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Become a member of the next generation of business and marketing leaders.

Our STEM-certified Master of Science in Marketing Research (MSMR) is provided in three convenient formats. You can earn your STEM-certified master’s degree 100 percent online or as part of multiple on-campus cohorts.

Our Broad MSMR is a 30-credit program with specialized marketing research classes, consumer insights, and customer analytics courses. Both the full-time and online programs consist of the same market research courses taught by the same professors. The program is designed as a “lock-step” program in which all students in a cohort take their classes together during their 12-month (full-time) or 20-month (part-time) program.

Our STEM-certified MSMR degree provides you with tailored preparation for excellent employment opportunities and a fulfilling career in marketing research and insights, be it with corporations, strategic consulting organizations, advertising agencies, or marketing research firms.

MSMR Honor Code

Full-Time Programs

Our fall and spring full-time options offer the same market research courses within the curriculum and only require 12 months to complete

Full-Time In-Person Cohorts

Our full-time in-person MSMR cohorts are a one-year, 30-credit course program that includes a team-based capstone project or internship experience.

Explore the Full-Time In-Person Programs

Full-Time Online Cohort

Our spring full-time MSMR cohort is a one-year, 30-credit curriculum 100% online program. Students begin the program in January and graduate in December each year.

Explore the Full-Time Online Program

Part-Time Online Program

Become a member of the next generation of marketing innovators with maximum flexibility by enrolling in our online STEM-certified MSMR program. This 100% online, 20-month, 30-credit program is designed to enable you to achieve a master’s degree while working full-time. You will learn valuable skills in the consumer analytics and insights courses that you can apply while on the job.

Explore the  Part-Time Online Program

Marketing Research Faculty

Our STEM-certified MSMR program features a unique and powerful combination of faculty appointed in the Broad College of Business and other renowned experts from the private sector.

Our faculty are equipped with a wide array of diverse backgrounds including doctorates in marketing, experience as marketing research consultants, and valuable contributions to leading marketing research and academic journals. This world-class academic expertise is paired with opportunities to engage with leaders in marketing research, such as senior-level executives at the country’s leading marketing research firms, global corporations, and strategic leadership organizations. With their wealth of knowledge and industry connections, our faculty will provide you with opportunities for premier career growth and networking opportunities.

Richard Spreng

MSMR ACADEMIC DIRECTOR

Professor & Interim Marketing Department Chairperson
Department of Marketing
Ph.D., Indiana University

Richard A. Spreng is associate professor of marketing. He received his Ph.D. in marketing from Indiana University in 1992. Previously he was a regional operations manager for a retailing and importing firm. He has published more than 60 articles in publications such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Retailing, Decision Sciences, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Service Research, Psychology and Marketing, and various conference proceedings. Spreng’s primary research interest is consumer satisfaction/dissatisfaction and post-purchase evaluation. His research has focused on the determinants of satisfaction, including the measurement of key satisfaction variables. At Michigan State, Spreng has taught retailing, sales management and consumer behavior at the undergraduate level, as well as customer-driven strategies in both the Full-Time and Executive MBA programs.

Spreng’s consulting experiences have included marketing research for a variety of government, education and business organizations. He specializes in helping organizations develop customer satisfaction measurement systems. He has conducted research for numerous public, private and nonprofit organizations.

He is also co-founder of SureVista Solutions, LLC, a marketing research firm specializing in customer satisfaction measurement systems. Clients include hospitality, retailing, education, government and nonprofit organizations.

You can listen to a globalEDGE Business Beat podcast episode in which Spreng discussed how the MSMR is a win-win for both students and businesses.

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Michael Alioto

VICE PRESIDENT, GLOBAL

Gongos, Inc.
Ph.D., University of Southern Illinois

Michael Alioto is a consultant for Global 1000 companies on the agency side of the consumer insights business and has worked in the automotive, manufacturing and telecommunication sectors. He has been involved in product and services development, branding and marketing programs from both qualitative and quantitative standpoints. Michael specializes in the global and multicultural sectors with experience in 20 countries across four continents, as well as working with the application of behavioral approaches and methods to marketing and consumer insights problems.

Alioto holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Southern Illinois, specializing in research methods, formal/logical models, globalization strategies and global marketing, as well as Southern European/Latin American politics; he also has degrees at the master/bachelor levels from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in political science and international relations.

