Why should you study marketing? Marketing is the process of communicating the value of a particular product or service to prospective customers with the aim of selling that product or service. It involves managing, anticipating, and satisfying the demands for products or services. It also involves promoting a company’s ability to do so to its target audience.
Effective marketing involves analyzing every aspect of the business and examining the customer’s experience at each stage of the sales chain. As a marketer, your role is to help organizations understand and identify their target customers and develop and execute strategies to communicate the benefits and unique selling points of the company’s products and services.
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A degree in marketing will position you for job opportunities as a public relations specialist, marketing manager, or account executive.
Here are some important reasons why you may consider studying marketing:.
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1. Marketing skills is essential in this fast-growing digital world
Elon Musk did not study marketing; he studied Physics and Business. But eventually, he founded several businesses and companies that needed one form of marketing or another. When you take a critical look at Tesla’s promotion model, you’ll think marketing is not involved. Tesla builds unique products and explains how they change the way we live in an effective marketing approach.
We live in a world today where practically everything is done online. Every business is looking for ways to showcase its brand online. All these cannot be achieved without an effective marketing strategy. The demand for marketing experts continues to skyrocket. Therefore, choosing to study marketing positions allows you to have a booming career path.
2. Studying Marketing helps you understand how to influence people’s decisions
When you study marketing as a course, you become an influencer. You’ll easily make people see things the way you want them to without compulsion. Marketing is based on telling people what they want to hear. Marketers are good at arousing buying interest in their audience, even when they aren’t feeling like buying. As a trained marketer, this is a skill you can apply in almost every area of your human interaction.
3. Direct marketing is the heartbeat of every business communication
As a marketer, you may not be directly involved in selling products and services to your target audience. But regardless of your career path, you will need to communicate your way to the top. The exercise of communication in the business world is a form of marketing your personal brand. You cannot achieve success in your career or business without selling yourself.
4. marketing skill stands you out
Marketing skills are an added advantage in every endeavor of Life. Let’s say, for instance, you plan to pursue a career in law. You hire the services of a professional writing agency to help you write an award-winning cover letter or resume. But during the interview, you’ll have to showcase yourself. You’ll instantly get the attention of any hiring manager if you mention that you have marketing skills and further mention some successful projects you have been part of. With good marketing skills, you’re an asset to any organization that hires you.
5. Through Marketing Research, you learn about Competitors
Even if you don’t plan to be directly involved in marketing products and services in the future, you’ll still need to be better than your competitors in any industry you find yourself in. Studying a marketing course at college will cover this aspect of competition research.
Also read 10 Reasons Why You Should Study International Relations
6. You learn to understand other perspectives
If you plan to enter business in the near future, you’ll have to understand your target audience. If you become a manufacturer, you need to understand the kind of products your target audience likes. Whatever you decide to start, you’ll need to understand human behavioral psychology. Marketing helps you understand other people’s perspectives and psychology so you can provide well-tailored products and services they can benefit from.
7. A marketing course boosts your communication skills
Communication skill are an integral part of ethical marketing. Marketing courses are structured to help you learn how to sound smart in your communication and look appropriate in different scenarios. Marketers are good communicators and influence other people easily.
8. Marketing is fun
Let’s be frank; most college courses are not always exciting to study. If you’re looking for an exciting course that involves unusual lectures and opens you to new perspectives, then you should consider marketing. You get to learn from professors who are experienced in their fields.
9. Marketing is an integral part of everything
Marketing is not a course that concerns only medical reps and sales personnel. Whether you’re a teacher, medical doctor, engineer, plumber, pastor, or imam, you need marketing skills to influence people and attract them to what you have to offer. After all is said and done, we all need marketing skills, regardless of our field of specialization.
10. Employment opportunities
A career in marketing is very attractive because there are numerous jobs and opportunities. You can use your degree to advance into careers like business management, consultancy, advertising, PR, sales, communication, marketing, and more. You’ll also have the business skills needed to pursue career paths outside marketing if you wish.
Marketing jobs fall into two main categories: agency roles, where you get to work on different projects based on the client’s portfolio, or in-house marketing roles, where you’ll be solely based within an organization and work on marketing projects for the company. You can also choose to specialize in other areas such as direct marketing, social media marketing, and market research, or pursue general marketing roles where you get to work across the marketing industry.
