Marketing
A marketer’s job is often misunderstood. Some people see a commercial on
television and think that’s the work of a marketer. Actually, that’s
advertising. Other people look at the purchases that customers make and
chalk that up to successful marketing. Nope—that’s sales. But behind every
successful ad professional or salesperson is a marketer.
Broadly speaking, marketing is the strategic function between product
development and sales. The four components of marketing are product, price,
promotion and place. Marketing takes a product with specific features and
benefits, creates pricing and promotional strategies, and oversees the
methods that will be used to bring it to market (that’s the “place” part).
Based on whether the product is high-end or low-end, based on its
manufacturing specs and its price, the marketing team creates a selling
approach that includes strategies for advertising, public relations, and
other types of promotion, and the head of this team also coordinates with
the sales team to determine how they will make the product or service
available to customers. Depending on the structure of the company, this
position may be called a marketing manager or marketing director. Other
times, these responsibilities fall under the brand manager’s domain.
So, that flashy commercial or eye-catching billboard campaign is the
actually a by-product of a complicated process that takes specialized
expertise and months of teamwork. Careful demographic and statistical
analysis, extensive testing and surveys, supply and vendor management, and
strategic thinking—not to mention a lot of collaboration with everyone from
product managers to designers to supply chain personnel—all occur behind
the scenes before any word is uttered on your television screen. If your
creative genius is matched by your analytical acumen, you may find that
marketing makes for a worthy challenge and an exciting career.
The uninitiated may mistakenly equate marketing with peddling household
products, but marketers know that their roles are far more complex and
engaging than that. They help their organizations anticipate the
public's needs and position them to satisfy those needs. In this way,
marketing is the necessary link between an organization and its target
audience, which is now more broadly defined to include customers, clients,
investors, and partners.
What You'll Do
Marketers create, manage, and enhance products and services so that they
reflect well on the company’s brand. (A brand can be thought of as the way
consumers perceive a particular company or its products and how a company
reinforces or enhances those perceptions through its overall
communications—its logo, advertising, packaging, and so on.) Marketers want
the consumer to ask: "Which product helps me look and feel my best?
Which service can I trust?" Their goal is to make their product or
service the obvious and uncontested answer to those questions in the
consumer's mind. In marketing terms, this is called owning mindshare.
Of course, no product or service can be all things to all people. A key
part of a marketer's job is to understand the needs, preferences, and
constraints that define the target group of consumers (who may share a
common geographic region, income level, age range, lifestyle, or interest
group) or the market niche corresponding to the brand. How can a company
aggressively expand its market share and keep customers satisfied? That
question is central to everything a marketer does.
Who Does Well
Marketing appeals to creative thinkers as well as to numbers-minded
statisticians, and marketers often seek the input of a wide range of
professionals to ensure they have the clearest picture of their product or
service. Engineers, for example, work with customers, so they are valuable
in understanding new products and how they best meet customers’ needs.
Marketers may consult psychologists to analyze consumer behavior so that
they can better target their promotions. A single purpose underlies the
diversity of opportunity in various marketing roles: to create something
customers will want and to help them understand why it meets their needs
(or wants).
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Marketing people come from many different academic backgrounds, but certain
backgrounds will help more than others. On the creative side, a degree in
advertising, communications, or graphic design may open the most doors.
More specialized fields include brand management, which focuses
specifically on the management of a company’s particular line of products
or other brand, or market research, which uses focus groups, surveys,
interviews, and other testing tools to evaluate market trends and customer
opinions. If you're interested in getting into either of these, an
education that includes courses in business, economics, or statistics will
serve you better than a liberal arts major will.
A marketing career of any kind requires a sharp, analytical mind; strong
oral and written communication skills; and a keen interest in business and
consumer behavior. Marketers keep the inventors of career aptitude
assessment tests like the Myers-Briggs up at night, defying test typologies
with their statistically unlikely combination of abilities in analysis and
creativity, intuition and logic, people skills, and comfort with numbers.
"Marketers think with their left and right brains in equal
proportions," says one longtime marketer. "They can understand
numbers and people," adds another. "They listen for subtexts when
people talk, and are able to interpret people's emotions; this is what
drives people to become marketers and makes them good at what they do.
Marketers have to identify what people are implicitly saying but not
explicitly stating, and deliver against those needs."
The best way to get into marketing, regardless of what you've studied,
is by taking an internship. Many and high-tech and Internet companies offer
marketing internships. Unless you're enrolled in an MBA program,
internships are harder to come by at consumer products companies. The large
consumer-products companies recruit at select schools, and the best way to
get hired by one of them is through on-campus recruiting. For marketing
positions in other industries, your best bet may be to network or to
contact firms directly.
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According to the 2006–07 Occupational Outlook Handbook from the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics (BLS), overall employment in the field of marketing is
expected to increase faster than average—exhibiting an 18 to 26 percent
growth—through 2014. The BLS points to growing domestic and global
competition in consumer products and services as a key reason for this job
growth. However, this growth varies widely by sector: Robust growth is
anticipated in scientific, professional, and technical services realms,
while a decline is expected in the manufacturing sector. The BLS also
cautions that overall, there will be increased competition for the
available full-time opportunities in the field of marketing, especially
since hiring contractors in lieu of replacing full-time marketing
professionals is becoming a common practice.
This news comes as no surprise to marketers in the field, since few have
been spared from widespread layoffs and drastic budget reductions.
Nonprofit marketers have had to step up their efforts to sustain their
organizations, given the shrinking pool of funding available due to
government cuts, scarce corporate sponsorships, and decreased individual
donations. Many companies have opted to hunker down, keep a low promotional
profile, and wait out the recession, which has meant tough times for
marketers in many CPG (consumer product goods) companies and advertising
agencies.
After a few brutal years, however, marketers' job prospects are
beginning to look up. As other industries continue to recover from the
recent recession, marketing spending is sure to increase—and with that, so
will job opportunities for marketing professionals. The best opportunities
will be available to those with a high level of creativity and technical
skills to conduct marketing activities on the Internet. Marketers should
also find many opportunities in the health care sector, the country’s
largest industry, which is experiencing explosive growth.
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Wherever there are customers to be reached, there is a need for a marketer.
At consumer products companies, you may be able to work your way up from
brand assistant to brand or category manager over the course of several
years. Start out by finding that all-important internship. They’re easier
to come by at advertising, PR, or marketing agencies, where you can make
contacts that will help you leap to the corporate side.
Entry Level
With some work experience to your name and the right connections through
colleagues, friends, alumni, or professional associations, you may be able
to land a marketing department internship or entry-level marketing position
that involves more than photocopying. Beginning marketers often crunch
numbers to determine sales levels and may work on gathering data from which
a strategy can be formed. Sometimes, those with experience or advanced
degrees start out as a marketing coordinator, who is the hub for projects,
maintaining timelines and ensuring that all players are performing as they
should.
MBAs
Do you need an MBA to get ahead in marketing? Not necessarily—but it can
certainly pave the way. Chief marketing officers, vice presidents, and
marketing directors at larger organizations are typically expected to have
an MBA from a well-regarded school for marketing, such as Northwestern,
Dartmouth (Tuck), University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania
(Wharton), Georgetown, Harvard, or Ohio State. Your MBA may be a shortcut
to a position as an assistant brand manager or marketing manager, saving
you a year or two of rock-bottom, entry-level drudgery at the photocopier
(though it won't save you from long hours of number crunching).
Midcareer Professionals
Midcareer candidates with extensive experience within a particular
industry—say, sports team management—may find that their insider's
insight gives them a boost over the competition for a marketing role within
their industry niche. That said, midcareer candidates shouldn't expect
to make a lateral move from an executive level in another discipline (say,
sales) to an equivalent position in marketing. You will probably have to
work your way up from entry-level positions alongside people much less
experienced than you, and the going can be rough for those used to steady
advancement. Marketers win promotions through consistently exceptional
performance; they don't advance automatically via seniority.
There are other cultural differences to contend with as well. Midcareer
professionals used to delegating nonstrategic tasks to subordinates may
find the team-based structures and entrepreneurial orientation of marketing
challenging. Marketers often earn less than successful sales reps or
accountants—so when you hear the salaries on offer for marketing positions,
you may think twice about making the switch. Midcareer professionals with a
background in sales, customer relations, and supply chain management may
have an easier time making the transition to marketing, which may require
more unconventional creative thinking than finance or IT types are
accustomed to and more analytical structure than designers or PR types are
used to. Given the right balance of analytical skills and creative
problem-solving abilities, an established industry niche and a well-placed
connection, midcareer hires can find themselves well-equipped to make their
mark in marketing.
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Compensation for marketing positions ranges wildly according to industry,
size of company, years of experience, and responsibilities. Marketing
assistants typically earn between $30,000 to $60,000 with the lower end of
that scale generally at marketing agencies and smaller companies. MBAs
starting on the marketing track at a consumer products company may earn
more. Market researchers have the most opportunities to move rapidly up the
pay scale. At bigger companies and research firms, they can break into the
six-figure range with a few years of experience to their credit. Salaries
for Web-assisted market research and Web development positions aren't
as attractive as they were just a few years ago, but they still fall at the
high end of the salary spectrum for the market research and creative
fields. Plus, positions requiring skills with new media are still
relatively easy to enter with just a couple years of experience.
For experienced marketers, salaries vary widely. Managers can expect to
earn between $50,000 and $90,000, with directors earning anywhere between
$90,000 and $200,000 (the latter at big companies). At consumer products
companies or marketing agencies, there may also be a bonus involved.
Salaries for marketing managers in nonprofit aren't always shabby, and
some are even competitive with those of their peers at advertising agencies
and companies. But at the marketing management level, services marketers
with a handle on customer relationship management command the highest pay.
At the senior executive level, the salaries for nonprofit marketers and
principals of advertising agencies fall far short of salaries for marketers
at professional service firms and CPG companies, particularly larger
companies with multiple brands and millions in annual revenues. A marketing
VP at a big company can reach about $300,000.