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All businesses need a plan and a process for marketing their products
or services, and all but the smallest companies have professionals
dedicated solely to this function. Marketing, along with sales,
production, and finance, is a core functional area in most companies.
Indeed, many businesses -- including some of the largest in the
world -- rely on marketing strategy to drive company profits.
Marketing executives have a prominent place among the senior managers
of any business. In fact, in many "marketing-driven" firms
-- such as large consumer-products companies -- the most senior
general managers typically advance to their positions from the marketing
function.
Marketing professionals interface extensively with a company's
other major business functions. For example: Marketing strategy
affects the company's business development strategy (and vice-versa)
and the allocation of advertising resources. Marketing works closely
with the company's production or service delivery departments to
ensure that product or service specifications will meet consumers'
demands.
Marketing professionals must understand the company's finances and
the costs and profits associated with a particular product or service.
Marketers have to get involved in the company's long-term strategic
planning, including assessing market changes and the potential that
new business alliances may bring. Given the scope of business concerns
that marketing professionals interact with, it's not surprising that
marketing is often thought of as a "microcosm" of the entire
business enterprise. Marketing managers must have strong skills in
business analysis and a broad-based appreciation for business as a
whole. Therefore, many people see experience in this discipline as
ideal training for general management.
The job of any marketing professional is to ensure that his or her
company's products or services become consumers' top choices in the
marketplace. A marketer must therefore be many things:
- a psychologist who studies potential customers' behavior; an
artist who can identify the visual and linguistic images that
will capture consumers' attention
- an analyst who uses the most effective statistical modeling
to tease out customers' buying patterns
- a leader who can manage a team of marketers and motivate professionals
in other functional areas while implementing a marketing plan.
Different marketing professionals take different approaches to
their work. They may: develop strengths in specialty areas, such
as market research, marketing strategy, and creativity (as it relates
to the language and imagery associated with a product's advertising
and packaging); develop general management abilities approach marketing
as an extension of sales, using direct interaction with customers
and the intuition they've developed by working "in the field"
to inform their decisions; rely on sophisticated analyses of market
dynamics to guide their marketing plans; combine sales and market-analysis
approaches
Sometimes different marketing styles can lead to specific careers
within the field. For example: Professionals with a more analytical
approach to the discipline may gravitate toward roles such as director
of marketing research. Those who like to combine a sales approach
with analysis may head for a position as vice president of sales
and marketing. The more creatively inclined may choose to work with
advertising firms or actually join an advertising firm.
Different organizations also emphasize different aspects of marketing.
For instance:
- Companies known for their meticulous attention to continual
and detailed market research reward and support marketers who
show interest and facility in that area.
- Companies known for their creative collaboration with advertisers
value marketers with a strong artistic bent.
- Larger organizations offer work in many different marketing
specialties.
The individual styles and interests of managers within all three kinds
of firms exert a strong influence on the way a company handles marketing.
People enter marketing careers in different ways. Individuals with
business or liberal arts undergraduate degrees, or those who have
sales experience, can often find entry-level positions in this line
of work. These positions require both analytical ability and creativity.
For mid-level and higher marketing management positions in larger
organizations, you may need an MBA degree. Most MBA programs provide
marketing coursework in addition to courses in other functional
areas important to general management, such as strategic planning
and organizational behavior. In a consumer-products company, successful
performance in entry-level staff roles can lead to the assistant
brand manager role. The assistant brand manager works under
a brand manager who has ultimate responsibility for the marketing
of a particular product. In several ways, brand managers' work strongly
resembles that of general managers: Brand managers
have profit-and-loss responsibility for the product they manage.
In the case of a high-revenue product, brand managers lead a large
team dedicated to that product.
A brand manager can move on to various other positions, such as
group manager, in which he or she manages a group
of related products. From there, a group manager may advance to
various general management positions that involve
running whole business areas within the company. Ultimately, a marketing
professional can assume the most senior management position with
the company as CEO or President.
Professional titles and specific roles in marketing may vary, depending
on the organization. For example:
In non-consumer product companies, the title comparable
to brand manager may be "product
manager."
In some manufacturing environments, the product
manager gets heavily involved with the manufacturing process itself.
He or she is often the one who "shepherds" the product
from conception to marketplace.
In some firms with highly technical products, product
managers must have a technology background, even an engineering
or computer sciences degree. In other such firms, technical background
is less important than general analytical and management expertise.
If you have an engineering or computer-related degree and genuinely
enjoy technology but are interested in a marketing career, you'll
have a competitive advantage as a marketer in a technology-oriented
organization. If you don't have a technical degree and most of the
product managers and senior managers in the company you're considering
do have one, think carefully about whether the company will offer
you enough career advancement opportunity.
