The scope of a brand manager’s function varies from company to company, but the core job function is to search for the most productive way to build long-term profitability for a product. Traditional brand management focuses on consumable goods with a short repeat purchase cycle, in which sales respond rapidly to changes in price, product, packaging, distribution, and promotion. The typical career path for an MBA is to enter as an assistant brand manager and move up to brand manager after three to five years.
A brand management team shares the ultimate responsibility for a particular product. Brand management involves developing a strategic direction for a brand based on what consumers want. It is not just about lowering price or creating commercials, although they are elements of a strategic plan. Rather, managing a brand means finding a way to deliver value to consumers. Brand managers lead cross-functional teams to achieve the goals outlined in annual brand plans. Whether it’s managing a promotional budget or convincing upper management through quantitative analysis to increase a package size to boost sales, everything the brand manager does is dedicated to the goal of creating customer value.
In addition to a career in brand management, the Brand Management Career Specialization can be used for careers in marketing strategy, general marketing management, marketing research, business development, and consulting. Marketing strategy encompasses many responsibilities that may include product forecasting and planning, promotions, customer service, and integrated communications. Companies often race to unveil a new development or product before their competitors. Even within the same product group, marketers must manage rapid introductions and phase-outs of different products, develop strategies for ongoing support of older products already purchased by consumers, and differentiate their services or equipment from those of the rapidly proliferating competition.
A general marketing manager may also be responsible for helping to plan, execute, and measure the performance of marketing and communications materials or activities including advertising, direct mail, Web sites, email marketing, printed collateral, branded merchandise, and special events. Market research is the art and science of gathering, compiling, and analyzing data to provide a company’s management with information needed to make decisions on the design, distribution, and pricing of products and services. The information may be used to determine the advisability of adding new lines, opening new branches, or otherwise diversifying the company’s operations. During the past two decades, companies have also made significant investments to understand how customer satisfaction affects their buying decisions.
Business development is exactly what it sounds like: figuring out how to build or develop a business. The business development professional’s objective is to expand the market reach, revenue, or membership base of the company in ways that make the most of the company’s resources and capabilities. They execute company strategy by “doing deals” with complementary businesses. Finally, marketing consultants are hired as advisors to corporations, where they apply the marketing knowledge and skills learned at Owen to help their clients’ brands become relevant and meaningful to their customers and create profitable customer interactions. Consultants tackle a wide variety of business problems and provide solutions for their clients. Depending on the size and strategy of the firm, these problems can be as straightforward as researching a new market or as complex as totally rethinking the client’s product line and positioning strategy.
In order to prepare our students for these marketing career paths, the Owen faculty have created a comprehensive Brand Management Career Specialization curriculum that consists of the following sequence of 10 marketing courses (with Marketing Management counting towards Core, not the Career Specialization).
1st Year Courses
Mod 2:
Mod 3:
Mod 4:
2nd Year Courses
Two Required Courses:
Three Elective Courses
(choose 3 from the following list):
* Please note that in 2008-2009, Developing and Marketing New Products (467) will be a one unit course. Students who take the one unit version of this course in 2008-2009 will be awarded the Brand Management Career Specialization with 19 units, rather then the typically required 20 units.
** Only two hours apply to the specialization.
Highly Recommended, Non-Marketing Elective Courses
(Note: these courses are recommended but do not count towards the Specialization)
