Post by Count_Rugen1.) I'm trying to move from a career founded in Web
Development/Programming into a career in Marketing.
Why? Why do you want to become a marketer? I know why I'm a marketer
and I've known this about myself for my whole life. In other words,
what I am asking you is why did you first go into Web Development /
Programming and now want to go into marketing. It would be
interesting to learn why you want to do the shift and we might be able
to give you input based on those reasons.
Also, realize that marketing is an umbrella term. In reality, there
is only one marketer in a company and that is the person that heads
the marketing department. Everyone else in a marketing department is
a specialist. This is because marketing is, again, an umbrella
concept. Basically, marketing consists of five components and,
managed properly by the company's marketer (a.k.a. VP of Marketing,
Director of Marketing, etc.), s/he creates an ever-improving loop
where one component feeds on another and feeds a later one. The five-
part loop starts with...
MARKETING STRATEGY In this day and age of political-correctness, the
marketing director will say that everyone in a marketing department
makes its marketing strategy. In reality, that's PC bullshit. Only
one person makes marketing strategy and that's the company's head
marketer (a.k.a. Chief Marketing Officer [CMO], VP of Marketing,
etc.). For a marketing strategy to work, it must have a single solid
coherent vision and that is only possible when ONE person makes it. A
marketing strategy made by more than one person or, worse, a committee
is doomed. It is like the old joke. A camel is a horse designed by
committee. Out of the marketing strategy comes the marketing plan.
The marketing plan is how the head marketer plans to execute his
marketing strategy. The marketing strategy is the grand vision
whereas the marketing plan is the blueprints to building that vision.
Out of the marketing plan first comes...
PUBLIC RELATIONS Public relations should come first because it gives
the marketer the most bang for his marketing buck. A one-inch
paragraph in an article in the Wall Street Journal about your product/
service/company is worth FAR more than a full-page two-page-spread ad
in WSJ. The reason is because that mention of your product/service/
company in that news article is being said by a supposedly objective
third party whereas your two-page-spread is said by you. In other
words, people will believe what the reporter says about you and, at
best, be wary of what you have to say about yourself. Another great
thing about PR is its cost-effectiveness. To get that mention in WSJ
could be achieved with one phone call to or from a reporter. Getting
that phone call is the challenge but, again, on a cost basis, it is
insanely cheap. However, there is a major problem with PR and that it
is almost only effective IF you have something new and exciting to
tell. Your company discovers the cure for aging and your company will
be on the front page of every newspaper, the cover of every news
magazine, and the lead story on every TV and radio newscast in the
world. Your company comes out with the new scent of "lemon-orange"
for the bar soap you make and not even bloggers will mention it.
Without something newsworthy, PR isn't possible and when that's the
boat you're in, it means you have to use marketing's old workhorse:
ADVERTISING Ever try to tell your loved one how much you love them in
at least 1,000 words without using examples. Go ahead. Think of how
you would do it. Try it. Sit down right now and try to think of
1,000 words on how much you love your loved one without repeating
yourself or giving examples. You might think it isn't that hard, but
if you think that, then really do try to do it. You will find after a
mere 200 words, your progress will slow down. After 500 words, you
will be reaching into the back of your brain for something original to
say. After 750, you will start to scream. When you hit 1,000, you
will yell "Made it!", not add one more word, and collapse from mental
exhaustion. Welcome to the world of advertising. As an advertising
executive, you have to sell the same old shoe again and again. Each
time, you need to make it seem new and exciting ... while knowing it
is anything but. But that's your job. How can you get eyeballs to
read one more shoe magazine ad? Or watch one more TV commercial for
shoes? Or to look over the direct-mail brochure instead of
immediately trashing it once the recipient has identified it as junk
mail? The truth of the matter is that advertisers are the most
creative people on the face of the Earth. They're not trying to
create something new. They are trying to make people believe
something old is new. Not only that but they have the added demand of
getting people to then buy, use, or donate to it!
SALES Some people don't think sales is part of marketing, but those
are usually marketing professors. *laugh* In reality, sales is a
crucial part of marketing. It is the "end" result. [You will
understand in a bit why I put quote marks around one of the words in
that last sentence in a moment.] For the marketer, the sole purpose
of public relations and advertising is to generate sales. The
purchasing of one's product or service, the donating of money to one's
cause, the voting for one's candidate, or whatever. Sales is action.
Action by customers that generates what your company (or non-profit)
is trying to get from the public. It can be direct sales where the
person gets a direct-mail brochure and convinced to go to the
company's website and buy online a box of your lemon-orange-scented
soap bars. Or it could be to produce leads for your sales force. To
get people to stop into your car dealership ... or call up your
accounting firm's "new accounts" sales rep ... or whatever. Sales is
the unit of measure of the success or failure of your public relations
and/or advertising efforts. However, it isn't the measuring stick.
That is...
MARKET RESEARCH Though I could easily call this "The Hated Market
Research" due to how many CEOs hate it. However, properly done market
research is crucial for a business' success. Unfortunately, most
market research is improperly done. What's the difference between the
two? That's simple. Who directs market research? Answer that and
you will know the answer. If market research directs itself, it is
worse than useless. It can damage a company. This is how the Ford
Edsel, New Coke, and Pets.com came into existence. If the head
marketer directs market research, it will be cost-effective and
actually help the company succeed. Good market research tracks
EVERYTHING the marketing department does, makes educated guesses why
something worked (or didn't), and then passes along this information
and guesswork to the head marketer. A good head marketer NEVER takes
market research's guesswork as gospel. If market research says the
sun will rise tomorrow, a good head marketer will have a marketing
intern stay up all night to verify that. The tracking information
that market research gives the head marketer can be trusted but not
its guesswork. The tracking information will tell the head marketer
how successful (or not) his marketing plan was. The head marketer's
job is then to evolve his marketing plan based on this information.
