In the Master of Science in Marketing Advertising and Branding Track, students must complete 15 credit hours of program core classes then 21 credit hours within this track in courses in advertising and promotional strategy, branding, consumer behavior and social media. There is a wide range of electives, including digital advertising courses. Details of the courses in the degree and this track are available on the Master’s in Marketing page in the UT Dallas Graduate Catalog. Our program is designed to prepare students for careers in advertising and marketing agencies as well as advertising and branding jobs within companies.
View Track in CatalogWhat does an advertising manager do?
An advertising manager or account executive has been described as the bridge between client companies and the advertising or marketing agency. These professionals connect with agency teams serving many functions, such as the creative, media and print and/or broadcast production teams. They have regular meetings with their clients and are responsible for seeing that work is billed and paid for. Ad executives usually lead presentations to clients.
While advertising and branding careers are different, in this track we combined both into one track because they do share some core skills and knowledge, such as consumer behavior or advertising (key for branding). Specialization occurs more in the elective part of this track, where students focused more on the advertising side can concentrate more on digital courses while those interested more in the branding side can take the customer insights and research side of the track electives. For additional details on how our courses map to the skills required by this profession, please read this blog post on advertising management.
What does a brand manager do?
A brand manager is responsible for developing, nurturing, managing and protecting the identity of a brand. In consumer-packaged goods (CPG) companies, a brand manager may have even more responsibilities, including profit and loss. In other companies and industries, brand managers have a narrower role. Profit-and-loss responsibilities usually fall to product managers in manufacturing, equipment, technology and healthcare companies. A brand manager in the narrower role audits and establishes how a brand is perceived by the market. Brand managers make sure that all the components of the brand, such as its name, logo, colors, packaging, price points and distribution, complement the desired perception. For additional details on how our courses map to the skills required by this profession, please read this blog post on brand management.
Typical Advertising and Branding Job Titles
Advertising manager
Account executive
Account planner
Account supervisor or manager
Brand manager, director or vice president
Media planner/buyer
Typical Responsibilities for an Advertising Manager
- Develop new and maintain existing client relationships.
- Consult with clients on business issues and marketing.
- Define potential advertisers.
- Research, prospecting, marketing, cold-calling, presenting and closing. You own the sales cycle, prospect to close.
- Execute sales tactics, implement marketing strategies and deliver effective sales presentations with passion, and consistently ask for the business.
- Advertising and Media:
- Plan and implement an integrated advertising strategy to build the brand, improve the organization’s image and promote fundraising initiatives and events.
- Perform detailed category analysis (including consumer, competitive, culture and financial) to identify marketing opportunities and formulate strategic business action plans, including “white space for innovation.”
- Lead the development of product or service positioning and uncover relevant consumer insights to drive consumer communication.
Typical Responsibilities for a Brand Manager
- Manage relationships with the go-to-market team and customer development team to execute successful new-product launches and identify and recommend the right mix of exclusive opportunities for strategic customers.
- Perform detailed category analysis (including consumer, competitive, culture and financial) to identify marketing opportunities and formulate strategic business action plans, identifying “white space for innovation.”
- Lead the development of product or service positioning and uncover relevant consumer insights to drive consumer communication.
Traditional advertising job opportunities are limited.
There will always be advertising jobs, but the traditional job market is relatively flat. Minimal growth is expected in the future as most budgets move to digital advertising. A recent survey of 400 advertising and marketing agencies reported that 78% of the firms would maintain their current headcount, with no new hiring except to fill vacancies. With the cutbacks in traditional advertising spending and retrenchment by clients, hiring is expected to be flat. This track specialty is best for those already in advertising who wish to obtain higher-level managerial knowledge, especially on the data analysis and digital side.
The outlook is better for brand managers.
Because brand managers play a key role in increasing market share, the employment outlook is good for this field. According to CNN Money:
The number of brand management jobs to be added in the next 10 years is expected to be 39,249, and a total of 34,777 positions should become available due to workforce attrition. This would constitute a 21 percent increase in the brand manager workforce.”
What is the size of the advertising job market?
