How do I Earn a Marketing PhD?

Marketing professionals do advertising, public relations, product management, and retail. Work done by marketing professionals might also include direct sales, brand management, customer relationship management, e-commerce, logistics, distribution, marketing research, or college teaching. If you want to get a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in marketing, you will generally need to get a college degree before pursuing the doctoral degree.

Getting a college degree in business with a specialization in marketing can be helpful if you hope to become a marketing PhD. The college degree with specialization in marketing will include courses such as accounting, business systems, economics, consumer behavior, and courses pertaining to analysis of marketing data. Also, most likely a college marketing internship will be required as part of the marketing degree. The career services department at your college can likely help you to locate an internship to apply for.

Internships in marketing can be done in any setting from a Fortune 500 company to a local nonprofit. The importance of doing the internship is that you will gain supervised experience in marketing, which will help you determine if marketing is a fit for your abilities. The experience will also help you clarify your goals as you apply for the marketing PhD.

Application for the marketing PhD can occur immediately after college or after you have worked in marketing for a few years. Granted, individuals sometimes choose to get a marketing job immediately after college, work for a few years, pursue the Master of Business Administration (MBA) in marketing, and then pursue the marketing doctorate. To find prospective doctoral marketing programs, you can look at the American Marketing Association (AMA) website listing of various schools that offer the doctorate in marketing.

Marketing PhD programs typically require that you take the Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT). Also, you will need to get references from individuals such as former professors and employment supervisors so that prospective schools can see how you perform on the job. In addition, you will need to write an application essay and fill out applications for any marketing PhD programs you are interested in.

After being accepted to a marketing PhD program, you must work consistently and achieve good grades. You must write journal articles as required and excel in any other pre-dissertation research requirements the program has. The PhD-level internship and successful completion of the doctoral dissertation are of critical importance because prospective employers will put a lot of emphasis on them. As such, the internship and dissertation will play a large role in determining the type of job you eventually get after you complete the PhD.