Online Degrees

Marketing Manager Career Path

The average value of the Bachelor degree needed to become a Marketing managers is $2,141,712.00.

Points of Interest

• A career in marketing typically involves securing a 4 year university or college graduate degree in business administration. Additional post graduate degrees, such as an MBA (Masters in Business Administration), helps individuals secure higher paying positions and stronger career advancement opportunities.
• The marketing profession is an involved process where careers may include analyzing market & consumer trends, managing a company’s advertising & public relations, as well as managing the product’s brand in the eyes of consumers and businesses. 
• According to payscale.com, the average salary for marketing managers is approximately $77,000.00 annually. However, a large number of higher paying positions are available and can exceed $150,000.00 a year in salary and bonuses.
• According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the marketing manager position is expected to increase by 13% annually between 2008 and 2018.
• Individuals pursuing this career must have solid business acumen, be detail oriented and willing to spend a large amount of time traveling. Travel time is required to assess the viability and success of a given marketing & sales initiative from the perspective of the company’s market, and its customers. 

Nature of Work

Marketing is quite simply everything a company does, delivered in one singular message to its market and its customers. When companies want their customers to know what they do, and how they do it, they turn to the time tested approaches of marketing based initiatives and strategies.

Marketing can be the company’s engineering & design capabilities, its core competencies in manufacturing & distribution, its customer focused sales & customer service team, and or its determination in delivering innovative products to its customers. How this message is delivered to customers is the ultimate goal of marketing. Some companies believe marketing is simply a new catalog, brochure or even a random ad placement here and there. However, marketing is far more than this. The best run companies use marketing to determine their costs of customers, to improve customer retention, to grow market share, as well as increase revenue and gross profits. Marketing and sales go hand in hand, and while some companies may achieve marginal results with sales alone, they can never truly become top tier companies without a proactive, resourceful and well planned marketing approach. A well thought out marketing strategy will provide the necessary leads for sales to pursue and close. Qualified leads are essential. The best method to provide those qualified leads is through a marketing plan that disseminates information and segregates qualified leads versus unqualified ones.

While marketing is not an exact science, it is far more indicative of existing market and customer trends. To this extent, it relies upon factual assertions based on a predominance of evidence to support its approaches, rather than simple guess work or speculation. Marketing allows companies to determine the most cost-efficient and best method of finding and securing new customers. It points the way to reducing these costs even further through analysis on marketing success rates, increased business as a result of certain initiatives and the importance of increasing marketing ROI (Return on Investment).

Many marketing professionals refer to marketing ROI as the preeminent method of managing costs. Marketing ROI simply implies that companies derive the most output from their marketing inputs. So, if a company is able to increase the number of customers it finds from every marketing dollar it spends, then it is in essence increasing its marketing ROI. In order to continually bring these costs down, marketing relies on several strategies that call upon reaching customers through print, radio, magazine advertisements as well as the internet, trade shows and conferences.

Marketing professionals are not merely involved in analyzing market and customer trends. The business value of marketing is far reaching. Successful marketing managers are able to draw upon years of business case study analysis to determine a company’s appropriate market strategy. Depending upon these strategies, companies may choose to enact plans to become market leaders or market followers. However, given the speed at which business occurs in today’s economy, a number of businesses have opted for a position that is neither a market follower, nor a market leader. In essence, companies are less focused on being first or last to market, but about approaching the market at the appropriate time and with the appropriate product. For this reason, companies are now more concerned about being market savvy, than being first or last.

Other aspects of marketing include analyzing a given industry’s potential for growth, and its long term future prospects. Companies use market based research to decide upon capital expenditures on equipment and expansion, as well as to determine the most cost-effective method of entering new markets and industries. 

Training, Other Qualifications, and Advancement

Given the importance of marketing, what does a career as a marketing manager involve and what are the aspirations in terms of career advancement and earning potential? More importantly, what is the current requirement to excel as a marketing manager in today’s economy and what are the long-term growth aspirations?

When it comes to assessing the necessary training and qualifications to become a marketing manager, it really amounts to securing a graduate degree in a related field. Most marketing managers secure a graduate degree in business administration with courses focusing on marketing, finance, economics, statistics and operations. This degree provides individuals with the necessary tools to excel as a marketing manager. Here is a summary of the bachelor’s degree with the aforementioned courses explained in detail.

Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration

A Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration is the most common and well accepted graduate degree for aspiring business professionals. These degrees focus on the essence of business management, the budgeting process as well as the day to day operating functions and costs of doing business. Graduates with degrees in business administration are able to enter the workforce with an understanding of the importance of business management, and the aspects that determine a company’s overall strategy. The courses covered include the following.

• Marketing courses: These courses provide insight into how companies use marketing to meet customer demand. They provide insight into the market itself, the role of demand & supply, the importance of appropriate pricing strategies, as well as the need to use correct product lifecycle management strategies.

• Finance courses: One of the main responsibilities of marketing managers is to come up with a marketing budget. Deciding how to measure that budget is an essential aspect of measuring the marketing expenditure as a percentage of sales. Marketing managers must determine whether to base the marketing plan on current sales, past sales or projected sales.

• Economics courses: These courses provide individuals with insight into the impact of outside forces on a market, its customers and the company itself. Economics focuses its approach on the necessary tools to understand the economy as a whole and what ultimately influences supply and demand.