This is where market research's guesswork comes into play. Market
research guesses the "why" behind successes and failures. The job of
the head marketer is to then test those guesses with the next
evolution of his marketing plan. If market research thinks that a
green background instead of a yellow background will improve the
effectiveness of the company's direct-mail postcard ads, the head
marketer will send off half of the next batch of direct-mail brochures
with a green background and the other half with a yellow. Market
research then tracks the success rate of the two and tells the head
marketer of the results, makes further guesses on what shades of the
winning color might get better results, and the head marketer then
tests that. If market research's guesses are always off the mark, the
head marketer will soon be appointing a new head of market research.
THE NEVER-ENDING EVER-IMPROVING LOOP With Market Research, a never-
ending loop comes into existence. If the company has a good head
marketer, the loop will be an ever-improving cycle that will be always
increasing the success of the company.
Now the above just covers the basic five components of marketing.
There are other components. There is location and in-store staff
image for retail stores, restaurants, stripclubs, and other places of
business where the buying public comes to. There is government
relations (a sub-set of PR) if the company sells to and/or has to
heavily deal with government. And there are still others. But the
above five is the core of any marketing plan.
Post by Count_Rugen2.) I've just recently started college part-time (just one or two
classes a semester) in Marketing.
Sorry, but I think marketing courses at any college is a waste of time
for a wannabe marketer. After you leave college and start doing
marketing in the real world, you will look back at and view your
marketing professors as incompetent boobs. Marketing is a high-paying
job field IF you have talent. Think about that sentence. Really
think about that sentence. Then ask yourself if your marketing
professors are such great marketers, WHY are they professors and not
marketing executives. The old phrase "If you cannot do, you teach."
strongly applies to marketing professors. And those marketing
professors who tell you of their supposed strong marketing
credentials, on-the-side marketing consulting work, or summer
marketing jobs are also suspect. Why did they really leave the real
world of business or treat it as a hobby? In my dealings with such
individuals, the reality almost always turns out to be that they
became burnt out, stressed out, and just wimped out. The real world
of business is insanely competitive and cut-throat whereas the
academic world is a tenure-protected fantasyland disconnected from
reality. If you cannot hack it in the real world, academia is where
you want to go.
Want to book learn about marketing? Fine. Read David Ogilvy's
"Ogilvy on Advertising", Philip Kotler's "High Visibility" (1990
edition on celebrity marketing), Micheal Gerber's "The E-Myth", and
Denis Waitley's "The Double Win".
Now if you want to go to college to learn something useful for
marketing, take psychology courses. If you can understand how people
think, you can then effectively market to them. You will learn that
everyone isn't the same. You will learn about extroverts and
introverts and then, if you have your thinking cap on, you will
understand how to approach both. There is psychology of color,
sexuality, relationships, eye movement, and a whole list of things you
will find valuable for advertising. There is social psychology that
will teach you about group dynamics, herd mentality, trend-setters,
late adopters, and another whole list of things you will find valuable
not only for advertising but public relations. By the way, I would
recommend you take social psychology twice. Once taught by a
psychology professor and once taught by sociology professor. Trust
me. They will have radically different takes on this same topic. Oh,
and you'll learn the same information in your psychological
measurement course as you would in a market research course.
But don't go to college. All the psychology knowledge I listed above
can be learned from books for sale at your local bookstore. Buy them
and then highlight them as you read them. Highlight what you didn't
know and find valuable. You can then later re-read your highlights to
keep the information fresh in your head. As for what you should do
instead of going to college, I offer a suggestion below.
Post by Count_Rugen3.) I already have a degree in Computer Science.
4.) I already have about 5 years development work
experience under my belt (since I got my CS degree).
I would recommend you use the above to your advantage. Sell yourself
as the marketer for a small computer consulting firm. Yup, a one-man-
marketing-department. What I would suggest is that you sell yourself
to a small computer consulting firm as one of their part-time web
development programmer and their first part-time marketer. Most small
computer consulting firms don't have a single marketer working for
them so it should be an easy sell for you. Very easy in fact since
most computer consulting firms are HORRIBLE at sales work and will be
over-joyed that someone will do it for them. Work for them as one of
their part-time programmer but always try to do as much marketing as
possible for them. If you are any good at marketing, you will then be
bringing in clients for them and that means profits. Eventually, you
will be FAR more valuable to them as their marketer than as one of
their programmers. It will be a natural shift for you to then be
their full-time marketer and as you build their company, you can build
a marketing department underneath you. And you will be a more
effective marketer for them since you know their technical jargon.
As for doing marketing for a computer consulting firm, the truth of
the matter is that the majority of high-profit-margin sales is made
through in-the-flesh networking. Join your local business
associations and attend their meetings religiously. Get business
cards printed up and pass them out like candy at these meetings. If
they have a bar, become one of its barflies. Join your local golf
courses. Note the plural in that last sentence. More business deals
are proposed and refined on the links and then sealed at the
nineteenth hole (the club's bar) than anywhere else. Treat potential
clients not like gullible marks but like good old buddies. Butter
them up. If they like the wild side and hot women, treat them to a
night at your local stripclub. If they like opera, ask if they would
like to join you and your wife for a night at the theater since you
"just happen to have two spare tickets". Then over drinks at either
or another event, do a soft sell pitch for your company. Get them to
agree to a contract right there (yes, this takes finesse) and then
come to their office the next day to put it in writing and make it
official.
Good luck!
Scott