The board of directors of the American Marketing Association defines marketing as "the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives." The notion of a product has been expanded to include ideas and services as well as goods. As the definition suggests, marketing professionals are involved from the conception of a product that might sell to the actual sale and distribution of a product to the ultimate consumer.
Today, the primary emphasis of marketing is no longer on selling already planned and produced goods, but rather identifying customer wants and planning products to satisfy these wants. The "marketing concept" is basically a philosophy that focuses on customer wants and identified markets. Companies have found that they can create the desire in potential customers for certain types of products. Thus marketing has grown into a complex and sophisticated field needing a large number of highly trained professionals to perform its many specialized functions.
The many facets of marketing are interesting to consider along with the many career opportunities they provide such as marketing research, product management, advertising, sales promotion, wholesale and industrial sales, retailing, international marketing, and public relations. This article includes such information as
- what marketing pros do on the job?
- who employs them
- salaries and career paths
- latest trends
- job opportunities
- education and skills needed to pursue a career in marketing
- sources of additional information on marketing careers
Marketing is an incredibly broad field involved with a product or service from the time it is conceived until after it is sold, including service and maintenance. Professionals are employed in such fields as advertising, selling, marketing research, product development, promotion, and public relations. Industrial, wholesale, retail, and direct selling provide different channels of distribution for moving products into the marketplace and offer numerous job opportunities. The growth in international marketing has opened new possibilities for marketing professionals. The demand and variety in marketing careers suggest that as a field marketing has much to offer. An investigation of careers in marketing will point out not only specific areas of opportunity, such as those outlined above, but the broader nature of marketing as a whole. Within marketing careers are numerous opportunities for growth and change. Marketing itself is so diverse that most individuals with the resources to attend college can find jobs well-suited to both their skills and interests. Our investigation of marketing careers begins at the start of the marketing process with marketing research.
Marketing Research: Marketing researchers are the pioneers of marketing-exploring new possibilities that sometimes result in revolutionary products that make life easier or more enjoyable. Marketing research begins with the identification of a needed product, which can be a good or a service, for a particular market. Specialists in the area of marketing research identify potential consumer groups, describe them in detail, find out what these consumers want, detail these wants in terms of specific products, determine if such products exist and what competing companies are supplying them, forecast what products consumers are likely to want in the future, and what competitors are likely to produce them. And that's only part of it!
The marketing research department of a company includes the marketing research director, research analysts, and trainees, who hold the position of junior marketing research analyst. In addition, a field service director hires and super-vises interviewers and coders. Marketing research professionals engage in such activities as identifying market trends, developing customer profiles, monitoring competition, measuring market share, evaluating brand images, designing products and packages, planning distribution channels, assisting in advertising and pro-motion campaigns, analyzing audience characteristics, evaluating the impact of advertising and promotion and others. These individuals generally have degrees in marketing with strong backgrounds in statistics and psychology. Marketing researchers are employed by manufacturers of goods and services, nonprofit organizations, marketing research firms, or as independent consultants. Marketing research is not limited to consumer products but is also conducted in such areas as environmental concerns, business decisions, political campaigns, association images, and a wide range of others.
Recent college graduates are hired as junior or associate analysts who are usually assigned such responsibilities as editing questionnaires, handling correspondence, and collecting data from libraries, company files, or trade journals.
Field service directors, who may have been promoted from junior analysts, hire and supervise field service and tabulation personnel who conduct interviews, enter numbers into the computer, or run standard types of programs. Sometimes the field service director contracts with field service firms to perform these activities. Field service and tabulation personnel do not need college degrees, often work for minimum wage, and do not normally advance to other positions in marketing research. The director of field service, however, is an integral member of the marketing research team.
Experienced analysts develop proposals for research projects, design questionnaires, analyze data, organize studies, and write reports. Advancement to the position of senior analyst and ultimately to the position of research director or head of the marketing research department involves a marketing professional in more and more administrative and supervisory tasks such as preparing budgets, overseeing projects, and reporting to higher-level marketing management. In marketing research firms senior analysts are also involved in obtaining new clients.
