Marketing Degrees
Like this graph? You can use it on your website.
Salaries For Degrees in Marketing
Graduates in Marketing can be employed in a variety of occupations. It is impossible to say what you personally will do with a degree in Marketing, our survey panel picked the following jobs as likely options:
- Marketing managers (Best salary!)
- Advertising and promotions managers
- Market research analysts
- Sales engineers
- Meeting and convention planners
- Sales managers
The median salary for people with a degree in Marketing is highly dependent on individual negotiating skill, seniority in the field, your employer, location, and more besides. The estimates we show on these pages are just that: estimates. Your individual experience will likely vary.
Where does this come from?
The Bureau of Labor Statistics, a unit of the US government, classifies all workers into some 800-odd occupational categories. We paid a army of freelancers to get their opinion on what type of degree a holder of each type of job would likely have majored in. For pairs which had a high degree of consensus, we created a link between the degree and the job.
From this, we calculated the average salary for Marketing degrees and converted it into a lifetime value. We then compared it against other degrees at the same level of schooling (such as associate's, bachelor's, or master's), so that you can make informed educational and employment decisions.
What Can a Marketing Student Expect to Learn?
Marketing is key in today’s business environment. With the expanding number of products and growing access to information, the marketer’s ability to create a distinct and recognizable brand that meets a customer need or desire is vital to business success. An individual with a marketing degree can choose from a number of exciting opportunities in today’s increasingly global marketplace.
What is Marketing?
Marketing is the integrated business process of moving products from concept to consumer. In other words, a marketer will be involved at every stage of the process in one way or another from generating ideas for products, building the image of the product or “branding” it, distributing the product, and promoting the product. Students of marketing will learn how to identify market needs and perceptions, how to identify the core values of a product or service to be marketed, how to determine price and distribution, and how to develop and implement a promotional strategy. In addition, students should expect to learn specific marketing topics such as online marketing and e-commerce, new product development, branding, advertising strategy, consumer behavior analysis, market response forecasting, and market research methods and evaluation.
Careers in Marketing
A degree in marketing prepares students for a wide variety of careers in sales, retail businesses, advertising, product management, and research. In retail businesses and sales situations, marketers may manage the way products and services are presented or displayed within the store. They use their knowledge of consumer behavior to present the product or service in the way that is most likely to appeal to the consumer.
In addition, marketers may manage the retail business's advertising budget and determine how, where, and in what way the product is advertised and promoted.
Alternatively, marketers can work within the advertising industry. There, marketers focus on discovering what values customers respond to, and then building campaigns that emphasize these values in a product or service. In product management, marketers identify consumer needs and help make decisions about which products and services to develop that will meet these needs. In addition, most corporations have marketing departments that employ individuals to manage the perception, promotion, pricing, and distribution of their goods and services. Marketing work can also be found in the not-for-profit sector.
Charities and service organizations use marketers in ways similar to their counterparts in for-profit businesses. In order to raise funds, awareness, and support, non-profits employ marketers to identify the qualities the public responds to and to correspondingly manage the perception of their goals and services.
Marketers will also determine which channels are best for reaching the target audience for fundraisers and educational programs. Government also employs marketers. In any organization where there is a product, service, or image, marketers are at work managing the perception of the product, service, or image. In any workplace, marketers use their skills to conduct analyses of customers and competitors, design focused marketing strategies, and develop marketing programs and performance measures.
It is through these strategies that they accomplish the basic marketing goal of presenting a product or service in a particular way--of creating associations and perceptions that lead customers to believe in the product or service. Marketing is not just a job title. It is a critical business function for any organization. Within this function, different individuals may perform different roles, and focus on different phases of the process, but comprehensively, they ensure that products and services are successful.
Online Schools Offering Accredited Marketing Degree Programs
Marketing degrees can also be obtained online.
The schools listed above, as well as many other on-campus and on-line schools, offer quality education in marketing. Many schools also provide students with links to professional associations and internships that can advance their study of the field. Some school have associate programs; others offer a bachelor of science or graduate degree. Students should consider which program offers the type of program that best suits their needs as well as a delivery that works for the students' schedule and location.
Additional factors, such as internships, connections to companies that offer work-study experience, and the school's history of job placement should also be considered. Finally, students should examine which specific course listings seem most closely aligned with the kind of marketing work they would like to do.
Top Colleges & Universities Offering Campus-based Marketing Degrees
Getting a Marketing Degree With an ever-growing demand for skilled marketers, most colleges and universities offer a marketing degree or a business degree with a concentration in marketing. On campus locations for associate and bachelor degrees can be found throughout the United States.
- Fairleigh Dickinson located in Teaneck, New Jersey also has campuses in Vancouver, Canada, and Wroxten College in Scotland. FDU offers a marketing curriculum that begins with basic marketing concepts and advances to career specific courses. The course of study includes hands-on projects, case studies and internships.
- University of Michigan located in Ann Arbor, Michigan delivers thorough introductory courses through executive education programs as well as graduate programs.
- University of Southern Florida Polytechnic located in Lakeland, Florida provides both face-to-face classes and some blended instruction that incorporates web-delivery with on-campus classes. USF also allows students to transfer two years worth of credits from community colleges and other institutions of higher learning.
- Quinnipiac University, located in Hamden, Connecticut has an active student chapter of the American Marketing Association on campus and is the central location of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
- University of Southern California, located in Los Angeles California provides both undergraduate and graduate studies in marketing. The school emphases interactive learning and hand-on marketing experience at one of the many businesses located nearby in the industries of technology, media, and communications.
- Grand Canyon University located in Phoenix, Arizona is home to the Ken Blanchard School of Business. Ken Blanchard is the author of the business best seller Who Moved My Cheese.
- Emerson College located in Boston, Massachusetts offers a marketing and communication degree with courses combine theory and practice.
The fundamental elements of marketing, advertising, and public relations and their interaction in communication programs are emphasized.
Famous Marketers
The list of famous marketers is broad and wide ranging. Some of the more recent, famous and highly successful marketers are: 
- Sir Richard Branson (pictured right)
- Calvin Klein
- Seth Godin
- Jay Abraham
- Gary Halbert
The success of a product or service results from the marketers’ ability to bring the producer and consumer together in a way that is beneficial for both. An individual with a marketing degree has a broad array of options for utilizing his or her degree, but all of them are guaranteed to be challenging and fulfilling.
