Marketing Mentor #1: What Is Marketing, Really?
Many college students who never dreamed of being, or majored, in marketing find themselves working in the industry. No surprise why; advertising agencies, public relations firms, and other companies that primarily focused on marketing made over $118 billion in 2018. This profession — even when not taking into account marketing departments of larger corporations with other aims — contains a lot of cross-industry activity. After studying a tangentially related subject, one can work in tech marketing, or finance marketing, or healthcare marketing. Perhaps there will even be healthfintech marketing one day, assuming someone hasn’t already started it.
This can put a lot of new grads in an overwhelming position, as if finishing college and needing to pay back student loans isn’t enough to think about. How is one supposed to choose their career if they don’t even know what kinds of paying roles make up the economy outside of the K-12 and higher education systems?
Practical experience over time is generally the answer; however, there are a few things one can only benefit from knowing before their first job interviews.
WHAT IS MARKETING?
Marketing is the series of activities that brings a product “to market,” which means to make it available to purchase. Advertising, while used interchangeably at times, is actually only the part of marketing that promotes awareness of the product for all audiences, including the final consumer. If you’ve ever seen Mad Men: Peggy partaking in the market research for lipsticks is part of marketing while Don swirling his drink and looking ruefully out in the distance while coming up with the carousel concept for Kodak is advertising.
(Unfortunately, there is less rueful distance-staring in advertising currently, but there’s no reason you can’t be the change you want to see.)
A lot of advertising agencies now label themselves as “full service,” meaning they are able to perform many marketing responsibilities for their clients if needed. They don’t call themselves marketing agencies because their primary role is still promotion, plus that doesn’t roll off the tongue nearly as well. Thus, the term marketing is reserved for in-house departments and teams for companies and brands that do all of their own promotion — think Uber or Verizon.
In-house marketing has grown significantly in the recent past as companies that create or bring their products to market seek more control in shaping the surrounding narratives. Culturally and workwise, in-house marketing departments are often more corporate and contain less brand and project variety.
SHOULD I BECOME A MARKETER?
Sure, if you’d like!
Marketing has a role for just about everyone as different companies with diverse departments require a variety of skills. Many people live several lives within the industry, starting in one type of role and then moving to others as their interests change and experience increases over time.
As a marketer, you may generally oversee, produce, or collaborate with clients or agencies on projects that involve print literature, digital asset creation such as website design, advertising campaigns for multiple channels, and much more for either branded (product) or corporate (company) promotion.
For a deeper dive into some of the roles marketing contains and the skills they require, check out “Marketing Mentor #2: What Will I Do All Day?”
