Pre-Program. SOFTWARE TRAINING. In this course, you will learn the basics of Illustrator and InDesign. These programs are the key to creating high-quality graphics, and will help you produce excellent presentations and documents throughout the master’s. While this course is not mandatory, it’s highly recommended that you view the video tutorials in order to acquire the necessary technical knowledge needed for the Graphic Design course. The videos are based on the 2019 CC version, so there may be minor differences with the latest version.. EXCEL TOOLS FOR MARCOM. This two-session pre-program course builds the foundations of working with data on Excel. Once you've completed this pre-program, you will be able to confidently use your new data-driven problem-solving skills and navigate the technical world of Excel.
COMMON CORE PERIOD. (SEPT-OCT). core subjects. Visual Communication. This course delves into the realm of visual communication, emphasizing the importance of constructing compelling visual compositions and presentations. Students will explore how elements such as type, image, color, and space combine to create effective visual systems. Learning objectives include presenting information effectively, conveying emotion to target audiences through visual elements, selecting visual assets aligned with creative briefs, and constructing adaptable visual systems for various communication channels.. BRANDING. This course blends lectures and practical exercises to deepen understanding of Strategic Marketing and Branding. Lectures introduce key concepts with real-world examples, while exercises offer hands-on application. Students learn to develop effective strategies by leveraging analytical skills and market insights, covering brand definition, management, models, dilemmas, and the branding process. Emphasizing integration with business strategy, the course addresses the 5 C's, STP process, and 4 P's of marketing.. WELL-BEING IN PRACTICE. This workshop introduces the concept of well-being and its significance in thriving personally and contributing positively to communities. Students will develop skills for a better life and invest in becoming their best selves, focusing on presence, curiosity, and reflection to align with core values. Emphasis is placed on fostering a safe environment for open dialogue and exploration of well-being practices. Key objectives include introducing core values of well-being, increasing awareness of the mind-body-soul connection, fostering a healthy self-perception, motivating personalized action plans, and cultivating an authentic culture of well-being.. Storytelling and Public Speaking. This course equips graduate students with advanced communication skills for professional and personal success. Covering persuasive storytelling, participants learn to effectively convey ideas, engage stakeholders, and inspire action through public speaking. Key objectives include clear communication, storytelling mastery, non-verbal enhancement, audience tailoring, active listening, stakeholder confidence, and personal growth reflection.. DIGITAL MARKETING. The internet landscape is evolving rapidly with various social media platforms, reshaping brand-consumer interactions. This course explores the dynamic social media ecosystem, stressing the importance of grasping social dynamics and technology. Through case studies and practical experience, students learn social business strategies, tools, and key performance indicators driving web 2.0 evolution. The goal is to equip students to create and execute comprehensive social media strategies, emphasizing understanding social consumer principles and best practices. By the course's end, students comprehend the business impact of social media, develop strategic plans, and define realistic objectives and indicators for their strategies.. Project Management. Project management is essential in modern organizations, covering various activities like product development, technology implementation, marketing, and mergers. Two main methodologies, classic and agile, offer distinct approaches, each with strengths and limitations. This workshop offers hands-on experience in project planning and control, stressing the importance of adapting managerial approaches to the project type. Participants will learn agile Scrum methodology and classic techniques including work breakdown structures, Gantt charts, resource management, budgeting, and progress monitoring. By understanding the pros and cons of both methodologies, managers can effectively select the most suitable practices for different project scenarios.. Customer Experience. This course focuses on customer experience within human-centered design and design thinking frameworks, prioritizing empathy and positive interactions. Participants learn to understand customer needs, create journey maps, gather feedback, and design initiatives from the customer's perspective. Key topics include emotional connection, customer-centric culture, and measuring experience metrics.. Finance for Marketeers and Communicators. Marketing and Communication Managers play a critical role within companies' Leadership Teams, particularly in today's rapidly evolving business landscape. They are integral to financial viability plans, as their departments shape the marketing mix to enhance customer loyalty, drive sales, and optimize costs. Moreover, they assist in minimizing risks and informing strategic decisions. To effectively contribute, Marketing and Communication Managers must grasp key financial concepts and develop financial acumen. This understanding enables them to generate value in their recommendations, aligning consumer perspectives with company objectives and operations.. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. This course explores identity, exclusion, and inclusion in everyday society, emphasizing their importance in business for employee recruitment, engagement, and retention, as well as for overall profitability. While diversity and inclusion are often used interchangeably, the workshop highlights their distinctions and impact on individuals and organizations. Participants will learn practical strategies and skills to implement diversity and inclusion initiatives effectively. By the course's end, students should grasp the differences between diversity, equity, and inclusion, understand their significance in personal and professional spheres, and be able to apply authentic diversity and inclusion strategies.. Entrepreneurship. This highly interactive workshop emphasizes problem-driven thinking as essential for success across various ventures, including startups, corporations, and social enterprises. Participants engage in action-oriented, hands-on activities, fostering idea exchange, reflection, and experiential learning. By the workshop's end, attendees will recognize the entrepreneurial mindset, understand the role of value and creativity in opportunity identification, and leverage entrepreneurship to create sustainable and social impact.. Consumer Behavior and Insights. This class covers market research fundamentals and consumer behavior concepts essential for insight practitioners. It explores qualitative, quantitative, and neuromarketing methods, alongside insights into decision-making processes and behavioral economics. Emphasizing data-driven insights, students learn to identify market information, understand key consumer demographics, and develop strategies for business growth.. NEGOTIATION SKILLS. Negotiations are akin to theater productions, where understanding the characters, scripts, and behind-the-scenes dynamics is crucial for success. Transactional Emotional Intelligence (TEI) sessions aim to equip participants with the interpersonal skills needed to navigate negotiations effectively, fostering positive outcomes and satisfaction for all parties involved. The course covers various negotiation concepts, including collaborative and competitive approaches, empowering students to confidently tackle complex negotiations using the tools learned throughout the sessions.. Managing High-Performance Teams. This workshop addresses the shift towards more horizontal and team-centric organizational structures, emphasizing the importance of high-performance teams in today's workplace. Participants will gain awareness of their own preferences and practice strategies for building and sustaining successful teams. The focus is on cultivating a collective mindset and implementing self-healing strategies to address common dysfunctions. Key objectives include understanding the benefits of teamwork for decision-making and problem-solving, learning principles of group dynamics and management techniques, and developing people skills to navigate challenges within work teams.. Cross-cultural Communication. This course explores the complexities of cross-cultural communication in today's interconnected world. While physical travel has become routine, effective communication across borders remains challenging. Using real-life examples from global business hubs like Mumbai, Tokyo, and New York, the course unpacks the diverse elements of culture. Participants will learn theoretical concepts and engage in hands-on exercises to develop intercultural competence. Key objectives include identifying implicit communication norms, understanding cultural specificity, decoding different cultural contexts, and fostering empathy to bridge communication gaps.. Business Development and Sales. This course equips students with essential theoretical and practical skills for Business Development & Sales in Marketing and Communication. It enhances strategic thinking and business acumen, preparing students for post-master's success. Students gain skills for global business development, explore decision-making psychology, and learn effective relationship-building strategies. Additionally, the course covers sales methodologies, customer journey impact, sales technology, and key analytics.
TERMS. 1st term. NOV-DIC. OVERVIEW. STRATEGIC MARKETING, BRANDING & COMMUNICATIONS FOUNDATIONS AND MARKETING INTELLIGENCE. Term 1 lays the groundwork for your Master in Strategic Marketing & Communication, equipping you to navigate today’s complex, data-driven landscape. You’ll explore core principles and develop a deep understanding of consumer behavior and market dynamics. Through market intelligence, analytics and emerging AI applications, you’ll learn how to transform data into meaningful insights, and insights into clear, differentiated brand direction in a global context.. GLOBAL MARKETS & CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION. This course examines the multidimensional aspects of globalization as a complex phenomenon that reshapes collective identities through a simultaneous, but conflicting, process of integration and fragmentation. We will investigate interdependencies between politics, economics, culture and society that affect and transform the world we live in. In addition, this course will provide students with a critical understanding of the evolving relationship between globalization and communication. Special attention will be paid to the impact of the rise of non-Western media, and the cultural biases that influence the ways different societies view each other.. FOUNDATIONS OF STRATEGIC MARKETING, BRANDING & COMMUNICATIONS. This course equips you to integrate marketing, branding and communications into a cohesive growth architecture aligned with market opportunity and business goals. You’ll learn to diagnose and resolve strategic inconsistencies across audiences and touchpoints, while developing an executive perspective to drive high-impact decision-making. By