Marketing A-Z
The Marketing Association prepares its members for a successful career in marketing. From mentorship to days on the job, from mixers to career nights, our members enjoy the opportunity of meeting distinguished Anderson alumni and industry leaders.
Some of the companies that recruit on campus are:
Activision, Apple, Chevron, Clorox, Del Monte, Gap, General Mills, Henkel, Hewlett Packard, Intel, Mattel, Nestle, Siegel & Gale, Sony, Taco Bell, Toyota, and Yahoo!.
What Can I Expect from a Marketing Career?
Many students come to business school thinking that marketing is merely sales and advertising. The truth, however, is a lot more complex. For many of the most successful companies in the world, managing and promoting products, services and “brands” are responsibilities held by the marketing department, the strategic action center of the entire firm.
So, what is Marketing? The American Marketing Association (AMA) defines Marketing as “the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion and distribution of ideas, goods and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives.”
How does that translate into a day-to-day job? In your core classes, you will see a framework referred to as the “Three C’s” or Company, Consumer, and Competition. Great marketing begins with a thorough situation assessment. Many marketers have jobs which focus on the strategic planning aspect of marketing: analysis of a company’s capabilities and costs, consumer segments’ needs and willingness to pay, as well as competitive audits. Some positions, including Brand Management at Consumer Packaged Goods companies, straddle the strategic and executional roles: they develop objectives, plan, and then execute marketing programs to achieve the firm’s strategic goals.
Marketers in these positions are often directly responsible for the profit and loss of the products and services offered by the firm. Executional marketing in these and other positions may include product development, creating distribution and sales plans, analyzing and developing pricing strategies, and, of course, developing and evaluating advertising. These tools are often referred to as the “Four P’s” or Product, Place (distribution), Price, and Promotion.
Success in marketing takes a balance of quantitative ability and creative talent, along with a healthy dose of leadership skills. For this reason, an early career in marketing is often great preparation for careers in senior management and entrepreneurship.
