Marketing director
Marketing involves the principles and procedures of positioning a company's product or service in the marketplace in a way that will give that company the greatest advantage over its competitors. People who specialize in marketing, which includes market analysis and research, are well schooled in economics, finance, business, sociology, and psychology.
This may seem like a broad base of study, but when you look at it closely, these areas are all totally interdependent. Economics governs market activity and influences the trend of business and finance. Economic change and fluctuation can be interpreted and even predicted by understanding the principals of sociology and psychology that relate to human motivation. People are motivated by a variety of factors such as their socio/economic position, educational background, age, and gender. When it comes to developing advertising strategies, agencies need to know what will motivate people to buy or use their client's product or service. Marketing research provides the information that can identify those specific motivating factors.
If marketing is your area of special interest, you will need at least a four year degree to acquire the breadth and depth of education necessary to understand this extremely complex area of study. You will be required to do an extensive amount of reading that factor alone tends to draw more verbal than visuals into marketing. You will also need a logical mind to interpret and analyze your findings.
Media planners
The market research used to develop the creative strategy in an advertising campaign will also inform an agency's media planner about the audience a campaign is designed to reach. The research reveals the television and radio programs and/or stations and the newspapers and magazines that audience prefers. It is the media planner's job to take that information and determine exactly which media mix (radio, television, newspapers, magazine publications, billboards, etc.) should be used to most effectively reach that audience. With the proper research completed, a media planner will have the decision making information necessary to select the correct media for any given campaign. The planner will also know when to use that media and how much it will cost the client to reach a specific number of people. When media planners have collected all of the facts and figures to support their choices, they then put together a written proposal outlining their findings and explaining their choices. The account executive takes this proposal to the client for approval. Occasionally a client will disagree with the proposed media plan. When this happens, the media planner may be called in to further explain or defend the proposed choices.
Media planners should have a strong educational background in market research, advertising principles, sociology, and psychology. Just like the people who work in research, they will also need good reading skills to comprehend a large quantity of printed material and the ability to logically analyze the statistics they encounter.
A degree in media is still no guarantee that you will be able to get a media planner's position in an agency. There is so much detailed information a media planner needs to know to perform that job. That is why so many media planners begin their careers working in the sales departments of radio or television stations, newspapers, or magazines. Working as a sales representative, especially for local stations or small publications, is a good place to start if you have an eye on eventually moving into agency work. Sales experience will give you direct contact with ad agency media planners and buyers. This can be a terrific opportunity to establish a professional relationship with them. When a position becomes available at one of their agencies, you will already have a contact person. By working with agency people, you will also learn how they select media and appropriate budgets and what they think works for their clients not just what the rating statistics claim.
If the idea of getting experience working in a radio or television station or a local newspaper does not appeal to you, you might try to get into an agency by starting out in a research department where you will not need prior experience. A job there can be equally good preparation for a media planner's position because you will be exposed to the information media people use. You will also get a good introduction to the agency's clients and the markets they represent. In addition, you will have an opportunity to observe the media strategies that are presently being used for these clients as well as those that were used in the past.
Media planners are included in the all business types because ultimately their recommendations have to be based on statistical data, not personal tastes or opinions. They must understand the importance of developing a media mix that will enable the client's budget to achieve the most effective results for each dollar spent.
Media buyers
When a client approves a media planner's proposal, it is then given to a media buyer who will set up a schedule and confirm prices. Buyers begin by contacting the sales representative for each of the selected media and check on space availability. With that accomplished, the buyer can establish a definite schedule based on the client's budget
In smaller agencies, media planners are also the media buyers. Larger agencies, especially those that handle national accounts, often have a number of media specialists both planners and buyers. Some of these media people at larger agencies may work only with national network placement, some may work on radio placement only, and others may specialize only in print placement.
To be an outstanding media buyer, you will need to know everything the media planners know in terms of statistics, ratings, and market trends. In addition, a media buyer must be a well trained negotiator. To use negotiation successfully, an individual has to be capable of projecting an air of self confidence and self containment. In other words, a poker face is essential when a media buyer has to play one station or newspaper against another to get the best rates for the client. For this reason, media buyers are also included in the all business category because it is their responsibility to be sure that the client's media budget is distributed in the most effective, economical way possible.
As with media planners, it is rare that a media buyer will be hired by an agency directly into that position without media experience. If you are interested in being a media buyer, you would be well advised to follow the same career path outlined for media planners in the previous section.
