If you're trying to bribe people into trying something new, do you try a sampling program? (A sampling program is some method of getting free samples of the product or service into the hands of consumers. Either by putting it in their mailbox or giving it away free in stores, thereby convincing them to spend their own money to buy more the next time they're some place that product or service is available.) Or, is sampling impractical? Is there a better way to get people to try this fantastic new what champ call it?
If you're trying to get consumers to buy more of something they already know about, do you try to sell that old product to a new market segment (a group at which previous advertising efforts had not been aimed)? Or, do you try to find a new benefit of the product or service which would convince present users to use more?
If you want to get into the marketing department of an advertising agency, those are only a few of the problems you'll spend your entire career trying to solve.
Doesn't it get boring after a while? Don't the same marketing problems keep popping up again and again? Sooner or later, don't you arrive at a handful of solutions that always answer the questions?
The answer to the above question is-not by a long shot. Granted, a marketing problem may arise today which is similar to one you had a year ago. But no two situations are ever the same. Even if they were, the solutions must change because consumers change.
The American consumer is a very unpredictable creature. Just when you think you have him figured out, darned if he doesn't do something completely out of character. That's one of the things that makes life interesting and keeps marketing people employed.
Even so, there are certain marketing principles that can and must be learned. Those are the threads by which marketing people hang every time they're faced with yet another seemingly unsolvable problem.
One of the ways you can begin to learn what it takes to be a marketing person is to take the appropriate courses in school. Obviously, any would-be marketing person should take all of the marketing courses he can. He should also go to as much toil and trouble as he can tolerate to round out his academic advertising education. He should take courses in merchandising, promotion, and psychology. If the opportunity to take courses in graphics or creative writing presents itself, you'd be well advised to take advantage of it. The same goes for courses in film production, photography, and drama. True, those areas won't occupy much of your time once you're employed in the marketing department of an agency, but you will be working with professionals in those areas.
College isn't the only way you can prepare yourself for a career in marketing, though. Experience in summer jobs will also help. If you want to get into marketing, the first place you should look for a summer job is on an internship program with a real live advertising agency. But internship programs are rare and difficult to get into, so you should know about other possible places for summer employment. A market research firm would be at least as good for you as an agency, and maybe even better.
Market research companies handle marketing problems for both advertising agencies and advertisers. Even a low-level summer job in a market research firm would expose you to marketing problems and solutions. You'd learn the methodology and see it practiced every day. You'd learn more about marketing over the course of a summer than you would in two marketing courses in school. You'd also make more business connections in a marketing firm than you would in school.
If you can't get into a market research firm, try media buying services. They work with both agencies and advertisers. Maybe it wouldn't teach you as much as you'd learn in an agency or market research firm, but you'd learn more than you would clean kennels.
If you still don't hit pay dirt, try your luck with other firms that work with agencies, more specifically, with their marketing departments. For example, maybe you could try to get into the sales department of a radio or TV station, or the sales department of a magazine or newspaper. Most of your dealings here would be with media and account service, but even at that you'd be making some valuable contacts, and you would still get to meet marketing people.
