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There is so much more to a career in marketing these days
than just determining who will buy a product and where to
best position that product inside a store. With online sales
figures growing yearly, in some instances there aren’t
even stores in which to position products any longer. This
means the educational background needed to keep up with these
technological advancements is more important than ever. While
traditional marketing is still alive and well, and will certainly
be a large part of the course curriculum for any marketing
major, there is an increasing need to mold marketing educations
toward an expanding group of technology-based and focused
consumers.
About a Marketing Degree
A marketing degree tends to focus upon providing the student
with an understanding and ability to implement activities
relating to the supply, demand, and sales of products and
services. With a degree in marketing, expect to learn about
topics like brand management, research and development of
products, pricing strategies, and similar focus areas that
determine the success of products in the market place. With
a marketing degree, you can acquire the skills necessary to
build and facilitate successfully a company’s sales
strategies and understand how those strategies relate to and
affect the company as a whole.
Coursework
In many programs, a marketing degree will be supplemented
by general business courses like accounting, management, public
speaking, statistics, and similar courses that are necessary
to build the background that comes with most business programs.
Once you get into the main core curriculum of a marketing
program, you will likely take classes focused upon product
distribution, advertising, various types of marketing and
marketing strategies, product pricing, consumer behavior,
and product development. Everything from retail strategy to
international marketing is fair game in the modern marketing
degree program. While the coursework and focus of courses
may vary between programs and institutions, the general types
of courses and content will remain reasonably consistent between
most institutions of higher learning.
Careers
There is a wide variety of career paths one might take with
a degree in marketing. From marketing management to positions
in distribution or wholesaling, a marketing major can choose
from a long list of possibilities in the marketing industry.
Some of the best positions for growth within the marketing
field however, lie within the technology sector as well as
overseas in expanding foreign markets. Just about every company
that sells a product or service has a need for a marketing
department, and must rely on their marketing staff to mold
their sales strategies and adapt to changing technological
advancements and swiftly moving global markets. You may even
find yourself working from home, web or teleconferencing with
overseas clients and co-workers, or traveling abroad to research
foreign markets and economies.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a survey by
the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that
the starting salary for marketing majors in 2007 was $40,161,
while the Bureau of Labor Statistics listed the average annual
earnings for marketing managers in 2008 at $118,160.
For more information regarding marketing programs, check
out the Marketing
Schools directory.
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