The marketing career cluster focuses on influencing consumers’ buying behavior and generating sales for products and services. Just about every type of organization, from your corner grocer to regional banks, public universities to multinational corporations, participates in marketing, in some way.
Marketing is based on researching consumer needs and preferences and creating strategic advertising campaigns to tap them, using TV, radio, magazines, newspapers, social media, and websites.
Organizations may conduct their own marketing, or hire marketing and advertising agencies to create ad campaigns.
Examples of recognizable marketing efforts include rebranding a grocery item label as “new and improved”, featuring a celebrity in TV ads to promote a new car, or creating buzz on social media around fashion trends.
Recent developments in marketing include viral marketing—getting Internet users to view and share a product repeatedly—and green marketing, which shows how a product is better for the environment than its competitors.
Sales is considered part of the marketing cluster, and involves the exchange of money for a product or service. Companies may sell services to other companies, a manufacturer may sell products to distributors, and retailers may sell items to customers.
Sales includes the notion of merchandising products to increase buyer interest; it might involve creating a video to demonstrate features of a product or service, or installing a window or floor display in stores.
Salespeople often work hard to cultivate a positive relationship with customers, whether by appealing to a customer’s self-interest, offering incentives, or providing technical assistance to ensure a product or service is used correctly.
Quick facts to know:
- More than 20 million people work in sales and marketing; these fields are expected to grow moderately over the next ten years.
- In the U.S., total advertising spending typically exceeds $200 billion, invested by a wide variety of sources, such as auto sales, restaurants, pharmaceutical, travel, sports, and entertainment.
- Spending on digital advertising—such as on Google, Facebook, and Amazon—has just begun to outpace traditional media.
- The future of sales is strongly tied to changes in technology that impact how retail stores interact with consumers.