Marketing

There can be a variety of career opportunities and options for people with marketing MBAs. The most common are corporate positions such as marketing manager, brand manager, market research analyst, and new product manager. Persons with strong financial skills could seek a career in strategic or market related planning. Additional corporate positions such as sales manager, advertising manager, PR (public relations) director, and marketing communications manager are also common.

In marketing or advertising agencies, opportunities can exist in advertising, direct marketing, and communications specialization. Consulting firms may also hire marketing MBAs as new market developers, strategists, and customer segmentation specialists.

Product management careers as well as brand management careers typically require that a candidate have an MBA, even at the entry level. However, some companies that focus intensively on sales promote these positions internally from highly successful sales representatives.

• Product and Brand Managers
• New Product Development Specialists
• Marketing Managers
• Account Management Specialists

The product manager is entirely responsible for the profitability and market growth of a product line. The product manager could be considered the CEO of a particular product. 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. While some product managers have international responsibilities, most product management positions focus on product and market development domestically. Product managers often will see promotion to director or manager of a group of products or even to the position of VP of marketing.Some companies have a position specifically targeted to managing new or developing product lines.

 The new product specialist is skilled at launching and marketing initial implementations of a product or marketing plan before giving the project to a product manager for ongoing maintenance.

The marketing manager’s responsibilities are similar to those of the product manager, but are focused on servicing and managing an ongoing relationship with existing customers. The marketing manager utilizes skills in international marketing, customer satisfaction and retention, market strategy, and emerging technologies. This position can be highly demanding and require intensive knowledge of market research and customer management.

While it is not often required, having an MBA can be very beneficial in obtaining a position in account management roles. The account manager is responsible for a large number of the functions of a product manager, but on the advertising agency side of things.