What is MBA in Marketing? 10 Best MBA Marketing programs!

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As you can see, marketing is so important in the business world nowadays, not to mention the eCommerce type. No matter what people buy and how they buy it, marketing professionals will help the merchants guide customers’ choices as they will utilize their analytical thinking to go to every detail of consumer behavior, and creative thinking to create strategies that will guide that behavior.

What is more, marketing will contribute a lot in defining a company’s message and delivering it to a target audience. In addition to that, marketing also helps merchants a lot in managing their individual’s public image or assisting them to connect effectively with other businesses as well.

So, if you are the one who owns a creative and strategic mindset that is suitable for marketing, and you want to generate a solid skill set to gain more professional knowledge, then there are a bachelor’s degree and on-the-job learning that can help you achieve this as many people do so. I will recommend you a master’s degree, which is an MBA with a concentration in Marketing that can give you a serious edge in your career.

You will be provided with a solid grasp of business fundamentals, together with specific skills related to marketing. As a result, you will get the high-level positions and the ability to affect real accomplishments, like delivering messages through an all-new channel or re-branding a service, for example.

So, in this article today, I will cover all the fundamental information about an MBA marketing, also its career path, potential employers, and salary expectations associated as well. What is more, I also include Top 10 best marketing MBA programs here in this article to make your decision more smooth.

What is an MBA in Marketing

MBA, which stands for Master’s of Business Administration with a concentration in Marketing, which is one of the most popular graduate degrees out there. This kind of degree is considered to be a multidisciplinary master’s one, which will cover many types of careers in business. Students traditionally have to spend two years to complete on a full-time basis. There are many core areas of study that bring the business fundamentals such as Accounting, Finance, Microeconomics, Macroeconomics, and Management as well.

Normally, the students who focus on a Marketing Concentration will build on this foundation with classes specific to marketing. They will be taught on Consumer Trends and Branding. Typically, every class in marketing cover topics such as advertising, branding, market research, and marketing globally and online, among many other topics. Also, a Marketing MBA normally has some experiential learning, like an internship, and ends with a capstone.

What is involved in an MBA in Marketing?

There will be the most solid business skills provided in an MBA Marketing course. At the same time, you will have your concentration in marketing reduced in the number of possibilities or choices on skills of this field. You will be instructed in learning through researching on the marketing principles, making the case studies, completing the projects, and accessing to the real-world insights from professors and guest lecturers with their marketing backgrounds.

There are some courses that you might have to fulfill while being on your marketing concentration, which are:

• Marketing Research
• Advertising Management
• Sales Force Management
• Marketing Channel Strategies
• Operations Management
• Branding
• International Marketing
• Product Development
• Forecasting and Modeling
• Digital Marketing

What is more, apart from these marketing courses, you might also have to finish some other sections included in your MBA in Marketing as well:

• Experiential Learning: this section plays a role as a real-world learning experience, which happens in a business or other organization as requirements for students to fulfill their hands-on projects. Normally, it could be the internships, externships, or practicums.
• Capstone: In the final semester of an MBA program, there will be the Capstone section shows up as a culminating course in order to collect all the skills that can be gained through the course of study. Normally, it can be a capstone project, a thesis, or a seminar as well.
• Specialization: As the MBA program’s concentration in Marketing, however, there are some schools that enable students to further specialize in a niche of the marketing field by showing them the topic-specific classes. Normally, the marketing specializations would focus on eCommerce, Luxury Marketing, Global Marketing, and also Social Media Marketing.

Emphasizing the importance of the internship component of an MBA in marketing is always a vital part. With these work placement opportunities, you might get paid or not, but you definitely will get some qualities in your later professional future.

For example, if you choose to work as an intern for a company, then what you can achieve here will present your actual expertise to potential future employers, which your grades alone can not simply do. Also, you can have a bigger chance to obtain the supervision and experience from seasoned professionals as well as a connection with a personal mentor can really help you. As a result, you can have a bigger professional network via your internship associates, even more, there are also the chances that you can even get a job offer when you finish your internship.

Things you should know before applying for an MBA in Marketing?

What do I need to get into school for an MBA in marketing?

