Faculty member Ross Morrone teaches courses in both the Strategic Analytics and Digital Marketing and Design MS programs. Ross is passionate about sharing his professional experience with students to give them a unique perspective on marketing, analytics, and more. He earned his MS in Computer Information Systems from Youngstown University. Ross has personal marketing ventures that include his podcast This is Marketing and a YouTube channel to document his family’s summer camping adventures.

What led you to the marketing field?

I started my career in 2006 as a web developer at Youngstown State in Ohio. It might be surprising, but I have no formal education in marketing. At that time the Internet was moving faster than any marketing office could keep up with and I saw opportunities to immerse myself into new trends and technologies that were keeping pace. I wouldn’t say I led myself into the marketing field as much as I would say that it grabbed ahold of me. I fell in love with the idea that through design, marketing, advertising and branding I could help connect customers in a meaningful way to whatever any business was selling.  

What industry trend is currently exciting you?

The focus on data! Data rules the world and I’m excited that there is this trend in higher education that is focused on programming around helping to create professionals that understand how that data impacts everything from marketing to business operations. The challenge is creating teams that can share that data between one another to help improve those operations in a strategic way. 

What are your best hopes for the students in your courses?

My hope when I started teaching was to bring my own professional experiences to my courses and give students a practical understanding of how marketing works. Over the years, I got to see those ah-ha moments in the discussions where I knew they were taking my lessons and applying them to their own careers. At the end of the day, I teach because I believe through my own career wins and losses that I have experience that will help others. I want every student to walk away after 10 weeks with ideas that will help them in their own careers – the best part is I get to see this all the time. It’s really rewarding! 

Any advice for students or alumni who are job searching or preparing for a marketing job search in the near future?

Do not settle on one idea of what marketing is. Marketing is 1,000 different things that make up the whole. Read about new trends, think innovatively and try everything you can. I’ve failed over and over with marketing ideas, not landing a client I wanted to or investing in a campaign that did not turn out well – and I still do all the time. It’s through that process I have a better understanding of why and what needs to be done differently to be successful for whatever business I am working with. It’s easy to feel like you have imposter syndrome in marketing when a marketing strategy doesn’t pan out the way you thought it would, but if you are willing to learn from it you will continue to flourish in your career. 

What is a fun fact about you that Brandeis GPS community members may not already know?

My wife, Steph, and I manage a YouTube channel (@smorervfun) that focuses on following us around when we camp with our kids in the summer. It’s our second YouTube channel that we have (the other is @RandomReviewsHowTos) that we are hoping to monetize next year. Is this a cheap marketing plug? You betcha! But it’s a great way for us to capture those moments with our kids and have others follow along, plus, we have those videos to watch forever. We’ve also made a lot of friends that we get to regularly see at campgrounds that have found us through YouTube and it’s awesome to have that community on the trails! 

For more information on the Strategic Analytics MS, the Digital Marketing and Design MS, or other online master’s degrees available at GPS, please visit brandeis.edu/gps.