Monday, September 28, 2009

Breaking Into the Career Field of Marketing

A career in marketing is enjoyable and fun. Most people who work in marketing will tell you it provides them with the challenge they have always wanted. The reason being is marketing is always changing; there are always techniques to learn, cases to study, and strategies to research.

Do you have what it takes?

  • Can you communicate your thoughts, ideas, and information clearly and concisely both in writing and verbally?
  • Are you able to recognize problems and devise an appropriate plan of action to resolve that problem?
  • Can you organize and interpret complex data?
  • Are you good at generating new ideas? Can you then take and organize those ideas and communicate them verbally?

If you possess the qualities above then you could be a good candidate for entering and being successful in the career of marketing. Marketing offers various career opportunities, so it's easy to choose one that reflects your interest, values, and personal style.

As a marketing major you can gain experience in your chosen career by participating in an internship or volunteering in service learning and community projects. Samples of potential experiences include:

  • Conducting Market Research for a Fortune 500 Company.
  • Promoting products through development of Point-of-Purchase displays.
  • Spending time reviewing potential cost, price, and market research for service programs.
  • Learning how to research customer base potential using available data.
  • Designing an advertising or promotional campaign to promote new services.
  • Developing a marketing plan for a global business.

What if you don't have a college degree in marketing?

Don't worry. I think you will find the statistics in the chart to the right not only interesting, but encouraging. The table below shows the percentage and the degree background of new graduates that have begun a career in marketing.

So now that I've given you hope, how do you get your foot in the door? It will take determination and persistence, but it can be done. You will find that a start in marketing will normally put you in an entry position as a market research assistant, print buyer, general management trainee, or you can enter a program as a graduate trainee.

A few companies that offer marketing graduate trainee programs include:

Mars
Mars does not have a specific marketing training program for graduates. They run a cross-functional management development program, through which graduates have access to opportunities in marketing. Recruits to the program are typically given three to four assignments, the first of which may be related to their experience or studies. The remaining assignments will be in other areas, and one may be overseas. Their goal is to broaden trainees' experiences.

Nestle
Nestle has recently changed its approach to hiring graduates. Nestle recruits in a similar fashion as to how they recruit other employee levels. Each department now recruits graduates throughout the year on an 'as-required' basis. Vacancies will be posted and advertised throughout the year.

Procter and Gamble
Procter & Gamble's graduate training program recruits graduates into one of eight career tracks, including consumer and market knowledge and marketing. Consumer and market knowledge involves sophisticated and proactive market research-based work to identify business opportunities, including new product development. The marketing function involves growing the value of brands within the P&G product range. Marketing trainees will learn about advertising, PR, consumer bonding, direct marketing and project management within their first two years. The applicants are selected according to application form, a problem-solving test, interview, and site visit, where they will meet prospective managers and colleagues.

If you decide that the graduate training program route is not for you; you can still break into the field of marketing by being persistent. You will need to be willing to take on an entry-level position in most marketing agencies and work your way up. If this isn't a problem then it's time to begin your first marketing assignment, which is marketing you by developing that resume.

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Friday, September 25, 2009

Market Research and Trends

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.

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Basics, Planning and General Information

The following books are recommended because of their highly practical nature and often because they include a wide range of information about this Library topic. To get more information about each book, just hover your cursor over the image of the book. A "bubble" of information will be displayed. You can click on the title of the book in that bubble to get more information, too.

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Marketing Basics

Assembled by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD

Adapted from the publication Field Guide to Nonprofit Program Design, Marketing and Evaluation

Basically, you might look at marketing as the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you're continuing to meet the needs of your customers and are getting value in return. Marketing analysis includes finding out what groups of potential customers (or markets) exist, what groups of customers you prefer to serve (target markets), what their needs are, what products or services you might develop to meet their needs, how the customers might prefer to use the products and services, what your competitors are doing, what pricing you should use and how you should distribute products and services to your target markets. Various methods of market research are used to find out information about markets, target markets and their needs, competitors, etc. Marketing also includes ongoing promotions, which can include advertising, public relations, sales and customer service.

Various Perspectives

What's "Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales?"
Numerous free online resources
15 Foolproof Ideas for Promoting Your Company
Marketing Basics
Marketing Basics for the Small Business
Introduction to Marketing
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Inbound Marketing Includes Market Research to Find Out

  1. What specific groups of potential customers/clients (markets) might have which specific needs (nonprofits often already have a very clear community need in mind when starting out with a new program -- however, the emerging practice of nonprofit business development, or earned income development, often starts by researching a broad group of clients to identify new opportunities for programs)
  2. How those needs might be met for each group (or target market), which suggests how a product might be designed to meet the need (nonprofits might think in terms of outcomes, or changes, to accomplish among the groups of clients in order to meet the needs)
  3. How each of the target markets might choose to access the product, etc. (its "packaging")
  4. How much the customers/clients might be willing pay and how (pricing analysis)
  5. Who the competitors are (competitor analysis)
  6. How to design and describe the product such that customers/clients will buy from the organization, rather than from its competitors (its unique value proposition)
  7. How the product should be identified -- its personality -- to be most identifiable (its naming and branding)

Outbound Marketing Includes:

  1. Advertising and promotions (focused on the product)
  2. Sales
  3. Public and media relations (focused on the entire organization)
  4. Customer service
  5. Customer satisfaction

Too often, people jump right to the outbound marketing. As a result, they often end up trying to push products onto people who really don't want the products at all. Effective inbound marketing often results in much more effective -- and less difficult -- outbound marketing and sales.

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Marketing" -- A Commonly Misunderstood Term

Before you learn more about marketing, you should get a basic impression of what marketing is. See What's "Advertising, Marketing, Promotion, Public Relations and Publicity, and Sales?". Basically, you might look at marketing as the wide range of activities involved in making sure that you're continuing to meet the needs of your customers and are getting appropriate value in return. Think about marketing as "inbound" and "outbound" marketing. (In the following, consider "product" to be either a tangible product or a service -- nonprofits often refer to these as "programs".)
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OPEN ENROLMENT PROGRAMS GENERAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAM

When making the transition to general management role, managers need to be acutely aware of how their behaviours and decisions have an impact on key stakeholders.

The NUS Business School General Management Program is designed to address the issue by offering problem-solving toolkits for all functional areas, such as corporate strategy, marketing, human resources, finance, accounting, and operations. Specially designed within the Asian business context, the program sharpens analytical skills with a powerful suite of analytical tools that will enhance the effectiveness of decision-making and optimise the use of resources in all managerial responsibiliti

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