M.S. in Digital Marketing and Media

On Friday afternoons, Zak Benarroch, a 2021 graduate of the Katz School’s M.S. in Digital Marketing and Media, leaves the office early and his co-workers at Goldman Sachs barely notice. They know he’s heading to the Fifth Avenue Synagogue on the Upper East Side to prep for services.

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Two recent Katz School graduates drew rave reviews for a marketing plan they developed to help launch Piggy, a mobile content creation app, as part of their student capstone project.

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Growing up in Mumbai, Himali Katti, a Katz School Digital Marketing and Media student, was a dreamer. The self-described introvert recalls “getting lost in my own world while classmates played around me.” My teachers and parents constantly chided me to get my head “out of the clouds.” So, for a time, she did.

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Digital Marketing and Media students conduct research on consumer attitudes towards sustainability in the fashion industry as part of a grant-funded project for the City of New York. 

As fashion comes to grips with its own responsibility in the climate crisis, the concept of sustainable clothing, whether remaking old clothes or re-engineering used fabric, is starting to take root in the consciousness of American consumers. 

That idea has also inspired several students in the Digital Marketing and Media program at the Katz School of Science and Health to conduct research on sustainability and to test their model on the fashion industry as part of a grant-funded project for the City of New York. The project is equal parts applied behavioral experiment on social responsibility and an analysis of fashion-industry practices that are damaging the environment. 

The research grant was written by Dr. Paul Russo, dean of the Katz School of Science and Health who said it “fits in the Katz School’s vision to make the world smarter safer and healthier.” 

Lavanya Karanth, Carli Muller, Alexandra Stern and Christine Vulpescu plan to explore ways of increasing consumer interest in sustainable clothing by measuring and understanding consumers’ attitudes, motivations and behaviors. 

Fast-fashion retailers have become giants by quickly churning out fresh, low-priced styles that pull trend-seekers into stores. But that comes at a price. Rapidly producing clothes in large batches can save money but encouraging shoppers to buy as often as trends change means old clothes can end up in landfills. 

According to the Katz School team, 200 million pounds of clothing, or 90.7 million kilograms, end up in New York City landfills every year—the equivalent of filling the Statue of Liberty 440 times. Today, more than 60 percent of fabrics are composed of synthetics derived from fossil fuels and, therefore, not biodegradable. 

“This makes it imperative for us to explore how to circulate clothing and promote closet-sharing to save the future of our planet,” said Lavanya. 

The growth in clothing waste coincides with the dominance of fast-fashion brands such as H&M and Zara, whose business models are based on selling low-priced items at high volumes. Zara, for example, releases 20,000 new designs a year and unveils new lines during shorter seasons beyond the traditional winter/fall and summer/spring lines. 

The clothing industry is responsible for about 10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions and consumes more energy than aviation and shipping combined, according to the United Nations Environment Program. 

The overall goal of the Katz School research is to develop a marketing research study and quantify citizen awareness and attitudes toward sustainability initiatives; design and test a marketing and education campaign to have a positive impact on those attitudes; and collect follow-up data six months afterward to measure the impact of the campaign on urban sustainability. 

“This elegant survey on consumer attitudes draws connections between business, social science and commerce,” said Dean Russo. “The outcomes could result in new sustainable business models.” 

Alexandra said that for the purposes of this project, the target audience would broadly include the residents of Manhattan and a few small to midsize apparel businesses. The intended audience for the digital campaign would be those already exhibiting favorable attitudes toward sustainable clothing, as well as those who are either indifferent or hostile to it. 

“In addition to the consumers, we feel it is equally important to learn the steps taken by marketers and businesses to promote sustainable action and their barriers,” said Alexandra. 

Carli Muller said the team plans to review a host of research papers, from behavioral marketing and consumer behavior journals such as Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Psychology, Journal of Consumer Research and Journal of Marketing Research to understand the key drivers of sustainable consumption. 

“We’ll also be conducting social deep listening to derive insights regarding the consumer awareness and sentiments of recycling and reusing clothes,” said Carli. 

The team’s insights will form the basis of their quantitative research. “During this project, we want to use everything we’ve learned from the classes we’ve taken in the Digital Marketing and Media program and apply them to deliver impactful results,” said Christine. 

Asaf Hochman, the team’s advisor, said the Katz School encourages students to tie their academic education to their own interests and passions. “In this case,” he said, “the team’s strong environmental consciousness is driving them to leverage their marketing skills in exploring an acute real-world challenge.”

New York City is home to an infinite number of marketing clientele, from Wall Street to the city’s approximately 2 million small businesses including restaurants, theaters, shopping and luxury hotels. With such diverse businesses, this regional urban economy tops the list of one of the best places to find marketing jobs. 

New York City also has a rich history of advertising and is home to several global marketing agencies. With some New York City-based marketing companies housing upwards of 1,000 employees, the job market for digital marketers is strong. 

In the last decade, digital marketing and media has shifted from a niche skillset to a baseline expectation. Companies large and small want professionals who take a digital-first approach to campaigns and brand management, using tools such as SEM, SEO, geotargeting, email, content and video. They also expect that their digital spending is based on analytics that produce data-driven insights. There are currently tens of thousands of digital marketing and media jobs to fill, with titles such as digital media specialist, creative director, content specialist, market research analyst, and marketing director.