Marketing

How you answer that question will impact how you plan your marketing career path. Do you focus on the promotion and selling of a product? Do you focus on understanding the consumers' behavior? Do you want to work in the digital world of ecommerce?

Marketing is comprised of a variety of different areas and functions. Marketing professionals create, manage, analyze and promote brands and products.

Typical areas of marketing include: 

• Marketing research, analytics, insights
• New product development
• Brand management
• Digital marketing or online marketing 
• Sales and promotions
• Advertising, public relations, communications, social media

Do not underestimate how important quantitative and analytical skills are to a career in marketing. Of course some areas of marketing are more quantitative than others. See the flowchart above and read job descriptions to better understand the most and least quantitative marketing areas.

The functions mentioned above can be broken down into smaller categories. Below are a list of some common marketing keywords that are part of common job titles. These are entry points into the different functions and almost all can have a descriptor, such as Analyst, Assistant, Associate, Coordinator, Junior, Manager, Specialist either before or after the keyword below. For example, you could look for an entry-level job as an Account Coordinator, Account Executive, Account Manager, Junior Account Executive or Assistant Account Executive. So if you are interested in a job in account management, you should review all of these job titles when searching for jobs.

Learn more about working in marketing from our alumni and partners such as Turner Gutmann, MBA '12, Manager of Product Management-Customer Data, at Nordstrom. After earning a bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies and Psychology, Turner worked for a few years, including as an ESL instructor in China. Since graduating with his MBA in marketing he has held numerous marketing analytic positions for biotechnology companies, commercial banking and spent the last six years at Nordstrom in digital marketing analytics and now product management. Access his Power Chat (and more) in BizLink – Document Library.

See the 10 companies that control almost everything you buy. 

• Centric Brands (HQ - New York, NY)
  
• Coca-Cola
• Colgate-Palmolive
• Edgewell Personal Care
• General Mills
• Kimberly-Clark Corp.
• Johnson & Johnson
• Kao Brands
• Kraft
• Lifetime Brands (HQ - Garden City, NY)
• Mars
• Nestle
• PepsiCo
• Prestige Brands (HQ-Irving, NY)
• Procter & Gamble
• Reckitt (US HQ - Parsippany, NJ) 
• S.C. Johnson
• Unilever

• Bausch & Lomb (HQ-Rochester, NY)
• Fisher-Price (HQ-East Aurora, NY)
• Mentholatum (HQ-Orchard Park, NY)
• New Era Cap (HQ-Buffalo, NY)
• FIFCO (US HQ - Rochester, NY and Labatt USA - Buffalo, NY)
• Perry’s Ice Cream (HQ-Akron, NY)
• Rich Products (HQ- Buffalo, NY)

• 5W PR (New York, NY)
  
• BCW Global (New York, NY)
  
• Edelman (Chicago, IL)
• FleishmanHillard (national)
  
• Ketchum (New York, NY)
  
• Porter Novelli (New York, NY)
• Weber Shandwick (New York, NY)

• Eric Mower and Associates
• Gelia
• Crowley Webb and Associates
• Paragon Advertising
• The SKM Group, Inc.
• The Martin Group
• Quiller & Blake Advertising
• Manzella Marketing Group, Inc.
• J. Fitzgerald Group

This list is the largest advertising or integrated marketing communications companies in New York City.

• BBDO Worldwide
• DDB Worldwide
• Droga5
• Grey
• Havas Creative
• McCann Worldgroup
• Olgilvy
• Spark Foundry
  
• TBWA Worldwide
• Weber Shandwick
• Wunderman Thompson

• Nielsen
• Kantar Group
• Ipsos
• Westat
• IRI
• GfK USA
• IQVIA
  
• NPD Group
• ICF International, Inc.
• Com Score
• The Harris Poll - Harris Insights & Analytics (Rochester, NY) 

Some jobs in marketing could request additional skills and certifications. These may be specialties beyond your degree's curriculum. There are costs associated with these certifications, so do your research to better understand what employers really want. Are they just requesting it as a preferred qualification, or is it required? And also research what your competition looks like. If everyone who is applying has the same skills it's difficult to differentiate yourself. Would an additional certification help to differentiate you?

These are just a sample of certifications available through various vendors.

• Facebook Digital Marketing Associate Certification: The online coursework in FREE. After completing the coursework, if a student would like to register for the certification, it would be a fee of $99 to cover the cost of the proctor service Facebook utilizes
  
• Social Media Strategist Certification through the National Institute for Social Media (NISM)
• SEO Certified Professional
• Hootsuite Certified Professional
• HubSpot InBound Certified
• Google Analytics Certified
• Google AdWords Certified
• Online Marketing Certified Professional (OMCP) (requires work experience and courses)

Stay up to date on current trends in marketing and advertising.

• Advertising Age
• AdWeek
• AMA Marketing News
• Event Marketer Magazine
• Sales and Marketing Management Magazine

• UB Marketing Club (student chapter)
• American Association of Advertising Agencies (national): National trade association that represents the advertising industry
  
• American Marketing Association (AMA) (national): The AMA is the world's largest and most comprehensive professional society of marketers
• Buffalo Niagara Sales and Marketing Executives (local): This is a professional association of sales and marketing leaders in the Buffalo Niagara region
• Pi Sigma Epsilon - University at Buffalo Chapter (student chapter): This organization is a sales and marketing fraternity which works to develop the next generation of sales and marketing executives
• Product Development and Management Association (national): A global collective of talented innovation executives, product development and management practitioners that focus on best practices and research in the dynamic and accelerating field of product development, product management and innovation.
• Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) (national): Global organization of public relations professionals, which provides professional development, sets standards of excellence and upholds principles of ethics
  
• Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) (student chapter): A UB Student Association club for those interested in public relations, advertising and marketing, which brings real-world experience to students and will feature panelists, networking, and an opportunity to find out more about the PR and marketing world
  
• Public Relations Society of America - Buffalo Niagara Chapter (local chapter)
• Sales and Marketing Executives International (national)
  
• Social Media Club