Introduction to a Marketing PhD Program

A PhD in Marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

, like many other PhD programs in business, is a Doctoral degree program that primarily prepares its students for scholarly careers at a Business school

Business school

A business school is a university-level institution that confers degrees in Business Administration. It teaches topics such as accounting, administration, economics, entrepreneurship, finance, information systems, marketing, organizational behavior, public relations, strategy, human resource...

. Graduates of a PhD in marketing often go on to take up positions in academia as business school professors. A PhD in Marketing is often viewed as a subset of a Ph.D. in Management. Applicants to business schools offering a PhD in Management or Business will often have to select a sub-field to specialize in, of which Marketing

Marketing

Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...

 is one of them. American Marketing Association

American Marketing Association

The American Marketing Association is a professional association for marketers. As of 2008 it had approximately 40,000 members. There are 76 professional chapters and 250 collegiate chapters across the United States....

 publishes a complete list of global universities that offer a PhD in Marketing.

Broad Categorizations of Marketing PhD Research

In most marketing PhD programs across business schools in North American and European universities, doctoral students often have to choose one of the following tracks: Consumer behaviour

Consumer behaviour

Consumer behaviour is the study of when, why, how, and where people do or do not buy a product. It blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology and economics. It attempts to understand the buyer decision making process, both individually and in groups...

, quantitative modeling and marketing strategy. Within the consumer behavior discipline, certain academics have further conceptualized the field to contain three non-mutually exclusive sub-disciplines: "Information Processing", "Consumer Culture Theory" and "Behavioral Decision Theory". Doctoral students who focus on the consumer behavior track will often have an undergraduate background in psychology, while those on the quantitative modeling track will often have an undergraduate background in economics, statistics or engineering. An undergraduate degree in business (with an emphasis on marketing) is useful but not necessary.

Academic research in marketing is grounded in the basic disciplines of psychology, economics and statistics. Papers published in top marketing journals need to meet a high standard of rigor, ensured by a (typically) double-blind peer review process. Relevance to industry is also important, but rigor is a necessary condition.

Courses in Marketing PhD Programs

Most marketing PhD programs will require its doctoral students to take a combination of marketing seminars that will cover areas of research in information processing, judgment and decision making, analytical modeling, and empirical modeling.

In addition, marketing doctoral students take a number of courses in the base discipline closest to their line of research from the psychology, economics and statistics departments of the university. These courses prepare the doctoral student to handle a variety of methods to tackle problems in the marketing domain.

Rankings of Marketing PhD Programs

While rankings of PhD programs in marketing are rare, and often subjective, there are ways to triangulate on the effectiveness of a program. For a doctoral program, quality of research will often be the most important factor for consideration. Rankings done by UT Dallas provides a perspective on the overall research quality of the business school. Another factor for consideration is the overall reputation of the business school. As most business schools offer MBA programs, for which rankings are aplenty, the reputation of the business school often hinges upon the ranking of these MBA programs.

A PhD program is substantially different in content, design and purpose from an MBA program. An MBA program emphasizes breadth of understanding across a wide range of business topics, whereas a PhD program emphasizes depth. The level of depth that PhD students are expected to reach by the end of their program varies from school to school, but generally involves becoming extremely well versed with the prior literature in one's specialization as well as making original contributions to the field that bring new insights with impact.

Application Process for Potential Applicants

Most marketing PhD programs will begin in Fall semester. Applications usually open around September or October of the preceding year, and deadlines are often in December or January. Applicants should hear back during February to April of the enrollment year. Aspiring applicants should check for these deadlines on the websites of the individual schools.

Since most schools typically admit a small number of candidates who apply to their doctoral programs, many universities advise applicants to consider applying to multiple programs. Admission criteria varies by program, but typically include GMAT/GRE

GRE

GRE may refer to:* Gecko , used by Mozilla web browsers* GRE , a Japanese multinational radio and electronics equipment manufacturer...

 scores, thoughtful references from professors who understand and can articulate the candidate's preparedness for scholarly work, the personal essay describing the motivation to pursue doctoral studies, and prior academic performance.

Marketing Journals

Prominent marketing journals include Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science

Marketing Science

Marketing Science is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. It covers operations research and mathematical modeling to analyze marketing...

, and Journal of Consumer Research

Journal of Consumer Research

The Journal of Consumer Research publishes scholarly research that covers empirical, theoretical, and methodological aspects of research on consumer behavior, spanning a broad range of fields including psychology, marketing, sociology, economics, anthropology, and communications. It is published by...

. The Academy of Marketing Science offers a comprehensive ranking of marketing journals. Marketing academics and practitioners also often refer to the set of priorities set by the Marketing Science Institute

Marketing Science Institute

Founded in 1961, the Marketing Science Institute is a corporate-membership-based organization dedicated to bridging the gap between marketing theory and business practice...

once every two years.

Conferences Attended by Marketing Doctoral Students

Marketing doctoral students attend a variety of conferences. Researchers across the different sub-disciplines in marketing will often attend the conference organized by American Marketing Association. Researchers in the field of consumer behavior will attend conferences organized by the Association for Consumer Research (ACR) and Society for Consumer Psychology (SCP). Researchers in the field of quantitative marketing will often attend the Marketing Science conference (organized by INFORMS) and/or Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME).