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Marketing...?

I'm in high school (oh no!) and I've been thinking a lot about what I want to major in in college. I'm artistic, creative, and humourous, and thrive completely off being free-spirited. So, I've always been *extremely* wary of going after a career in anything related to business, or math. I destest math. I get (low) A's in high-level classes, but it stabs at me violently inside. I would totally go into some dead-end art career, but I want high pay. I know all about that "do-what-you-want" speech, but...let's just say I've grown up feeling the pain of minimum wage, and I really want to rid myself of it once and for all. Recently, just by chance, I came across an article about marketing. I cannot believe my eyes, because it is said that marketing...so math-related- and bland-sounding to me...is creative? Artistic, even? I would really enjoy some real-time feedback on this. What's a career in marketing like...is it really creative? Is there a ton of math? College... and would I live?

Public Comments

1. A career in "advertising" is exciting and creative, marketing is not. Regular marketing involves business planning, sales forecast, production planning, etc. Regular marketing is very math oriented and involves lots of meetings and very little creativity. If you are in advertising/marketing and get to use creativity to design ads and commercials, etc. then you would have more fun.
2. Marketing is part creative, part very good with words and part understanding of people. There is little math involved, Life does need math though - why not just concentrate on that kind of math - counting your money, understanding your bank account etc.
3. I would think it would be "fun" to be in your position again with all the possibilities. What you need to do is get out there and talk to people! I'd start out with a guidance couselor to get some ideas, then make some phone calls. And don't be nervous. Think about the people you are calling. Everybody loves to be in a position to talk about MY job, or to talk about ME! Marketing is actually far too broad a topic to even talk about. I worked in an advertising agency for awhile after college in their research department before finally settling into sales. But there's a hell of a lot more to that. There's things that people don't even think about that's part of marketing. In a nutshell, anything from the time a product idea is conceived to the time us sales people are peddling it to customers is a part of marketing. I hate to tell you this but there is even space for those nut crackers you hate in this field of marketing. Someone has to do the research, the statistical analysis, the market analysis, the trend analysis, and make decisions as to whether or not a new product is viable. But for someone who is creative like you, someone had to design what a bottle of Calvin Klein perfume looks like! But then someone has to figure out product placement. This is a creative endeavor in it's own right. How do you want the public perception of this product to be? Then there is the advertising. Someone has to come up with the advertising platform. A graphic artist has to figure out what the ad will look like. A copy writer has to figure out how the ad will read. And then there's us, we have to creatively find ways to convince our customers to sell the product. Then after this, there is the account group, and it's their job to keep the product viable. Someone has to decide when to make something "New and Improved," or what to do after the product has been on the shelf for two years and sales are beginning to sag. What do you do there? Marketing is such a broad field, and it incorporates so many different types of talents and kinds of creativity. It requires people with vivid imaginations, people that can literally turn a phrase, and uh.. people with MATH skills, (Grin), people with artistic abilities. There are also traffic departments in advertising agencies, and these are highly organized people that keep track of where everything is. There are also librarian kind of people that run research departments. And with this, you also need finance people and accountants in with all of this. What you need is to have someone talk to you about what marketing really is, and tell you all the differen things that it entails. There are some incredibly talented artists, and graphic artists in the field, and there are some incredibly boring number crunchers in the field. But that's because it entails so many different activities. I have an idea! Go through the phone book and locate a few local advertising agencies. Call them up and when they answer the phone, tell them you want to speak to someone in human resources. When they answer the phone, blurt out, I don't want a job! Then explain to them that you are a high school student (Oh No!) and that you want to talk to someone about different areas in the advertising field that you may be interested in as a career. I'm telling you this because this is exactly what I did. I got the idea from a book called "What Color is Your Parachute" and I wanted to learn about advertising. I ended up talking to an individual for three hours, and when I graduated, this was the agency I ended up working for. It's not too early to start making contacts! Be creative and have fun! Good Luck!