• Statistics courses: Statistical analysis of marketing information is an essential aspect of succeeding as a marketing manager and ensuring those marketing initiatives are properly measured. Individuals will learn about the methods used by marketing managers to determine their mean & average cost of customer, the success of a given initiative and the business costs of changing approaches.

• Operations courses: Successful marketing managers must not only be able to properly manage budgets, but must also understand the importance of properly managing employees within a given department. Operations courses provide marketing managers with the insight required to ensure work processes and procedures are clearly defined, and never redundant or time consuming. 

Employment

Most marketing managers do their work within their office, but a large portion of their time is spent ensuring those marketing initiatives are producing the desired results. To this extent, marketing managers must therefore be willing to do extensive travel to see the results of their marketing and sales approaches. This often involves working alongside sales representatives and visiting one on one with a company’s customers.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, those working in sales & marketing accounted for approximately 650,000.00 jobs in 2010 and encompass careers and positions in numerous industries including retail, manufacturing, wholesale and insurance. Some of the most common pursuits in marketing include the following careers.

Brand Marketing Managers

Brand marketing managers are often tasked with improving customer loyalty by using strategic marketing approaches to illicit buying responses. They use strategies relating to the company or product logo, catch phrases and statements meant to target specific buying groups, market niche’s and or consumers within specific age demographics. Brand marketing managers must be able to provide a product that connects with consumers in such a way as to define both the product itself, and the individuals who buy it.

Product Marketing Managers 

Product marketing managers are tasked with managing a product’s entire life. To accomplish this, the product marketing manager will use proven and well established product lifecycle management approaches to maximize gross profit through the various stages of the product’s life within its market. These stages include 1) the introduction stage, 2) the growth stage, 3) the leveling out or market saturation stage and 4) the decline stage. Each of these stages requires the product manager to analyze market and consumer trends and adopt pricing strategies that maximize gross profit with respect to product sales. The importance of these four product lifecycle stages can never be underestimated. Product marketing managers must be able to match price to demand. Too low a price in the introduction and growth stage, and the company’s profit and future product improvements are affected. Too high a price in the market saturation stage and decline stage, and the company encounters reduced demand which leads to loss of sales and gross profit. 

Sales & Marketing Managers

Most small to medium sized businesses, as well as some large ones, will combine their sales & marketing as one. While marketing is tasked with providing sales with qualified leads, marketing and sales do work simultaneously. As such, they often work as one department. In a number of instances, companies employ sales & marketing managers to hold some of their highest positions in business development. These managers must therefore manage not only the company’s marketing strategy, but also its sales department. To be successful means to adopt marketing plans that provide leads and ensure the sales team closes on those leads.

Job Outlook 

The job outlook for marketing professionals is quite positive. Demand for additional positions in marketing will likely result from increased global competition from overseas suppliers and companies, some of which will require marketing & sales managers to manage divisions and corporate offices. These managers will therefore be tasked with market introductions and sales driven initiatives to capture market share and increase revenue. Since these positions are highly compensated, competition is expected to be fierce. This is only exacerbated by the high number of workers who’ve remained in the work force, or who have put off retirement, because of the current economic downturn affecting savings & retirement funds. 

Projections

As previously mentioned, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, jobs for marketing professionals is expected to rise by 13% annually between 2008 to 2018. However, because competition is expected to be fierce, individuals might want to investigate additional post graduate education such as the aforementioned MBA. An MBA can add instant credibility to a marketing manager.

Earnings

Most marketing managers have a very aggressive compensation plan that includes a starting salary, commission on sales, bonuses and in some cases, profit sharing and or stock options. The earnings potential for marketing managers is quite substantial. In some cases, marketing mangers are compensated based on their ability to hit established sales and gross profit objectives or their ability to maximize pricing within a given market. In the case of the Brand Marketing Manager and the Product Marketing Manager, their compensation is often tied to their product’s ability to capture market share and grow sales. 

Wages

Average wages for marketing managers are anywhere from $44,000.00 to $77,000.00 annually. This average wage includes all positions relating to marketing including professions such as retail & wholesale marketing managers. However, when one looks at the higher level positions within corporations, such as that of a Senior Marketing Manager position, these wages increase substantially. According to payscale.com, Senior Marketing Managers earn anywhere from $83,355.00 to $130,716.00 annually in salary in industries such as computer hardware and software development, telecommunications, financial services and manufacturing & distribution. 

Related Occupations

Because marketing is such a wide ranging field of study, marketing managers have a myriad of career pursuits. Some of these include becoming Public Relations Managers, Advertising & Promotions Managers, Field Marketing Managers, Internet & Database Marketing Managers, Project Marketing Managers as well as Program Marketing Managers. Other related occupations include the following:

• Product Promoters 
• Survey Analysts 
• Business Analysts 
• Sales Representatives 
• Technical Service Representatives 
• Customer Service Managers

Additional Sources of Information

For additional information on marketing & sales manager careers, please refer to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics at http://www.bls.gov/home.htm

Related Jobs

People with the educational background, skills, and desire to become a Marketing managers might be well suited to work in one of the following fields as well:

• Advertising and promotions managers
• Market research analysts