Product Management: Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each year to develop and market new products. Roughly 80 percent of these products fail. Insufficient or inaccurate answers to the following questions may cause this.
- Should the product be made?
- Who is expected to buy it?
- What characteristics do consumers want in this type of product?
- What are consumers willing to pay for such a product?
- What competing products are already on the market?
- How is the proposed product better than the existing ones?
- What are the best ways to distribute the product?
- How should the product be promoted?
Normally, the product manager assembles a development team whose members first work with marketing research to further define the characteristics of the product, then with engineers in the design and production phases of product development, with advertising and sales promotion professionals, and finally with the sales-force personnel. Members of the product development team are involved in naming, packaging, and distributing the product. They usually come from different departments throughout the organization. As team members, they are in a unique position to interact with almost every department in the company. Product development can be an excellent avenue of advancement to other positions within the company once a project is completed.
The general responsibilities of product managers, assistant product managers, and their teams are as follows:
- Evaluate product testing and recommend whether to terminate development, modify the product, or begin the campaign.
- Plan the introduction and scheduling of the final product and packaging with the production department.
- Provide information and recommendations on the price for the product.
- Develop sales and profitability forecasts and marketing budgets with the finance department.
- Analyze statistics and recommendations from marketing research to allocate funding for advertising and promotion campaigns.
- Identify channels of distribution, that is, wholesalers, retailers, and/or direct selling.
- Work with marketing research and advertising to create an image for the product in the minds of consumers as having the attributes that they want in a product.
- Coordinate the production and promotion of the product.
- Monitor and evaluate consumer reaction to the product.
Advertising: Of all marketing careers, advertising is perhaps the most competitive. Whether employed by a company or an advertising agency, professionals must work in a highly charged atmosphere with extreme pressure to produce.
In a company, the advertising manager determines how the advertising budget will be spent. Advertising professionals may be employed in creative positions in which they design and produce the advertisements. Under the art director, copywriters and artists help to develop and refine concepts and ad campaigns. The artists provide the visual effect and the copywriters add the words for newspaper, magazine, radio, television, and numerous other advertisements. The traffic manager keeps all advertising activities on schedule. These ads are then turned over to media planners, who plan marketing strategy buying air time on television or radio and space in printed media.
Research analysts perform similar functions to those described in the above section on marketing research. They study consumers' perceptions of products and advertising effectiveness, interacting with creative and media personnel both in the production of ads and modification of ad campaigns. Corporate advertising managers must decide for each product whether to conduct the ad campaign completely in-house or whether to hire an advertising agency for certain ad campaigns.
Advertising professionals employed by agencies perform the same functions as described earlier. Normally advertising agencies have four departments--creative, media, research, and account services. Jobs are equally divided between account support professionals including account services, marketing research, and media planning and creative functions professionals. In the account services department an account executive plans and oversees the ad campaign and serves as the liaison between the agency and the client. Advancement into account services comes with experience and success in one of the other departments. From the position of account executive, individuals may advance into such positions as senior account executive, accounts supervisor, and accounts manager.
Sales Promotion: Closely linked to advertising, sales promotion is geared toward individual consumers rather than masses. Advertising suggests, while sales promotion motivates. Sales promotion falls into three categories: (1) consumer promotion including samples, coupons, rebates, games, and contests; (2) trade promotion for intermediaries including cooperative ads, free goods, dealer sales contests; (3) sales-force promotion, including such incentives as sales meetings, contests for prizes, and bonuses.
Specialists in sales promotion have previous sales or advertising experience. These professionals may be employed by companies or sales promotion firms, which play a role similar to advertising agencies.
Sales promotion specialists plan promotion campaigns for products, working with information from marketing research, a product concept, and a specified budget. They direct a creative team including artists and copywriters in designing items such as coupons, free goods, and packages to accomplish the campaign objectives. Coming up with promotion ideas such as contests, games, and rebates is part of the job. Normally, sales promotion campaigns accompany the introduction of new or improved products, while advertising is ongoing. Sales promotion specialists must have research abilities, administrative skills, and creativity to function well in their positions.
