Massachusetts may be well known for it pharmaceutical, biotech and education sectors, but it also has plenty of opportunities for Boston marketing MBA students. According to The Ad Club, a trade association for the New England marketing and communications industry, the marketing communications industry in Massachusetts is thriving and is a big contributor to the local economy.The Ad Club reports that:
- The marketing and communications sector has a direct effect of $9.3 billion on the Greater Boston GRP (Gross Rating Point), and indirectly contributes $22.1 billion, or 10.8 percent of greater Boston’s GRP.
- The sector is directly responsible for just over 85,000 jobs in metro Boston, equal to 5.1 percent of total jobs in the region.
- The marketing and communications sector has a direct effect of $16.3 billion on the MA GRP, and indirectly contributes $38.7 billion (11.5 percent) of MA’s GRP.
- The sector is directly responsible for over 143,000 jobs in MA, equal to 4.4 percent of total jobs in the state.
Students looking to break into the marketing industry have plenty of options in several of the Boston metro’s business schools. Below is a breakdown of the best Boston marketing MBA offerings you can find:
Carroll School of Management – Boston College
Located in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts — only six miles from downtown Boston — the Carroll School of Management is Boston College’s business school. The undergraduate business school was founded in 1938 and the graduate business school followed in 1957. The Carroll School offers a full-time MBA program as well as a part-time, evening MBA program. The Carroll School is fully accredited in business education by AACSB International.
BC MBA students have the option to pursue a concentration in a functional area of management, one of which is Marketing and Information Analytics. According to the school, students in the concentration will “learn the technical jargon of IT and gain hands-on skills in areas such as data-mining and statistical model analysis,” while also being exposed to traditional and advanced marketing courses such as marketing research, consumer behavior and marketing information analytics. Exposure to IT gives MBAs a stronger position in today’s tech-focuses business environment and better tools to face strategic concerns facing marketing firms.
D’Amore-McKim School of Business – Northeastern University
The D’Amore-McKim School of Business of Northeastern University was founded in 1922 and began awarding graduate business degrees in 1952. D’Amore-McKim is an AACSB-accredited institution and offers five MBA programs: full-time, Evening, High Tech, Executive and Online. All MBA programs take place at Northeastern’s 73-acre main campus in the Fenway Cultural District of Boston.
At D’Amore, students can enhance their marketing background with the advanced MBA Marketing track. Each marketing course bridges academics with real-world experience through a paid corporate residency. The curriculum includes courses that emphasize strategy and enterprise growth, including a Business Plan Project where teams of students deliver actionable business growth plans for Northeastern’s corporate partners.
F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business – Babson College
The F.W. Olin Graduate School of Business at Babson College is located in the Babson Park area of Wellesley, Massachusetts, in the suburbs of Boston. The school offers a traditional full-time MBA program, a one-year program for those with an academic background in business, an evening MBA program for those who are fully employed, and a Blended Learning part-time MBA program.
The school’s Marketing Division offers a concentration in General Marketing for MBAs. To complete a marketing concentration, students will need to complete 9-credits in courses in addition to the core Marketing courses in the Two-Year, One-Year, Evening or Blended Learning MBA program. For three of the nine credits, students are required to choose from either Marketing Research, Marketing Analytics, Consumer Behavior, or Innovation and Experimentation. The remaining six credits can be used on any of the available marketing electives. The nine credits do not have to be completed in any particular order. Courses include Marketing Research and Analysis, Marketing High-Tech Products and Marketing Communications.
Sawyer Business School – Suffolk University
Named after Frank Sawyer, a Suffolk University donor and Boston-area entrepreneur, the Sawyer Business School at Suffolk University is AACSB accredited in business, accounting and taxation. While Suffolk University was established in 1906, the Business School opened in 1937 and began offering the MBA degree in 1948. Suffolk founded its Executive MBA program in 1975 and its Online MBA program in 1999.
Sawyer’s Marketing Concentration requires that students take three or four specialized marketing courses, which include: Marketing Research for Managers; Global Branding and Communication Strategies and Global Perspectives in Consumer Marketing.
Questrom School of Business – Boston University
Founded in 1913, the Boston University School of Management was renamed the Questrom School of Business in 2015 in honor of a $50 million endowment gift from alumnus and retail industry leader Allen Questrom, his wife Kelli and the Allen and Kelli Questrom Foundation. The school began offering MBA courses in 1925 and today, the school offers eight different programs related to the MBA degree. Along with the traditional full-time MBA, part-time MBA and executive MBA, students can seek out a Health Sector MBA or a Public & Nonprofit MBA, either full or part-time, as well as a one-year International MBA.
Students have the opportunity to formally concentrate in Energy & Environmental Sustainability, Entrepreneurship, Finance, International Management, Leadership & Organizational Transformation, Marketing, Operations & Technology Management or Strategy & Innovation at Questrom. Students must complete the Marketing Management course, three Marketing electives (any course with an MK designation) and one additional course in order to complete the Marketing Major.
Simmons School of Management
The Simmons School of Management was founded in 1973. Today, it is a center for innovative teaching, research and discourse on the topics of women, leadership and management, the school offers a demanding management education to women MBA students. The school is AACSB accredited its MBA program has been ranked first overall by the Princeton Review in “Greatest Opportunity for Women” for five consecutive years.
The MBA curriculum at Simmons consists of 48 credit hours, broken into 14 core business courses, two elective courses and two in-person immersion courses. Marketing courses offered at Simmons include Marketing Management, which focuses on marketing initiative for B2B, B2C, for-profit and nonprofit organizations.