Students searching this job market will have to read the job descriptions carefully. While all the job titles shown above are commonly used in the marketing and advertising industry, such titles are used in other areas as well. “Account executive” is commonly used for sales positions in newspapers and media companies looking for people willing to work only on commission. On Indeed.com, “account supervisor,” which is usually found only in advertising and marketing firms, yields more than 5,000 jobs across the U.S.
What is the size of the brand manager job market?
If “brand manager” is used in a search on Indeed.com or Glassdoor.com, then some 1,150 jobs in the U.S. are returned. “Brand management” yields far fewer: only 67 open positions.
Average Years of Experience and Salary Average of Advertising Managers
Traditionally, beginners in marketing and advertising are not paid well. This has not changed. A young marketing manager with less than three years of experience can expect a salary in the $40,000 to $50,000 range. However, with experience and such strategic career moves as earning a master’s degree, salary can increase. An advertising account supervisor (more than three years’ experience) in Dallas is projected to earn a median annual salary of more than $70,000, according to PayScale.com. A decade of experience and a VP title can mean a salary of $145,000 and up, including bonuses.
Average Years of Experience and Salary Average of Brand Managers
Brand managers can work on the advertising/marketing agency side or for a corporation, managing one of the portfolio brands. Agency brand managers with three years of experience tend to have salaries on the lower side: $40,000 to $55,000. For a corporate brand manager with three years of experience, salaries range from $55,000 to $128,000.
Master’s in Marketing Blogs & News
Find advice and resources you need as a current or prospective graduate student in marketing.
Business Development: Demand Generation
Business development is a process that helps your company establish and maintain relationships with prospects, learn about your buyer’s personas, increase brand awareness and more.
Web Analytics as a Key Skill or Profession for Marketers
Overview of skills needed for web analytics managers and how these map to the courses offered at the MS or Master of Science in Marketing, Digital track. Our web analytics course covers all the basics of web analytics using the Adobe and Google analytics platforms.
What Does a Product Manager Do?
Overview of skills needed for product managers and how these map to the courses offered at the MS or Master of Science in Marketing at UT Dallas. The job of the product manager is to discover a product that is valuable, usable and feasible.
What Is Marketing Automation?
Marketing Career Focus: Marketing Automation
Overview of needed skills for marketing automation careers and how these map to the courses offered at the MS Marketing at UT Dallas. Our program is one of the few in the nation to offer a specific course in marketing automation and campaigns.
What Exactly Is E-Commerce?
Marketing Career Focus: E-Commerce
Overview of skills needed for e-commerce managers and how these map to the courses offered at the MS or Master of Science in Marketing at UT Dallas. The digital marketing track has 4 core courses covering interactive and digital marketing, digital sales strategy, campaign management lab, and marketing web analytics and insights, plus 9 electives.
Analysis for Consumer & Shopper Insights Jobs
Marketing Career Focus: Customer Insights
Customer insights is an emerging area for marketing professionals who are not modelers, statisticians or data scientists. They often work more on the analysis and recommendation side of the profession.
What Does an Advertising Professional Do?
Overview of skills needed for advertising professionals and how these map to the courses offered at the MS or Master of Science in Marketing at UT Dallas.
What Does a Marketing Manager Do?
Overview of skills needed for marketing managers and how these map to the courses offered at the MS or Master of Science in Marketing at UT Dallas. The marketing manager occupies a generalist’s role.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Marketing Career Focus: Digital Marketing
Overview of skills needed for digital marketing managers and how these map to the courses offered at the MS or Master of Science in Marketing at UT Dallas. The digital marketing track has 4 core courses covering interactive and digital marketing, digital sales strategy, marketing automation and campaign management, marketing web analytics and insights, plus 12 electives
Job Analysis for Digital Marketing – Mobile Marketing
Overview of skills needed for mobile marketing managers and how these map to the courses offered at the MS or Master of Science in Marketing at UT Dallas. The mobile marketing professional must understand the web and app ecosystems.
What Does a Marketing Analyst Do?
Marketing Career Focus: Marketing Analytics
Overview of skills needed for marketing analytics managers and how these map to the courses offered at the MS or Master of Science in Marketing at UT Dallas. The marketing analytics track has 3 core courses covering database marketing, spreadsheet modeling and business analytics with either SAS or R, plus 15 electives.
