Dr. Michael Hartline

“There are no rules in marketing.”

It’s a mantra heard often in any graduate class taught by Dr. Michael Hartline, chairman of the marketing department at Florida State University’s College of Business.

“Things change on a daily basis in business,” Hartline said. “It makes it much more interesting and vibrant. Marketing is all about people serving people, and they’re hard to predict.”

Known for his dry humor and challenging project assignments, Hartline pushes his students to see beyond ordinary advertising gimmicks and focus on how businesses can best meet customers’ needs. He leads student teams through the process of developing extensive marketing plans. Although no picnic at the time, the skills learned in Hartline’s classroom are crucial in today’s work force, graduates say.

As a faculty intern with pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, Hartline studied the connection among philanthropy, government relations and corporate communications. He transfers such research into fodder for classroom discussions.

Like many of his colleagues, Hartline knows his students by name.

“We care. You’re not just a number here,” Hartline said of FSU’s MBA program. “It’s more like a family, as opposed to a large, faceless university.”