Masters in Marketing

Marketing specializations

While a general foundation in basic marketing topics is essential, your Masters in Marketing degree should also allow you the opportunity to specialize in one or more areas. Choosing one or more marketing topics in which to specialize will help you gain in-depth, expert knowledge, or help you approach a related field through a marketing lens. In either case, your specialist knowledge should leave you more attractive to employers and more confident in your marketing abilities. Some common marketing topics include:

Strategic marketing management

Strategic marketing management involves learning how to implement marketing campaigns at the management level. You’ll learn how to target audiences, identify your brand’s marketing strategy and select the appropriate media channels for those audiences and strategies. You’ll gain an understanding of the separate marketing functions and how to manage them, and an understanding of the operational and brand considerations across a variety of marketing fields and audiences. You’ll also gain an understanding of marketing from a general management perspective and how to critically assess marketing key performance indicators (KPIs).

Marketing communications

Learning about marketing communications is important for the professional marketer – good communication can skyrocket your marketing campaigns and help secure your brand in the minds of your target audience. As such, this module will give you a critical appreciation of the strategic importance of communications, and an understanding of consumer segments, communications strategies, and how to target the right audience across multiple channels. You’ll learn about the advantages and limitations of major marketing communications concepts, how to use secondary data in marketing communications decision-making, and how to evaluate marketing communications strategies employed by different organizations.

Sports and entertainment marketing

Sports and entertainment are perhaps two of the largest and fastest growing fields in the marketing industry. You’ll learn how to effectively tailor your skills and knowledge of marketing to the sports and entertainment industries, along with learning about the unique challenges and possibilities available in sports and entertainment marketing. Perhaps you’ll learn how to market to loyal and potential fans, or how to evaluate the different types of products and promotions that might be relevant to your particular area. You’ll also learn about the “sport marketing mix” – an additional component that joins the four Ps of marketing.

Consumer behavior

Specializing in consumer behavior involves honing your ability to understand the psychology of customers, to carry out consumer profiling and to develop and improve marketing strategies through these insights. You’ll study current developments in approaches to consumer behavior, market environment and culture through case studies, learn how to create and evaluate the results of a consumer research project, and practice identifying patterns and processes of consumer behavior in contemporary and international business contexts. Your studies will be enhanced through the critical evaluation of customer management practices in organizations in different sectors.

Global marketing

Global marketing takes your marketing skills and adapts them to better accommodate the growth of world trade – marketing professionals now need to be more aware of the different international environments they are working in, how to appeal to and understand global markets, and how to integrate growing areas and emerging markets into a marketing strategy.

Digital marketing and social media

Blending web development, application strategies and consumer behavior, digital marketing and social media covers all aspects of digital and internet marketing, including how to understand the separate and innumerable functions associated with websites for marketing communication and customer support, how to market via social networks, how to understand consumer behavior based on offline and online data combinations and how to successfully conduct one-on-one communications to many different receiving devices. You’ll learn about the theory and practice of digital marketing, along with learning to use the tools needed to help you better decide if, when and how to devise and execute a digital marketing strategy.

Other marketing topics

Other popular marketing topics include: brand management, business sustainability, business-to-business marketing, buyer-supplier relationships, consumer and marketing ethics, creativity in marketing, customer relationship management, data-based marketing, financial skills for marketers, innovation and new product development, integrated marketing communications, marketing analytics, negotiation skills, quantitative methods for business, research methods, retail marketing, services marketing, transformative consumer research, understanding consumers and markets, understanding the C-suite and understanding the marketplace.

Marketing careers

With a Masters in Marketing you will be able to pursue many different career options, from academia to business. Some typical postgraduate marketing careers include:

Marketing consultant

Upon graduating from a Masters in Marketing degree, you may decide to enter the workforce as a marketing consultant. A marketing consultant is an industry expert who is aware of current commercial and business challenges and able to advise and guide a number of different clients on all their marketing needs. As a marketing consultant you will manage campaigns, work with internal and external stakeholders and, most likely, will form part of a team of other consultants. Your daily duties will be varied and are likely to include analyzing data, writing reports and proposals, conducting interviews, developing strategies and carrying out market research.

Marketing executive

Depending on the size of the organization, as a marketing executive you will be required to oversee a varied workload. This will involve developing marketing campaigns, promoting your company’s product, service or idea, and conducting research. Marketing executives work among different industry departments, including planning, advertising, PR, product development, event organization, distribution, sponsorship and research. This marketing career track will require strong communication skills and firm knowledge of your company. Your role will be to support the marketing manager and work closely with other colleagues.

Marketing management

If you have industry experience along with your master’s degree, you may be ready for a marketing management role. In this position you’ll be responsible for market research, product development and promotions and may well have colleagues working under you. Marketing management roles are as well-rounded as marketing consultant roles, with the exception that as a manager you will be in charge of the success of one company only, allowing you to really get involved in just one business or organization. Marketing managers work in a vast range of industries, including fast-moving consumer goods, industrial products, services and the public sector.

Brand management

Marketing careers in brand management are all about developing and maintaining a strong brand, whether for a corporate business or a consumer product. Your job will be to ensure the integrity and appearance of your brand is the best it can be, and this will involve keeping up to date with market trends, carrying out consumer research and writing reports, strategies and brand guidelines. As brand manager you will oversee a team of staff, meet with internal and external clients and organize events to promote your brand.

Market researcher

Although all marketing careers require some level of market research, as a specialized market researcher you will dedicate much of your time to collecting and analyzing data and information to advise clients and/or colleagues on how to maintain and expand the company’s market share. The information you collect and produce as a market researcher will help your company or client to make informed strategic decisions within your target market. If based within a single company, you will be gathering data on consumer/customer opinions, researching what to invest in, what to market next and how best to communicate and position the brand or product. Most market researchers work for agencies, however, which usually means being involved in a number of projects of different scales for many clients.

As a market researcher you will likely specialize in either quantitative or qualitative research. Quantitative research will involve working with statistics and percentages, while qualitative research will involve working with opinions and using reasoning to decide on your market approach. The latter may take years to gather data for, but will often be used to help understand quantitative data in greater depth.