Not everyone who wants to succeed in business needs to get a business administration degree. In fact, for many people, selecting a field that requires skills besides general business management could make for a much more rewarding career. One of these fields you might seriously consider dedicating your career to is marketing.
The field of marketing is one of the most critical to business success, and marketing executives can earn nearly as much as chief executives: into the mid-to-high six figures in salary, plus various high-level benefits and perks. What’s more, marketing professionals have the relatively unique opportunity to develop and utilize exciting creative skills in the business workplace.
Climbing the marketing career ladder requires knowledge, skills and experience that can apply to the marketing field. Arguably the easiest way to obtain these qualifications is through a marketing degree. Here’s what you can expect from a bachelor’s degree program in marketing:
General Goal of Marketing Degree Program
Marketing is a massive field that is remarkably important to business success. Marketing encompasses and involves many different aspects of business, from advertising and public relations to communications and consumer behavior. Often, marketing blends creative skills, like graphic design, with technical skills, like data analytics.
Marketers tend to maintain a vast array of responsibilities, and as marketing professionals climb their career ladder, they can expect to work directly with executives on general and far-reaching business strategies. Marketing degree programs must equip students with the knowledge and skill to understand the needs of certain marketing departments and positions, so they can help businesses achieve success. Perhaps more enticingly, marketing degrees should help marketing professionals secure higher pay, from their very first, entry-level marketing role to their career pinnacle as directors, vice presidents, or chief executives.
It is important to keep the goals of marketing degree programs in mind when considering the courses that marketing students engage with. Knowing these goals, students might opt to complete courses in a certain order or choose specific electives that will enhance their knowledge and skill to improve their hire-ability and improve their performance on the job.
Typical Coursework in Marketing Degree Program
Marketing degree programs will begin with easier, introductory courses that lay a foundation of knowledge and skill upon which students can build with more advanced and specialized courses later in their college career. Some typical courses marketing students can expect to participate in include:
- Marketing Research, which teaches students the basics of performing different types of marketing research to acquire data that can improve decision-making and strategy-building.
- Digital Marketing, which helps students understand the vast and diverse world of promotion via digital devices and technologies.
- Consumer Behavior, which teaches students how consumers tend to make purchasing decisions and how marketing strategies can impact those decisions.
- Introduction to Marketing Management, which prepares students for management positions within the marketing field.
- Marketing and Society, which helps students understand the role marketing plays in shaping society and culture, for better or for worse.
- Pricing, which teaches students how to evaluate product pricing and adjust pricing strategies to drive purchasing.
- Branding, which allows students to appreciate the importance of building and managing a corporate brand.
- Global Marketing, which explores different strategies for marketing products and services across global markets.
- Effective Communication, which helps students gain the skills necessary to communicate effectively with other business professionals and consumers.
- Retail Management, which focuses on different aspects of marketing for retail businesses, such as retail planning, merchandising, inventory control and more.
- Marketing Channel Strategy, which explores the various marketing channels through which marketers might engage target audiences.
- Marketing Analytics, which teaches students how to understand data from marketing research to derive valuable insights that can improve decision-making.
- Marketing for Social Change, which can help students develop social-conscious marketing campaigns that result in positive societal effects as well as business success.
- Direct Response Marketing, which provides students experience with a specific marketing strategy that requires immediate response from consumers.
- Social Media Strategy, which helps students understand how to leverage social media to improve marketing strategy.
By no means are these the only courses required in a marketing degree program. Marketing students can enquire with different business schools to find out specifically which courses they must take to prepare themselves properly for their marketing careers.
