Best MBA for Marketing

Thanks for the detailed feedback. Seems like recruiting for marketing is regional, with the exception of a few players. I've spoken with some students at Fuqua and Ross and it seems like these schools are actually making a concerted effort to go on marketing treks in NY/NJ and even venturing out to the west coast. Are there any companies in particular that only recruit for marketing positions at M7 or would you say any school in the top 15 would provide me with access to top tier CPG companies?

Not that I know of...maybe PepsiCo. P&G recruits at most top 15, though they probably hire more interns out of Kellogg than other schools.

Top 15 provides access, though it's specific access. For example, Unilever just cut down their core schools to Columbia, NYU, Johnson, Wharton and Kellogg. Some will say if a company doesn't recruit on campus that there are probably alumni at those companies and you can network that way, which is true, but more time consuming. For example, I tried to do off-campus recruiting with PepsiCo and ran into a dead end with an alum. I decided to focus my efforts on campus since dropping a resume for a closed slot requires less time and a much higher success rate. It's up to you to decide if the off-campus recruiting juice is worth the squeeze.

Same with Yale. Of the CPGs we get, Pepsi and Church & Dwight are two that likely recruit only at certain schools along the East Coast (not exactly sure what their core schools are). I'd agree with CobraKai on everything, especially that a Kellogg likely has more traction with a P&G, General Mills, etc due to proximity of location and strong marketing interest from students.

If I were you, I'd figure out what companies you're really interested in working at and work backwards to see where they recruit at. I'd try to keep an open mind about marketing in general, and not limit by company A or B at this point, since companies do change their recruiting schools from time to time. And, obviously look at other factors besides recruiting too, since it's probably not a wise decision to apply to all 15-20 schools!

Agree with everyone's statement. CPG/FMCG recruiting are generally very regional in nature, and a top-tier MBA doesn't hold as much weight as it does with other functions/industries. A couple of other schools that may fit well are Wisconsin and Indiana, both do well in Midwest for CPG/FMCG.

Here's a list from the US News ranking of the best marketing programs among US business schools.

https://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandr ... g-rankings

Thanks Ward. I've actually seen this before, and it was partially the impetus for my post. The only surprises (from my perspective) in the top 10 are Fuqua and Ross. Any idea what this ranking is based on? I know the marketing professors at these institutions are world class, but does it have any bearing on recruiting/employer perception?

A lot of folks seem to discredit the US News specialty ranking, but for the most part they appear to be fairly accurate.

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I don't like this ranking because it's kind of apples to oranges. For starters, Stanford and Haas make this list, and looking at their employment reports they place over 20% of their grads in marketing. Peeling the onion back a little further though, and you see that a lot of their grads go into product managment/product development - probably for tech companies. What's the issue with this? Well, tech companies aren't very receptive to career changers. They typically want someone with marketing experience looking to switch industries, or at the very least, someone with a tech background looking to switch functions. This stuff isn't communicated in employment reports. For example, Google came to Johnson and said flat-out, "we're not looking for career changers - if you have a finance background, you'll start in finance, and then in 2-3 years you can talk to your manager about switching functions."

CPG is a marketing driven industry, so that's where most of the jobs are and the companies are most receptive to hiring career changers. For instance, Colgate-Palmolive recruits at HBS, Tuck, Johnson, and some other schools for brand management, but I seriously doubt they make the trip out to CA to recruit at GSB and Haas because they're on US News' top 10 for marketing.

At the end of the day, if the school you attend doesn't give you access to the companies you want to work for, it doesn't matter if they're at the top of a rankings list.

I think the way to take this ranking is to take it as a group and that these are the most well-known schools for marketing. I think, in general, when people talk marketing, they use rankings like these as a starting point for discussion and research. But when you get into what kind of job you want, what type of marketing you want to do and what skills you need, certain schools will stand out to you over others and the rankings start to mean less.

I don't really have a problem with these or other rankings because I don't really take seriously whether one school is ranked #3, for example, vs. another school being ranked #4. To me and I'm sure everyone else here, we all know that does not mean that the #3 school is absolutely better than the #4 school, since schools have different connections and strengths.

For example, but if I wanted to work at Nike, I'd for sure look at Stanford. Or I'd look at Emory, if I wanted to work at Coca-Cola. Etc etc.

Anyway, to answer your question about whether it takes into account recruiting/employer perception, the US News rankings don't take that into account. I think that would be difficult to do since industries vary on their needs and also have regional connections. Even a school that isn't known for marketing may have one marketing professor with strong connections to a single company because that professor used to work at that company, which makes that school attractive to that company.

Anyway, I didn't intend to post the rankings as something set in stone or to inspire any arguments.

Happy New Year to everyone.

What about marketing for tech companies such as Google, Facebook, etc. and companies in the west coast? Is Kellogg still the best choice? I feel like those big tech companies care a lot about HBS/GSB/Wharton, along with Kellogg (which seems like they care more about the school name than the actual marketing reputation of that school).

The big tech companies recruit at most of the top 15-20, but I'd say there might be more traction with Stanford and Haas due to location and Sloan for the reputation. Duke has good inroads at Apple due to Tim Cook, and Ross actually has quite a large presence at the likes of Amazon/Microsoft since they also have a number of people on the operations side. Again, doesn't mean you can't get to Google/Facebook from the east coast or from another school, but instead of 1 or 2 people with intern experience at these companies per year, these places might have 4 or 5 each (and they might also have more people vying for those spots too)

Do any in Indian / asian schools are good at Marketing ?
Can you provide me the names of the schools .

Thanks in advance

What might be a good thing for you to do is to look at the employment reports that b schools release. Most of these reports list the companies and the number of students hired as interns and for jobs. These reports also usually list the function, although they don't usually go as granular to say which function each company that hired. Nevertheless, the reports are helpful, I find.

Attached is Kellogg's report for the Class of 2013, for example

Being in marketing for 4 years now in India and middle east and after speaking to Alums from European and US schools, one thing I have noticed is majorly International students do not opt for marketing and one that do find it very difficult to explain their career progression in a different country. Schools in US clearly require understanding of a US markets which some of us don't have. Its very difficult to convince adcoms that although you have worked and interacted with people in global market your understanding is not limited to a certain segment in a particular country.

This is a major barrier that I am currently facing. Any advice on how to overcome this?

Agree with you Farhan
Thanks

Bumping this topic up. Any ideas on European schools known for marketing? Please share your views

UCLA Anderson does pretty well for CPG/Brand management (e.g. Nestle, Mattel)

I wanted to bump this again as I'm about to make my decision for next year and OCR will definitely play a big part. For cpg companies that don't recruit on campus, provided there are engaged alums working at those companies, how difficult would it be to break in coming from top 15 program? I'm sure it depends on the person, location, industry, etc, but let's say I have minimal marketing experience (ie career changer) and I'm looking to stay on the same coast as the school I'm attending.

I'm a little concerned about the ROI for cpg marketing (even though it's my dream job). Guess it's a gamble I have to consider.

Thanks!

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