You can develop the most incredible products, negotiate killer deals with suppliers, and execute operations superbly… and none if it will matter if no one ever hears about your company.
You can bet, just about every MBA degree program out there will touch on marketing topics as a part of the core curriculum. Additionally, courses in communication, strategic analysis, and microeconomics all feed into marketing considerations that come up in day-to-day management.
Like technology, marketing is a field that every business in California relies on to some degree.
But there’s a lot more going on in the marketing world than a few core courses can cover. And marketing can be such a critical piece of business success in a world overwhelmed by data that it can be a game changer for executives that master it.
That starts with an MBA in marketing.
Marketing MBA Programs Never Go Out of Style in California
Marketing continues to be a workhorse among MBA concentrations and remains one the most popular options for California business students. At Haas, for example, nearly 20 percent of graduates choose the marketing career path.
A marketing MBA is industry-proof in a world with shifting trends.
Marketing skills never go out of style. It’s a specialization that you can apply in any business, and that every business will always need, in good times and bad. And that’s going to be true for your entire career—making it one of the safest choices as a concentration for your MBA, a degree that’s already one of the safest choices in education.
MBA in Marketing Jobs: You Can Start Mastering Your Career Specialization While Still in Grad School
While marketing is a surprisingly portable type of degree, it also has a lot of room for specialization. Warner Brothers executives rolling out the next global blockbuster approach marketing campaigns quite a lot differently than managers at Vasa Therapeutics, a quiet San Diego biopharmaceutical firm offering therapeutics to fight cardiovascular aging.
So even within the MBA world, you can find a lot of different angles on the basic MBA in marketing degree. And whether you pick one of these specializations or not, you will find electives in pretty much every MBA in marketing that you can use to lean your studies in the direction of different industries.
With an MBA in Digital or Online Marketing You’ll Have Universal Reach in Cyberspace
Powered by innovations arriving almost daily from Silicon Valley, the online world is extending further and further into our daily lives. Where there are eyeballs, marketers are sure to follow.
And they have! Silicon Valley behemoth Google sold its first ad in 2000 through the self-service AdWords platform. Only about a third of the population even had internet access at that point.
A mere 24 years later, though, the company commands around a quarter of the estimated $1 trillion global advertising market. Together with Meta, another major California corporation, and the likes of Amazon and Alibaba, digital advertising commands almost half of all ad spending.
An online MBA in digital marketing delivers instruction within the same world you will be studying.
So whether you are on the buy or sell side, understanding digital marketing isn’t optional anymore. Programs like CSU Stanislaus’ online MBA Digital and Social Media Marketing concentration helps you specialize with coursework in social media marketing, SEO/SEM, email marketing, and considerations for mobile platform marketing. You’ll also get filled in on the theoretical and perceptual transformation that digital platforms have brought to the field of marketing overall.
An MBA in Marketing Management Teaches Leadership and Strategic Thinking
In all but the tiniest startups, no marketing manager is going to be hands-on with drawing up campaigns, coordinating illustrators, negotiating placements, or making ad buys. Instead, it’s their role to supervise teams who are taking care of all those duties and more.
That’s why management skills are important for ascending through the ranks of sales and marketing jobs. An MBA naturally comes with considerable focus on how to manage, assess, and motivate staff. But a marketing management concentration prepares students to combine those communication and leadership skills with broad, strategic marketing knowledge.
An MBA concentration in marketing management, like you’ll find at Cal State East Bay, builds those abilities with coursework in Marketing Research and Analytics, Integrated Marketing Communication, Sales and Distribution Management, and electives in areas like New Venture Marketing.
An MBA in Sales and Marketing Closes the Loop Between Advertising and Revenues
While marketing is clearly its own thing, with a depth and importance that extends across industries, it’s also valuable to remember that it basically exists for only one reason: to drive sales.
So it’s natural to combine the study of sales and marketing in an MBA program. While these specializations cover the same focus topics of any marketing MBA, they tend to also throw in coursework that helps you execute on the tactical side of the table, in areas such as pricing strategies and market growth share.
They also get you thinking about how marketing ties into sales so that efforts align, with marketing campaigns better supporting sales strategies. It’s a way to ensure that the bottom line delivers on the promise of better marketing, rather than just delivering abstract statistics and data.