applying data and AI tools, you'll strengthen planning, scenario analysis and strategic choices with measurable commercial and reputational outcomes.. HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM BUILDING (ISA). Globalization and the new economy present new challenges to organizations across industries, creating an environment of constant change and increased competition. In response to new demands, many organizations are replacing traditional hierarchical structures with more horizontal organizational forms. Within these new structures, teams are the axis around which organizational processes are designed. In this context, successful executives are those who can create, design and develop the most effective teams.. DIGITAL ECOSYSTEMS. Discover the best ways to leverage innovations brought by digital transformation. In this course, you’ll explore how to design and orchestrate interconnected digital ecosystems that drive brand and business growth. Learn to align platforms, partners, channels and audiences while integrating martech, e-commerce, CRM and content infrastructures to maximize customer lifetime value. By focusing on APIs, automation and AI agents, you’ll develop ecosystem thinking to build lasting competitive advantage beyond isolated channel strategies.. BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE & CONSUMER INSIGHTS. First-class communication managers know how to both detect and deal with the most complex communication issues. This course provides an overview of research methods, including survey design, focus groups, interviewing and net ethnography, as well as how these methods can be used in corporate communication situations. In addition, it addresses key questions such as how to plan and initiate research within large-scale organizations, and how to choose key areas to assess. Research intelligence understanding teaches students how to manage global digital issues in corporate communication in the 21st century. One of the key elements of marketing revolves around consumer behavior, their attitudes and their way of thinking. In order to drive business growth, professionals need to uncover and leverage insights on what consumers think, how they act, and what they do. Only then can companies find new ways into the consumer mind, developing strategies to persuade and connect with them. This course is focused on how to achieve consumer-driven business growth. It combines elements of consumer behavior, market research, and applications into brand strategy and communications. For this curriculum, previous knowledge on strategic consumer insights and market research as applied to business growth is desirable, but not compulsory.. INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS FRAMEWORKS. Build integrated marketing communication frameworks that connect awareness, consideration and conversion across the customer journey. You’ll learn to align channels, messaging and timing to drive synergy, efficiency and brand consistency. Emphasizing full-funnel strategy, the course balances performance and brand-building goals while equipping you to continuously optimize effectiveness through data, audience response and cross-channel insights.. P.O.E.M. STRATEGY. Explore how to design advanced Paid, Owned and Earned Media (P.O.E.M) strategies as complementary drivers of reach, engagement and conversion. You’ll learn to define channel roles and allocate investment across the customer journey, applying attribution logic and performance signals to refine decisions. With a focus on adaptability, this course will help you construct adaptive media ecosystems that evolve alongside platform shifts, audience attention and performance outcomes.. PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT: INNOVATION AND LIFE CYCLE. Discover how to manage product and brand portfolios as dynamic systems of growth, risk and resource allocation in this future-forward course. You’ll gain the tools to map out innovation pipelines aligned with market opportunities and strategic priorities, while anticipating lifecycle shifts, cannibalization risks and portfolio gaps before they erode value. With a dual focus on performance and renewal, you’ll be equipped to balance short-term results with long-term brand strength, innovation equity and category leadership.. 2ND TERM. JAN-MARCH. OVERVIEW. MEDIA, PRODUCT & BRAND INFLUENCE. In Term 2, you’ll learn to translate strategy into tangible market impact by orchestrating brand experience, content, media and revenue decisions. In a data-driven environment, you’ll leverage analytics and AI to enhance relevance, manage brand reputation and drive measurable business outcomes.. BRAND REPUTATION & CRISIS MANAGEMENT. See brand reputation as a critical strategic asset shaping long-term equity and resilience. You’ll learn to identify and prioritize emerging risks, develop proactive mitigation strategies and lead crisis responses with clarity and control. Emphasizing stakeholder complexity, the course equips you to navigate high-pressure situations through transparent, accountable communication that protects trust and strengthens brand credibility.. AI-POWERED MARKETING, AUTOMATION. In this course, you’ll discover how AI can be applied to automate, personalize and scale marketing activity across the customer lifecycle. You’ll learn to redesign workflows, content operations and campaign execution for faster, smarter decision-making, while evaluating where human judgment remains essential. With a focus on responsibility, you’ll build AI-enabled marketing systems supported by strong governance, quality control and measurable business impact.. CONTENT STRATEGY, STORYTELLING & CREATIVE LEADERSHIP. This course breaks down how to design content strategies that align audience behavior, brand narrative and business objectives across