Expanding Quantitative Marketing Curricula

PROVO, Utah – Jan 12, 2018 – A brief glance at Jeff Dotson’s résumé and it’s evident that he is well versed in analytics. He has worked as a senior analyst for a marketing agency and published a textbook on business analytics. He now uses his skills and knowledge to develop curricula in quantitative marketing for the BYU Marriott MBA program.

“The goal is to promote and try to develop opportunities for students who are quantitatively oriented to be able to learn more about statistics, analytics, machine learning, and other topics that are becoming more important for business,” Dotson says. 

In addition to coursework in marketing analytics, MBA students can get involved with BYU Analytics, a student-run consultancy that Dotson helped create. As the consultancy’s faculty advisor, Dotson says BYU Analytics gives students the opportunity to provide business insights for companies in various industries.

“We’ve probably executed forty-five projects in the past three and a half years with companies both locally and nationally,” Dotson says. “This year we’ve been focused on trying to build reputable products and processes that will be executed by BYU Marriott’s Marketing and Behavioral Research Lab.”

Dotson’s contributions to BYU Marriott also include his many research publications. His studies on brand attitudes, corporate diversification, and other topics have been published in journals such as Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing Research, and the Strategic Management Journal. He has been recognized for his research success as the recipient of the BYU Marriott Department of Marketing and Global Supply Chain’s Best Researcher Award two years in a row.

With extensive research experience—and four degrees—Dotson is more than qualified to teach MBA students. In 2002, he graduated with a degree in economics from Southern Utah University. He continued his education at the University of Utah, receiving an MBA in finance and financial accounting in 2003 and a master’s degree in statistics in 2005. He also earned a PhD in quantitative marketing from The Ohio State University in 2009.

Dotson’s time inside the classroom continued after graduation. He taught courses in marketing at Vanderbilt University for four years before joining the faculty at BYU Marriott in 2013. 

He particularly enjoys working with his colleague and brother, Marc Dotson.

“It’s great to have Marc here,” Dotson says. “It’s a lot of fun, but it’s also great to have someone who has a similar view about what research is and how it’s executed.”

The Dotson brothers hope to expand the field of quantitative marketing at BYU to better help MBA students prepare for future careers in analytics.

“We hope that when students take their first jobs, they can hit the ground running and make a contribution from day one,” Dotson says.