Your Questions About Direct Marketing Jobs
Carol asks…
How bad is the job outlook for people with an IT college degree?
On the Occupational Outlook Handbook it says that the job prospects should be excellent but it seems that the reality is that it is not. Im in college now working towards a computer science degree and in class my teacher mentioned that a lot of IT jobs are being outsourced. There’s also someone in my class who was a programmer for a bank but got laid off (she said it took her 10 months to find a new job…). I would like to know how the IT job market really is so that I know exactly what im getting into.
Jere answers:
It’s not brilliant; then again, not much is at the moment. Realistically there’ll always be a requirement for IT staff; but many places have job freezes on, and people aren’t keen to leave their jobs.
To give you the best chance of getting work once you’ve finished your degree, get as much practical experience as you can (either in direct IT work, or even in customer service positions – having recently hired new IT staff, many of the degree qualified applicants had no real experience and some had never had a job… So those with experience trumped them almost immediately)
Chris asks…
is marketing a good career choice to major in?
I’m interested in the marketing aspect of things, would it be a great career choice in the future?
Jere answers:
Hi there,
From the moment you decided that you are interested in Marketing, you proved to yourself that you have a feeling that you will be enjoying a job in the marketing field even though you may not still have a clear idea of what is marketing exactly. For this, I will pass you some information from my knowledge and 20 years of experience in the field of Marketing.
By choosing to follow a career in Marketing, you already succeeded to give yourself a very big variety of professions. You can work from product development departments, to setting prices on products, involved in all different professions of the supply chain, deal with promotions through advertising, sales promotions, train sales people in improving their personal skills, and finally to organize and implement direct marketing via the use of the internet.
I learned from other successful people to follow two simple rules. 1. To leave always a window open in all decisions I take in my life 2. Never to put all my eggs in the same basket because if I drop that basket I will lose all my eggs!!! I am sure my message is very clear to you.
Go ahead with marketing and you will never lose. You can only benefit yourself from it.
Theocharis katranis
http://theos-taekwondo.blogspot.com/
Nancy asks…
How will the crisis among sub-prime borrowers affect the housing market and the overall economy?
The American economy is driven first and foremost by consumer spending. Some think that this crisis will trickle down into the rest of the economy and snag businesses and people who have poor credit ratings and limit everyone’s ability to finance large purchases, thus hurting those who are selling those large purchases, thus… well, you can see the dominos… Also, the net worth of the average consumer is sliding as the value of his home corrects. Others believe that this is far smaller than past crises such as the S&L shakedown during the 80’s. The economy then barely burbed. Please give me your opinion, and more importantly, direct me to an interesting article on the subject.
Oh, and one more thing, New Jersey, your property taxes are atrocious, and I’m leaving your economy by the end of the year.
Jere answers:
As I have been stating for the last six months, it is not just the sub prime market, that was the beginning, now we are seeing the Alt-A, and the prime market taking a hit. The hit will be more pronounced in the next few months as the ARM’s are getting ready to adjust. Consumer spending drives the economy but what happened is housing inflated at double digit rates, energy has doubled, income has only gone up an average of 3.9%, and people treated their homes as giant ATM machines, now the bills are due. The artificially inflated worth of homes compared to rise of income is similiar to the dot com bubble of 10 years ago, and has now come home to roost. The tightening of credit put less buyers in the market, yet the foreclosure’s put more homes on the market leading to depreciating worth. It’s a cycle. Now we see the economy loosing jobs. We are heading into a recession, the naysayers have been blaming the lenders, and the sub prime market but it goies well beyind that.
Maria asks…
What are the different fields of marketing?
I want to get a job in marketing, but I’m not sure which type of marketing I want to go into. Can someone please explain all the fields of marketing and perhaps (if it applies) talk about their own experience with the marketing industry?
Jere answers:
1) Market Research
Market research entails collecting, analyzing and interpreting information about what people buy and why they buy it. Tools such as market analysis, surveys, focus groups and product testing help companies identify markets for their products so that they can direct their marketing efforts and dollars to the target groups most likely to buy. Market research also identifies potential barriers customers face in entering the market and suggests ways to overcome them.
2) Brand Management
Brand, or product, management is devoted to conceptualizing products and getting them to market. Branding management includes market research, research and development, production, distribution, advertising and sales.
3) Advertising
Advertising uses the media to communicate a product’s value. It involves both a creative process and an analytic one. The creative process conceptualizes ad campaigns and designs and produces the ads themselves. The analytic processes identify the best media outlets in which to place ads and develop and track metrics to measure the ads’ effectiveness.
4) Public Relations
Public relations is closely related to advertising but rather than focus on products, it focuses on the company’s public image. Public relations messages communicate the company’s values and its activities and achievements that illustrate adherence to those values.
5) Promotion
Promotion builds relationships between wholesalers and retailers and uses incentives to entice customers to purchase a product. Incentives include discounts, samples and other tools that add value and make an offer too good to refuse.
6) Sales
Sales manages the process of getting products to the customer. It presents the personal “face” of a company and its products — the sales rep — to customers in an effort to get them to purchase, and then ensures that the purchase is delivered. Relationship-building is a vital sales function, as it takes fewer resources for a company to keep an existing customer than to replace one.
7) Retailing
Retailing is a sales function that puts a company’s products directly before an end user rather than a wholesaler who’ll act as a go-between for the company and the end user. Merchandising, which uses information gleaned from market research about what arrangement of products and what decor and atmosphere in a store entice customers to purchase, is an important aspect of retailing.
Sharon asks…
How do I write a job proposal for a commission print advertising sales rep?
I was approached by a local magazine, to have a job proposal for for a commissioned, print advertising sales rep. What type of format, template or spreadsheet should I use and what needs to be included?
Jere answers:
If you’re writing a proposal to be a commissioned sales rep for a magazine or newspaper then it doesn’t matter what program you use – Word would be fine I guess. Think of it like writing a resume.
You should prove you have previous sales experience and understand the processes involved in selling print advertising to direct and agency customers.
Look at the target market for the publications and discover as much as you can about who you are going to be selling to.
Good luck.
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