Public Relations
Both sales promotion and advertising focus on a product. The sale of all products in a company may be improved through the creation of goodwill. This is done through the public relations department, whose objective is to build and maintain a positive image of the company in the eyes of the public. Large companies have public relations departments with staffs of specialists who work under a director of public relations. Smaller companies may hire one individual to conduct public relations activities. Some companies contract out work with public relations firms that function in the same manner as advertising agencies or sales promotion houses.
Public relations professionals, sometimes called public relations officers or PR reps, must provide information about the organization to various groups including government agencies, environmentalists, consumerists, stockholders, and the public at large. This is sometimes done through the creation of publicity, which is free coverage of company activities and philosophy by the media. The entry-level work of public relations professionals usually includes acquiring information from a variety of sources and maintaining files. With experience, PR professionals begin to write press releases, executives' speeches, and articles for both internal and external publications. Other duties include working with media contacts, arranging speaking engagements for company officials, planning special events, and making travel arrangements for prominent people. In PR agencies, individuals begin as assistants and advance to account executives. In this capacity, they work with clients to plan a public relations campaign strategy and see that it is executed.
Public relations professionals are employed by businesses, nonprofit organizations, trade associations, government agencies, colleges, and prominent individuals, large advertising agencies with PR departments, and public relations firms that serve a wide range of clients. Individuals need not have marketing degrees to enter public relations and tend to come from an incredibly wide variety of backgrounds. However, they are involved in selling-selling organizations or individuals to the public. Therefore, public relations easily fit into the range of marketing careers. Although the marketing concept is the philosophy of business management, it has been effectively employed by non-business groups such as charities, the arts, educational institutions, federal and local governments, and others. Whether an organization is soliciting funds or promoting ideas, it functions in much the same way as a business selling goods or services.
Sales
Through the efforts of advertising, sales promotion, and public relations professionals, consumers are made aware of a company's products. The producer then must choose how to move the product from the warehouse to these consumers. This process, called distribution, may be done through various channels of distribution. Options include the sale of the product to wholesalers, retailers, or directly to the consumer.
Sales and customer service are the keys to running a successful business in today's economy. Professional sales people are the backbone of any company. Without an effective sales force, a company could not survive in a competitive environment. With so many similar products, it is the sales force that makes the difference. Many marketing graduates start in sales. Sales is a perfect area for beginners to truly learn their company's business and to show what they can do. It is an opportunity where hard work really does pay off both in increased earnings and in recognition. Retail sales representatives offer products to the final consumers in stores of all sizes. Wholesale or industrial sales representatives sell both finished products and materials to retailers, other middlemen, and manufacturers. Industrial sales representatives are company-employed by manufacturers; however they are not the only ones selling the company's products. Manufacturers' representatives are independent businesspeople who may sell one or more companies' products to many different customers. Also self-employed are wholesale dealers who find needed products for client companies.
Sales representatives perform numerous activities including some of the following:
- Setting goals, planning, and making schedules
- Identifying and contacting prospective customers
- Maintaining contacts with current customers and anticipating their needs
- Planning and making sales presentations
- Reviewing sales orders, scheduling delivery dates, and handling special details
- Maintaining up-to-date records and reports
- Handling complaints and problems
- Monitoring the competition
- Learning new product information and marketing strategies
- Evaluating price trends and advising customers
Retailing
Retailing is a combination of activities involved in selling goods and services directly to consumers for personal or household use. Retail sales differ from wholesale and industrial sales in that the customer usually comes to the sales-person. Retail professions fall basically into two groups: (1) those involved in merchandising--that is, purchasing the goods offered for sale, including merchandise managers, buyers, and assistant buyers, and (2) those involved in selling goods to the public, including department, regional and national sales managers and the sales representatives.