In order to get into one school for an MBA in marketing, you must understand that this kind of degree is different from a regular master’s degree, It will have the exclusive focus on business, multidisciplinary studies, as well as the hands-on approach to applied learning. There is a set of application requirements that you need to follow to pursue your MBA in Marketing, which are:

• Bachelor’s degree
• GPA of 3.0 or higher
• GMAT score of 600 or higher
• 2+ years’ field experience
• Letter(s) of recommendation
• Resume and Personal Statement

How long does it take?

Normally, an MBA needs two years to be completed on a full-time basis regardless of your concentration. However, in case you want to complete your program and launch your career quickly, then you should think about an accelerated MBA that has the same curriculum compressed into a shorter time frame, which is 18 months. Then in case you are still on the process of working on your bachelor’s degree, then you might get an offer from your school for an accelerated BA-to-MBA program that is compressed of both degrees into a direct five-year program.

There are some people that already have existing careers or family obligations, and you want to pursue an MBA, and they also want to fit the class around their existing schedule. These people are typically searching for a change in their careers or advance in their current roles. So, these “nontraditional students” will need a part-time MBA program to be their best fit, the class here usually takes place on nights, weekends, week-long intensives, or some combination of these. With this part-time form of MBA, then it usually takes 3-4 years to fulfill, depending on the number of classes taken per semester.

How much does MBA cost?

The amount of money for your MBA will depend mainly on the school that you choose. If you choose private schools, especially old and prestigious schools, then you will have to pay more for it. At the same time, public schools cost you cheaper, especially for in-state students.

When you make a whole assumption, then, the average tuition for an MBA will be about 60,000 dollars for each year. Then, as the fact that it lasts for two years, the total cost would be 120,000 dollars on average to earn your Marketing MBA. What is more, you also need some facilities for your learning like textbooks, rent, your laptop, internet, and all other incidentals required of a full-time student.

There are some typical positions, pointed out by the U.S. News and World Report, about what is included in a marketing MBA’s cost:

• Business school fellowships
• Grad school and external scholarships
• Teaching assistance positions
• Employer education sponsorship
• Federal and private student loans

What can I do with an MBA in Marketing?

Having an MBA in Marketing, at the same time, is like being provided a broad set of business skills for you, then, a broad range of professional options as well. Absolutely, you will be able to pursue a job in marketing with an MBA degree. Also, you can be qualified for a wide variety of related jobs in business like general management and business administration as well.

Career options

The first is about career options. As the marketing jobs have need to focus on the consumer trend analysis to interpersonal jobs in advertising account management, which is the combination of both analytical and interpersonal skills. The list below is the most common positions that you can choose when you have an MBA in Marketing:

Marketing Manager

This Marketing Manager option is considered to be one of the most commonly advertised ones for people that have an MBA in marketing. Specifically, this job will require you to have the multidisciplinary skills in business, strategy, as well as communications, which are all included in the students’ degree program. As when you are in a marketing manager’s course, they will acknowledge what the main responsibility is.

As a result, you can get the overall view about all the communication between a company and its consumers, like its brand, public image, corporate values, as well as product promotions. For some more professional marketing staff in larger companies, they will need to be specialized in one area, like social media imaging, for example, with strength in both analytical as well as communication skills.

Market Research director

Most companies always want to understand two major things, which are their customer base and the thing that they want to buy. Then, in these cases, they will have to ask for the help of data-gathering technology to offer them more information than ever about who’s buying and how. Of course, you will need specialists here to intervene in this data and help them use it to build a market strategy.

This Market Research Analyst position was ranked in the eleventh place by Forbes for Best Business Jobs, which is a good choice for analytical thinkers with strong statistical skills that have a marketing MBA degree.

Director of Sales

Sales is somewhat an important position of commerce like marketing does. Meanwhile, marketing is about guiding customer perceptions and decisions, and sales are about securing the transactions. With a marketing MBA, then you will be given the qualified right to take control of the sales force as well as can collect the consumer insights and send them to your team’s sales strategy. For those who have a strategic mindset, amazing decision-making, and leadership skills, this Director of Sales will be their perfect match.