An MBA in International Marketing Expands Cultural Capabilities for Global Impact
California is a powerhouse in international trade, both coming and going. Our major ports shift more than 200 million tons of cargo annually, connecting the global economy and acting as a conduit that fuels the American economy.
With exports going to 227 foreign markets, including top-five favorites Mexico, Canada, China, Japan, and South Korea, the state moves out almost $180 billion in trade goods each year according to the California Chamber of Commerce.
That has a lot to do with the expertise of California MBA graduates who specialized in international marketing. Building an understanding of different cultures, global branding, and even language are important factors in selling everything from iPads to avocados overseas.
The well-rounded nature of MBA studies are a natural fit for global players, and schools that offer overseas study opportunities with their marketing MBAs such as UC Davis give you an edge in making a splash on the international scene.
An MBA in Marketing Research Dips Into the World of Data and Analysis
Marketing without research is like throwing darts with a blindfold on. Understanding the customer base, the microeconomic considerations, and the competition all inform a solid marketing strategy. Yet for most of history, marketing executives were left with very few effective tools to do it. With only occasional customer surveys and limited government datasets, most marketing was largely guesswork.
The arrival of high-speed computing, machine intelligence algorithms, and Big Data ushered in a new era for marketing research.
These specializations bridge the gap between business analytics and marketing with a tech-centric curriculum that blends in specific uses and resources in modern market research. MBA students in market research programs like the one at Cal Lutheran learn to blend inputs from surveys and other sources to develop accurate reports to inform strategic planning processes.
What Is the Difference Between a Master’s in Marketing vs MBA Marketing Specialization?
If marketing is really your dream, you may be wondering why go with an expensive and competitive degree like an MBA. Many schools, including many California business schools on this list, offer a straightforward Master of Science in Marketing degree as well.
An MS in Marketing is typically much easier to get into, less expensive, and takes about half the time of a regular MBA. The coursework is focused entirely on marketing topics, which allows you to take in more of the breadth in what is already a very broad field. Marketing master’s programs can deliver the same sort of sub-specializations as you might find in marketing in MBA specializations.
On the other hand, an MBA vs a Master’s in Marketing will deliver a broader business education that helps you connect marketing concepts to overall strategic goals. It also comes with more management and leadership training, which is important if you plan to take on senior positions in marketing. In fact, plenty of MBA grads who specialize in marketing end up climbing all the way to the C-suite, with broader business responsibilities.
All of this is to say than an MBA is a better choice to give your career legs over the long run.
On the other hand, if you’re still early in your career, or just completing your undergrad degree, it can be tough to get into a worthwhile marketing MBA program. At that stage, a Master of Science in Marketing could make quite a lot more sense than an MBA.
Many California Business Schools Offer the MBA in Marketing Concentration to Fit Your Career Plans
Not every business school in California offers specializations in marketing, but many do. You’ll find these concentrations at both public and private universities, at schools in the T100 or even the M7, as well as smaller colleges with a regional reputation.
They are scattered around the state and offer a variety of focus areas within the larger marketing career field. It’s enough variety with enough options that pretty much anyone seeking a marketing MBA will find what they are looking for in the Golden State.
