Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying anticipation and satisfying customer requirements profitably.”

CIM (UK)

 

Don’t think - as many people still do - that marketing is just the smart «in» word for selling. Selling is a vital, indispensable component of marketing but only one of several other activities. Marketing thinking and planning begins at, or even before, the drawing board and ends only when the company has made a product that the customer is really satisfied with. Because marketing affects so much of the company’s resources and activities, it is essentially a team effort. Good marketing is the end product of a well-led management team fully imbued with the marketing concept. The marketing executive is responsible for providing the basic information and guidance about prospective markets, their behavior, size and potential for each product or product or service within the company. It is his/her role to promote better marketing throughout the company structure, to draw up the marketing plans and to ensure that these are implemented efficiently and profitably.
 

Your Career in Marketing
 

The demand for marketing personnel appears to be at all-time high; and at least for the foreseeable future, this trend is expected to continue. The reason is that more and more businesses recognize the need for innovative marketing to stimulate profits. It would appear, therefore that there is a job for you in marketing if you want it and if you are willing to work at it.

It is difficult to make generalizations about marketing careers because marketing organizations range from small neighborhood retailers to giant multinational conglomerates. Therefore, marketing positions range from the marketing of automobiles to the marketing of art museums. But in spite of the multiplicity of available careers, some generalization can be made.

For one thing whatever the product or service in question may be, it will always be geared to an actual market. And what is a market, after all, but a collection of people. Working with people and trying to understand how they behave can be extremely satisfying, especially since the marketing environment and the individuals included in it are both constantly changing.

 

It has been said that nothing much happens in society until somebody sells something and that is really what marketing is all about. The whole economic system comes to life through marketing, for if people did not buy there would be no point in firms producing anything. Therefore, positions in marketing can offer an additional compensation beyond a salary - the feeling that you are helping to make things happen, that you are helping to keep the economic cycle going while promoting consumer satisfaction and well being.

 

Compensation for marketing jobs varies with the position. Entry-level positions in marketing for college graduates rival or exceed salaries of almost all other positions in business management. But marketing career opportunities do not stop there, for many top executives began in marketing. In fact, it is argued that marketing personnel are best suited to the top executive positions because they know how to adapt to external pressures and are able to deal with personnel matters two important qualifications for management.