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Marketing
Marketing is one of the fastest growing industries in Ireland but its definition is often unclear. Marketing is not its end result - advertisements, PR and promotions. It is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably. The famous "six Ps" formula explains marketing as the process that ensures that the best Products in appropriate Packaging are Positioned in the marketplace with good Promotion and are Priced to achieve maximum Profit!
Despite the popularity of the area, some of the best marketing people in the business never acquired a formal marketing qualification. If this is "just what you were thinking", forget it. Those days are gone, mate. In today's employment market, it is very difficult (unless you've got over ten years practical experience) to get a decent marketing job without a marketing qualification.
The joke is that three-quarters of what you learn on a marketing course at college is never used by most marketers in the real world. If you can, try and find a course that is delivered by lecturers with current or recent marketing experience 'on the outside'. You won't learn much from someone who has been teaching out of the same gin-stained book for the last decade. Neither will you benefit enormously from some wet-behind-the-ears-but-awfully-keen lecturer who knows all the marketing theory but carries no war wounds.
Another important course element to uncover is the level of applied content in your course: relevant case histories, project work, colourful examples, group work and course assessments. Be assertive. These guys are selling you courses in a competitive market.
Ireland's professional marketing body - the Marketing Institute of Ireland (MII) - offers both evening courses and distance learning courses that are well recognised. The Institute offers a four-year modular course with different entry and exit points. After a two-year Foundation Certificate in Marketing (from which some of you might be exempt by virtue of your experience or existing third-level qualification), you can complete a Diploma in a further year and progress to a full Graduateship in your fourth year. You can complete elements of the MII programme in colleges nationwide, including many of the Institutes of Technology such as Blanchardstown IT.
As well as the MII, third-level colleges in both the independent and the state sector offer a range of marketing degrees. However, for those of you who just want to acquire a basic knowledge of marketing, there are some excellent courses available that will give you a useful introduction to the subject. Specialised classes are also offered in the growing areas of direct marketing and e-marketing. Have a look at the Dublin Business School (DBS), Independent Colleges and the Communications and Management Institute for some ideas of marketing courses on offer.
- A Course in Marketing
- Sales
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