Are you considering a career in Marketing? Or starting your first Marketing role?
As you embark on your new adventure, let’s look at some fundamentals.
1 – What is Marketing?
2 – How does Marketing fit within the bigger picture?
3 – What are the different types of Marketing roles?
1 – What is Marketing?
In a nutshell, Marketing is about creating value by building products and services that meet consumers needs and help businesses achieve their financial targets. Marketing is not only about creating and promoting brands that satisfy different consumers needs and motivations but also it is about making money for businesses.
Marketing is a multifaceted discipline that requires strategic thinking, creativity and the ability to adapt to dynamic and changing business environments. It involves understanding consumers needs and preferences, creating and communicating brand value propositions and building relationships to foster long-term consumer loyalty for on going value creation.
There are many ways to build your understanding of what Marketing is about, from paid courses to free online education. It is up to you how much time and budget you want to dedicate to learn about this discipline.
Personally, I would suggest you start with free online tutorials and specialist publications to educate yourself about Marketing and find out if this is the right discipline for you. If you l
Check out:
Linkedin Learning Academy – Search for Marketing foundations training courses
Philip Kotler YouTube channel – Get some classic Marketing training from a renowned professor of International Marketing at the Kellogg School of Management
Marketing Week YouTube channel and their online publication – Read about Marketing news and key challenges
For Paid courses, check out the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM)
As with any learning resource, it is important to explore content from various channels to get a well-rounded understanding. Consider complementing online tutorials and publications with books, courses and practical experience to deepen your knowledge.
2 – How does Marketing fit within the bigger picture?
If you want to get into Marketing, it is also important to understand how this discipline fits within the broader business context. Ultimately, Marketeers aim to create value for a business, its customers and its end consumers. When you work in a Marketing team, you are responsible for delivering the business targets of an organisation, alongside other departments (Sales, Finance, Logistics etc…).
As you educate yourself about Marketing, try to also learn about business in general and understand how companies work. There are many reputable online publications that provide valuable insights into the business landscape.
A good place to start is reading the Retail / Consumer section of those online business publications to give you a broad perspective of the challenges that specific industries and brands are facing.
Check out those sections in the Financial Times, Forbes, Business Insider.
Note that a lot of online publications will charge to read their content, after providing a limited number of articles for free. If you are willing to pay an annual fee, take advantage of Black Friday offers in November as some publications offer discounted annual fees (i.e. the Economist).
Annual company reports are also valuable sources of information for understanding a company’s financial performance, strategies and overall health. There are several places where you can find annual reports for publicly traded companies:
- Company websites: Check out the dedicated section for investor relations where you can find annual reports. Look for links like ‘’Investors’’, ‘’Financials’’ or ‘’Annual reports’’ on the company website.
- Financial news websites: Check out sites such as Bloomberg, Reuters, CNBC that often provide access to company filings and reports. You can use their search functions to find specific companies and access their annual reports.
- Specialised websites such as https://www.annualreports.com/Featured/Reports
Always ensure you are looking at the most recent and official annual reports when conducting research on a specific company.
If you are new to reading annual company reports, it can be a little overwhelming. To better understand this valuable source of information, check out this Youtube tutorial on how to read an annual report and guidance from Investopedia.
Remember that staying informed about business often involves using different sources of information to get a well-rounded view. Many business publications offer online content and newsletters making it easy and quick (and free) to stay updated on the latest business news and trends.
3 – What are the different types of Marketing roles?
Marketing is a multi-faceted discipline with multiple and diverse roles for you to consider and experience during your career.
The Marketing roles landscape can be summarised as follow:
- Generalist and Specialist roles
- Client and Agency side roles
- Local and Global Marketing roles
Each of those roles will have a specific focus:
- Generalists: You work on all aspects of a brand, across the full Marketing Mix. Those are the classic Brand Management roles, from Assistant Brand Manager to Marketing Director positions.
- Specialists: You work on a specific area of the brand Marketing Mix. For example, you can work solely on Product Innovation, Packaging design, Communication, Social Media etc…
- Client side: You work for organisations owning brands. Typically, you work on one brand or a portfolio of brands in a Generalist role. Some businesses will also have Specialist roles in house i.e. Digital, Experiential, PR, Innovation managers.
- Agency side: You work for an agency collaborating with a client owning brands. Typically, you work with one client or a portfolio of clients across different industries. Agencies tend to specialise in a discipline within the Marketing Mix i.e. Design agency, Advertising agency, Media agency, Digital agency, Promotion agency, Experiential agency etc….
- Local Marketing: You work on one brand or a portfolio and you are responsible for brand performance in one market. This can be a Generalist or Specialist Marketing role (i.e. you are the Brand Manager fully responsible for brand X or you are the Digital Manager working across brands X, Y, Z alongside the brand teams).
- Global Marketing: You work on one brand or a portfolio and you are responsible for brand performance across multiple markets. This can be a Generalist or Specialist Marketing role (i.e. Global Brand Manager or Global Digital Manager).
So, plenty to choose from! Ultimately there is no right or wrong way to get into Marketing. It will be about your personal preferences as well as the job opportunities available to you at specific points in time during your career journey.
If I had to make a recommendation, I personally think that Generalist roles on the Client side are a great place to start as you will gain a deeper understanding of the discipline by working across the full Marketing Mix. With that experience in your pocket you can then decide if you want to continue working in general brand management or branch out to a specialised area of Marketing, staying either client side or moving to a specialist agency.
I hope you found this content informative and useful. Check out my other weekly posts on how to get into Marketing.