The Four Most Popular Types of Marketing Master's Programs in the US!

Lots of recent grads and current students want to study marketing abroad. But whenever I ask, "So what kind of marketing do you want to study?", some stammer and can't say, and others give a vague answer: "I'm interested in marketing strategy analysis or consumer behavior." Whichever one you are, don't be discouraged! When I decided to come to the US for a master's in marketing, I was also that college student who didn't know much and only knew I was interested in marketing. To help more people interested in this path, today I want to introduce the four most popular types of marketing master's programs!

I ended up choosing a marketing analytics program. If you'd like to know more about marketing analytics programs, feel free to DM me! (IG:usbetweenus_)

1. Integrated marketing: Integrated Marketing Communication

   • A program that brings together consumer insight analysis, brand strategy, strategic communication and media. You learn how to put the consumer at the center and then combine different channels to deliver messages that matter to the consumer.

   • Career paths: business/marketing analyst, brand manager, marketing strategist, digital marketing specialist.....etc.

   • Example schools:

     • New York University (Integrated Marketing): besides the required courses, the school offers courses in three core areas

       • Brand management

         • Brand strategy/consumer behavior/public relations

       • Digital Marketing

         • social media/search marketing/e-commerce marketing/operations strategy

       • Marketing Analytics

         • business analytics and data visualization/web analytics/SEO & SEM/advanced test analysis/experimental design

     • Northwestern University (Integrated Marketing Communication): besides the required courses, the school offers courses in four core areas

       • Consumer Insights & analytics

         • quantitative/qualitative analysis, statistical modeling, database management

       • Brand Strategy

         • Brand awareness/brand positioning/develop consumer decision journey, product marketing

       • Strategic Communication

         • Public relations/corporate reputation/media relationship building/corporate social responsibility/ESG/Crisis management

       • Media

         • digital delivery systems/differentiated content formats/integration of content and commerce

2. Marketing analytics: Marketing Analytics

   • You mainly learn how to use large amounts of consumer data to help companies find the right TA and then run campaigns that are effective and low-cost. The courses use R, SQL, Python and more.

   • Career paths: data scientist/digital marketing analyst/ marketing/business/data analyst/consumer insights analyst/

   • Example schools:

     • University of Maryland - Marketing Analytics

       • Key Topics Explored:

         • AI, consumer analysis, marketing analysis tools for problem-solving, machine learning, market forecasting, microtargeting, pricing and retail analytics, text mining

       • Analytics Tools You'll Use

         • Python, R, SAS, SQL, Tableau

     • University of Rochester

3. Market research: Marketing Research

   • This one should be pretty self-explanatory: it's market research. The whole program leans a bit more technical, and you learn how to collect market data to analyze current customer data

   • Career paths: marketing research analyst, research analyst, consumer insights analyst

   • School: Michigan State University

4. General marketing master's: Master in Marketing

   • This one is very, very broad. You could say it combines the courses of all the other Marketing Programs. Some courses lean toward theory and some lean more toward data analysis (JHU)

   • Career paths: digital marketing specialist, data/marketing analyst, consultant, marketing strategist etc....

   • Schools: University of Southern California, University of Texas, Austin
     

There's no best choice, only the choice that fits you best. Beyond rankings, choosing a school should come back to your own interests and why you want to study abroad. When you have a clear goal, the process of choosing schools will also help you figure out which program can best serve as a stepping stone for your future!