Marketing is not only about sales: Sonia

Indira School of Business Studies

Truth be told, everybody has done something to be where they are today.

How to start building your career right from deciding the course to be done after graduation/schooling, deciding the best college for the courses you opted for, deciding the specialisation for you, then arriving at the most important decision of our life ‘Which profile you want to pursue your career in?’ and then, which company to sit for in campus placement (of course the dream of each student) are a few questions that run in the mind of every student

Trust me, guys. Getting admission into one of the decent colleges proves to be very vital for shaping someone as a professional. So is my story. Now we come to a point of ‘what do you mean by decent college?’ I, being an average student, was not expecting a call from top management colleges. So, I was expecting the college with appropriate infrastructure, well-trained faculty, decent fee, a hostel facility and most importantly, good placements (rather, I should place at this point at the top of my list). So, I can definitely say Indira School of Business Studies fulfilled all the criteria and helped me to manage a job in one of the known research companies.   

I can understand getting admission is also not easy. At the end of the day, everyone wants a job. Everyone expects returns on their investment. So yes, one should devote time in order to understand the best college for the course they choose for themselves.

I used to read blogs on Shiksha and other education websites and used to ask lot of questions to my seniors about the courses to pursue after BBA. What are the entrance exams for the same? What colleges are available for the scores I obtained? Which B-school offers the best placements were a few questions that were important for me. Also, comparing different colleges, choosing the best colleges among the options available, handling the admission procedure, etc. was on my priority list.

Emerging trends

It is very essential to understand the emerging trends in the market/industry you want to enter into. Also, in parallel, you have to understand yourself. In other words, you need to gauge yourself deeply and understand want you want to do. Okay, let me make you understand by telling you my story. Firstly, I chose marketing as my specialisation. And the reason I chose marketing is because I don’t like Finance. I l liked HR but was afraid of the fact that the college attracted lesser companies for HR. So, I was left with only Marketing. No, the problem doesn’t get solved there. Marketing: I was aware of the fact that the college will get plenty of companies for sales profile. Along with this, I was also aware of the fact that I am not made for a sales profile.

The one thing I was sure about was I didn’t want to sit for a sales profile. For that matter, I kept on scolding myself for not choosing HR, but you know the HR story (can’t risk it).

It was high time to understand what I was good at and understanding the job opportunities with the Marketing specialisation.  Then, through the alumni sessions we got to know the various option that we have in the Marketing specialisation. Alumni sessions were conducted weekly by the college in which the seniors/super seniors visited the college and shared their corporate experience. That was great learning and I got to know about the Market Research industry.

Available career options

Market research industry is one of the evolving industries. The research may help the client to understand the drivers of the evolving customers, competition, supply chain and the churn rate. In order to complete the analysis, companies do primary and secondary research, use analytics tools, and visualisations tools in order to provide fruitful insights to the clients.

Nevertheless, I don’t want to talk about big things here and never want to confuse the readers with the jargons that I have used here. I just want to make you aware of the industry I am working in and want the students to be aware about this booming industry too. Also, one more point I want to conclude here is, the marketing specialisation doesn’t mean only sales. There are lots of career options available in this stream. You just have to explore the available options and choose the best one which suits your interest, exactly the way I did.

Getting a job is easy and sustaining in the same job is difficult. I have heard so many stories from my friends. For the sake of getting the job, they just entered into the wrong profiles and then ended up resigning from the job in a very short span of time. So, it is very important to start your career with the profile/industry you want. Also, changing your industry after a few years means again starting your career from Day 1. So, try not to change your profile/industry. Students need to devote time in order to understand the complexities of each profile and which one is best fitted for their interest.

Now, we come to the point of the skills that students should possess in order to be successful in this field. The student should have a strong business acumen in order to understand the business problems of a client. The “Kotler” is the bible for us, so it will be good if the student can brush up all the basic concepts of marketing in order to provide the fruitful solutions and recommendations to the client.

Rest, the real learning will happen after entering into the real corporate world. Good luck guys.

Happy learning!

About the Author

Sonia

I am Sonia and did my Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) batch of 2015 from Indira School of Business Studies. I got placed in a market research organisation, and currently I have close to 3.5 years of experience in the research industry. I have an experience in extensively using primary and secondary research to understand the dynamics of the industry.