Marketing as a career

[blackplatano]

I'm thinking about pursuing a career in marketing and I want to know what I'm getting into or if I should get in at all. Since I'm sure some of you are involved in marketing, I need you to pass down some of your wisdom.
What are the pros/cons of marketing?
What is expected of somebody in this line of work?
How much of it is math and how much of it is pure creativity?
Anything I should know or take into consideration before I go for it?
Lastly, do you ENJOY what you do?

Thanks

 

[VMan]

Originally Posted by blackplatano

I'm thinking about pursuing a career in marketing and I want to know what I’m getting into or if I should get in at all. Since I'm sure some of you are involved in marketing, I need you to pass down some of your wisdom. What are the pros/cons of marketing? What is expected of somebody in this line of work? How much of it is math and how much of it is pure creativity? Anything I should know or take into consideration before I go for it? Lastly, do you ENJOY what you do? Thanks
I am a near graduate with that degree. The downsides are that a lot of people major in that when they don't know what to do. Also, the starting pay isn't high. The plus sides are that doing a 4-year program in marketing will give you a lot of insight if you decide to start your own company, and in a lot of universities you can take side classes that help you with such areas as side-investments, entrepreneurship, and real estate. If you have a knack for it, and if you know what people want and how to deliver it to them, you can do well. I'd also recommend taking as many internet marketing and international marketing courses as you can, as that is where the future is. Try and learn about guerilla marketing and viral marketing as that can help you in this industry where typical costs are high and individuality and creativity are major plusses. As far as math - I had to take courses in accounting, stats, and finance - all which involve math. If you get into something like marketing research, you will be expected to run statistics for a lot of figures, and analyze data. I think that in the future I will enjoy what I do (hopefully). I want to stay within a field I know and enjoy, and have experience with and feel I can succeed in - which is clothing.

 

[Matt]

It's a very very wide field, pick something you want to focus in, and go after that.

Personally, my degree is in marketing, double majored in public relations and electronic business, and work in PR (mostly for technology companies) - so I ended up doing pretty much exactly what I trained for.

 

[globetrotter]

I am not in marketing, but I have had marketing people report to me, and I work with a lot of outsourced marketing resources - trade show people, advertising people, researchers, etc.

I do not work in the consumer area - so I am talking stricly business to business marketing. consumer marketing is a whole different animal, in a lot of ways. frankly, I think that the people who are really good, and really creative, are more likly to get into consumer oriented marketing, but that may jsut be my perception.

in my company (about 400 employees and 100 million in sales) we have about 12 people in marketing.

two directors - each is an engineer with an MBA who shifted to marketing after several years in technical support and other, more techincal, jobs. they over see two parallel teams.

a woman who does trade shows (MBA, maybe english or libral arts BA) - arranges logistics of trade shows, maybe 10 a year. contracts the booths, get the space, figures out what presentations are needed, what graphics, contracts all of that out. doesn't actually go to the show. in a previous company I was in that was about 2 billion in sales, this position was 3 people, and the head of the team traveled to each show, about 30 shows a year.

a market researcher - MBA, multi-lingual, does a lot of calling to ask for information, reading material, and does a lot of graphing and statistics.

someone who handles pricing - MBA, does mostly math - looks at trends, competitors prices, our costs, economic information

several product managers - this is about the most interesting job in marketing, in my opinion. here you are responsible for everything having to do with your product, you interface with engineering, with research, with production, with the sales force, etc. in the end of the day, you have resonsibility for how well your product sells.

trainers - train sales people on the products, often do presentations at trade shows and in house when customers visit.

 

[auto90403]

If you're good at it, you will make a lot of money while having a lot of fun.

That said, marketing is full of total marsupials. who sometimes put together marketing campaigns that are very very successful. While the marketing geniuses come up with stuff that is brilliant in every respect but in the marketplace.

Marketing is funny in that way. The variance of talent in finance is far less wide. Or rather, the semi-variance. Finance attract few people who are so totally clueless about finance in ways that marketing attracts people who couldn't maket their way out of a paper bag.

Girls are prettier in marketing than in finance. The only way guys in fiannce meet hot girls is to make lots of money so we afford the places that attract hot girls. There aren't any at work.

Although investment banking women are at least somewhat attractive.

 

[texas_jack]

My company (pharmaceuticals) is in the process of laying off 40% of their marketing people. Whereas they are laying off 25% of the sales force. I don't know what this means for the career but it would seem you are more expendible than sales people.

 

[Bradford]

Originally Posted by texas_jack

My company (pharmaceuticals) is in the process of laying off 40% of their marketing people. Whereas they are laying off 25% of the sales force. I don't know what this means for the career but it would seem you are more expendible than sales people.

That's because sales people can point to actual numbers that impact the bottom-line. Sales numbers are quantifiable.

Marketing/public relations is not as easily quantified or understood in terms of the bottom line, so it's typically the first thing to go.

Personally, my suggestion would be if you're going to study marketing, take a lot of hard classes - stats, accounting, finance, etc... and always be sure you can explain in real dollar terms how what you do benefits your company.

 

[aportnoy]

I head up the Corporate Marketing function for my company. Primary responsibilities include positioning the company to Wall St. and building the employee and recruitment brands.