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!
Olawole Asoro says
Dear Gurus,
I have 10+ years of professional experience. About 9 of those years have been in the Nigerian banking industry where I have held roles as Credit Analyst, Relationship Manager (Commercial Banking), Team Lead (Commercial Banking), and Profit Center Manager (Retail & Commercial Banking Groups) with Nigeria’s biggest banks. I have managed teams of upto 7 people, coaching and mentoring them. But I am restless and adventurous. I like fresh challenges all the time. This partly explains why I often leave one bank for another (to date, I have worked in the four biggest banks in Nigeria).
About 5 years ago, I obtained an MBA in Financial Services from one of UK’s universities – University of East London. However, I now feel a strong attraction for strategy consulting. I am seriously considering a career switch to operations consulting with special focus on the banking industry. My wife and I have also decided to relocate to Canada, hence my preferred country for another MBA is Canada. I’m considering Rotman MBA as a launch pad to actualize my career switch to consulting.
I would need your advise and counsel, please.
Thank you.
NB: I graduated at the top 5% of my class at both the BSc and MBA levels. I also recently took the GRE Test where I scored 309.
MBA Admission Gurus says
Greetings Olawole Asoro,
Thanks for your post and for contacting us via email earlier. In interest of your privacy, we chose to take the call forward via skype and not carry the assessment further via the blog. Hope the discussion was handy. Do feel free to email back should you have any queries…
Cheers!
Haresh
Ritwick says
Hi Gurus,
I am currently pursuing my MBA (in Canada) and am just about to begin the 2nd year.
Prior to the MBA, I worked with 2 renowned companies for 4.5 years. My first job was in technical sales and direct marketing (B2B). My second role was also in sales (retail) – it was a multi-faceted role that also involved channel management, inventory management and (to a certain degree) procurement.
So far, I had been planning to pursue my MBA in Marketing. But now I am thinking of pursuing dual specialization in Marketing and Operations Management (this is purely based on my work experience and I am not interested in areas such as finance, HR, etc). I have a passion for marketing and I want to pursue operations because I feel it will strengthen the experiential knowledge that I have gained so far.
Given my line of thought, do you think it makes sense to pursue a dual specialization in these 2 fields? Are there potential jobs that require people with specializations in these fields? I’ve considered brand management as a potential area where I would like to work but I’m not sure if operations would complement it.
Since I have to choose my electives within a month, I am trying to do as much research as possible. Any feedback would be of great help.
Thanks and regards,
Ritwick
MBA Admission Gurus says
Greetings Ritwick,
Good day. You have definitely posted a very interesting query. I do agree that some good fraction of brand management does involve channel work and hence a good working knowledge of operations (especially if you are in retail).
At a generic level, it all now depends on the post-MBA role and also the industry you specifically seek. Based on our experience, knowledge of operations is a definite plus but not a very major add-on. I am more skewed towards taking more and more electives in marketing and probably just 1 or 2 in operations (Again those have to complement marketing electives). Besides, you will have already picked up in operations through your core courses and that often does suffice.
Coming to companies that need dual majors in marketing and operations and to our knowledge, it is mainly
1. Logistics companies and
2. New Gen dotcoms (internet marketing majors – including Amazon that have many interesting roles in marketing, operations and even vendor management) that often need marketers to understand delivery flows in detail.
Hope this helps. Pl. feel free to write back for further queries…
Cheers!
Haresh Kodnani
MBA Admission Gurus
Hope this
Karen Whitman says
Greetings MBA Gurus!
I currently having 3 years of experience in computer software programming and development.
I have developed sheer interest in Digital Marketing. I am already pursuing a course of Digital Marketing.
Will an MBA in marketing also help? Please advise. Thanks
MBA Admission Gurus says
Greetings Karen,
It seems that you are definitely on the right track. Computer programming background may also be a plus in internet marketing. Further, we do advise an MBA in marketing or even an MS in marketing for that matter. For more details, please review relevant discussion threads and the articles in detail in this section.
Cheers!
MBA Admission Gurus
Swati says
Hello gurus,
I have a total of 10+ years of experience in the field of IT. But of these 10 years, the last seven years have been more on the customer side. I am from India, and I travelled abroad to US to work at the customer location. Initially, the role was rechnical, however, I later I started managing the project there, and my goal was always, to keep the customer happy, by connecting with the customer, understanding their requirements, dealing with difficult customers sometimes, acting as bridge between my organization and the customer. Because of the good work we did, we gained the trust and managed to get a new contract for 5 long years, and I have been continuing to work with the cusomter closely, to expand the team both onshore/offshore and get more new projects.
So it has been 7 years now, and the cusomter is really happy. So this experience, triggered my interest in marketing, and now I want to get formal education in marketing management so that I get a deeper understanding of business and the marketing aspects in the field of IT.
THerefore, I want to go for MBA in marketing.
Please let me know, if the experience which I have got at customer side, I can leverage that to get into marketing in MBA or not.
Thanks and Regards,
Swati.
MBA Admission Gurus says
Hello Swati,
You are on the perfect career track in our opinion. No Worries at all. That said, we do recommend getting some exposure to direct sales if you can. It is the fundamental skill needed in both sales and marketing
Cheers!
MBA Admission Gurus
Swati says
Thanks for your response team!!
Swati says
I have one more question.
Since I have already have experience in the IT field, I would like to continue in the same industry – But in marketing so that I can work with different customers closely.
I understand the different roles you described above, marketing manager, brand manger etc. Among all the roles, I believe I would fit into the Marketing Manager role, to start with, after completion of MBA.
However, my MBA application wants me to specify 2 other roles that I would opt for apart from the marketing manager role.
Can you please guide me, as to what are the roles that would be advisable for me, post MBA, as per my current experience.
Thanks for your inputs in advance. Really appreciate it.
~Swati.
MBA Admission Gurus says
Greetings Swati,
Thanks for your words of appreciation! We are happy to add value.
The roles that will best suit you are
1. Client Relations
2. Client engagement manager
3. Key account manager
4. Pre-sales
5. Program manager (marketing)
6. Assistant marketing manager permanent to marketing manager (in case its a large corporation)
7. Channel manager (for companies selling through intermediaries)
The last 2 are marketing roles. The other roles are high “farmer” sales roles – that is – you will handle accounts already forged. The most high profile ones are “hunter” roles such as sales manager or business development where you have to fetch in new accounts (something more challenging vis-a-vis selling to existing accounts)
Brand management is a term more common in CPG/FMCG industry.
Hope this helps!
Cheers!
MBA Admission Guru
Pat Isenberg says
Hi,
I have completed my MBA recently(2014) and am now working as lead processing executive.Is it advisable to take MBA Marketing or MS in MARKETING?
Thanks
Patricia Isenberg
MBA Admission Gurus says
Hi,
Given that you have already completed an MBA, the only choice is an MS. We also suggest gaining more work experience prior to making such a decision. Thanks,
David