channels and formats. Develop storytelling systems that effectively translate brand purpose into culturally relevant experiences, balancing creativity, value and commercial impact in multimedia and multi-platform branded content. With a focus on leadership, you’ll learn to guide creative teams and integrate human creativity with AI-driven ideation, production and optimization.. DATA VISUALISATION FOR DECISION-MAKING. Learn to transform complex data into clear, compelling visual narratives for high-level decision-making. You’ll practice building dashboards and storytelling structures that prioritize relevance and actionability, applying the right visual logic to evaluate performance and diagnose issues, and communicating insights with clarity and credibility, all of which will prepare you to influence strategy in executive and client-facing environments.. STRATEGIC MEDIA RELATIONS. This master course is designed to lead the students into the fascinating world of how companies and institutions communicate, both internally and externally, and how they relate to the media on a day-to-day basis. In present day societies the media is ubiquitous. Knowing how to communicate effectively and navigate safely in relation to the different kinds of media is therefore of the utmost importance. Companies and institutions need to invest heavily in the whole process of communication, from the planning of communication strategies to the crafting of messages and the actual communication situation, in press releases, press conferences, interviews, or their own media productions. During the course, we will combine lectures by the professor, discussions on various topics according to the book "Managing Media Relations", case studies and the preparation of plans and other working documents for efficient Media Relations within an organization such as a Media Relations Annual Plan. The second part, which takes place over two whole days, is a more practical, hands-on Media Training. It is designed to give the students a firm understanding of how to go through the process of crafting a message and presenting it in different situations in front of a camera. For this part of the course, the class will be divided into two, manageable groups for all the students to getthe most of the exercises.. INFLUENCER & COMMUNITY MARKETING. Discover how marketing pros create effective influence strategies that blend cultural relevance, creator partnerships and community participation. You’ll hone your ability to distinguish between short-term, reach-driven tactics and long-term community-building models, and learn how to spark advocacy, co-creation and conversation for deeper brand legitimacy and audience loyalty. Through a strategic lens, you’ll understand the true value of creators and communities beyond vanity metrics, positioning yourself to drive sustained brand impact.. PRODUCT & SERVICE EXPERIENCE STRATEGY. Find out how product and service design can create differentiated value throughout the entire customer relationship. You’ll connect experience strategy with business models, operational realities and retention priorities, and learn to build scalable systems across physical, digital and service environments. Emphasizing strategy and process, the course reveals how to turn experience into a sustained source of competitive advantage.. SALES STRATEGY, PRICING & REVENUE MANAGEMENT. Learn to develop commercial strategies that connect value creation, pricing logic and revenue growth. You’ll master the fundamentals of pricing architectures that reflect brand positioning, market dynamics and customer willingness to pay. You'll also apply revenue management principles for optimal profitability, and integrate sales strategy with broader marketing decisions, strengthening conversion quality and your ability to build more resilient, high-performing commercial models.. 3rd TERM. APRIL-JULY. OVERVIEW. MARKETING LEADERSHIP & STRATEGIC TRANSFORMATION. During Term 3, you’ll focus on leadership, transformation and global impact, developing the ability to shape and evolve complex brand ecosystems through advanced strategy, martech integration, public affairs, strategic partnerships and purpose-driven marketing. Supported by data and modeling, the term equips you to influence stakeholders and lead long-term growth.. SUSTAINABILITY, RESPONSIBLE & PURPOSE-DRIVEN MARKETING. Wondering how to integrate sustainability and responsibility into marketing strategy? In this course, you’ll explore ways to align brand actions with evolving consumer expectations and business goals. Design purpose-driven initiatives that deliver meaningful differentiation and measurable impact, and learn to critically evaluate sustainability claims to ensure credibility. By centering on innovation and customer engagement, you’ll grasp how sustainability and purpose can drive long-term competitive advantage.. CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT & GROWTH STRATEGY. Uncover the key to driving growth through advanced customer engagement and performance strategies. You’ll learn to define customer analytics, attribution models and KPI frameworks that prioritize business objectives, and design CRM and loyalty systems that maximize lifetime value. By turning behavioral and channel data into actionable plans, you’ll create balanced acquisition and retention strategies that deliver measurable impact across the customer lifecycle.. LEADERSHIP IN MARKETING TRANSFORMATION. This course explains how to lead marketing transformation by aligning strategy, capabilities and organizational structures with evolving market demands. Learn to drive internal change through cultivating high-performing teams, innovation and cross-functional collaboration, and manage execution across internal and external stakeholders. Emphasizing decision-making in