Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic

Marketing: A

Global−Managerial

Approach, 14/e

Back Matter Appendix C: Career

Planning Marketing

© The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

690 Appendix C

moving much of their information to the Internet, so marketing students with skills

and knowledge in this arena may find especially interesting opportunities.

Personal selling opportunities (Chapter 15)

Because there are so many different types of sales jobs and so many people are

employed in sales, there are many good entry-level opportunities in personal selling.

This might be order-getting, order-taking, or missionary selling. Many sales jobs now

rely on sales technology, so some of the most challenging opportunities will go to stu-

dents who know how to prepare spreadsheets and presentation materials using software

programs like Microsoft Office. Many students are reluctant to get into personal sell-

ing—but this field offers benefits that are hard to match in any other field. These

include the opportunity to earn extremely high salaries and commissions quickly, a

chance to develop your self-confidence and resourcefulness, an opportunity to work

with minimal supervision—almost to the point of being your own boss—and a chance

to acquire product and customer knowledge that many firms consider necessary for a

successful career in product/brand management, sales management, and marketing

management. On the other hand, many salespeople prefer to spend their entire careers

in selling. They like the freedom and earning potential that go with a sales job over

the headaches and sometimes lower salaries of sales management positions.

Advertising opportunities (Chapters 14 and 16)

Job opportunities in this area are varied and highly competitive. And because

the ability to communicate and a knowledge of the behavioral sciences are impor-

tant, marketing graduates often find themselves competing with majors from fields

such as English, communication, psychology, and sociology. There are thing-ori-

ented jobs such as copywriting, media buying, art, and so on. Competition for these

jobs is very competitive—and they go to people with a track record. So the entry-

level positions are as assistant to a copywriter, media buyer, or art director. There

are also people-oriented positions involving work with clients—which are probably

of more interest to marketing graduates. This is a glamorous but small and extremely

competitive industry where young people can rise very rapidly—but they can also

be as easily displaced by new bright young people. Entry-level salaries in advertis-

ing are typically low. There are sometimes good opportunities to get started in

advertising with a retail chain that prepares its advertising internally. Another way

to get more experience with advertising is to take a job with one of the media—

perhaps in sales or as a customer consultant. Selling advertising space on a website

or cable TV station or newspaper may not seem as glamorous as developing TV ads,

but media salespeople help their customers solve promotion problems and get expe-

rience dealing with both the business and creative side of advertising.

Sales promotion opportunities (Chapters 14 and 16)

The number of entry-level positions in the sales promotion area is growing

because the number of specialists in this area is growing. For example, specialists

might help a company plan a special event for employees, figure out procedures to

distribute free samples, or perhaps set up a database to send customers a newsletter.

Because clients’ needs are often different, creativity and judgment are required. It

is usually difficult for an inexperienced person to show evidence of these skills right

out of school, so entry-level people often work with a project manager until they

learn the ropes. In companies that handle their own sales promotion work, a begin-

ner usually starts by getting some experience in sales or advertising.

Pricing opportunities (Chapters 17 and 18)

Pricing decisions are usually handled by experienced executives. However, in some

large companies and consulting firms there are opportunities as pricing analysts for