Marketing Manager Career Working Environment

Marketing managers work in close proximity to upper management, and keep similarly strenuous hours. In 2000, almost 38 percent of the people in this field reported working 50 hours or more per week. Additionally, job-related travel can be extensive; marketing managers are often required to attend the meetings of industries or associations, or meetings with clients in other offices.

Marketing Manager Career Description

Marketing managers are in charge of developing marketing plans for a corporation or (less frequently) a small business. It is their job to get out the name of a company or a new product, and figure out new and innovative ways to sell that product to new people.

Marketing Manager Career Details

Marketing managers continually assess the company's marketing strategy-a detailed account of how a product or a brand will be sold. Working with product development managers and market research managers, who are also vital links towards an overall strategy, they come up with ideas to better a brand and how it is marketed. Working with top management, marketing managers also make recommendations on the pricing of a product for maximum company profit.

Marketing Manager Career Specializations

Marketing managers tend to stick to one sort of brand throughout their professional career-someone who can market makeup has a different sort of skill than a marketing manager for a power company, for instance. Within any marketing department, though, you'll find people who concentrate on a micro level of the general marketing. For instance, product development managers are marketers, in that they reassess a product to better its sales. Market research managers determine why a product is selling at the rate it is. 

Related careers in this field are: 
Public relations managers-Make sure that the face of the company looks good, which betters sales. 
Promotion managers-Oversee promotions programs to come in closer contact with purchasers. 
Creative directors-Work with an advertising staff to formulate an overall advertising strategy as well as individual ads that are part of that strategy. 
Media directors-Oversee the communication media.

Programs to Consider:

Marketing Manager Career Required Training

Because of the diversity of this work, employers prefer applicants with a varied resume and a strong liberal arts education. However, the diversity within this field also allows for a variety of people to break into this or related careers. Degrees in sociology, psychology, philosophy or literature are common in this field. Many colleges and universities offer degree programs in marketing; many employers look for applicants with a bachelor's or master's degree in business administration with an emphasis on marketing.

Marketing Manager Career Coursework

The traditional liberal arts should be backed up by course work in business law, economics, accounting, finance, mathematics and statistics. If you aim to work in a technical field, you should have some understanding of that field, and consider training in engineering or science.

Marketing Manager Career Future Job Outlook

This field is expected to grow at a faster rate than average in the next ten years. The globalization of markets means that marketing and promotions will be intense-so intense, in fact, that many companies will hire contractors instead of full-time staff to keep up the pace. Because marketing is such an important part of any successful company, the potential for personal career advancement in this field is high. Many marketing managers use their job and proximity to top management as a stepping-stone to assuming a position in the higher ranks.

Marketing Manager Salary

The median annual earnings for marketing managers in 2011 was $108,260. Many managers earn annual bonuses that equal 10 percent or more of their salaries, depending on performance.