Public Relations specialist

Public Relations Specialist is the one who is professional enough to help troubles with the public figures, such as politicians, celebrities, and artists manage their image. Marketing markets a product or service, while a PR specialist markets a person. Then, they will be responsible for building and maintaining their “personal brand”, as well as improving and delivering their messages, and as well as bringing positive publicity. For those who have a marketing MBA with outgoing personalities and powerful interpersonal, communication skills, this will be a perfect position for them.

Salary

There was a report from Payscale about the average salaries that you will have with your job after completing an MBA in marketing, which said the salary would be between 40,000 dollars to over 100,000 dollars per year. It depends on the salary include company size, locations, as well as your years of work experience.

There is a list of some salaries associated with popular companies, you can look at them as an example:

• Ernest and Young with 142,431 dollars.
• General Electric with 102,829 dollars.
• J.P. Morgan Chase with 61,000 dollars.
• John S. and James L. Knight Foundation with 56,000 dollars.

Top 10 best Marketing MBA programs for you to choose

As you know that earning an MBA in marketing is one way to develop your necessary skills in marketing, but which program is the best for you to learn? So, I have the list of top 10 best marketing MBA programs presented below for you to take a look at:

1. University of California - Berkeley

• Place: Berkeley, California
• Overall Best Business Schools rank: 6 (tie)
• Number of graduates from the class (2018) that reported to have marketing or sales jobs: 41
• The average salary for these jobs: 130,825 dollars

2. University of Chicago

• Place: Chicago
• Overall Best Business Schools rank: 3 (tie)
• Number of graduates from the class (2018) that reported to have marketing or sales jobs: 64
• The average salary for these jobs: 125,938 dollars

3. New York University

• Place: New York
• Overall Best Business Schools rank: 12 (tie)
• Number of graduates from the class (2018) that reported to have marketing or sales jobs: 44
• The average salary for these jobs: 118,667 dollars

4. Harvard University

• Place: Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Overall Best Business Schools rank: 3 (tie)
• Number of graduates from the class (2018) that reported to have marketing or sales jobs: 115
• The average salary for these jobs: 132,720 dollars

5. Stanford University

• Place: Stanford, California
• Overall Best Business Schools rank: 2
• Number of graduates from the class (2018) that reported to have marketing or sales jobs: 61
• The average salary for these jobs: 138,863 dollars

6. Columbia University

• Place: New York
• Overall Best Business Schools rank: 6 (tie)
• Number of graduates from the class (2018) that reported to have marketing or sales jobs: 47
• The average salary for these jobs: 120,207 dollars

  7. Duke University

• Place: Durham, North Carolina
• Overall Best Business Schools rank: 10 (tie)
• Number of graduates from the class (2018) that reported to have marketing or sales jobs: 60
• The average salary for these jobs: 121,161 dollars

8. University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

• Place: Ann Arbor, Michigan
• Overall Best Business Schools rank: 10 (tie)
• Number of graduates from the class (2018) that reported to have marketing or sales jobs: 75
• The average salary for these jobs: 119,829 dollars

  9. University of Pennsylvania

• Place: Philadelphia
• Overall Best Business Schools rank: 1
• Number of graduates from the class (2018) that reported to have marketing or sales jobs: 79
• The average salary for these jobs: 128,919 dollars

  10. Northwestern University

• Place: Evanston, Illinois
• Overall Best Business Schools rank: 6 (tie)
• Number of graduates from the class (2018) that reported to have marketing or sales jobs: 69
• The average salary for these jobs: 118,631 dollars

Conclusion

On the whole, an MBA in marketing is what will provide you with so many skills that you can utilize in any area you want. From the diversity in companies that you can have from your employ marketing degree, there is almost no limitation for you in one field of specialization. This is a great opportunity for you to explore the field of marketing, as well.

So, it is time to ask yourself some question like: “Am I naturally creative?”, “Do I feel comfortable while leading teams?”, or “Am I able to make sound business decisions?”. If your answers are mostly “Yes”, then you are on the right track to the marketing field. Also, you can take a look at your top 10 best marketing MBA programs included in our article.

If you still have something on your mind about this matter, please feel free to contact us. We are willing to help you to understand more as best as we can.

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