Public
University of California - Berkeley
Haas School of Business
Berkeley, CA
Master of Business Administration - Marketing Career Path
University of California - Davis
Graduate School of Management
Davis, CA
Master of Business Administration - Marketing Concentration
University of California - Riverside
School of Business
Riverside, CA
Master of Business Administration - Marketing
University of California - San Diego
Rady School of Management
San Diego, CA
Master of Business Administration Specialization Certificate in Marketing
University of California - Los Angeles
Anderson School of Management
Los Angeles, CA
Fully Employed Master of Business Administration Marketing Specialization
Master of Business Administration Brand Management Specialization
Master of Business Administration Marketing Analytics Specialization
California State University - East Bay
College of Business and Economics
Hayward, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing Management concentration
California State Polytechnic University - Pomona
Singelyn Graduate School of Business
Pomona, CA
Master of Business Administration Strategic Marketing concentration
California State University - San Bernardino
Jack H. Brown College of Business and Public Administration
San Bernardino, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing concentration
California State University - Long Beach
College of Business
Long Beach, CA
Evening Master of Business Administration Marketing specialization
California State University - Fullerton
College of Business and Economics
Fullerton, CA
Master of Business Administration concentration in Marketing
University of Massachusetts Global
School of Business and Professional Studies
Aliso Viejo, CA
Online Master of Business Administration in Marketing
California State University - Los Angeles
College of Business and Economics
Los Angeles, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing concentration
California State University - Stanislaus
College of Business Administration
Turlock, CA
Master of Business Administration Digital and Social Media Marketing concentration
Private
University of Southern California
Marshall School of Business
Los Angeles, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing Concentration
Pepperdine University
Graziadio Business School
Malibu, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing concentration
Chapman University
Argyros College of Business and Economics
Orange, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing specialization
Claremont Graduate University
Drucker School of Management
Claremont, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing certificate
Santa Clara University
Leavey School of Business
Santa Clara, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing concentration
Loyola Marymount University
College of Business Administration
Los Angeles, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing emphasis
University of San Diego
Knauss School of Business
San Diego, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing concentration
Saint Mary’s College of California
School of Economics and Business Administration
Moraga, CA
Professional Master of Business Administration Marketing concentration
Golden Gate University
Ageno School of Business
San Francisco, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing concentration
Dominican University of California
Barowsky School of Business
San Rafael, CA
Master of Business Administration with a Concentration in Marketing
La Sierra University
Tom and Vi Zapara School of Business
Riverside, CA
Master of Business Administration in Marketing
California Lutheran University
School of Management
Thousand Oaks, CA
Master of Business Administration with an Emphasis in Marketing Research
University of Redlands
School of Business and Society
Redlands, CA
Master of Business Administration: Marketing Concentration
University of La Verne
College of Business
La Verne, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing concentration
Azusa Pacific University
School of Business and Management
Azusa, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing concentration
National University
School of Business and Management
San Diego, CA
Master of Business Administration Strategic Marketing Specialization
Hope International University
College of Business and Management
Fullerton, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing Management Concentration
Lincoln University
Oakland, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing Management concentration
Touro University Worldwide
School of Business and Management
Los Angeles, CA
Master of Business Administration Marketing track
San Francisco Bay University
School of Business
Fremont, CA
Master of Business Administration Concentration in Marketing Management
University of the People
Pasadena, CA
Master of Business Administration with Certificate in Finance
How To Select the Right Marketing MBA Program for Your Goals
Having so many choices among California business schools creates its own problem: you can only pick one.
And, as with all such competitive degree programs, there’s the matter of getting accepted. So you are in for some careful analysis and evaluation as you apply and evaluate offers from all your options.
Factors for Evaluating California Business Schools With Marketing MBAs
Some business schools have particularly close ties to certain industries. That’s often the case in the Bay Area, where strong tech connections are common, or in LA for the entertainment industry, or San Diego and biotech.
As an extension of those connections and that expertise, you’ll often find that those schools come with a wealth of benefits if you’re aiming at marketing executive jobs in those industries.
At CSU Long Beach, the Marketing Business Center is staffed by students from the College of Business, who are there to offer marketing consultations to small-and-medium-sized businesses while their professors supervise.
In other cases, you’ll find classes that are aimed specifically at Sports Marketing, Export/Import Marketing Strategies, or Retail Marketing Strategies, such as those offered at Cal State Fullerton.
And, naturally, faculty are likely to be drawn from experts that come from that background. They have both real-world insights that are valuable and current network connections that can help launch your career.
For example, a recent sample of seminars delivered by UCLA Anderson marketing faculty included deep dives on negotiating contracts in the video streaming market and pricing strategies in fields where consumers can easily back out of purchases when new information becomes available—such as online searches. Those topics point toward strong levels of expertise in digital marketing and might influence your decision if that’s the field you are aiming for.
Research and Resource Centers Can Play a Major Role in Your Marketing MBA Education
Because marketing is always evolving, it’s also often worthwhile to look at schools that have both professors and research centers that are on the cutting edge of exploring consumer behavior and new marketing techniques. Institutes that focus on innovation in business analytics, the lifeblood of marketing efforts, are a close second, such as Marshall’s Real Estate Analytics Lab.
