Job opportunities:
Important considerations for any candidate planning a professional MBA in marketing are questions like:
- What is the scope of MBA marketing?
- How is an MBA marketing salary?
- What after MBA in marketing?
and the like. If you think that there is no scope of MBA marketing managers in this age of recession! Think again! In these tough times the crying demand of the companies is to increase their sales even more, thus, the scope of MBA marketing only becomes more critical and vital for the survival of the organization. Thus, there is always a good scope of MBA Marketing even during the times of recession, although an MBA marketing salary might be seemingly lower than during boom times.
Career options after MBA marketing:
Let us briefly look at the scope of MBA marketing in the context of industries; one can develop a career in sectors ranging from FMCG, Retail, Tourism, Banking, Hospitality, IT and ITeS, Media, PR & Advertising, Consultancy, Market Research etc. Let us briefly look into the different job profiles a candidate can expect after MBA in marketing.
- Marketing manager: The marketing manager’s responsibilities focus on servicing and managing an ongoing relationship with existing customers. He utilizes his skills in international marketing, customer satisfaction and retention, market strategy, and emerging technologies. This position requires intensive knowledge of market research and customer management.
- Brand manager: The scope of MBA marketing graduate in Brand management is that he/she is responsible for promotion and positioning activities that include advertising, media, market research activities such as collecting the information about area of consumers, display brand at target place and the like.
- Market research analyst: After MBA in marketing can open employment possibilities as a Market research analyst. Such professionals devise methods and procedures for obtaining the data they need. He is responsible for design, implementation and analysis market and provides support for the development of business strategies and plans for contributing to the business. They design telephone, mail or internet surveys to assess consumer preferences, conduct surveys as personal interviews, going door-to-door, lead focus group discussions, or setting up booths in public places such as shopping malls, analyze data on past sales to predict future sales.
- Sales manager: A sales manager is responsible for a multitude of activities like providing effective customer service and Monitoring Schemes in retail trade and distributors and reporting competitor activity, assessing and fixing sales targets, developing and monitoring business development and the like. They appoint distributors and plan sales outlets. The candidates who opt for a sales profile after MBA in marketing require a knack for customer focus and a genuine interest in the problems of customers.
- Media Planning: It forms an important component of marketing strategy of any organization. Media Planning involves designing a plan that shows how advertising time and space in selected media and which vehicles contribute to the achievement of marketing objectives in an advertising campaign. It is a tool that allows the advertiser to select the most appropriate media to communicate the message in sufficient frequency towards the maximum number of potential customers at the lowest cost.
- Product management: A product manager is responsible for the profitability and market growth of a product line. They typically coordinate and oversee a number of diverse divisions of a corporation to ensure the efficient and timely flow of a product to market. The scope of MBA marketing for is significant as many are often promoted as Director or Manager of a group of products or as Vice President (VP) of marketing.
- Internet Marketing: This is among the hottest career options for MBA-marketing graduates. Internet marketing has grown to be a massive field worldwide with tremendous opportunities for those who seek to grow in this field. Openings in account management, client relations with internet marketing firms are obvious entry points. Candidates are also finding a great amount of openings in vendor management functions of corporations where the key task to select and manage the entire spectrum of internet marketing service providers. For those who still want to delve deeper into this field, working on internet marketing projects comes recommended – there’s a lot to choose from: Social media marketing, pay-per-click (PPC) search engine marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), web content writing, article and press release writing and gradually (and with diverse exposure) quickly rising as the Head of Digital Marketing! Salaries initially tend to be on par with industry standard – but once you have gain expertise and experience, higher payouts are in for sure!
Salaries for Starters may vary depending on the work experience of the individual. However, not all B-schools can guarantee an MBA marketing salary in similar ranges. The salary also depends on other parameters like the field of specialization, creativeness, innovativeness and the like. A key fact: Most CEOs have been known ton start their careers in some form of sales or marketing role – so if you plan to work your way up there, this functional skill is not an option!
Ahsan Syed says
Helloo Gurus,
I have completed my undergraduate degree in advertising and have 3+ years of experience in Media planning and buying in Asia pacific at a Global agency for CPG (Consumer Packaged Goods) global clients.I have also recently moved to New York.
The further build my career here, should I choose an MBA in marketing or Master of Science in Marketing (One Year program) at this point?
Currently I am working with an Information Technology (IT) firm in the marketing department and handling B2B (Business to Business) marketing campaigns.
Thanks.
Best–
Ahsan
MBA Admission Gurus says
Greetings Ahsan,
Thanks for your post. This is a very interesting question and a very close call.
