Important concepts to learn in MBA Marketing

Digital transformation is sweeping across industries, and businesses rely more on digital media to connect with their target audiences, provide goods and services, and attract customers. Marketing is in charge of creating, conveying, and meeting client demands. It spans the entire process, starting with product creation and continuing through delivery. A company’s financial success frequently hinges on its marketing expertise. It boosts negotiation power, creates devoted customers, safeguards against the competition, strengthens brands, and generates revenues by accomplishing all of these aspects.

An MBA in marketing is a wise decision for anybody interested in a career in marketing-related fields, including brand management, events, corporate communications, public relations, search engine marketing, and social media. This course teaches students about marketing, sales, consumer trends, techniques, and research in various industries to prepare them for business opportunities. Almost any discipline can benefit from a major in marketing as the field is broad and encompasses everything from human behavior and design to artwork and mathematical abilities. 

Key subjects you will learn in MBA in Marketing

A four-semester MBA marketing course focuses on both management and marketing. This programme comprises core MBA marketing subjects and elective subjects. The foundational MBA subjects are taught to the learners during their first academic session. The applicants can select electives depending on their fields of interest and areas of speciality that may be connected to the job of the industry in which they hope to find employment. Workshops and internships are essential components of this programme. Employers can map candidates’ strong areas to their recruiting criteria, thanks to their specialities.

Core subjects in MBA Marketing

• Marketing Research
• Consumer Behavior
• Retail Marketing
• Strategic Management & Business Policy
• Services Marketing and Customer Relationship Management
• Advertising Management and Sales Promotion
• E-Marketing
• International Marketing
• Sales Distribution and Supply Chain Management

General subjects in MBA Marketing

• Management Process and Organizational Behavior
• Business Communication
• Statistics for Management
• Financial and Management Accounting
• Managerial Economics
• Human Resource Management
• Production and Operations Management
• Financial Management
• Marketing Management
• Management Information System
• Operations Research
• Project Management

Note: The list of topics stated above is simply provided as a guide. The exact course options could vary depending on the program and university.

Critical topics one needs to learn during an MBA in Marketing

Branding, advertising, promotions, and sales make up the entire marketing field. Marketing’s primary objective is to boost product and service sales. An organization’s profitability is directly connected to its marketing performance due to the significant value firms place on this function. Marketing staff members are handsomely compensated. Let us look at marketing basic concepts.

Retail marketing 

Retail marketing refers to the methods and plans by which retailers promote awareness and interest of their goods and services among consumers in an effort to generate sales. It includes all the strategies that consumer businesses use to draw clients and increase sales of products and offerings. A more customer-focused model has replaced the conventional notion of retail marketing, which involved a product being advertised at a certain price, sold from a business location, and subsequently discontinued. 

Retail marketing strategies affect almost every element of a company’s operations, including store design, sales promotions, pricing strategies, advertising, checkout processes, and customer service. You must effectively promote your items in a market that is getting increasingly competitive, with customers having several options for nearly every product. An MBA in marketing will help you to build a career in this domain. 

Brand equity

Brand equity is the financial value of a brand which provides capital/value to products and services, which is related to future returns that customers generate to the product or service. It is  the premium a business receives from selling merchandise with a well-known brand name as opposed to a generic version. Making items remarkable, distinctive, and of the highest caliber and reliability allows businesses to build brand equity for their goods. 

Building brand equity takes time and is quite complicated. Top brands like Apple, Google, Amazon, Tesla, and others have tremendous brand equity. Throughout your MBA in marketing, you will explore case studies and real-world projects to discover further about brand, branding and building brand equity.

Digital marketing

Digital Marketing is the promotion of brands to connect with potential customers using the internet and other forms of digital communication. This includes not only email, social media, and web-based advertising, but also text and multimedia messages as a marketing channel. Digital marketing targets a larger audience and allows you to pinpoint the consumers most inclined to buy your products or solutions. It also enables tracking regular progress by monitoring insights for necessary reorientation. Digital marketing is more economical than conventional marketing.

Read more: Career tips for digital marketing professionals

Consumer behavior

Consumer behavior is a fairly broad topic that encompasses many themes spanning psychology to behavioral science. It deals with the study of how individual customers, groups or organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of ideas, goods, and services to satisfy their needs and wants. It refers to the actions of the consumers in the marketplace and the underlying motives for those actions. Understanding this concept can help one better comprehend why, when, and how they purchase goods.

