Marketing or finance? Sales or management? Finding the right marketing training or even finance course is really the second step, firstly you need to decide if you want to pursue sales or finance, or is marketing is the right job for you.

Marketing is the process of teaching consumers why they should choose a particularly businesses product or service over their competitors. It is about researching the best way to influence consumers with their choices between products and includes everything that they come across in regards to a product or service, from the advertising they see and hear, to what sort of customer service they receive and how a business follows up a sale. Marketing is vital for any business as they must do some sort of marketing if they want to succeed and stay in business. Marketing is often confused with advertising and sales, but advertising is only a small part of the marketing process. Advertising is the part that involves spreading the word about the business, whether it be through television, radio, print or some other method.

What does Marketing Involve?

Marketing is broken down into four basic aspects, which within the industry are known as the four ‘P’s’.
Product – what it is you are trying to sell Price – the amount being charged for the product Promote – the ways in which the consumers are told about the product Provide – the ways in which the product is brought to the consumer

Marketing involves so much more than just advertising and trying to sell a product, and a career in marketing could lead you in many different directions. It includes researching your target consumers and understanding exactly what it is they want, what they can afford and what is the best way to inform them of a product. As well as market research you could be involved with media planning, product pricing, public relations, customer support, distribution or working on sales strategies. For marketing to be effective all these areas must be addressed and is usually undertaken by a whole marketing team. A job in marketing would most likely see you become proficient in one of these areas for the particular marketing company that you worked for. Depending on your personality and what your preferences are, your job could be more creative, involve research or if you prefer, have you working with statistics.

Is it Right for You?

Marketing is a field that offers you many different career opportunities and under the broad definition you can choose an area to suit you, one that reflects your style and personality. You may be the creative type or prefer to work with numbers. Perhaps you are better at research. Overall to consider a job in marketing you need to be able to communicate your ideas clearly, solve problems, plan adequate responses, have good organisational skills, be able to generate new ideas and have good writing skills. You also need to be aware that you will be required to work long hours, so be prepared to work evenings and weekends. You need to be able to meet deadlines and work under pressure.

Marketing Management is the integration of marketing techniques so that it can be applied efficiently and effectively in the marketing operations of a firm. All the resources and activities of the firm which are marketing-related are also administered so that it is ensured that they are utilized in an efficient manner.

Nowadays, the marketing strategies of a firm are likely to include the internet because of the vast reach it could afford to more potential clients. That is why marketing management today also strategically involves the techniques to apply internet technology to increase the market share of many companies. It involves as well what are the internet-based activities that can be utilized for the benefit of a wider consumer reach. Modern marketing management also includes how a portion of the companies resources can be spent for internet based activities to let people get to know more and become engaged in their products.

Marketing management is a thinking activity. For instance, it seeks to understand their consumers. The large pie of customers is usually divided into smaller groups either according to demographics like age and sex or according to behaviour, in this case their buying behaviour. This line of study enables the company to offer more targeted products to its consumers. The firm is better able to deliver goods and services when they know the specific profile of the intended users.

Aside from studying the current and potential consumers, marketing management also analyzes the firm from within. It identifies for instance what are the things that the firm are good at so that it has a clear view of how it can compete. It also studies the existing resources of the firm so that it is able to gauge what it could mobilize in order to remain competitive in its industry. Even the products, services or the brand itself is looked into in order to know its strengths and improve on its weaknesses.

Marketing management also seeks to assess other stakeholders in the business such as its business partners, suppliers and distributors. Assessment in this regard is important to see if there is any inefficiency in the product or service delivery process. Thus, the supply chain too must be studied.

Aside from this, the external environment of the firm is also assessed. What are the opportunities and threats besetting the industry for instance when it comes to the political, economic, social and technological environment? The study of this is also an important component of marketing management.