uncertainty, you’ll master the skill needed to balance performance, risk and long-term transformation for sustained business impact.. STRATEGIC ALLIANCES. SPONSORSHIPS AND PARTNERSHIPS. Discover the best way to leverage strategic alliances and sponsorships to extend brand reach, relevance and value creation across sports, entertainment, culture and media. You’ll explore partnership structures as growth drivers in line with business objectives and gain skills to assess performance using data and emerging technologies, becoming equipped to manage complex portfolios, balance stakeholder interests, ensure brand fit and deliver long-term impact.. PUBLIC AFFAIRS AND STRATEGIC INFLUENCE. Examine how organizations navigate the non-market environment, where regulation, public policy and institutional actors shape strategy and competitive dynamics. You’ll design public affairs strategies hands-on, within the context of corporate, political and societal frameworks, and engage policymakers and regulators to anticipate change. You’ll also dive into ethical responsibility, corporate legitimacy and governance as foundations for sustained strategic influence and impact.. EVENTS & PR MANAGEMENT. Broaden your horizons and see event design and PR activations as strategic tools for visibility, engagement and stakeholder influence. By mastering frameworks for coordinating messaging, partners, timelines and amplification across live and hybrid formats for maximum impact, you’ll connect event delivery to broader communication, reputation and relationship-building objectives, ensuring measurable and lasting brand value.. IMMERSIVE BRAND EXPERIENCES. This course takes you through the process of designing immersive brand experiences from start to finish, using space, technology and storytelling to ensure emotional engagement. Examine how physical, digital and phygital environments enhance memorability, meaning and differentiation, while critically assessing when immersive formats create real strategic value. You’ll gain the skills and design language to transform brand strategy into lived experiences that audiences actively enjoy, share and remember.. MARKETING MIX MODELING. In this course, you’ll discover why marketing mix modeling is a strategic tool for assessing the impact of marketing investments across channels, markets and time horizons. You’ll decode model outputs to drive clear decision-making on investment priorities, budget allocation and channel roles. You’ll also balance short-term performance with long-term brand impact, integrating multiple measurement approaches to build a holistic and actionable view of marketing effectiveness.
CAPSTONE PROJECT. Each term includes a Capstone Project where you can collaborate with real companies to solve live business challenges, developing and delivering distinct strategic projects that apply learning across progressively advanced marketing and communication contexts.. BRAND STRATEGY CHALLENGE. TERM 1. Work on live briefs from real companies, solving strategic marketing challenges with direct input from expert coaches and brand teams. You’ll develop strategic, data-informed solutions grounded in real business contexts.. AGENCY CHALLENGE. TERM 2. Step into the role of agency professionals, tackling real brand briefs with imperfect information and under tight deadlines. Guided by industry experts and coaches, you’ll deliver high-impact solutions that balance creativity, performance and strategic clarity.. FINAL STRATEGIC CAPSTONE. TERM 3. Collaborate with leading brands across the tech, luxury, beauty, automotive and retail sectors to solve complex marketing challenges with real business implications. This final Capstone Project integrates strategy, innovation and data-driven thinking to prepare you to deliver actionable recommendations.
CAREER SPECIALIZATIONS. CAREER SPECIALIZATIONS. Description. After completing your program, you’ll be able to join an additional optional term to specialize in two of the most relevant industries for the Marketing, Communication & Sales pathway. During the Career Specialization period from September to December, you will enjoy a career-driven curriculum with several practical consulting projects, in-company visits, project-based learning and additional networking opportunities for your job recruitment process. The Career Specialization will have an additional cost. You can either enroll before joining IE University or while you are doing your master’s degree, up to the deadline that will be communicated by the academic team. We will have limited slots assigned for these two tracks, so the sooner you apply, the better.. MARKETING IN FASHION, LUXURY AND FMCGs. Master end-to-end growth strategies from consumer & fashion sectors to luxury markets. This career specialization equips students to navigate the future of luxury, fashion, and fast-moving consumer goods. Students explore how iconic brands evolve, how new ventures take form, and how consumer expectations shift in a digitally accelerated, sustainability-driven world.. SALES STRATEGY & REVENUE GROWTH . Build revenue engines with advanced CRM, pipeline management, and strategic selling. This career specialization offers a hands-on approach to scaling commercial growth, combining core sales methodologies with go-to-market strategy, market expansion, and data-driven decision making, with a strong focus on AI and automation.. MARKETING IN MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT. Decode marketing & comm's across film, gaiming, sports, music & audio and creator's economy. This career specialization explores how entertainment and media drive brand influence and consumer attention. Participants learn to design and measure marketing in a content-driven world, developing integrated strategies that connect entertainment IPs, brand partnerships, and audiences.