We are advising at a generic level since we do not have your particular long-term and short-term goals (post-completion of the program) handy
Typically, admission to a prestigious global MBA program in the United States with just 3 years industry exposure (and especially given that you are an international, non-native applicant) is quite challenging. Further you may make it to a top program but not receive funding (or just partial funding). So the investment is highly significant and one-time. Finally, it a generic, higher level program preparing you to manage and lead within a corporation/also your own business.
In contrast, an MS in marketing program (there are no more than 10-15 top universities offering those in the US) if aptly selected will provide (A) more skills needed at this stage (B) will be definitely less costly and (C) will do the needful for you (per what you have posted). It also gives you the opportunity to, at a later stage, and after gaining a lot of US experience, apply to a reach a very prestigious MBA program in the US (now that you have a US degree and experience).
Thus option 2 is ideal if you are patient and persistent about a very top ranked MBA program. Option 1 is ok if you are willing to compromise on school rankings. Employment, eitherways, will be fine if you are more towards the quantitative or analytical side of marketing.
Finally, please note that for typical “marketing/brand management/sales” jobs, The US economy, by itself has plenty of local manpower. So finding a sponsor may not be easy (Exception being marketing of highly technical or complex or scientific products/services)
Hope this helps
Cheers
David Fernandez
Prathamesh Kamath says
Dear Gurus,
I am an aviation professional. I am currently Working as an operations manager for an international Airline that manages both Cargo and Passenger Aircraft. I have 07 years of work experience.
I have a Bachelors degree in Hospitality management and Catering operations; however I changed my field 07 years back to join aviation.
Would you be able to guide me what kind of an MBA would assist me to grow ahead in my career?
Please advise.
Thanks
Prathamesh Kamath
MBA Admission Gurus says
Hi,
From your work experience, it seems you are more likely to get operations roles. We suggest one elective as operations, the other could be marketing or finance depending on your aptitude.
Cheers!
David
Vivian James says
Dear Gurus,
I am a technology professional with 6 years of industry experience. I plan to setup my own business as an Analyst.
How will MBA help me to get this goal? Which MBA specialization or will be best for me? As an executive MBA ideal? Please guide me with your valuable input
Thanks,
Vivian
MBA Admission Gurus says
Greetings Vivian,
Thanks for your post.
Firstly, the benefits of an MBA are far too many to elaborate on this section focused on careers post MBA with marketing specialization. We will thus directly address the other two
1. An MBA with entrepreneurship focus will be the most ideal for you if you are very sure about becoming an entrepreneur. A typical MBA program focuses more on creating managers and leaders for working with a multi-national (Of course, you can choose entrepreneurship as an elective). Alternatively you can choose schools that are very well ranked for the entrepreneurship specialization and yet pursue the regular MBA.
To summarize, if you are 110% sure about building your own business, choose an MBA with entrepreneurship focus. If you want to keep the employment option equally open, choose a typical MBA and select a lot of electives in entrepreneurship. You can choose dual specialization too: One specialization in entrepreneurship and another in marketing or finance
2. Re: Executive MBA. To our knowledge, you do not qualify for an eMBA unless you have already reached a very senior role at work. Top tier business schools usually take in candidates with 10-15 years experience for an eMBA (exception being the above line)
Hope this helps
Cheers!
Haresh
Sneha Patil says
Dear Gurus,
I have completed my degree in electronics and telecommunication and want to do an MBA after 2 to 3 years of my work experience.
But am actually stuck at this point – should I choose a technical job or a job related to marketing as I want to do marketing in MBA. What would be more beneficial?
Regards,
Sneha
MBA Admission Gurus says
Greetings Sneha,
We suggest taking up a sales or marketing related opening. The employer post-MBA will really find it of more value and you will gain greater expertise in the field too…
Hope this helps!
Cheers
Vivien Rothwell says
Respected Gurus,
I have an undergraduate degree in fashion designing and 3 years of work experience in the field.
How do I stand to benefit from an MBA in marketing?
Please advise
MBA Admission Gurus says
Dear Vaishali,
You are on a good career track. There is a specialized demand for fashion product marketers. So very are fairly confident that you will find many openings in marketing roles. That said, it is also essential to gain an MBA from Reputed Institution. You do need a very good internship in your industry to enter such roles in marketing or brand management.
Less reputed schools may be easy to get into but you may land up getting openings in sales with that kind of pedigree. Unless you are ok with that, it is better to aim higher…
Hope this helps!
Cheers!
David