P&G Tops Best Companies for Marketing Grads

What are the top companies for marketing-interested MBA students to consider upon graduation? A contributor of Forbes, Kimberly A. Whitler, PhD, University of Virginia Darden School of Business asked herself the very same question, and when she couldn’t find any such data, she partnered with Christine DeYoung, partner at DHR International, a leading senior-level executive search, management assessment and succession planning company, to survey executive recruiters who specially place C-level marketers.

Their 2016 top 20 list includes 11 CG companies, with P&G at the very top; the second and third spot belong to PepsiCo and Unilever. Here is the full list, as published in Forbes:

Best Companies for MBA Marketing Students:

1. Procter & Gamble
2. PepsiCo
3. Unilever
4. Google
5. American Express
6. Coca-Cola
7. General Mills
8. Amazon
9. Apple
10. Starbucks
11. Nike
12. Target
13. Kellogg’s
14. KraftHeinz/Mondelez
15. Macy’s
16. Clorox
17. Johnson & Johnson
18. Verizon
19. Facebook
20. McKinsey & Co./Nestle

The survey highlighted that the companies that continually breed and turn out top marketing talent have a few things in common:  1) they invest in their people heavily: training, exposure, and cross-functionally; 2) they invest heavily in Strategic Marketing because they believe in its power to drive results; and 3) “Marketers” are synonymous with general managers versus marketing communication experts. The top marketing companies also teach and expect their brand marketers to holistically drive the P&L, which ultimately is what creates more capable, enterprise-wide leaders, according to DeYoung.

In total, the 2016 survey includes executive recruiter responses who represent 19 different firms (including boutique, mid-sized, and large recruiting firms) and have placed over 2600 C-level marketing leaders over the course of their careers.

Read the full Forbes article here.