What do you study in Marketing and Communications and how much is the salary?

Graduates majoring in Marketing, Communications, Public Relations or Advertising can receive a salary of 8-32 million VND per month.

Bui Minh Duc, 30 years old, is currently studying for a master's degree in Communications at Clark University, Massachusetts, USA, under a Fulbright scholarship sponsored by the US Government. Before and during his studies, Duc still maintained a job in the communications field. From this experience, he shares the differences between the four majors of Marketing, Communications, Advertising and Public Relations.

Marketing - Communication (MarCom for short) is a popular field today. Marketing, Communications, Advertising and Public Relations are some popular majors in this field.

In Vietnam, according to Salary Explorer, marketers can earn from 9 million VND (average starting salary) to 32 million VND/month (average maximum salary). For Public Relations, the salary ranges from 7.7-28.8 million VND.

According to the Center for Human Resources Demand Forecasting and Labor Market Information of Ho Chi Minh City, in the period of 2022-2025, the Media - Advertising - Marketing industry in Ho Chi Minh City will need 21,600 workers each year, accounting for about 8% of the total number of positions needed.

Currently, more than 50 universities train in these fields, including the Academy of Journalism and Communication, University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City), Diplomatic Academy, National Economics University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Economics....

Some people imagine that jobs in the MarCom field are always associated with agencies (companies specializing in providing services related to marketing, communication, advertising) or creative jobs, suitable for sociable people. In fact, MarCom is very broad, spanning many fields and many small niches. Students need to clearly understand the difference between Marketing, Communication, Public Relations or Advertising to choose the right major.

Minh Duc at Clark University, USA, 2023. Photo: Character provided — Minh Duc at Clark University, USA, 2023. Photo: *Character provided*

Marketing

Marketing is the most popular major in the MarCom field, taught at many universities, especially those in the economic sector. With marketing, the most important question is how to sell products. This major also provides knowledge about pricing strategy, product development strategy, and market research.

Because Marketing is quite broad, graduates can do many jobs, depending on the field they pursue, the model and size of the company. The advantage is also the disadvantage, because it requires many subjects, many students evaluate the Marketing program as not focused and too comprehensive.

As a broad field of study, Marketing's job prospects are also great. Most companies today need a marketing department. In many medium and small companies, Marketing managers will be in charge of communications or public relations. The salary of the industry also depends on the level of employee or manager. At the management level, the salary of a marketer can be up to hundreds of millions of VND per month.

Media

Communications is a narrower field than Marketing. Communications students focus on how to convey a message or story to achieve a specific goal, often starting with changing perspectives, thinking and influencing perceptions.

Most of the Communication programs in Vietnam provide knowledge for the process from business to consumer (Corporation Communications). If studying abroad, many communication majors will go into smaller majors such as Political communications, advocacy communications, etc.

Looking at the process of message transmission, learners can partly see the picture of the industry with subjects: through which channels to transmit messages? (subjects on platforms such as social media communication), what content to transmit? (content strategy, effective communication), what strategies are appropriate? (strategic communication), what are the ethics in the field of communication? (Media ethics). Communication learners also have access to many subjects in the field of public relations or journalism.

The job opportunities in the media industry are also large, with a high degree of overlap with the marketing industry. In large companies, there will sometimes be a clear distinction between media and marketing positions. In units and organizations with specific products (for example, the non-governmental sector), most will recruit media staff, rather than marketing staff.

Public Relations (PR)

Public relations (PR) is a part of the communications industry. The basic definition of PR is the activities "to create a mutually beneficial relationship between two parties".

So if you want to know what PR studies, you need to see what relationships in the PR field are mentioned. The most common will be subjects on PR history, introduction to PR, strategic PR, partner management, then go into specific groups such as corporate-public relations, corporate-press relations (Media/press management), crisis management, social responsibility (CSR).

PR aims to develop human-to-human relationships, so ethics in PR is also an indispensable subject. When entering each specific platform, learners will also have related subjects such as press PR, social media PR... Journalism is a very important part of PR, so sometimes journalism subjects are also combined in the PR field. The technology era now has many new niches of PR such as community development, influencer management, or writing subjects.

The scope of PR work is narrower than that of communications and marketing. However, PR students also have enough skills to move into marketing or communications. In countries like the US, PR specialists are a fairly developed industry, while in Vietnam, most of the above positions are suitable for large companies or working in PR agencies. With strengths in writing or relationships, many PR professionals can do freelance work or manage celebrities.

Advertising

Like Public Relations, Advertising is a part of the Marketing - Communication strategies of many companies. Those who study Advertising also need to have basic knowledge in subjects of communication or Marketing, introductory knowledge of advertising (history of advertising), specific advertising on each platform (outdoor advertising, Internet advertising), advertising in relation to culture.

The big difference is that Advertising is more about visual creativity while industries like media and public relations focus more on writing skills and creating content based on language. With many areas in advertising such as digital advertising (Google, Facebook...), advertisers also need basic knowledge of data and information technology.

The main jobs of advertising people usually fall into two groups: Working in companies or working in advertising agencies. In general, the advertising field has less space than the three fields above. However, for young people who are passionate about creativity, advertising is a suitable industry to freely explore their creativity.

Bui Minh Duc

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