You will gain immense insight into the consumer decision-making model, the sociocultural context that affects choices, and psychological elements, including personality and attitudes in the study of consumer behavior. This is imperative course in the MBA Marketing specialization, as a successful marketer needs to be well informed regarding the same 

Search engine marketing (SEM)

The practice of marketing a business using paid advertisements that appear on search engine results pages (or SERPs) is commonly known as Search Engine Marketing. Advertisers bid on keywords that users of services such as Google or Bing might enter when looking for certain products or services, which gives the advertiser the opportunity for their ads to appear alongside results for those search queries. These ads, known as pay-per-click ads, come as small, text-based ads, whereas others, such as product listing ads (PLAs, also known as Shopping ads) are more visual, product-based advertisements that allow consumers to see important information at a glance, such as price and reviews. The two most used search engines by marketers are Microsoft and Google advertisements, respectively. You can gain proficiency in this concept during your MBA in Marketing.

Advertising and sales promotion

Advertising and sales are two pillars of promotion. Promotional advertising develops a brand’s image, and the outcomes become apparent over time. Sales promotions are significantly more direct and concentrate on bringing money into the company’s bank immediately. Sales promotions provide a momentary incentive to buy, whereas advertising offers a justification for doing so. The former can therefore result in a short-term rise in sales but nothing in the way of long-term market share gains, particularly in markets where brands are substantially similar. In contrast, sales campaigns can permanently change market shares in areas where brands are very different.

7 Ps of marketing

A planned marketing strategy enables us to establish precise goals based on the firm’s current circumstances. The effective marketing mix (7Ps) comes into play when determining the techniques to carry out this plan. It’s crucial to discern how the 7Ps of marketing blend into the overall vision when developing a solid and effective marketing strategy. 

This concept is one of the most frequently asked MBA marketing interview questions. The 7Ps are a group of well-known marketing strategies that you can employ in any order to please clients. They are:

• Product
• Price
• Promotion
• Place
• People
• Process
• Physical evidence
• Market research

Market research is the act of determining whether a fresh product or service is viable via surveys with potential customers. Businesses may use this method to identify their target demographic, collect and document customer feedback, and make informed decisions. Companies and organizations can conduct market research themselves or hire specialized firms to do it for them. Implementing polls, connecting with a cohort of people, often known as a sample, interviewing people, and other comparable procedures are all ways to conduct market research. 

The main objective of market research is to analyze or explore the market for a specific good or service and to predict how the target market will respond to it. The data gathered from market research can be utilized to customize marketing and advertising campaigns or identify the features customers value most or any unmet service needs.

Data analytics

Data Analytics entails examining unprocessed data to make inferences about emerging goods and offerings that will additionally assist in directing the corporate choice. It offers businesses and marketing departments the opportunity to gain valuable information that will make them more competitive in today’s globalized world. With analytics, you may tailor your brand strategy and the customer experience rather than a more general approach. 

Your marketing plan will be successful if you can anticipate trends and capitalize on them practically as soon as they emerge. Data analytics is the need of the day, and investing in data analytics can help firms overcome many obstacles and advance on the path to success.

AIDA model

The AIDA model is among the most widely used and significant models for tracking the customer pathway via the Awareness, Interest, Desire, and Action stages that a client ends up going through before purchasing a good or service. Brands use this technique to organize and deliver their marketing communications to their customer base at every stage of the purchasing process. This model outlines the cognitive phases a person experiences when making a purchase decision for a good or service. It is a purchasing conduit where customers move back and forth between stages to help them complete the sale. 

Since social media has expanded the relationship beyond the consumer and the business, it now includes achieving AIDA’s various goals through data from other clients through social networks and communities.

Careers after MBA in Marketing

A marketing-related MBA opens up various professional prospects for you in the corporate world. It opens up a world of work prospects for you in the public and private sectors. Here are some of the top job roles you can explore after an MBA in Marketing.

Product Manager

A Product Manager acts as a bridge between various departments, stakeholders, and teams to ensure that a product is developed, launched, and managed effectively to meet both customer needs and business goals.

Brand Manager

Brand managers uphold the integrity and principles of a brand across all platforms. They strive to sustain the company’s brand throughout all tiers of marketing operations and to modify the marketing plan for the target audience. 

Sales Manager

A sales manager’s primary duty is to ensure the sales team meets its goals. They strive to create quotas, assess and modify the sales team’s productivity, and identify innovative and enhanced sales-boosting procedures.

Business Development Manager

A manager of business development is focused on the expansion and improvement of a company. They strive to find fresh business prospects to boost the company’s profitability and increase sales. 

Digital Marketing Manager

A digital marketing manager must understand the most recent digital marketing techniques and tools. They manage digital marketing initiatives, from developing the idea to putting it into practice. They also might team up with the entire marketing team to assist in the launch of initiatives.

Read more: Careers to explore in Marketing

Elevate your marketing career with Online Manipal

An online MBA in Marketing offered by Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ) will help you advance your career by opening doors to executive and managerial positions and increasing your earning potential. Through our online MBA in Marketing program, you will gain in-depth knowledge in marketing concepts, gain in-demand skills, and build an invaluable professional network with industry leaders, experts, and professionals.