By: B. K. Vijay
Marketing is increasingly becoming a more popular career option for fresh graduates. There are many reasons why many people are drawn into marketing – it offers many opportunities, job stability and status. And of course, the marketing jobs are little bit more challenging. Compared to other careers, marketing is not boring; market trends keep on changing, there is always one or the other technique to learn, case to study, strategy to research and lots more, making people in this field satisfied with their job.
But, not everybody can get into marketing jobs. In order to have a career in marketing, along with a passion to pursue marketing, one should have three key talents. To see if you have the three talents required to get into this field, answer the following questions.
- Can you think creatively or ‘out-of-the box’? or Are you a creative person?
- Can you gather, organise, understand and draw conclusions from complex data?
- Can you plan, organize, direct and control team members to get things done properly?
If your answer is ‘Yes’ to at least one – you have chances of doing well in a career in marketing. Confused? Let us explain. If you answered ‘Yes’ to the first question, you are creative; analytical for second and coordinative for the third – three talents required to get into a marketing job. Though possessing all the three is not mandatory, having at least one of them is critical to do a marketing job.
Let us see why these talents are required in marketing jobs.
1. Talent for Creativity
The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as “a management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably”. In simpler words, marketing is about identifying consumer demand with respect to a product/service and developing ways to encourage people to purchase more of them to make the company profitable.
So the marketing specialist should have the ability to think out-of-the box and do things in a fresh, unique, and innovative way to attract and satisfy customer requirements. The candidate should be able to think beyond the traditional modes, not just going with assumptions, to solve unpredictable problems associated with consumerism.
The candidate should understand the commercial realities affecting the organisation and come up with ideas that should respond to the environment in order to make them viable. Creativity is required especially in two areas – graphics and copy writing. Both are critical to send an advertising or promotional message across clearly and effectively, whether it is using printed documents or electronic media.
For people with creative talent, marketing offers various career options like illustrators/visualizers, creative directors, web/graphic designers, copy writers, etc. So, if you think you have the talent for creativity, there are always opportunities waiting for you in marketing.
2. Analytical Talent
The next talent which opens doors to marketing career is the ability to think analytically. The candidate should have the ability to look beyond the numbers or data to find out the underlying patterns, trends, and connections. Armed with the data he should effectively evaluate and examine a problem with perseverance by paying attention to detail. This needs logic and analysis. An ability to see the big-picture along with logic and analysis is especially valued highly.
Analytical ability is critical in marketing jobs as there will be a continuous need to track and analyse changing consumer behaviour, buying patterns, emerging trends, etc., which help in determining what exactly consumers are looking for. The candidate should analyse the information to establish facts and principles to develop new products/modify existing product, design the packaging and develop advertising strategies to make the product stand apart from its competition and also to attract and engage the customers.
You can find various job roles like marketing analyst, market research specialist, SEO analyst, etc. So, if you believe that you have analytical talent, you can opt for marketing and make the best use of your natural talent.
3. Talent for Coordination
People who have talent for coordination are the people who can proactively coordinate the execution of a plan, i.e., to organize, direct and control resources to accomplish desired goals in a timely manner. They possess the ability to work with a number of people performing different operations and to make sure that all are working with a same objective to reach the organizational goal. In addition, they have effective spoken and written communication skills to express their ideas and views clearly.
Marketing is not a single operation. People in marketing department need to work with various teams of the company to get their work done. In such a scenario, the art of co-ordination is critical at every step. Right from the product designing department, product development, packaging, pricing, distribution, to the sales department, they need to work with all departments.
This clearly shows that an effective working relationship between the marketing and the other functional departments is essential for a company’s success and thus the talent to coordinate is essential especially for marketing coordinators.
The 3 key talents required for a marketing job are creativity, analytical and coordination talents
Having any one of the above mentioned three talents is the basic qualification to enter the field of marketing. However, in addition to talent, you need to pick up skills that add economic value to the organisation you are working for. Understanding core marketing, being customer focused, adding value to the customer, doing things in a way that are beneficial to the customer, having marketing mind set, etc., are few things you need to learn to be successful in a marketing career.
You may also like to read:
- Marketing Jobs vs. Sales Jobs
- Marketing and Sales – Can a Person Do Both the Jobs?
- Marketing Mindset Vs. Sales Mindset
- Entry Level Marketing Jobs