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What to Expect from a Marketing Degree
Marketing degrees are available as BS (Bachelor of Science) or BA (Bachelor of Arts). The major difference between a Marketing BS and a Marketing BA is that BS focuses on the scientific, mathematical, and technological aspects of marketing, while BA in marketing focuses more on humanities.
Basically, marketing degrees last between three and four years at undergraduate levels. However, in some countries, you can finish a two-year associate degree program (also known as foundation degree) and qualify for marketing job positions. A bachelor’s degree in marketing positions you for high-paying jobs in the business and marketing industry.
Marketing degrees are primarily taught using a combination of tutorials, lectures, seminars, market research projects, case study analyses, exams, and coursework used for assessment. Most marketing degrees also include the opportunity to gain professional accreditations from professional organizations such as the Communication Advertising and Marketing Foundation (CAM), Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), and Google Analytics.
Also read 10 Reasons Why You Should Study Business Administration
Associate Degree in Marketing Courses
Students can earn an Associate in Science (AS) or an Associate in Applied Science (AAS) in Marketing in about two years. These associate degree programs prepare students for marketing trainee jobs in different industries and entry-level jobs in logistics, distribution, customer service, sales, and retail. Examples of courses to register for associate degree programs include
- Introduction to Salesmanship Techniques
- Introduction to Retail
- International Marketing Strategies
- Principles of Marketing
Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing Courses
A bachelor’s degree in marketing is a popular degree in this digital age, which takes about 3 to four years to complete. The degrees are mostly offered as a Bachelor of Science in Marketing (BS), Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), and Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing (BSB), with a core in Marketing. The courses in these degree programs are designed to prepare students for management-level marketing business across every industry. Bachelor’s degree courses in marketing focus on general business trends, business communication terminology and practices, core marketing principles, economics, and finance. The degree program also includes classes in specialized areas that teach students principles such as:
- Recognizing trends and strategies in selling and buying products and services
- Applying market research
- Fostering the relationship between companies and their clients
- Identifying sales management issues
- Examining the core elements of sales practices
- Understanding consumer behavior
- Mastering the elements of creating a professional image
- developing a winning attitude
- abiding by business ethics
- Calculating retail pricing using both cost- and profit-based approaches
Furthermore, most courses require that the students take electives in Business, Psychology, Math, and Literature. Some Bachelor’s degrees in marketing courses include:
- Business-to-business marketing
- Principles of Finance
- Quantitative Methods
- Principles of Marketing
- Public Relations
- Macroeconomics
- Managerial Communications
Also read 10 Reasons Why You Should Study Law
Master’s Degree Courses
Pursuing a master’s degree in marketing takes about two years to complete after you have successfully completed your undergraduate studies. Marketing Master’s degree programs offer two types of degrees: Masters of Science (MS) in marketing and Master’s in Business Administration (MBA) with a core in marketing. Master’s courses train students to develop business skills that can be applied across every industry of human endeavor. They also focus on marketing-related issues, marketing and sales research, the psychology behind consumer behavior, etc. some specific courses for Master’s in Marketing include
- Advanced Quantitative Analysis
- Global Marketing Strategies
- Product Innovation
- Internet Marketing and E-commerce
Doctoral Degree Courses
Pursuing a doctorate in marketing will prepare you for a career as a private researcher, paid consultant, lecturer, or professor. The courses focus on teaching techniques, data analysis and interpretation, reach formats, understanding theories, and evaluating marketing techniques. The Ph.D.-level courses instruct students in advanced concepts in the psychology and mythology of marketing. Doctoral students take courses in areas like
- Marketing Models
- Concepts and Foundations of Product Planning
- Transportation and Distribution Theory
- Multivariate Statistics
- Multinational Marketing
- Behavioral Marketing
Pursuing a degree in marketing prepares you beyond a career in business. Marketing involves a thorough exploration of buyer personas, customer perceptions, communication, messaging, data, and lots more. A degree in marketing is not only useful in a traditional business setting; it also equips students to understand human behavioral psychology and persuasion skills.
