You've read the stories our faculty and alumni tell. Now it's time to write your story. Wichita State University provides endless opportunities to get involved and meet students who share your academic drive and career ambitions. Shocker Student Marketing Association (SSMA) is one opportunity that allows you to network with and learn more about real-world marketing associations. Learn more about SSMA.
Marketing Careers
Successful organizations with outstanding performance have two things in common: they are customer-focused and heavily committed to marketing. These organizations are invested in building lasting customer relationships based on value creation. They are passionate about understanding customers and their needs in segmented and defined target markets. Below, you will find some typical career paths for marketing majors. The career paths most often call for both creativity and analytical skill.
Advertising and Promotion
Working in the field of advertising and promotion, you could be involved in many aspects of marketing. Starting with creating strategies to the execution of the strategy. Typical jobs include: account management, account planners, and media buyers.
Brand Management
Brand managers are responsible for a brand or brand family. They are charged with understanding the brand's essence, identifying the competition, discovering marketing opportunities, and communicating the benefits to the target audience. Typical brand management careers would include: brand manager, product manager and product development.
Marketing Research
Marketing research gives marketers information into purchasing behavior, satisfaction, customer and motivations. Organizations use marketing research to determine market potential for a product or service and market share. Marketing research can also measure the effectiveness of promotion, pricing, product and distribution. Typical marketing research careers include: research analyst, market research manager, and account managers.
International Marketing
Today, almost every firm faces international marketing issues. Organizations of all kinds, from Google to Wal-Mart, are doing business internationally. According to Fortune Magazine, the number of multi-national corporations in the world has grown from 30,000 to more than 63,000 in the last 25 years. Typical marketing careers in international marketing include: international marketing management, market research analysis, and public relations.
Non-Profit Marketing
Nonprofit marketing is an important sector with opportunities to provide service that cannot be overlooked. In 2010, nonprofits accounted for 9.2% of all wages and salaries paid in the United States.(Source: The Nonprofit Almanac, 2012). There are many different types of jobs in non-profit marketing ranging from social and helping causes and jobs in the arts, government, religious organizations, public health, and museums.
Sales and Sales Management
Businesses all over the world rely on sales forces to sell products and services. People in selling careers can be found in many kinds of organizations. For example, museums and fine arts use fundraisers to raise money by contacting donors. Colleges use recruiters to attract new students. Typical marketing careers in sales would include: outside sales representative, pharmaceutical sales representative, sales management, manufacturer's sales representative, recruiter, development professional, and stock broker.
Retailing
Retailing involves selling consumer goods and/or services to customers through channels of distribution for profit. Many retailers use multi-channel retailing that include: retail stores, online stores, mobile stores, telephone sales, and mail order catalogs. Typical retail careers include: store management or operations, buying and planning, visual merchandising, IT and e-commerce, distribution, logistics and supply chain management.