Finally, support within your cohort is also a big plus. Larger schools may have a dedicated marketing club where students get together to discuss marketing careers across industries and sponsor speakers, field trips, and other events with a marketing theme.
The Innov8 competition at Haas brings together teams from California’s top MBA programs to tackle real world challenges presented by corporate sponsors. For the winning team, the prize is glory, and an impressive line item for each participant’s résumé.
You can also get a hint about how effective and popular marketing concentrations are by checking out post-graduation employment reports from schools that publish them. There’s a wide range of placements in marketing roles among graduates from California business schools. It’s a pretty good bet that those producing more grads who are heading into marketing positions are better known for delivering exactly the kind of expertise companies are looking for.
Should You Earn Your MBA in Marketing Online?
Online MBAs were starting to become a thing even before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed almost all California business schools to take their programs to the internet.
Today, specializations of all kinds are available through online MBA programs. They come with a number of advantages that you’d be hard-pressed to find in traditional programs—particularly in California.
In the home of online and digital marketing, it can make a lot of sense to earn your MBA in marketing online.
That’s because the Golden State is one where you just about need to own a goldmine to afford to live in certain cities—including those where some of the best business schools are located.
An online marketing MBA, though, means you can tap into that same expertise and excellence in instruction no matter where you are located—even outside the state.
An online MBA in marketing comes with the same curriculum and practical experiences as traditional on-campus versions.
Online marketing MBAs also tend to offer more flexible scheduling and attendance that can protect your pocketbook, too. While some coursework may be synchronous, with live streams and live discussion, in other classes you may be able to stream lectures, work on projects, and correspond with classmates on your own schedule—bending it around work obligations so you can keep earning while you are learning.
Finally, there is the sheer variety of opportunities that online degrees open up. Schools that might have been too far to commute to if you had to attend in-person are suddenly an option.
Curriculum Content Can Inform Your Choice of Marketing MBA Program
Marketing is a key part of every business, so you’ll also find that it’s a key part of every graduate-level business program. Regular MBA degrees are sure to include courses in Marketing Concepts or Strategic Marketing seminars as a part of their core curriculum.
MBA programs with a marketing specialization go further and open more doors into the various sub-specialties and connections between business management and marketing. They aren’t designed to turn you into a marketing expert, but they are aimed at giving you the knowledge you need to run marketing and sales departments full of marketing experts.
That comes through coursework in subjects such as:
- Sales Management
- CRM in the Digital Age
- Strategic Brand Management
- Consumer Behavior and Pricing Strategy
- Entrepreneurial Marketing and Selling
- Marketing Research and Analytics
In some concentrations, you’re likely to go in-depth on specific platforms and tools, such as courses that discuss AdWords or Salesforce. You might also find subject-specific classes dealing with marketing in particular industries, such as life sciences or biotechnology. There are also electives in areas where marketing execs often find themselves taking on responsibilities, like public relations or customer relations.
California Business Schools Have an Inside Track on the Best Experiential Learning Opportunities for MBA Marketing Students
The real advantage to earning an MBA in marketing at a California university is often the significant opportunities that it can offer to gain real-world experience working with some of the most successful brands and marketing organizations in the world.
They include Apple, the world’s most valuable brand, where MBA students learn how the elite Product Marketing group takes products from conception through launch at a company where marketing famously takes on product management responsibilities as well. In Burbank, students can intern with Disney to see how a portfolio of classic films is managed and optimized to reach markets around the world. And in Santa Clara, riding the AI rocket that is NVIDIA, interns learn how a sleepy graphics card manufacturer became a global powerhouse in the hottest trend in technology.
Students can also end up working on research projects at big academic programs like UCLA Anderson’s Morrison Center for Marketing and Data Analytics. Supporting both academic research and real-world consulting and development projects, this is a great way to get plugged in to the latest applications of business marketing knowledge.
MBA Capstone Projects Offer a Shot at Bringing Business and Marketing Skills Together
While most master’s degrees are capped off by a thesis paper, the MBA is a trendsetter in delivering more practical and applied ways to demonstrate your accomplishment.
