What is career building?

Career building means planning for the future professional career of an individual. Career building consists of developing new skills, enhancing knowledge, pursuing education, gaining experience, and finding new opportunities over time.

Marketing

Marketing is the main component of commerce and business management. Marketing is the term used for the process that a company uses to promote, the selling, or buying of a product. Marketing includes targeting the audience with their needs, advertising the products using certain attributes, launching advertisement campaigns, hosting public events, trade shows, and so on. Marketing is often done by a retailer or seller. Various strategies are usually used by the companies to attract the customers to sell their products, such as - price, discount, warranty period, return policy, and so on.

Marketing works on three concepts - needs, wants, and demands. Needs are the things that are necessary for people to live a safe, stable, and healthy life. Needs are the must-have things in a person's life that are required for survival. Wants are the desires. Wants are the things that a person wishes to have and are not necessary for survival. When the needs and wants are supported by money, they become economic demands. Demands are just extensive wishes and are not at all necessary for survival.

Segments of marketing

There are various segments of marketing based on the services provider and consumer. The major segments are:

• Business-to-business marketing (B2B) marketing: In B2B marketing, the products and services are sold to other businesses, organizations, or companies. Generally, major equipment, accessories, raw materials, processed materials, and business services are sold in these types of marketing.

• Business-to-consumer (B2C) marketing: In B2C marketing, the products and services are directly promoted and sold to individual consumers.

Two other minor segments of marketing are:

• Customer-to Business (C2B) marketing: In C2B marketing, the customers create products and services, which are then purchased by the businesses, companies, and organizations

• Customer-to-Customer (C2C) marketing: In C2C marketing, the customers create products and services and sell them to other customers.

Market research

Market research is one of the most important components of business strategy. It refers to the gathering of information about the market, the products, and the target customers. Market research is necessary for the analysis of the needs, size, and competitiveness of a market. Some of the factors considered under market research are market information, market segmentation, market trends, and the political, economic, social, and technological (PEST) analysis.

• Market information is necessary to understand the variation in the prices of various products and also the supply and demand situations in the market. It is also necessary for understanding the legal, social, technical, and non-technical aspects of the market.
• Market segmentation is the term used for the division of the market into smaller groups on the basis of various geographic, demographic, technographic, and psychographic differences and is necessary for understanding the market thoroughly on the ground level.
• Market trends are the upward and downward movement of the market during a period of time. It is necessary for analyzing the trends going on in the market and predicting future trends.
• PEST analysis refers to the analysis of any organization's Political, Economic, Social, and Technological external factors. The analysis is necessary as these factors may affect an organization's objectives and profits.

A huge amount of data needs to be collected and sampled for high-quality market research. The data is collected by observing customers' behavior and interviewing them or sampling a certain number of customers.

Career building in marketing

A career in marketing has a very good scope and high demand. There is a number of roles that a person can undertake in marketing. A career in marketing requires the following skills:

• Good communication skills
• Having knowledge of multiple languages is a plus
• Ability to socialize
• Ability to specialize in a particular sector
• Good and bigger portfolio
• Network building ability
• Data analysis skills
• Brand marketing skills

To build a career in marketing, a bachelor's or master's degree is necessary as most companies put it as an eligibility criterion. Preferably, commerce stream in 11^th and 12^th and Bachelors of Business Administration (BBA), Bachelors of Business Management, or Bachelors of Commerce (B.Com) is recommended as the undergraduate courses for the students who want to build a career in marketing. There are several courses available in the country regarding marketing in both online and offline modes. After pursuing the course, a person can begin his/her career in marketing. Various companies such as Udemy, Udacity, Alison, Digiteers, Simplilearn, Hubspot Academy, and Clickminded provide online courses for marketing.

Some of the various positions that a person can serve in the field of marketing that has good scope are:

• Marketing executive
• Market analyst
• Market research director
• Market research supervisor
• Social media coordinator
• SEO specialist
• Marketing assistant
• Content marketer
• Digital strategist
• Web content writer
• Advertising assistant
• Brand manager
• Chief marketing officer
• Digital marketing manager
• eCommerce manager
• Email marketing manager
• Web producer
• Media buyer
• Product manager

Context and Applications

Career building is an important part of developing new skills and finding new opportunities over a period of time. Career building in marketing is useful for the students undergoing the following courses:

• Bachelors in Business Administration (Marketing)
• Master in Business Administration (Marketing)

Practice Problems

1. Which of the following means planning for the future professional career of an individual?

1. Career orientation
2. Career strategy
3. Career building
4. Career reinforcement

Answer: Option c

Explanation: Career building means planning for the future professional career of an individual. Career orientation, career strategy, and career reinforcement do not mean planning for the future professional career of an individual.

2. Which of the following is not included in marketing?

1. Targeting audiences with their needs
2. Hiring employees
3. Launching advertisement campaigns
4. Hosting public events

Answer: Option b

Explanation: Hiring employees is not included in marketing. Targeting audiences with their needs, launching advertisement campaigns, and hosting public events are all included in marketing.

3. Which of the following is not a segment of marketing?

1. Business-to-business marketing
2. Business-to-retailers marketing
3. Business-to-customer marketing
4. Customer-to-business marketing

Answer: Option b

Explanation: Business-to-Retailers marketing is not a segment of marketing. Business-to-business (B2B) marketing, business-to-customer (B2C) marketing, and customer-to-business (C2B) marketing are the segments of marketing.

4. Which of the following positions a person cannot serve in the field of marketing?

1. Executive engineer
2. SEO specialist
3. Digital strategist
4. Brand manager

Answer: Option a

Explanation: A person cannot serve the position of an executive engineer in the field of marketing. A person can serve as an SEO specialist, digital strategist, and brand manager in the field of marketing.

5. What does "E" in the PEST analysis stand for?

1. Elocution
2. Environmental
3. Engineering
4. Economic

Answer: Option d

Explanation: The "E" in the PEST analysis stands for Economic.