Merchandising director vs senior director of marketing

The differences between merchandising directors and senior directors of marketing can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 8-10 years to become both a merchandising director and a senior director of marketing. Additionally, a senior director of marketing has an average salary of $159,916, which is higher than the $145,282 average annual salary of a merchandising director.

The top three skills for a merchandising director include apparel, gross margin and direct reports. The most important skills for a senior director of marketing are digital marketing, email marketing, and SR.

Merchandising director vs senior director of marketing overview

	Merchandising Director	Senior Director Of Marketing
Yearly salary	$145,282	$159,916
Hourly rate	$69.85	$76.88
Growth rate	10%	10%
Number of jobs	81,434	106,180
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 77%	Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Average age	39	39
Years of experience	10	10

What does a merchandising director do?

A merchandising director is in charge of spearheading and streamlining merchandising strategies, including promotion and branding. Using their expertise and experience, they conceptualize plans with fellow directors and managers, perform extensive research and analysis, gather and analyze data, set goals and guidelines, establish budgets and schedules, and build positive relationships with external business partners. Moreover, as a merchandising director, they must lead and encourage the workforce to reach goals while implementing the company's policies and regulations.

What does a senior director of marketing do?

A Senior Director of Marketing supervises all marketing operations of the company. They are also responsible for developing objectives and policies for the sales and marketing departments.

Merchandising director vs senior director of marketing salary

Merchandising directors and senior directors of marketing have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Merchandising Director	Senior Director Of Marketing
Average salary	$145,282	$159,916
Salary range	Between $103,000 And $203,000	Between $112,000 And $226,000
Highest paying City	Seattle, WA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Nevada	California
Best paying company	Coty	Washington Prime Group
Best paying industry	-	Media

Differences between merchandising director and senior director of marketing education

There are a few differences between a merchandising director and a senior director of marketing in terms of educational background:

	Merchandising Director	Senior Director Of Marketing
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 77%	Bachelor's Degree, 75%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Georgia	University of Georgia

Merchandising director vs senior director of marketing demographics

Here are the differences between merchandising directors' and senior directors of marketing' demographics:

	Merchandising Director	Senior Director Of Marketing
Average age	39	39
Gender ratio	Male, 53.9% Female, 46.1%	Male, 57.9% Female, 42.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%	Black or African American, 3.0% Unknown, 5.3% Hispanic or Latino, 8.7% Asian, 8.2% White, 74.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage	10%	10%

Differences between merchandising director and senior director of marketing duties and responsibilities

Merchandising director example responsibilities.

Manage and train associates on shop operations including customer service standards, checking in merchandise, operating QuickBooks POS.
Lead website development committee, including RFP development, ROI analysis, marketing, brand-enhancement strategies, and back-end integration solutions.
Input all merchandise information in to AS400.
Identify, negotiate, purchase and implement new POS software systems.
Develop comprehensive marketing plan including print and digital, utilizing negotiate funding to support events and driving additional revenue and margin.
Set annual and semi-annual ROI, sales, margin, and turn goals for all divisions in the company.

Senior director of marketing example responsibilities.

Architect EMEA demand creation/direct response model to manage and measure sales pipeline.
Create and lead WW standard deployment of marketing tools for EMEA and APAC.
Manage and initiate the development of first marketing department for regional start-up healthcare chain.
Lead support of marketing programs for the dealer partner channel co-op programs, MDF and advertising campaigns.
Lead cross functional teams of company operations, franchisees and finance to build co-op marketing plans to drive profitable sales.
Rehabilitate Salesforce implementation that lead to proper pipeline management, sales forecasting, and customer communication.

Merchandising director vs senior director of marketing skills

Common merchandising director skills

Apparel, 9%
Gross Margin, 8%
Direct Reports, 5%
Product Development, 5%
Product Categories, 4%
Merchandise Sales, 4%

Common senior director of marketing skills

Digital Marketing, 19%
Email Marketing, 7%
SR, 7%
Integrated Marketing, 4%
Marketing Campaigns, 4%
Market Research, 4%

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Merchandising Director
Merchandising Director vs Senior Director Of Marketing

Updated January 8, 2025

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