These are generally called capstone courses or projects, although the actual form they take can differ from school to school. Often, you’ll get a choice of ways to complete your program, with options that may include:
- Internships in marketing roles
- Developing a comprehensive marketing business plan
- Participating in an external marketing consulting project under the supervision of your instructors
- Undertaking a significant market research project
In every case, the intention is for you to bring together all the elements of your studies in general business management and marketing to show you have learned what it takes to be an effective marketing executive in the real world.
The Hottest Jobs in Marketing are Reserved for MBA Graduates
An MBA with a marketing specialization is pure gold when it comes to employment, netting strong job offers with impressive starting salaries. Because the MBA’s core studies are so broad-based, you have the essential qualifications for management positions at pretty much any kind of company. And because the additional marketing knowledge you come away with has applications in any industry, you can turn those to your advantage in any job application or interview.
Marketing Graduate Degrees Outside the MBA Sphere to Tap Into Your Creativity
Marketing is a particularly creative part of the business skillset. Sometimes, that creates openings for graduates from non-MBA business programs to get in on the game.
California is a pretty creative place, in between the artistic hamlets of Sonoma and the lights and magic of Hollywood. That shows up on the education front, too, with universities and degree programs that are acclaimed in various artistic fields.
But as any Hollywood executive knows, artsy doesn’t have to mean unprofitable. Many of these fields are big industries unto themselves, and have degrees that are highly specialized to match.
So if marketing for fast fashion or apparel is your dream, then a Master of Fine Arts in Fashion Marketing and Brand Management from Academy of Art University may be your thing.
And because marketing is often primarily about psychology, an MS in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Vanguard could offer insights useful in any marketing management role.
Since so much of marketing has gone digital, it’s also worth exploring degrees that focus first on the technical side. The University of West Los Angeles, for example, has an MS in Leadership Management and Technology that will soon be coming out with a concentration in Digital Marketing.
That said, most people walking out of California business schools with a marketing MBA are probably heading straight toward senior positions in sales and marketing.
Among California schools that publish graduate employment reports, anywhere from 8% to 35% of recent MBA grads ended up in marketing-related roles.
Those roles can be found in any industry, and in any functional marketing specialization, from PR to digital marketing. As an MBA grad, however, you’ll primarily be looking at positions higher up on the org chart, including:
- Client Account Manager
- Brand/Product manager
- Creative Director
- Marketing Manager/Director
- Brand Strategist
- Director of Integrated Brand Marketing
- Director of Communications
Of course, these are all pathways toward even more senior roles, such as VP of Marketing or even Chief Marketing Officer, Chief Commercial Officer, or Chief Brand Officer.
From there, considering how important marketing is, it’s not unusual for MBA grads to pick up broader portfolios, up to and including becoming Chief Executive Officer. After all, if you can make your company’s products look good, you can certainly make yourself look like a good candidate for the top job.
MBA in Marketing Salary Levels in California
Since marketing is a function that spans industries and enterprises, it’s impossible to generalize too much about the salary you can expect. Experience also plays a significant role. A marketing manager salary with 10 years and an MBA in California will be a lot different from the salary of someone who just earned their degree and hasn’t yet earned their spurs.
But you’ll find almost all the roles discussed above lumped into the overall BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) category of Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers.
BLS breaks down the average salaries for that occupation into two sub-roles, which have different income levels. For both, California is among the top five highest paying states in the nation:
- Advertising and Promotions Managers - $175,080
- Marketing Managers - $192,730
Of course, those are merely the mean wages for positions that any bachelor’s graduate could end up in. The kind of role that MBA graduates can land will typically fall higher on the ladder. BLS doesn’t account for that data state by state, but nationally, the top ten percent of positions in these roles both come in higher than $239,200. Since that’s the ceiling for BLS data, though, it’s likely that such jobs in California could bring in significantly more.
It’s a similar story for MBA marketing graduates who climb up out of the silo and hit the big time in other top executive roles. BLS puts the average in California at $281,030 for such jobs, but they can easily run into mid-six figures here for many companies.
Whether you plan to aim for the top or stick with the marketing and sales track, an MBA gives you the expertise and the flexibility to reach your goals.
2023 US Bureau of Labor Statistics salary and employment figures for Top Executives and Advertising, Promotions, and Marketing Managers reflect national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed December 2024.