He is a frequent speaker at American Marketing Association (AMA) and ESOMAR conferences, where a number of his works have been published. Michael contributed to the edited books ESOMAR: Excellence in International Research (years 2002–2004, where his contributions were nominated for the Best Paper Award. In addition, he has been published in the AMA Marketing NewsAlert MagazineSurvey Magazine, and ESOMAR RW Connect.

Alioto is a member of the AMA, ESOMAR, and the Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology and the Life Sciences.

His applied and academic research interests include the humanization of marketing research, behavioral economics, non-linear complexity modeling and the psychological framework of the consumer.

gongos.com

Michael Brereton

FIXED-TERM FACULTY

Department of Marketing

Michael Brereton is a leader in the global marketing research industry. He is the former president and CEO of Maritz Research. Maritz is ranked in the 2012 Honomichl AMA/Gold findings as the 12th-largest marketing research firm in the United States and 16th globally.

During his thirty-year career, Michael has contributed substantially to the commercial and academic advancement of the marketing research discipline. His industry leadership roles have been broad and currently include CASRO chairperson, founding chair for the CASRO Institute for Research Quality, advisory board chair for the Michigan State University Master of Science in Marketing Research program, and advisory board member for the Southern Illinois University Master of Marketing Research Program.

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Don DeVeaux

GLOBAL LEAD FOR TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT

GfK
Master’s in Management, Northwestern University

Don DeVeaux is an experienced industry leader in both the automotive industry and the world of automotive market research. He started his nearly 20-year career at General Motors in manufacturing engineering and has held a variety of positions in areas as diverse as product planning, brand management and sales forecasting.

He spent the next nearly 18 years working on the agency/supplier side of the business as he left GM to join Allison-Fisher, a leader in U.S. automotive demand and brand equity research. Later, Allison-Fisher was acquired by GfK, the fourth-largest market research agency in the world, based in Nuremberg, Germany.

DeVeaux became the managing director of the automotive unit in the U.S., as well as the global lead for automotive. He oversaw the automotive business of GfK across 100 countries with nearly 300 associates. With a passion for employee development, he moved over to join the global human resources team as global lead for training and development, with responsibility for all training activities for GfK’s nearly 13,000 employees.

DeVeaux holds a B.S. in industrial and operations engineering from the University of Michigan and a master’s in management from Northwestern University, which he attended on a GM Fellowship. He has served on the advisory board for the Michigan State Master of Science in Marketing Research.

Ahmet H. Kirca

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Department of Marketing
Ph.D., University of South Carolina

Ahmet Kirca holds a Ph.D. degree in international business/marketing from the University of South Carolina. Prior to joining MSU in 2006, he worked at the George Washington University.

Kirca’s research focuses on international business and marketing strategy, with a special emphasis on firm internationalization, firm innovation and strategic orientations. He has several published or forthcoming articles in top academic journals including the Academy of Management JournalJournal of MarketingJournal of the Academy of Marketing ScienceJournal of World Business and Journal of Management, among others. Kirca teaches international business, global strategy and marketing strategy courses in various undergraduate and graduate programs at MSU.

Ahmet also had extensive managerial experience in textile and tourism industries in Istanbul before joining academia. A native of Turkey, Kirca fluently speaks English, French, and Italian, with a working knowledge of Spanish and Japanese.

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Scott Miller

Fixed-Term Faculty

Department of Marketing

Scott Miller is a three-time CEO turned investor and board member.  He joined the Eli Broad College as an adjunct professor in 2019 to apply his experiences as a Global CEO to the graduate courses at Michigan State.  In that capacity he develops and leads courses in the disciplines of market research, insights, data management, and analytics.  His courses also leverage his professional network of business leaders across multiple industries, bringing academic content to life with the lectures of current challenges and opportunities being faced by the business world.

Scott earned his B.A. at Albion College in Political Science and is a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  Prior to joining MSU, he was the CEO of Vision Critical where he led the transformation of that company into a market leader in the customer experience software sector.  In 2014, he earned recognition as Innovator of the Year in the Canadian technology industry.  His global roles also have helped him develop proficiency in multiple languages.  Prior to his most recent appointment, Scott held numerous other senior leadership positions including CEO North America and CEO of Motoresearch at Synovate.  He started his career as a survey analyst at General Motors.