Recent college graduates enter merchandising as assistant buyers. They work under buyers in speaking with manufacturers, placing orders for merchandise, inspecting new merchandise, supervising the distribution of merchandise, and managing inventory. Experienced buyers work under merchandise managers in analyzing customer needs and choosing products to meet them. Merchandise managers supervise buying activities, allocate budgets, and perform primarily administrative tasks. They work closely with sales managers, who supervise selling activities.
Sales management trainees are recruited from sales positions or from the pool of recent college graduates. These trainees assist the manager in staff scheduling, record keeping, and handling customer complaints. The largest number of opportunities in retailing is in sales, with service sales positions creating the most new opportunities. Retail sales representatives, like their industrial and wholesale counterparts, must have good communications skills, an understanding of their customers' needs, knowledge of the competition in some cases, and a positive attitude. Sales are hard but rewarding work for those with the temperament and initiative to do it well.
Direct Marketing
John Peterman, owner of the J. Peterman Company Store catalog, was named Target Marketing's 1996 Direct Marketer of the Year. The Peterman brand is maintained through good management and selection as Peterman and eight or nine buyers travel the world seeking quality products. Direct marketing or non-store selling is growing at a faster rate than in-store selling. Every imaginable type of product is sold through direct marketing today--apparel, plants, high-tech items, portraits, home improvements, communications and financial services, even steamy love novels personalized with customers" names. Direct marketers use such methods as direct selling (door-to-door); direct-response retailing, in which items are advertised in catalogs and other periodicals and on radio and television with toll-free telephone numbers for placing orders: and database marketing, which offers lists of prospective customers to organizations, direct mail firms, and telemarketing agencies who contact potential consumers by phone.
Direct marketing is conducted by firms who sell their own products directly to the public and those who sell the products of other companies. Direct mail firms and telemarketing agencies are employed by both large and small manufacturers. Telemarketing is a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry. Many companies employ a telemarketing director and telesales representatives to offer their products for sales over the telephone or to set up appointments for visits by company sales representatives. A variety of career opportunities exist in direct marketing--some require no formal education and pay roughly minimum wage and perhaps bonuses, and others in management require college degrees in business, marketing, or related areas.
International Marketing The field of international marketing holds much fascination for those with an interest in travel and foreign countries. Opportunities exist in international marketing research, product management, and promotion. The growing import and export business and the global economy resulting from such free trade agreements as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have changed the nature of the global marketplace and created opportunities in this field. As more businesses become involved in international marketing by establishing foreign operations or entering joint ventures with foreign companies, more positions become available. Other ways in which companies enter foreign markets are by exporting their products or by foreign licensing arrangements through which a company allows a foreign company to produce and market its product in exchange for royalties.
The growth in international marketing due to changes abroad will create more positions based in the United States for individuals interested in international marketing. Travel and assignments abroad are usually associated with high-level managers, managers or owners of advertising agencies with operations abroad.
Job Opportunities
Marketing professionals are employed throughout the country by manufacturers, retailers, advertising agencies, consulting and public relations firms, product testing laboratories, business services firms, and others.
Demand for new college graduates varies from position to position and industry to industry. Recent studies show that of all new graduates, more jobs are being offered by merchandising employers than by any other employer except accounting firms. Economists and marketing research analysts are expected to increase 25 percent as are marketing, advertising, and public relations managers. The strongest demand will be for marketing researchers and public relations managers. Employment of services sales representatives will increase much faster than average at a rate of 72 percent. Average growth is predicted in the number of manufacturers' and wholesale sales representatives at about 10 percent and in the number of retail sales supervisors and managers at about 17 percent.
Though job openings in most areas of marketing will be available because of intense domestic and global competition, graduates seeking jobs in such areas as advertising, sales promotion, and public relations will meet stiff competition. Major growth in the marketing field is occurring in business services, independent research, advertising, public relations, and other services firms.
Retailing offers millions of sales positions. Consider that there are about 2,000 shopping malls in the United States employing roughly 3.5 million people, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. Of these, about 35,000 have full- or part-time jobs in mall management. Many work their way up from lower-level jobs, completing college courses often paid for by the management company.
