Marketing vs. Business Management: Which Is Right for Me?
Capitalism is the era of business, and business management and marketing are essential components of the business world. Choosing one as your major would ensure a lucrative career ahead of you, providing many job opportunities, high salaries, and other benefits.
If you find it hard deciding between the two, reading this article would help you make up your mind. Here, you can learn more about marketing vs. management and core differences in curriculums, skills, job opportunities, salaries, etc.
What Is Marketing?
To put it simply, marketing includes activities a company engages in attracting an audience around their products or services. Through various aspects of marketing, including market research and customer analysis, companies better understand their audience. Then through multiple marketing channels, companies deliver high-quality messages and content to attract new customers and build loyalty with existing ones.
Since marketing is so widespread and essential to business success, there are many types of marketing like digital marketing, content marketing, social media marketing, search engine marketing, etc. Each one uses different aspects to engage with the audience.
Because marketing is a broad field, a career in marketing will open doors to many lucrative careers.
What Is Business Management?
Every business needs management professionals to make sure everything runs smoothly. Business managers are the ones that make organizations' objectives are achieved by organizing, planning, overseeing, and directing companies' resources. Managers have the power to make decisions for the company and often can be the leaders of their organizations.
Moreover, business managers supervise employees and teams while keeping track of business operations. They typically oversee staffing, budgeting, schedules, etc., and work towards company goals.
What Do You Learn in a Marketing Degree vs. a Business Management Degree?
Business management and marketing degrees equip you with the necessary knowledge and skills to succeed in a work environment. However, since marketing and business management are two separate fields, their curriculums and the skills you develop by pursuing each degree's program differ as well. There may be some similarities, but the differences generally outweigh them.
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Curriculum
Some similar courses are taught regarding marketing vs. business degree curriculums. However, their program focus is not the same since they prepare you for different jobs.
A degree in marketing includes many areas of study, like advertising, communications, marketing strategy and research, and public relations, specializations you can take later during your studies. A marketing degree program starts by offering a general background in the major functional areas of business administration. In addition, it allows you to further explore the field by choosing a concentration, like market research, content marketing, social media marketing, influencer marketing, search engine marketing, etc.
Typical courses you can expect while studying marketing include:
Fundamentals of Marketing;
Marketing Research;
Product Management;
Global Marketing Techniques;
Marketing Strategy and Management;
Marketing Law and Ethics;
Retail and Sales Management.
On the other hand, a business management degree offers knowledge in markets, customers, business policy and strategy, finance, operations, communication, information technology, etc. If you pursue a degree in business administration, programs you will have the opportunity to choose an area of specialty, like, business law, entrepreneurship, accountancy, finance, human resources management, marketing, and project management.
Business management courses may include:
Risk Management
Professional Sales
Entrepreneurial Management
Accounting for Business
Information Systems and Applications
Business Process Management
Business Project Management
Organizational Behavior Analysis
Management in the Marketplace
Leadership and Management Essentials
Skills
By pursuing business management and marketing degrees, you develop various soft and hard skills, useful for many career paths in both directions.
The top skills you obtain from both programs are communication and leadership skills. In the role of a manager and most marketing roles, communication skills are essential for expressing yourself, communicating to an audience, engaging with other team members, etc.
Furthermore, leadership is crucial in managerial jobs and can benefit marketing positions. The cases where you'll be leading team members through different projects will be countless in both fields. Below we listed some of the most common skills you obtain from each degree.
Typical skills you will learn while studying for a marketing degree are:
Creativity and Problem-Solving;
Attention to Detail;
Interpersonal Skills;
Adaptability;
Data Analysis & Analytics;
Project Management;
Research;
SEO/SEM;
Social Media Marketing.
While a degree in business management advances your skills such as:
Decision-making;
Multi-tasking;
Business development skills;
Critical and strategic thinking;
Problem-solving;
Project management;
Analytical Reasoning;
Market research;
Organizational skills;
Financial management.
Marketing Job Opportunities
If you decide to pursue a degree in marketing, there are various job positions you can choose from. Below you can learn more about the top trending ones right now.
Social media marketer
Social media marketers are marketing professionals who promote companies on social media platforms. They use digital content to advance and advertise a particular business and engage its audience on various social media channels.
As a social media marketer, you can work as a freelancer or as part of different companies. Your responsibilities may include:
Developing and managing social media strategies;
Keeping current with social media trends, technologies, and laws;
Identifying the target market;
Help in creating content for social media channels;
Obtaining followers;
Engaging with user comments and messages;
Increasing web traffic and conversion rates.
Brand manager
Companies that want to stand out from market competitors hire brand managers to develop brand strategies and deal with promoting the company.