Scott currently sits on boards in the market research, software, precision agriculture and precision medicine fields.  Several of these companies sponsor projects, internships and full time opportunities for Broad College students.

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Forrest Morgeson

DIRECTOR OF RESEARCH

Department of Marketing

Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh

Forrest V. Morgeson III (Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh) is director of research at the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he is responsible for managing ACSI’s academic research, advanced statistical modeling and analysis, and international projects and licensing program (Global CSI). He also holds the position of instructor in the Department of Marketing at Michigan State University.

Morgeson’s research focuses on citizen satisfaction with government services, cross-national citizen and consumer satisfaction, and the financial impact of customer satisfaction in the private sector. His research has been published in the leading journals in both administration and marketing, including Public Administration ReviewJournal of Public Administration Research and TheoryInternational Review of Administrative SciencesElectronic GovernmentJournal of MarketingJournal of Marketing ResearchMarketing ScienceJournal of Service ResearchJournal of the Academy of Marketing ScienceInternational Journal of Research in Marketing and Journal of International Marketing. Morgeson’s book, “Citizen Satisfaction: Improving Government Performance, Efficiency and Citizen Trust” (Palgrave Macmillan), was released in 2014. In addition, over the past fifteen years, Morgeson has consulted with dozens of government agencies and corporations on citizen and consumer satisfaction, and has delivered lectures and presentations in dozens of countries around the world.

Hang Nguyen

Associate Professor

Department of Marketing

Ph.D., University of Connecticut

Dr. Hang Nguyen received her PhD degree in Business Administration with Marketing concentration from the University of Connecticut in 2013 and was a UConn Hall of Fame Award recipient. She is interested in doing research in the areas of Brand and Product Innovation, Social Media Engagement, and Returns on Marketing Investments. Her research won the Emerald Literati Award in 2019 and Several Best Paper Awards at the leading American Marketing Conferences. 

Her work has been published in the premier Journal of Marketing Research, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Management Science, and Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis.Dr. Nguyen is also an outstanding teacher who won several teaching awards at both undergraduate and graduate levels. She is currently teaching Brand Insights (MKT811), Brand Strategy (MKT821) for MBA students and Product Innovation (MKT410) and Product Design (MKT420) for undergraduate students. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Nguyen had ten successful years of professional experience in business consulting, investment, and marketing research. She was involved in important aspects of business such as developing new products, managing brand portfolios, opening new ventures, and promoting foreign direct investment (FDI) to developing countries. She played a significant role in the success of two multi-million dollar projects to promote U.S. and German investment in Vietnam and advised foreign investors who wanted to invest in Asian countries. In the U.S., she worked at Affinnova Inc., a global marketing technology company. She regularly collaborates with global market research firms such as the Kantar Group and Nielsen Corporation.

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Thomas J. Page

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

Department of Marketing
Ph.D., Ohio State University

Thomas Page is associate professor in the Department of Marketing, Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering, MBA and Ph.D. in business from the Ohio State University.

Page’s primary research interests include attitude-behavior relationships, information processing with an interest in emotional response to advertising, structural equation modeling in marketing, negotiations and customer satisfaction.

Page has published in the Journal of MarketingJournal of Marketing ResearchJournal of Experimental Social PsychologyJournal of the Academy of Marketing ScienceDecision SciencesJournal of Business Logistics, and more recently in Journal of Purchasing and Supply Chain ManagementJournal of Business and Industrial MarketingInternational Journal of Physical Distribution Management and Transportation Journal. He was previously on the editorial review board for the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science and Journal of Marketing.

Page has consulted for a number of companies and organizations, including Michigan Manufacturers Association, Educational Institute of the American Hotel/Motel Association, BanConsult, Services Rating Organization, Independent Accountants Association of Michigan and Physicians Health Plan.

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Jessica Richards

MSMR PROGRAM DIRECTOR

Jessica Richards is the program director for the Master of Science in Marketing Research Program within the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University. Jessica holds an MBA with nearly 20 years of sales and management experience. Previously, Jessica has co-managed several multi-million dollar Verizon Wireless locations, as well as dual-department operations for the marketing and supply chain departments at the Eli Broad College of Business. She has also led recruiting, career development and marketing for the Michigan Army National Guard, primarily assisting new soldiers and officers.

