PhD in Marketing Strategy/Marketing

[neo]

Hi,

I am a Brand Manager in one of the biggest company in India and have just completed two years at work.

Although I am doing good at work ,unfortunately, I am unable to find any job satisfaction in my current role. So I had been thinking a lot on what I really like and enjoy doing , travelling and teaching seems to be at top of it.

I am not sure on making a career out of travelling but teaching is something that always attracts me.

And that is why I plan to do a Phd in Marketing Strategy.

The problem is I don't think I have the profile even decent enough for any good school in US & Europe.

I stumbled on this website while searching for the profiles that are suited for Phd programs in Marketing and found it extremely helpful for people like me. I am providing my profile below and would most humbly request for any kind of views and opinion on it.

Age: 26 Years
Nationality: Indian
Languages: Hindi( Mothertongue), English( Fluent)

Educational Qualifications:
Undergraduation: Engineering ------>B.Tech( Information Technology) with GPA of 8.3/10
Post Graduation: Management------->PGDM( Business Management) with GPA of 5.5/8 . I had a dual majors in Marketing & Finance (which pulled my GPA down). If I look at the marketing courses it is around 6.7/8.


GMAT: Have not taken it yet as I am not sure whether it makes any sense for even trying.


Work Experience: 2 Years
One year in Sales and other in Marketing, however , from whatever I have read in this forum it hardly seems of much importance.

References:

1.All from my B School Proff. All are Phds with strong interest in research but I don't think anyone is known internationally.

Research & Publications:

None

However, I was a member of Marketing Association of my B School and did consulting projects for local business which involved market research to some extent. I am not sure if it counts.

I was wondering whether it makes any sense for me to even think of trying or its too late for it now. If I can cover up my bad academic record by anything, kindly do suggest.

Thank you very much for any help you can give me!!!

Neo

[rsaylors]

Hi Neo,

A Ph.D. is about learning to be a researcher. If you want to be an educator an MBA will be easier for you to get into and allow you to be a teacher at a community college or one of the many schools there in India. Poor under-grad GPAs are overlooked more often by top MBA programs than they are PH.D. programs. The GMAT is worth taking; if you can score in the 90th+ percentile, you may well get into a reasonable MBA program. You might even be able to find a job as a teacher with the degree you have, you should look into this.

If you are interested in research then I highly suggest that you take this: Free GMATPrep® Software and report back your results; I also suggest that you find out how to convert your GPA to a 4.0 scale so that we can offer a more reasonable perspective. This will allow us to help you in finding the right programs to apply to (if any).

-Rohny

[evergreen]

How prestigious were the institutions where you did your B.Tech and PGDM? Does the institution you did your PGDM have a history of sending people to decent PhD programs in the States and Europe?

For your GPAs, since they're very hard to convert, what was your ranking in your class?

Marketing Strategy, is still very broad. What areas of marketing strategy are you interested in?

What math and statistic courses have you taken?

I'm not sure how competitive you are (international profiles are harder to read), but I know of a ton of people who did the whole IIM thing who got into awesome programs in the US. I think if the institution where you did your PGDM isn't known for sending people to PhD programs abroad, that you're going to have some difficulty.

[wittmic]

^^ As has been previously stated, if you only want to teach, then a Ph.D. is not for you. If you don't enjoy research, chances are low of you making it through 5 years of a doctorate degree. And at the very least, you will be miserable for a large portion of your training.

[neo]

Hi Rohny,

Thanks for your reply and suggestions.

Will take up the test and revert.

-Neo

[neo]

Hi evergreen,

Thanks for your reply.

Both the Universities are well known here in India. Also my B School in among the Top 10 of India. I don't think many people from my B School (or from India) go for Phd after an MBA here.

My class ranking in B. Tech was 13/150 odd people, and in B School it would be in top 30% I guess( don't really have much of an idea).

However, the conversion in case of B School is staright forward and you can just half both the numerator and base~ 2.25 overall and 3.35 in marketing alone and In B. Tech it can be used as 83% of 4 ~3.32

My research interest would be in "Development of Branding Model on accounts of reduced consumer uncertainty by continuous cognitive inter mediation" (Don't know exactly were to classify this). I have put in fair amount of thought in past few months and I do have quite good idea of what I want to do my research on.

I have had Statistics for Management( It covers the basics like linear regression,annova etc..), Advanced methods of Data Analysis( I little bit more into multivariate analysis..)

- Neo

[neo]

Hi wittmic,

Thanks for your reply and views.

The reason I started thinking about doing Phd was basically becoming a Proff at some Indian University.

I do enjoy research but the above stated is still my prime reason for Phd as any good university looks for a Phd when recruiting for teaching positions.

-Neo

[wittmic]

I really don't think a school in the states is going to pay for your education and give you a stipend so you can be a teaching professor in India. The point is to train researchers that will publish in reputable journals. Think about the give and take. What is the school that trained you getting out of the relationship if you head straight back to India and teach. Short answer: Nothing.

[evergreen]

I agree with wittmic that a PhD might not be the right path for you. Or, if you want to just get a position in India, why not just try and get your PhD from India?

The problem with saying your school is top 10 in India is that most of the successful US PhD applicants tend to come from a handful of schools, say like 5. If your school isn't one of those schools (and admittedly I'm only really familiar with IIM, so you'd have to ask someone from India for better information), then you're going to have additional difficulty.

Your B Tech rank is quite good, however being just "top 30%" for your PGDM is not that good at all (An MBA is not seen as that rigorous, and if you can only score in the top 30% of your class, adcoms might question whether you can handle the PhD level coursework).. doing your simple conversion of just halving the numbers is problematic... I suggest you find a better way to convert. A 3.3 is not that strong and a 2.25 will have your application thrown out immediately at almost all schools. IF you are unable to convert your marks into meaningful metrics, then you should find a way to frame your marks (ie. top 10% of class) in a way that shows you in a positive light.

In regards to your research interests, I suggest you go through the Journal of Marketing and start reading the literature on branding (You might also want to check out the other relevant journals: Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Marketing Research, Marketing Science and Journal of Consumer Psychology which have their own branding literature as well). Find articles and research the authors of those articles to see where you would have a good research fit. In terms of your math courses... people in strategy tend to use slightly more quantitative skills than those in CB, so I have a feeling that the amount of math courses you have taken is not sufficient (but I don't really know for sure).

When I was doing my doctoral seminar on Marketing Strategy, a fair number of the articles were authored by scholars who originally came from India. However I would say of those authors, >90% came from IIM (a lot of them had the IIT IIM combo too!) and then went to a top 10 US school. Of course for any doctoral seminar you tend to read the top or really influential articles, so I'm sure there are more cases of people coming from India who successfully did their education in a US school however I am simply not aware of them.

[holly]

If you would ideally become a professor at a good Indian university, perhaps look at the profiles of professors whose jobs you'd like, especially newer hires. Where did they go to school? I would then proceed to do that.

Now, if you determine going to a very prestigious US university is the pathway to that, then you will need to overcome the GPA/class rank. However, there are many, many US universities (and international universities) that might put you in a good position to become the type of professor you want to be!