<p>It is my perception that a marketing major is the easiest major offered by most business schools and probably the most limiting. It seems like a business management major is qualified to do everything a marketing major does, but not necessarily the other way around.</p>
<p>The reason I ask this is because I am 1 year out of high school yet I currently hold a management position at a market research agency. I would like to return to this company after college, but I was wondering if one major would be better than the other. I was thinking marketing at first, because I work in market research, but I then thought that it would be more impressive to have a "better" major like one in management. It seems very cloudy to me, can someone help clear this up?</p>
<p>I plan on attending either OSU's Fisher C.o. Business or Iowa's Tippie C.o. Business. I assume that Fisher is just better across the board?</p>
<p>Management is far less useful than marketing (and from what I’ve read, management is the easiest business major). Most marketing programs require advanced management classes, but very few management programs require advanced marketing coursework.</p>
<p>I second that, management is the easiest and least useful. At my school, marketing classes are actually quite difficult and marketing majors get good offers from marketing and consulting firms.</p>
<p>Marketing is much more complex than it appears. </p>
<p>Quick and dirty:</p>
<p>Marketing deals with:
- what product should the company make. This is determined by the available resources and what customers want or need. No point in making cake if you don’t know how to make it and your customers are all on Atkins diets.</p>
<p>2) Then product package: What value does the product bring and how do you relay that value. It’s everything from your company logo to what type of box are you going to put your cakes in. It is going to be a box? What is special about your cakes? are they a quick snack? are they specialty cakes for events like weddings. Do they have a theme? do they have special ingredient? How doe you advertise - is it commercials or word of mouth?</p>
<p>3) Product price what are the basic economics of your product. What are the production costs? how much do you need to charge to cover your manufacturing and general and administrative costs and make a profit. How many do you need to sell to break even? a question of marginal returns and economies of scale. How much will the customer be willing to pay? If these are gourmet cakes maybe the customer will pay $100. If they are tasty cakes $100 is a pipe dream. How much demand is there. The greater the demand the higher you might be able to charge.</p>
<p>4)placement - What are your distribution channels? do you sell direct? do you contract distributors? What are distribution costs and pay arrangements. Do you sell on credit? do you have shelf placement requirements? Do you have a sales staff, and what is their sale process</p>
<p>5)people - Sale and after purchase service. Are these cake machines? Is there a warranty and service program after purchase?</p>
<p>That isn’t even the tip of the iceberg when it comes to marketing. Marketing requires and understanding of all of the other business disciplines and how they effect marketing decisions.</p>
<p>No business can survive without a marketing department.</p>
<p>You should do what you like. I have a Kelley School of Business undergrad, with specialization in HR Management and a Master’s in Management…because I wanted to work in HR. Combined with an SPHR certification, that’s what you need for a senior level HR job.</p>
<p>Had I taken a Marketing or Finance major, I would not have been as well prepared for an HR career. What you should take depends on YOUR goals.</p>
<p>Management is a generalist degree and is no less complex than the marketing degree. Most people specialize.</p>
<p>Management requires studies and all of the major functional areas of business:</p>
<p>Finance
Marketing
Operations
Legal
Logistics
Human Resoiurces</p>
<p>and then some:
Statistics
economics
Management information Science
Strategic Management</p>
<p>A generalists may be just as attractive as a specialist. It depends on the company you’re applying to. Some companies like managers that can operate across departments. Some companies need those types.</p>
<p>Management is not a degree in leadership so it does not train you to manage people. No degree teaches that. Management is a generalist degree in business administration.</p>
<p>Do you want to stay with market research? If so, consider a stats minor or double-major. Likewise for a Psych minor or double major.</p>
<p>I agree - often people choose double majors to fill out their skill set.</p>
<p>Marketing goes well with any other business major and:
Psychology
Economics
Math
Statistics
Any Science like biology, engineering, chemistry, etc. (You can be a distributor for pharmaceuticals. AKA Drug Dealer but legal)
Graphic Design
Film and Communications
Photography
Information Technology</p>
<p>Anything that involves something that needs to be sold. Take a look around the room you’re in. Everything in it got there by marketing.</p>
<p>I did: BBA in Finance International Business Administration (a Generalist Degree but international and qualifies me for marketing) and I’m doing the MBA with a Global Perspective and Certificate in Finance.
So, I’m a finance guy but I appreciate the importance and complexities of marketing because I’m also a business consultant. I wouldn’t hire an accountant for marketing advice. I’d hire a marketing specialist.,</p>
<p>In that case I would go for marketing and then a geography minor or major in addition to it. The geography would be on a social/political/historical emphasis rather than the GIS emphasis. Most schools have these types of emphases within the geography program. I think that would pair nicely with marketing.</p>
<p>Thank you guys for clearing this up.</p>
<p>Nice!!! :D</p>
<p>I had to look it up. There are a million thing you can do with that combination. </p>
<p>I’m not versed on the emphasis options. From my perspective I see Urban Planning and Development. How can we design developments (residential/commercial) that will attract more people? People include Tenants in residential, office, and retail and their traffic (clients). How can we reduce the environmental impact if we set a mall in a place near, say - Yellowstone Park? Then with that information - is that what people want and how do we pitch the idea?</p>
<p>Any Science like biology, engineering, chemistry, etc. (You can be a distributor for pharmaceuticals. AKA Drug Dealer but legal)</p>
<p>Actually you don’t need both to be a sales rep - usually one will do, and from there on forward its whether you meet your targets, rather than your degree.</p>
<p>Never said you needed both. If you’re thinking that way then you don’t even need a degree to be a sales rep., just charisma</p>
<p>Of course, once the professionals you’re selling to realize that you don’t have clue about what you’re selling, they’ll think you’re a tool.</p>
<p>
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<p>Salespeople don’t need to know anything about what they’re selling. They just need to smile.</p>
<p>Both are kinda useless</p>
<p>I agree with Tortfeasor:</p>
<p>I am a marketing and healthcare management undergrad at the Wisconsin School of Business, and last semester I added an economics double major because I thought it would tap into my analytical side more and show that I’m not just a bundle of soft skills. </p>
<p>As I want to get into marketing research, economics was a perfect second major, and one that didn’t require a lot of advanced math, and would still allow me to graduate in 4 years. Statistics would have taken 5 at least.</p>
<p>I landed a consulting internship for the summer, and I believe my econ double major helped my resume stand out.</p>