What Does a Brand Manager Do?
Overview of skills needed by brand managers and how these map to the courses offered at the MS or Master of Science in Marketing at UT Dallas. The advertising and branding track has 4 core courses covering interactive and digital marketing, branding, and more.
What is Social Media Marketing?
Marketing Career Focus: Social Media Marketing
Overview of skills needed by social media marketing managers and how these map to the courses offered at the MS or Master of Science in Marketing at UT Dallas. Our program not only offers in-depth courses in social media but also in related areas.
Student Testimonials
Mahesh Jajoo
This program has helped me grow in different domains of marketing. It is one of the only programs worldwide that allows you to choose multiple courses between tracks. The amount of research that goes into preparing the material for the course is amazing, keeping the teaching material up to date with the changes in the marketing field. It also has taught me the best marketing principles and lessons through its core courses, which I will use throughout my marketing career. Overall, a program that has taken care of all the ever-changing dynamics of marketing that I was looking for and helped me grow as a marketer.
Mao Li, MS’14
Senior Manager of Competitive Intelligence, Health System, Marketing Insights and Analytics, Philips
The MS in Marketing program is a well-organized program with agile setup. It has different tracks to choose to fit your career direction. I highly recommend the program for further development in the marketing industry.
Michelle Bassil, MS ’22
The MBA & Master of Science in Marketing programs have provided me with the opportunity to gain a vast amount of relevant knowledge that is applicable to real-world business problems. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to further my education in a way that allowed me to pursue multiple interests simultaneously!
Rahul Rai
My trajectory will always be changed by my time at UTD Naveen Jindal School of Management MS Marketing program. It surpassed all expectations and provided me with unique insight. I’m aware that investing in myself by enrolling in this program has been and will continue to be among the best choices I’ve ever made.
Andrew Franco, BS’12, MS’12
Andrew Franco, JSOM graduate with BS’12 and MS’12, shares how completing his MS in Marketing enabled him to move his career forward.
Liquin Luo, MS’17
Data Scientist, Apple
The MS in Marketing program gave me sophisticated marketing analytic knowledge and the ability to think as a thoughtful marketer. The career center at JSOM accelerated my career potential, helping me land a job at Apple.
Jerry Hao, MS’14
Data Scientist, Amazon
The MS in Marketing director and faculty changed my career trajectory to that of a data scientist. Thanks to the high level analytics courses and career-placement opportunities, I was able to get my foot in the door at a prestigious marketing agency, Brierley + Partners, followed quickly by opportunities at Hewlett-Packard, AT&T and Amazon.
Holly Lynn
UT Dallas has helped me immensely by giving me the tools and knowledge to start a career path in the world of marketing right here in my hometown. I have grown with confidence to become a leader thanks to the many ways of communicating that have opened up to me, meaning things that were learned will not be forgotten!
Ada (Zhu) Choi, BS’14, MS’15
Retail Strategy Manager, Samsung Electronics America
The MS in Marketing prepared me to face real-world challenges through very applicable courses and ample networking opportunities. The professors and courses gave me deeper knowledge. If you crave intellectual stimulation and growth, I’d highly recommend the master’s program at UTD.
Allison Lutz Waldon
The MBA/M.S. Marketing program has allowed me to build and develop skills that I’ve been able to apply to projects in my current role. The flexible degree plan allows me to take classes while working full-time in marketing.
Mike Hart, MS’14
Vice President of Sales, Lennox Industries
The UTD Marketing master’s program was a great experience. The networking opportunities were excellent, and the quality of the students added to the overall value of the program. I would recommend this program to anyone who wants to gain a deeper knowledge of marketing principles as they apply to the real world of business.
Hema Shesha Sai Ganta, MS ’22
MS in Marketing at UTD is an incredible program. I thoroughly enjoyed pursuing the Marketing Analytics and Customer Insights track. The courses and unparalleled knowledge of professors helped me gain a better understanding of analytical applications in a real-world business setting. I highly recommend this program to anyone who is passionate about marketing.
Ready to start your graduate application?
Before you apply, get familiar with the application process for Jindal School graduate programs at UT Dallas.
How to Apply