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Program Guide
MBA in Marketing
An MBA in Marketing has become one of the most desired degrees by both students and employers in recent years. With the shift to digital and online marketing, most businesses now have their own, in-house marketing teams specializing in bringing traffic and customers to the company.
While there are a number of specific areas of marketing, an MBA specializing in marketing doesn’t limit the degree holder to pursuing marketing careers alone. The skillset can be put towards dozens of other career options, from consulting to entrepreneurial management.
However, if you like the sound of taking on a diversified role in an ever-changing landscape, the role of the marketing manager might just be your calling.
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The MBA in Marketing: Entry Requirements
The broad nature of marketing, encompassing everything and anything from art and design to human behavior and quantitative skills, means that almost any background can lend itself to the degree.
The basic entry requirements for an MBA in marketing are a solid GMAT score and GPA and a bachelor’s degree – whether this is in a subject from the humanities or in pre-professional studies or anything in between. As with any other MBA degree or specialization, admissions officers will, for the most part, be looking to see at least two years of experience before accepting a student into a program.
Required Skills
Prospective students hoping to show they have the potential to become an excellent marketing manager require a broad skillset. Well-rounded individuals with skills in both mathematics and the softer skills, such as communications, tend to fare well in MBA in marketing specializations. Other desired skills for marketing typically include analytical and leadership skills.
Courses
Common courses found within MBA in marketing specializations include:
- Marketing management
- Operations management
- Consumer and brand insight strategy
- Digital marketing and social media management
- Forecasting, modelling, and marketing strategy
- New product strategy, branding, and marketing
- International and multi-national marketing
- Sales force management
Top schools for an MBA in Marketing
According to the QS World University Rankings: MBA Specializations 2019, the top 10 schools for an MBA in Marketing are:
1) Stanford Graduate School of Business
2) The Kellogg School of Management (Northwestern University)
3) UCLA Anderson School of Management
4) ESADE Ramon Llull University
7) Kelley School of Business (Indiana University)
8) Michigan Ross School of Business
9) Babson College, F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business
10) SDA Bocconi
You can find out more about the programs in the top 10 by clicking here.
Marketing career options
Common job roles
Marketing MBAs can channel their energies into preparing for marketing career roles, from IT to retail and anything in between.
As every sector of the business world has a product it wants to reach the appropriate channels, every sector requires marketing and marketing managers. Popular specializations in marketing careers over the past few years include (but are no means limited to):
- Internet and digital marketing trends, channels, management, and strategies
- E-commerce
- Brand management
- Market research and analytics
- Content marketing
Common job responsibilities
As a marketing manager, you will be overseeing a marketing team for a number of different activities such as: releasing new products at specific times; tracking how well products are selling; advertising for new and existing products; networking among supply chain channels and liaising between a company’s research & development, design, advertising, and brand strategy teams.
Boutique vs. corporate jobs
A boutique (i.e. smaller) advertising agency or marketing firm requires more flexibility and adaptability from a marketing manager than a large corporation will. A large corporation will have other branches to deal with aspects of finance, artistic design, sales, product development and design, and other duties that could fall under the remit of a marketing manager attached to a smaller firm.
A large corporation will instead be looking for a marketing manager to manage one or two aspects of a marketing campaign, whether that is new product research, marketing strategy, consumer strategy, or brand strategy.
As a marketing manager you often receive the chance to oversee the life of a product from inception, design and implementation to sales and delivery.
If you’re looking for a role that offers something different on a day to day basis and will draw on almost every facet of the skills acquired during your MBA in marketing, then a startup or boutique firm is worth considering. But, consider also the difference in resources at your disposal if you opt to join a larger firm and the opportunity it might offer to become a specialist in a particular area.
Top companies for MBA in marketing graduates
The most recent report by Forbes (in 2016) analyzed the best companies for MBA in marketing graduates to work at. Companies were chosen based on three criteria:
- How much they invest in their people with training, exposure and cross-functionality
- How much they invest in strategic marketing
- If marketers are synonymous with general managers versus marketing communication experts.
The top 10 companies were as follows:
- Procter & Gamble (P&G)
- PepsiCo
- Unilever
- American Express
- Coca-Cola
- General Mills
- Amazon
- Apple
- Starbucks
MBA in Marketing salaries
Due to the diversity in job roles and sectors in the world of marketing, salaries for graduates can be widely varied. However, compensation software company Payscale found that the average salary for MBA in marketing graduates in 2019 is US$93,000.
Marketing managers can expect salaries ranging from around US$48,000 to US$115,000. For marketing directors, this can rise to around US$63,000 to US$162,000. Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) can even hope to achieve salaries of up to US$273,000.
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