[Program Fitting]Fuqua vs. Ross

http://forums.businessweek.com/n/pfx/forum.aspx?msg=74309.1&nav=messages&webtag=bw-bschools
Q:
I'm looking for a top Brand Mgmt position once I finish my Marketing degree in school. I've been accepted to both Ross and Fuqua R1(still waiting to hear back from Kellogg R2). Any advice btw Ross and Fuqua for Marketing assuming I do not get accepted to Kellogg??
Stats: African American...High GMAT/ High GPA/ Comp Sci

A:
When you're looking for top brand management position, since these two programs are pretty close as top schools, the program design matters but not ranking anymore.
The really successful brand managers need to satisfy customers from their bottom of heart, create loyalty and word-of-mouth to constantly generate profit, then grow your brand portfolio that match your business vision.

So you need to know consumer behavior and extract insignts from market intelligence, develop the right product features that satisfy their demands with right pricing, communicating them the right messages, then create loyally repurchasing pattern that generates sustainable profit to support your brand out of fierce competition.

The key courses that prepare you as a top brand manager are Brand Management, Customer Insignts, Market Research, Product Development, Pricing, Channel Management, CRM, Marketing Communications & Advertising, Marketing Strategy & Corporate Strategy, Sales & Forcast, Negotiation. Then depending on your specific industry, channel, or region, you might need Tech Marketing, B2B marketing, Service Marketing or International Marketing Management. Then the last and most significant challenge is how well can you manage the logistic and operation support.

Now see what these two schools offer. Ross offered Strategic Brand Management, but Fuqua doesn't have any brand management courses. It'll be a significant drawback if you learn all others but couldn't correlate all these efforts into a consistent brand theme.

So see what other courses they've got. Obviously Ross has much deeper and sophisticated program design that has Consumer Behavior, Customer Asset Management, Co-Create Value with Customers, Market Research Design & Analysis, Pricing Strategy & Tactics, Ad Management, Innovation & New Product Development, Distribution Strategy, Supply Chain Management. One special course is Leavraging industrial Design for Marketing Advantage that may make your brand stand out by highly customized value chain.

Of course Fuqua also has pretty well-rounded course selection for marketing, but it's clearly for Product Manager and Market Research Managers, not for Brand Managers. You cannot see the detailed and dynamic design like Ross. Fuqua has Consumer Behavior, Market Intelligence, Marketing Strategy, Product Management, Pricing, MarCom, CRM, Tech & Health Mktg, Distribution and Supply Chain. But a bit generic that not as specific as Ross