Why I chose Marketing as a career
The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “an organizational function, a set of institutions and processes for creating, communicating, delivering and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners and society at large” (Marketingpower.com, 2007). Dr. Phillip Kotler, one of the most respected scholars in the field of marketing defines marketing as “the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market for profit (Kotler, 2000).
According to the definitions provided by AMA and Kotler, marketing works by satisfying employees through training, motivation, empowerment, and teamwork to deliver high-quality products and services that result in customer satisfaction and leads to repeat buying. Repeat buying improves a firm’s profitability and growth which satisfies stockholders’ need for high returns; once satisfied, stockholders engage in renewed investment which causes organizational growth (Kotler, 2000).
I chose marketing as a career because it provides a clear and accelerated path to business leadership and an understanding of how the business operates profitably and the impact of the internal and external environment on business. This is because the processes of strategy formulation and implementation help to achieve and support competitive advantages that are provided by marketing education. Marketing also offers exciting professional opportunities as well as limitless career opportunities in both profit and non-profit organizations.
Marketing also provides a professional with the tools necessary to assess the needs and requirements of customers by designing programs that satisfy them. Moreover, marketing strategies help to determine product prices, pricing policies, and distribution strategies that enable an establishment to connect with potential customers (Lamb, Hair and McDaniel, 2011).
Finally, marketing equips an individual with a diversity of interesting skills such as product development, packaging, marketing research, sales and marketing, and wholesaling among many others (Kotler, 2000). Therefore, it is no doubt marketing is the future for many students and those aspiring to venture into business with intention of making it their careers.
History of Marketing in the Last 100 Years
The history of marketing reflects the evolution of ideas and theories in the marketing sector; there has been a great change in this sector of marketing especially towards the start of the twentieth century. Most of these changes have taken place during the early part of the last century where a lot of changes in the field of marketing have occurred as documented in the article “History of Marketing Thought” written by Robert Bartle as discussed below (Shaw and Tamilia, 2001).
In this article, the various changes that have taken place and caused the major developments in the sector of marketing have been described as “periodization”; periodization refers to the division of historical time into various sections for different reasons (Shaw and Tamilia, 2001). Besides this, periodization describes changes that can be sub-divided into how the evolutions of marketing ideas have taken place over the years (Shaw and Tamilia, 2001). Foremost, the period between 1900 and 1910 was the beginning of the marketing evolution and represented the innovation of basic concepts and ideas (Shaw and Tamilia, 2001).
The second phase of periodization came between the years 1910 and 1920; it is described as the development of concepts and ideologies of marketing terms (Shaw and Tamilia, 2001). 1920 to 1930 was the third phase which was known as integration of the ideologies, while the fourth phase took place after the 1930s which represents a specialization of the marketing ideas, which was followed by the fifth phase of 1940s that reflected the application of the scientific approach in marketing ideas (Shaw and Tamilia, 2001).
Furthermore, the evolution of the ideas in the field of marketing in the period between the 1950s and 1960s, integrated the introduction and development of the managerial department to enhance the necessary advancement of the ideas and techniques. Finally, the period after the 1970s represented the last stage of the periodization process which mainly symbolized the engagement of all the ideas and theories in the marketing sector that has been embraced so far (Shaw and Tamilia, 2001).
The Future of Marketing in the Next 100 Years
Marketing in the future is going to be a complex and demanding profession, this is due to globalization which has resulted in global marketing opportunities and increased competition. The growth in social media and new technologies such as the internet, mobile phones, and satellite communication among others will present new opportunities and threats to the marketing profession (Lamb et al, 2011).
In the future marketers must learn quickly and understand these changes and adopt them in their operations as consumers will be more informed than before and will have access to more information quickly than previous generations.
Organizations must therefore be honest in their dealings and if possible provide enough information through websites and social media for customers to use in the decision-making process.
Rapid changes in consumer tastes and preferences caused by globalization and new technologies indicate that products and companies will have short life cycles in years to come. There is a need for short-term investment to exploit changeable but significant demand for products and services (Lamb et al, 2011).
Finally, due to the interactive nature of new media, consumers will be more engaged in product development and the planning of marketing strategies than in the past. This is because consumers will be able to order products to be manufactured according to their specifications in real-time and at no extra costs using computer systems that are linked to organization production lines.
Where will the Marketing Career path lead me?
Based on my level of education and knowledge in my marketing career, I believe I have been empowered to achieve a brighter future in the world today. However, first I intend to further my education in the field of marketing to enable me to become a competent professional in the marketing industry. Therefore, I will go abroad for about one and a half years to UTS University where I will further my education and I am confident that, I will receive the relevant professional skills that are required to take me to the next level.
My main objective is to develop new marketing ideas at least within the next five years in Saudi Arabia. For the first two years, I intend to focus on developing the main platform through which I will use to promote online marketing by networking and sensitizing the public in general, while in the next three years I will center on implementing these ideas. My objective is to introduce innovative ideas for online shopping and advertisement. These two major areas will be my focus since I believe the community will eventually embrace this marketing idea for necessary social change.
Bibliography
Kotler, P. 2000. Marketing Management: Millennium. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
This book is about marketing management and in particular planning strategies for marketing environments. The author compares definitions of marketing from different sources and clarifies the goal of marketing management which aims to satisfy consumers’ needs and business requirements for productivity and profitability through effective managerial planning and efficient training of employees.
The author supports his explanations by using resources including other writers and websites. Moreover, the book provides extensive models to help marketers comprehend and plan how they would undertake a marketing management job. Due to the competence skills of the author, this book is a great guide for students, teachers, and organizations because it is clear and logical.
Marketingpower.com. 2007. American Marketing Association Defines Marketing. Web.
This website helps people to find information, products, and services required to succeed in their careers. The targets are individuals and organizations to enable them to find the right marketing information and develop new skills. The website has relevant information, comprehensive education, and targeted networking to assist in developing marketing strategies worldwide, to support marketing practices and thought leadership. It was useful to my report because it has a definition of marketing that helped me to clarify the marketing concept.
McDaniel, C. Lamb, C.W. and Hair, J.F.2011. MKTG4. Ohio: South-Western. Pr-squared.com (2009).The future of marketing. Web.
The journal discusses the future ways in which marketing will be implemented which will be dominated by information collected by marketing companies from niche social networking sites in which participants exchange information about specific products and services in global real-time virtual environments. In this way, marketing campaigns will be far more focused and productive for both companies and consumers.
This position appears to be well supported by twits appearing below the online article and also by sources such as Global Online Media Landscape report, April 2009, and Marketing Sherpa. The author has done several works in the same area, therefore I recommend this article to the marketing students and the general public. It is informative because it helps me to think about how marketing will be in the future.
Shaw, E, and Tamilia, R. (2001). Roberts Barter and History of marketing Thought. Web.
This article traces the history of the evolution and development of marketing ideas by subdividing them into six major periods from 1900 until the present day. By outlining the history of marketing thought in this way, Bartels provides students as well as marketing academics with a comprehensive long-term view of marketing as a developing discipline which is both stimulating and informative.
The main criticisms of Bartel’s work are that it tends to be a rather compartmentalized view of the history of marketing whereas in reality, the boundaries between these historical periods are far more blurred as one period morphed into another. This article was very useful to me because it gave me a framework for understanding marketing as a developing and dynamic discipline.