related.
  2. They will be able to analyze problems and think strategically from a marketing point of view.
  3. They will cultivate innovative habits that enable them to detect problems and provide them with the impetus and confidence to solve them.
  4. They will develop a design mindset that enables them to creatively recast problems in various ways and design novel and effective solutions.

Courses

MIDE 201. Marketing. 1 Credit.

Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Introduction to principles of marketing. Examines how organizations facilitate exchange relationships by customers' needs and wants. Explores the intricacies of identifying and establishing market positions and understanding consumer behavior.

MIDE 215. Special Topics in Markets, Innovation, and Design. 1 Credit.

Offered Fall, Spring or Summer; Lecture hours:3; Repeatable
A seminar on selected topics in marketing, innovation, and design.

MIDE 220. Building an Innovative Character. 1 Credit.

Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
This course will introduce students to some of the habits, skills, and knowledge that make up an innovative character. In particular, students will practice their powers of observation, develop creative confidence, embrace ambiguity, fail forward, and develop a deeper sense of empathy. Taught by interdisciplinary teams of faculty across colleges.

MIDE 300. Markets, Innovation, and Design. 1 Credit.

Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
A survey of the relationships among marketing, innovation, and design. Students will practice various approaches to creative and innovative thinking. Prerequisite: MIDE 201 or MGMT 201 or MGMT 380 or permission of the instructor.

MIDE 301. Understanding Consumers. 1 Credit.

Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
A toolbox of research methods for understanding consumer behavior with appropriate exposure to philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of various approaches. Prerequisite: MIDE 201 or MGMT 201 or permission of instructor.

MIDE 302. Design Realization. 1 Credit.

Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Implementation of creative techniques for exploring ideas and transforming ideas into appropriate mediums for communication. Includes creative ideation, sketching, digital and physical modeling. Prerequisites: (MIDE 201 or MGMT 201) and MIDE 300.

MIDE 304. Marketing Management. 1 Credit.

Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:3
Integrating learned knowledge, students practice making marketing-related decisions through case analysis of various business scenarios. The predominant emphasis is on drawing together disciplinary experiences and providing a more coherent appreciation of the major's academic discipline. The educational goals of the class focus on critical, analytical and synthetic thinking.

MIDE 310. Independent Study in Markets, Innovation, and Design. .5-2 Credits.

Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:Varies; Repeatable
Individual study or projects, supervised by instructor. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

MIDE 312. Digital Marketing. 1 Credit.

Offered Occasionally; Lecture hours:3
The course examines the overall digital marketing strategy, as well as the specific implementation and executional considerations of digital marketing plans. It provides a detailed understanding of all digital channels and platforms. Prerequisite: MGMT 101 or permission of the instructor.

MIDE 314. Topics in Markets, Innovation & Design (.5 course credit). .5 Credits.

Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:Varies; Repeatable
A seminar on selected topics in marketing, innovation and design.

MIDE 315. Advanced Topics in Markets, Innovation and Design (1 course credit). 1 Credit.

Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:Varies; Repeatable
A seminar on selected topics in marketing, innovation and design.

MIDE 390. Honors Course in Markets, Innovation, and Design. 1 Credit.

Offered Either Fall or Spring; Lecture hours:Varies; Repeatable
Special and independent studies for Markets, Innovation and Design majors selected under the guidelines of the school and the University Honors Council. Honors thesis required. Prerequisites: nomination by the school and permission of the instructor.

Faculty

Professor: Douglas E. Allen (Chair Spring 2024)

Associate Professor: Eric L. Santanen (Chair Fall 2023)

Assistant Professors: Gabriela Diego (Adjunct), Annetta Grant, Gulay Guzel, Ankita Kumar

Visiting Assistant Professor: Yi (Cathy) Chen