Top Marketing Schools: Spotlight on Columbia Business School

Evolution in technology coupled with the proliferation of internet-connected devices has revolutionized the marketing landscape through channels as diverse as customer databases and online social media.

Subsequently businesses that want to get, and stay, ahead of the competition have increasingly found marketing tools to be a critical predicator of success.

As its importance to employers grows, so too has the provision of marketing MBA courses heightening techniques and strategy for those looking to take on a senior role in this area. Typical course insights on offer at the top marketing schools include; consumer behavior, market research as well as product and brand management.

2013/14’s top ten for marketing MBA specializations

1. Kellogg School of Management
2. Harvard Business School
3. The Wharton School
4. INSEAD
5. IE Business School
6. Stanford GSB
7. London Business School
8. Columbia Business School
9. UCLA Anderson School of Management
10. Cambridge Judge

The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University continues to sit atop of the marketing MBA specialization rating. Indeed, the school has become a firm favorite among employers included in QS’ annual survey that actively recruit marketing MBA roles. Recently, Kellogg MBA students from the school’s marketing club took part in its annual advertising review of the Super Bowl – an example of the kind of opportunity open to its students during their studies.

However, the highest climber and sole new entrant among this year’s ten top marketing schools has been Columbia Business School, whose employer reputation for the strength of its marketing MBA courses now puts it comfortably with the very best on offer.

Analytical approach to marketing education at Columbia

At Columbia Business School, marketing education is part of the core curriculum for MBA students and forms a full-semester course. 

Professor Olivier Toubia is one of the marketing faculty members teaching this course. “At Columbia, a student may find our core course more analytical than in many of our peer schools,” he says, when asked about the current strength of Columbia’s marketing division.

Toubia (pictured, right) then explains that, for those interested in furthering their marketing education, the core is backed up by an extensive list of electives.

“Many of our courses include real-world projects and we offer fundamental ‘tools’ courses, for example in marketing research and pricing, as well as industry-specific courses,” he says.

In addition, one of the school’s research centers, the Center on Global Brand Leadership, sees marketing faculty members write cases that are then taught at Columbia and beyond. Toubia says the significance here is in, “bridging theoretical and practical business knowledge to improve the learning experience of our students.”

Alumna experience of a marketing MBA focus

Tricia Baione is an MBA alumna of Columbia Business School and readily took to the marketing MBA courses available, diversifying her outlook on the industry.

“I spent seven years as a consumer magazine editor and I came to school wanting to get into marketing in media – to flip the coin, so to speak, and go to the dark side of media. When I got here, I realized what I didn’t know. The whole world opened up to me and I discovered a real passion for consumer-facing products, not only consumer packaged goods (CPG) but also the retail sector,” she says.

Baione relished the school’s approach to marketing education and became president of the marketing association in her second year, as well as a peer career advisor. She also picked up a marketing department award for excellence on graduation, having finished with an area focus on marketing and management.

From the electives she took, one course stood out in particular, that of ‘Managing Brands, Identity & Experience’ for its insight into, “experiential branding and how brands themselves have identities,” Baione reflects.

Marketing careers: a range of options for MBAs

During her MBA, Baione interned as a buyer with the US retail and Fortune 500 company, Target. She received a full-time job offer to return after graduation but turned it down in favor of remaining in New York with Columbia Business School, where she is now associate director of MBA career education and advising. Here, she is often sought out by current MBAs with a strong interest in pursuing marketing careers.

These students are not just those with pre-existing industry experience, as Baione believes marketing has a strong appeal for those looking at a career change. “I’ve worked with students who were investment bankers who wanted a holistic work-life fit change and saw marketing as a great way to achieve this, while still having that quantitative aspect of the job they liked in banking,” she says, by way of example.

From Columbia’s class of 2013, just over 9% of its 700+ graduates went into marketing roles, predominantly in the areas of brand/product management and business development. Here, Professor Toubia thinks the school is aided in its reputation as one of the top marketing schools by its New York location and the subsequently strong relationship it enjoys with many leading practitioners that call the city home. 

In terms of the industry’s current MBA opportunities, Baione emphasizes technology’s growing influence, and interest among students, as the key shift. She cites Amazon, which features among Columbia Business School’s top ten MBA recruiters of 2013, as an example. “Amazon recruits for its retail leadership development program, which is really a general management program but has a huge marketing bend to it, as well as product management which is a non-technical role,” she explains.

Elsewhere, Baione talks through some of the other major employers taking part in on-campus recruitment at Columbia as evidence of the wide-ranging options for MBAs looking at marketing careers. These options include brand management at companies like Unilever and PepsiCo, merchandizing roles with department-store retailers, such as Macy's and Saks Fifth Avenue, and even marketing careers with a financial services company such as American Express.  

Indeed, marketing was one of the key functional aspects of roles, regardless of industry, offered to MBAs in the period of 2009-2013, according to the QS TopMBA Jobs & Salary Trends Report 2013/14, ahead of those encompassing ‘sales and development’ and just behind that of ‘consultant’.

In this light, it quickly becomes easy to see why a marketing education from a leading business school is attractive to many students, and not just those coming from existing backgrounds within the industry.

The top marketing schools are those that strive to provide solid groundings, through the core curricula, that are useful to any industry a candidate might enter. Added to this are course options focusing on the analytical tools and skills required to really excel as senior managers in specialist marketing careers.