A brand manager will conduct research and develop marketing and advertising strategies according to market and customer needs. They are responsible for leading and supervising team members and managing functions such as branding, product development, market research, and promotions.
Brand manager duties typically include the following:
Conducting customer and market research;
Identifying brand position in the market;
Design brand strategies based on research;
Managing the marketing budget;
Developing and executing marketing campaigns;
Leading marketing team members;
Assisting with product development and pricing;
Analyzing sales forecasts and product sales reports.
Marketing coordinator
A marketing coordinator is an individual who coordinates an organization's marketing campaigns and activities. They collaborate with other professionals in the marketing department to develop and implement strategic plans to support business growth.
Common responsibilities usually include:
Coordinating online and offline marketing activities;
Helping develop and implement the company's brand strategy;
Creating branded advertising campaigns;
Identifying marketing opportunities by conducting research;
Developing and managing internal communication systems;
Preparing marketing activity reports;
Coordinating meetings, events, and conferences.
Business Management Job Opportunities
Business management is a broad field that offers numerous job opportunities. Below we listed three main ones. Read on to learn more about each of them.
Sales manager
Sales managers are leaders of sales teams in organizations. They develop sales goals and work to reach them. A sales manager is usually concerned with training team members, analyzing data, creating sales plans, assigning sale territories, and building their team.
If you're interested in becoming a sales manager, you will be expected to fulfill the following tasks:
Recruiting, hiring, training, and mentoring sales team members;
Overseeing sales strategies;
Tracking sales performance;
Creating budgets;
Assessing staff performance and providing feedback;
Assigning territories for team members;
Providing detailed sales forecasts;
Dealing with customer complaints concerning sales and services;
Monitoring customer preferences.
Business analyst
As a business analyst, you help businesses improve their performance through data analysis. In this role, you will be responsible for increasing efficiency and productivity by using data to make strategic business decisions.
A business analyst helps identify and reduce the unnecessary costs of a company. They conduct research, gather data, and analyze it for helpful insight.
Other duties may include:
Advising the accounting team on investments and financial transactions;
Analyzing the competition;
Working closely with the managerial staff;
Identifying an organization's functional and technical needs;
Applying strategies based on current trends;
Presenting ideas and findings in meetings;
Creating financial models;
Training and mentoring staff members.
Project manager
The project manager position is highly demanded in various industries. Project managers are professionals who lead all parts of projects, including planning, organizing, and executing them.
They are also responsible for the budget of the project and the project team, guiding it towards their shared goal. Project managers must consider budget, time restraints, and other possible limits when undertaking an assignment.
The typical duties of a project manager are listed below:
Identifying stakeholders;
Developing a project charter;
Creating a project management plan;
Planning a project’s cost;
Assessing risks;
Directing and managing all phases of the project;
Communicating with stakeholders;
Documenting the progress of the project;
Assigning tasks to team members;
Mentoring and supervising project team members;
Managing budgets;
Conducting workshops and training;
Evaluating team performance.
Marketing vs. Business Management: Job Outlook and Salary
When we compare marketing vs. management job outlook, we find that their prospects are similar. According to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment for management occupations is projected to grow 9 percent from 2020 to 2030, about as fast as the average for all occupations, resulting in approximately 906,800 new jobs.
On the other hand, advertising, promotions, and marketing managers have an estimated 10 percent employment growth during the same decade, which indicates that as a field, marketing will expand further in the following years.
Regarding their salaries, both business management and marketing are profitable fields. If we compare business and marketing manager salaries, we see that they are about the same. A business manager makes an average of $79,500 per year, while a marketing manager $76,000 annually.
In addition, when considering the average annual salaries for the job positions we mentioned above, we find out that business management jobs are generally more high paying. Project managers have an average salary of $96,073 per year, followed by business analysts earning $78,000, and sales managers making around $68,587 per year.
On the other hand, from the marketing jobs we mentioned above, brand managers are at the top with $91,152 per year. Marketing coordinators make $50,000, followed by social media marketers who earn $52,114 annually.
Marketing vs. Business Management: Which One Is Right for Me?
Both marketing and business management comes with benefits and are highly in demand. While marketing involves promoting a company's brand, services, and products, business management focuses on the day-to-day operations of running an organization. When in between marketing vs. management fields, you need to consider your personal preferences and goals.
If you are more into creativity, you can consider pursuing a marketing degree and land a career in one of the many job opportunities available. Meanwhile, enroll in a business management program if management and data analysis interest you.
Remember that, at the end of the day, whatever choice you make, you will be safe knowing that there are plenty of job opportunities waiting for you after you graduate.