Digital Marketing: The Time for a New “Academic Major” Has Arrived

The rapidly emerging digital economy is challenging the relevance of existing marketing practices, and a radical redesign of the marketing curriculum consistent with the emerging student and business needs of the 21st century is required. To remain relevant to our students and to the ultimate consumers of our output, businesses, the marketing curriculum must evolve with both the changing technological environment and the way marketing is perceived by its own academic architects. After an overview of recent marketing trends, this article describes the need for a fundamental change in the teaching of marketing in today’s environment, performs a curriculum audit of existing digital marketing initiatives, and then details a new curriculum reflective of marketing in a digital age and an approach to implement it. Finally, the new major is discussed in the context of specific challenges associated with the new age of marketing. The approach developed here provides other universities a target to serve as one measure of progress toward a curriculum more in tune with the emerging digital environment.