Marketing Role in Society

One reason for studying marketing is that, as consumers, a large share of purchasing dollar goes for marketing activities. Professor Reavis Cox (1995) estimated that 41.7 of this dollar is consumed by distribution activities. Other analysts, using other methods, have calculated figures up to 58.9; so a reasonable estimate is that the cost of marketing is about 50 % of the consumer’s dollar. Another important reason for learning about marketing is that marketing is all around us and affects almost every aspect of our daily life. The products we buy, the stores where we shop, that constant barrage of advertising we are exposed to, are all part of marketing. Further, the newspapers and magazines we read, as well as the radio programmes we listen to and the television shows we watch are largely paid for by advertisers – again, part of marketing. Even our job resume are part of a marketing campaign to sell ourselves to some employer. An additional reason for studying marketing is that there are many exciting and rewarding career opportunities available to us in marketing. Particularly in consumer goods companies, marketing is often the route to the top executive’s position. At several points we will find information describing career opportunities in various areas of marketing, such as sales, advertising, product management, marketing research, physical distribution and so forth.