A master’s degree in marketing research (MMR) teaches you how to plan, design, and execute research projects that can help a company identify new marketing opportunities or solve problems with existing marketing plans. Some programs include a general business component in addition to courses on the various qualitative and quantitative methods used to analyze marketing data. To earn a master’s degree in marketing research, you must be accepted and complete all required marketing, business, and elective courses. In addition, you will be required to complete a marketing research project, thesis, or internship.
To be accepted into a master of marketing research program in good standing, most schools have specific admission criteria that you must meet. A bachelor’s degree is required, which can be in any major; however, degrees unrelated to marketing may require you to take specific undergraduate courses, such as statistics or foundation business courses, before being admitted to the graduate program. Other requirements include letters of intent, recommendations from previous professors, specific scores on graduate school exams, a minimum grade point average during your undergraduate courses, and language tests for international students. If you don’t meet all of the requirements, some schools offer provisional admission, which allows you to meet them in your first semester.
Some schools require a set of basic business courses before you begin the specialized marketing courses, so the types of courses required for a master of marketing research can vary. Financial and managerial accounting, microeconomics, macroeconomics, business management, finance, statistics, information technology, and introductory marketing are examples of basic business courses. Product management, marketing modeling and analysis, business communications, qualitative marketing research, consumer behavior, project management, marketing management, and online marketing technologies are all covered in specialized marketing management courses. Electives, which may include additional specialized marketing courses or general business courses, are required in some programs.
You will need to meet some additional requirements to graduate from a master of marketing research program, which may vary depending on your university’s policies. Most programs require you to complete a final practicum, internship, or thesis, and some schools require you to complete more than one of these. A practicum or capstone project is usually a full marketing research project that allows you to apply concepts from your specialized classes. An internship is a paid or unpaid opportunity to work as a marketing researcher under the supervision of a mentor. Other requirements you may need to meet include completing a certain number of courses at your college, maintaining a qualifying grade point average, and completing the program within a certain time frame.