Source: CareerLeader
Many people confuse marketing with advertising or vice versa. While
both components are important they are very different. Knowing the
difference and doing your market research can put your company on
the path to substantial growth.
The formal definitions of each state:
Advertising: The paid, public, non-personal
announcement of a persuasive message by an identified sponsor; the
non-personal presentation or promotion by a firm of its products
to its existing and potential customers.
Marketing: The systematic planning, implementation
and control of a mix of business activities intended to bring together
buyers and sellers for the mutually advantageous exchange or transfer
of products.
After reading both of the definitions it is easy to understand
how the difference can be confusing.
Advertising is a single component of the marketing process.
The best way to distinguish between advertising and marketing is
to think of marketing as a pie, inside that pie you have slices
of:
- Advertising
- Market research
- Media planning
- Public relations
- Product pricing
- Distribution
- Customer support
- Sales strategy
- Community involvement
Advertising only equals one piece of the pie in the strategy. All
of these elements must not only work independently but they also
must work together towards the bigger goal. Marketing is a process
that takes time and can involve hours of research for a marketing
plan to be effective. Think of marketing as everything that an organization does
to facilitate an exchange between company and consumer.
Source: About.com
Brandweek
Brandweek is written for the marketers of the Super Brands -- America's
top 2,000 brands. In this publication you will find information on,
marketer/retailer relationships, successful media strategies, agency/client
relationships and global marketing as well as news briefs, consumer
trends, new campaigns, promotion, new-product news.
AdAge
This is a good read if you are looking for insights into the advertising
industry.
American Demographics
American Demographic watches and projects consumer trends and behavior
patterns and their effect on business.
iMarketingNews
This weekly newspaper for e-business and Internet marketing looks
at Internet marketing strategies and business models, and catalogues
successes and failures of new approaches in this medium.
American Marketing Association http://www.marketingpower.com
Public Relations Society of America
http://www.prsa.org
Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) - Competitive
Intelligence is often a discipline that falls within a firm's marketing
organization/ranks. http://www.scip.org/
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Internships |
Full-Time |
| Pre-academic year summer |
Research firms of interest and note
deadlines for on and off campus recruiting deadlines
Draft resume and cover letters
Keep up with the markets (for firms
of interest) and identify network of contacts within these firms |
Craft resume and cover letters
Inform CDO of interest in marketing
Network with marketing, CPG, Retail,
Technology (etc) firms, alums, and with second years who interned in
the marketing function. |
| September |
Attend Marketing Club kickoff meeting
Inform CDO of interest in marketing
Revise cover letters and resumes
Identify and network with alums and
second years involved with marketing positions
Begin organizing trips to visit firms
with classmates
Sign up for free email postings on
marketing news and jobs |
Attend Marketing Club kickoff meeting
Begin researching companies for your
pitches
Revise cover letters and resume
Develop contacts at firms that do not
recruit on campus
Drop resumes |
| October |
Revise cover letters and resume
Develop contacts at firms that do not
recruit on campus
Meet with CDO consultants |
Drop resumes
Plan to have your pitch prior to your
first interview
Update CDO on progress and meet with
consultants to refine strategy based on interview feedback |
| November |
Revise cover letters and resume
Attend campus presentations
Meet with CDO consultants to refine
personal story and interview skills
Drop resumes |
Update CDO on progress and meet with
consultants to refine strategy based on interview feedback
Participate in mock interview program |
| December |
Meet with CDO consultants to refine
personal story and interview skills
Drop resumes
Contact firms around holidays and over
break |
Update CDO on progress and meet with
consultants to refine strategy based on interview feedback |
| January |
Prepare for internship interviews –
plan to have practiced at least three elevator pitches prior to your
first interview
Contact firms around holidays and over
break
Update CDO on progress and meet with
consultants to refine strategy based on interview feedback |
Update
CDO on progress and meet with consultants to refine strategy based on
interview feedback |
| February |
Continue to practice, practice, practice
for interviews
Update CDO on progress and meet with
consultants to refine strategy based on interview feedback |
Update CDO on progress and meet with
consultants to refine strategy based on interview feedback |
| March |
Continue to practice, practice, practice
for interviews
Update CDO on progress and meet with
consultants to refine strategy based on interview feedback |
Continue to practice, practice, practice
for interviews
Update CDO on progress and meet with
consultants to refine strategy based on interview feedback |
| April |
Review outstanding offers with CDO
and negotiate terms
Identify staffing manager at firm where
offer is accepted and start developing a relationship |
Review outstanding offers with CDO
and negotiate terms
Identify staffing manager at firm where
offer is accepted and start developing a relationship |
| May |
Network with key contacts and alums |
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| Post-academic year summer |
Network with key contacts and alums
Evaluate whether experience meets expectations.
Is this function/industry for you? Do you want to return to the firm?
The CDO is available to help you with these considerations |
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mba.yale.edu