Jessica achieved the rank of staff sergeant in the Michigan Army National Guard and is a military service veteran who served overseas during Operation Iraqi Freedom, decorated with many awards throughout her eight years of honorable service.

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R. Dale Wilson

PROFESSOR

DEPARTMENT OF MARKETING
PH.D., UNIVERSITY OF IOWA

Dale Wilson received his Ph.D. in marketing from the University of Iowa in 1977.  He previously served on the faculties at Pennsylvania State University (assistant professor) and Cornell University (visiting associate professor), and he was vice president and director of marketing sciences at BBDO, Inc. (a major New York-based international advertising agency). While at BBDO, Wilson was responsible for building and implementing advertising and marketing decision models for clients such as Armstrong World Industries, Black & Decker, DuPont, General Electric, Gillette, Lever Brothers, PepsiCo, Pillsbury, and the Wm. Wrigley Jr. Company. He has published more than 100 articles, and his work has appeared in publications such as the Journal of MarketingMarketing Science, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Advertising, Journal of Retailing, Journal of International Marketing, Industrial Marketing Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Journal of Current Issues and Research in Advertising, Research in Marketing, Competitiveness Review, Services Marketing Quarterly and Journal of Global Information Technology, among other distinguished journals.

Professor Wilson’s primary areas of expertise include marketing research and modeling, predictive analytics, marketing communication, marketing strategy, brand management and new product forecasting. His recent interests include the use of interactive databases, web analytics, the lead generation process and trade shows. Wilson is a frequent speaker at national conferences on marketing and advertising; and he was the editor of marketing for Interfaces, an applications-oriented journal in the area of management science/operations research, for nearly seven years. Along with Lewis G. Pringle and Edward I. Brody, Professor Wilson received a Certificate of Recognition from the Institute of Management Sciences for his article in the area of new product analysis and forecasting, which appeared in Marketing Science as the lead article in the first issue (volume 1, issue 1, page 1). He served as chair of the American Marketing Association Faculty Consortium on the topic of marketing research. In an article published in Marketing Educator, Professor Wilson was named one of the 108 “Best Researchers in Marketing.” He received an IBM Faculty Award to study web analytics data and their impact on internet marketing for B2B firms.

As part of the MSMR program, he teaches MKT 806 (Marketing Research for Decision Making) and MKT 819 (Advanced Marketing Research).

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Robert Zaebst

Fixed-Term Faculty 

Rob has been influential in developing the digital marketing strategies for large brands, shaping how businesses reach and engage with their customers across various digital touchpoints through integrated marketing technology. With an extensive brand and agency background that covers many different facets of digital marketing, including web, social media, search engine marketing, analytics, marketing automation, and media planning, he brings a unique perspective that has empowered a data-driven marketing approach to where he has worked.
He currently is the VP of Digital Strategy and Marketing Technology at TrueBlue, Inc. In this role, Rob maps out how digital channels are integrated to create a cohesive brand experience, develops the marketing technology strategy and how martech is implemented at an enterprise level across the company, oversees the integration of Marketing, Sales and IT/Technology with CRM, and defines how analytics lead to insights to guide the overall digital strategy.
Prior to TrueBlue, Rob worked as the Director of Digital Strategy at Michigan State University in the Communications and Brand Strategy department at the university. He also worked Aon Hewitt, the provider of human capital consulting and outsourcing services, as the Global Director of Digital Strategy. He also worked at the communications agency TMP Worldwide, helping brands such as Enterprise Rent-a-Car and Deloitte manage their digital employment brands. Rob received his undergraduate degree in Business Administration from the Charles H. Lundquist College of Business at the University of Oregon, and his masters degree in Business Administration from the Stephen M. Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Bronlyn Wasink

Fixed-Term Faculty

Department of Marketing

Bronlyn Wassink holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and  a M.S. in Applied Statistics.  Bronlyn specializes in teaching and content development for courses with a strong emphasis on quantitative skills, such as statistical analysis, analytics, data visualization, interpretation of quantitative information, and computer software packages commonly used for quantitative research, such as R, SPSS, and Tableau.

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