So you want to get an MBA with a marketing emphasis? This article will outline some useful information that will help you in your quest to get an MBA in marketing. Yes we realize this is an accounting website; sorry to break it to you, but you’ll be taking plenty of accounting in your MBA classes even if you have an emphasis in marketing.

Deciding on a School

Most people make a big mistake when they are in the decision making process of deciding which school to attend. The classic strategy is to list a few schools, do a pros and cons analysis, and end up going to the school that accepts you. This isn’t a horrible strategy, but it isn’t the best one either.

First you need to specify your objectives. Hopefully your objective isn’t to have an mba marketing career, but to actually get a job after you finish with your MBA. The old adage “start with the end in mind” will really come in helpful when deciding which school to attend. To understand why, let’s look at an example.

Jill really wants to get a job at a prestigious marketing firm in New York City. She would literally give up her first born to have that job. John on the other hand simply wants to learn and be a more effective marketer for a local company in North Dakota.

These two have very different objectives and so their list of potential schools will be very different. Jill will likely want to attend one of the top-tier MBA Marketing programs. She will need to get a really high GMAT score and she will have to sacrifice a lot of time when she is in the marketing program.

John on the other hand will still want to go to a credible school. John’s a really smart guy and he wants a good education, but his end goals don’t require him to sacrifice his first born. He should probably shoot for a mid-tier school. These schools teach essentially the same things so John will get the learning he desires. The difference is that the mid-tier schools don’t have the same amount of prestige.

Now is probably a good time to talk about prestige. If you are going to a top-tier college solely because you want people to ogle you when you say were you graduated from, you will be sorely disappointed. When you’re graduating with hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and you don’t have a job lined up that can pay off that debt, you will be wondering if you made the right decision.

The point is that before you start making a list of schools, determine what your long-term objectives are.

Finding Top-Tier MBA Marketing Programs

http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/mbainsider/schools_by_specialty.html

http://businessmajors.about.com/od/choosingaschool/tp/TopMarketing.htm

MBA Marketing Jobs

Fortunately for those with MBA’s in marketing, almost all companies need a marketing department. This means that you can go just about anywhere in the country and have an MBA marketing job. Some common jobs in this area are listed below:

Product and Brand Managers – A large corporation may have a product manager for each product line they have. Basically the responsibility of a product manager is to oversee the success of the product line. This means you are pretty much the CEO of this area. If you are good at your job, you may get promoted to a more popular product line or in control of several lines.

Brand managers are becoming more and more important as other barriers to entry are crumbling as times change. Those looking for MBA marketing careers would do well to pay attention in class when their teachers are talking about brand management.

Internet Marketer – More and more companies are recognizing the need for to hire an MBA who understands internet marketing. The Internet didn’t turn out to be the huge money-maker that everyone thought it would, instead it turned out to be something that is necessary for corporations. If your corporation doesn’t have a marketer specifically focused on the Internet, then you’re losing out to other corporations that do.

Personal Brand Manager – This job is fairly scarce, but it is worth mentioning for those who have an MBA marketing degree. Some high net-worth individuals want to control their own brand. This job consists of consulting those people on how to protect and build their own image.

That about sums it up for our discussion on MBA’s in marketing. If you have any questions or comments please feel free to post them below.