Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

Dear hkanyoke,

You may be hard pressed to find a college that offers exactly
what you're looking for, as a combined masters in advertising
and marketing covers two different disciplines.

What may serve you better is masters in Advertising & Public Relations and there are a few colleges that DO offer this:

University of Minnesota
University of Georgia
Boston University
Southern Illinois University
South Dakota State University

You'll find more information here https://bit.ly/MastersCoursesForHkanyoke

You asked what would be the best option if you were going
for an either/or choice.

The only person that can answer that question is you. If it comes down to a single course you'll have to weigh the pros and cons for both, you'll have to make a choice, and you'll have to live with the outcome. No one can do this for you.

How do you choose? Flip a coin: best of three. Consult the runes. Pray. Offer your question to divine intervention. Do whatever works for you.

Advertising ISN'T marketing and marketing ISN'T advertising.

What's the difference?

In a nut shell, advertising is about wider, less personal relationships and message delivery by companies to its existing customers, and to potential leads; it's about awareness raising and brand exhibition.

Marketing is more to do with sticking the parts of buyer and seller together, it is often (but not always) more personal, more focused.
And there's general marketing and even more focused direct response marketing.

You'll find more of an explanation on advertising vs marketing here:
https://marketing.about.com/cs/advertising/a/marketvsad.htm

Ever been fishing?

Advertising is the trawl net, marketing is the baited hook.
There's a huge difference between the two.

I hope this helps.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA



I hope this helps

Why would you want both? What's your goal? Are you hoping to work for a big firm or start your own? Start with your end-goal: contact companies that you hope to work for, and ask them which schools they like to recruit from...and why. That'll start you with a decided advantage.

I don't agree with Gary's depiction of Marketing as being a narrower version of the discipline than Advertising. In fact, I would argue that Advertising is part of Marketing. It is certainly one of the key components of the traditional Marketing Mix, along with pricing, packaging, sales/distribution, etc. I think Gary has it backwards.

Similarly, Marketing is part of Business -- as are operations, accounting, manufacturing, etc. So the question becomes what is it you want to be doing in 15-20 years? If you plan to run a business, then you probably want to get an MBA. If you think you want to run a marketing department, then a degree in Marketing might be more appropriate. (I might argue that an MBA is the best way to prepare for both.) And if you want to be an advertising professional, then a degree in Advertising would work.

As Gary and Jay have suggested, it depends on where you want to take your career. Certainly the option that leaves most doors open would be the MBA, followed by Marketing, then Advertising.

Sorry, Gary. I agree that Marketing and Advertising are different (from each other), but I would argue -- as I have with Phil Grisolia and others -- that Advertising is PART of Marketing, just like Sales, Pricing, Packaging, Product Offering, etc.

Thanks for responses. Based on the combined responses, a masters in marketing looks more appropriate, since, if i'm not wrong i will be able to work in both marketing and advertising.But then, since i have no work experience, i'm i to assume that an MBA (marketing) quest would be futile? if so then do any US schools offer a non-MBA masters in marketing (excluding on-line courses) that someone without a marketing or business background can do?