Marketing Careers Quick Sheet

 

Possible Career Paths:

 

Product and Brand Management is the application of marketing techniques to a specific product, product line, or brand. It seeks to increase a product's perceived value to the customer and thereby increase brand franchise and brand equity. Marketers see a brand as an implied promise that the level of quality people have come to expect from a brand will continue with future purchases of the same product. This may increase sales by making a comparison with competing products more favorable. It may also enable the manufacturer to charge more for the product.

 

Category Management is a retailing concept in which the range of products sold by a retailer is broken down into discrete groups of similar or related products; these groups are known as product categories (examples of grocery categories might be: tinned fish, washing detergent, toothpastes).                               

Market Research is any organized effort to gather information about markets or customers. It is a very important component of business strategy. The term is commonly interchanged with marketing research; however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that marketing research is concerned specifically about marketing processes, while market research is concerned specifically with markets.  Market research, includes social and opinion research, [and] is the systematic gathering and interpretation of information about individuals or organizations using statistical and analytical methods and techniques of the applied social sciences to gain insight or support decision making.

Marketing Communications (or MarCom or Integrated Marketing Communications) are messages and related media used to communicate with a market. Marketing communications is the "promotion" part of the "Marketing Mix" or the "four Ps": price, place, promotion, and product.  Those who practice advertising, branding, direct marketing, graphic design, marketing, packaging, promotion, publicity, sponsorship, public relations, sales, sales promotion and online marketing are termed marketing communicators, marketing communication managers, or more briefly, marcom managers.

Investment Marketing helps investment firms attract new investors and increase assets under management in compliance with SEC rules and regulations.  This includes the design and production of print and electronic marketing materials needed for a marketing campaign. 

 

New Product Development Specialist Some companies have a position specifically targeted to managing new or developing product lines. The new product specialist is skilled at launching and marketing initial implementations of a product or marketing plan before giving the project to a product manager for ongoing maintenance.

 

Marketing Manager The marketing manager’s responsibilities are similar to those of the product manager, but are focused on servicing and managing an ongoing relationship with existing customers. The marketing manager utilizes skills in international marketing, customer satisfaction and retention, market strategy, and emerging technologies. This position can be highly demanding and require intensive knowledge of market research and customer management.

 

Account Management Specialist The account manager is responsible for a large number of the functions of a product manager, but on the advertising agency side of things.

 

Marketing Consultant Marketing consultants create and implement plans and strategies for their clients to help sell particular products or services. An advertising executive is not the same as a marketing consultant since advertising is only one part of the marketing mix. The term marketing mix refers to how a certain product or service is priced, packaged, distributed, promoted and sold. The marketing mix varies depending on the industry, client and individual products and services. The main job of marketing consultants is to advise clients on the best strategies for selling their products or services.

               

 

Career Exploration/Industry Perspective:

Advertising

Marketing and Brand Management

Media & Entertainment

Journalism and Information Media

·         BRANDWEEK (http://www.library.pitt.edu)

o    Marketing and brand related information

o    Relevant for all marketing career fields

o    Access through the Pitt library website (http://www.library.pitt.edu).You will have to be authenticated if you are accessing it from off campus.  Instructions at: http://www.library.pitt.edu/services/remote.html

1.       At (http://www.library.pitt.edu) click the "find articles" tab

2.       Click "E-journals" in the grey box on the right side of the screen

3.       Type in "Brandweek" in the search box for "Title starts with..." This will show you a list of databases through which you can access this journal online.

 

Recruiting Cycle:

  • Full-time Interviewing Season begins – October
  • Internship Interviewing Season begins – Early to mid January

Job and Internship Sites:

 

Networking:

 

Interview Prep:

 

Marketing Contacts:

Career Services Hollie Kawecki

Club Leaders       Chris Nirschel and Brad van Unen

Peer Mentors     Chris Nirschel, Amy Mrazek, John Saxton, Brad van Unen, Megan Weiss, Lindsey Braem,

                                Edward May and Dan Paulino