You must have heard of Applied Physics, Applied Chemistry or Applied Statistics degrees. These days one thought has been occupying me, that is of having the necessity of an Applied Marketing degree or an Applied Marketing course.
To my opinion, the time has come where we should start thinking about marketing beyond 4 or 7 P’s and ATL, BTL & TTL theoretical discussions and move on to the practical and applied part of marketing.
If I can elaborate a bit and if we devise the day to day Marketing works into segments like- Creatives, Campaigns, Outdoors, Events, Product and Pricing Strategy, Analytics, Strategy & Planning, Copywriting, Visualization, Digital Marketing, Production, Media Buying, etc. We can have direct access to the hands-on knowledge which can apparently work as a fast track career to the people who are planning to chase an aspiring career with high magnitude of passion on creative track as well as Marketing, Branding & Advertising domains.
However, it can’t be denied that for building up a foundation there is no alternative to core orthodox studies. Applied Marketing comes as a quick-fire solution to the ever-growing marketing job prospects and its huge requirements of highly skilled individuals. This is food for thought I am putting forward to all the practitioners of Marketing and looking forward to constructive feedback on the idea.
Working with different Corporates and Agencies, I can easily notice the fact that it’s a skill driven industry and totally dependent on having a specific nature of individuals who can make Brands moving. As a marketer, I can say if you have it in you, then you have it if you don’t have that quality to think beyond the box or to follow your imaginations it is close to impossible to pursue a branding or advertising or marketing career.
As a matter of fact, it is highly important to nurture the potential marketer who is willing to have a successful career with specific application based industry oriented knowledge.
If we consider the practical scenario where we are getting the chunk of people working in marketing teams we see, we are getting creative and graphic designers from average category of institutes mostly, yet we have shortage of resources considering the ample requirement of people, it is clearly visible in bdjobs circulars, also we are lacking heavily on Digital marketing experts or even beginners considering the demand for skilled personnel that is required.
Campaign or product management skilled individuals, people having sound production and media buying knowledge is also lacking.
Just to add on to the fact, in many cases to my observation business graduates these days are not groomed with the knowledge of basic official correspondence tools, basic practice of copywriting skills, even they are quite unfamiliar with the widely used terminologies in advertising and marketing industries; also the know-how of the track and it’s pattern has to be inculcated within the individuals so that they have the easy adaptability as a communication guy and gets accustomed and mentally ready for which I call a proper ‘Lifestyle’ rather than a profession itself. Considering these as well we have more rational grounds to go for Applied Marketing degrees.
Lastly, I would like to conclude on addressing an agenda and I have a firm believe on that, Marketing and Advertising to me are more of a passion-driven career path rather than making a lot of money out of it.
Applied Marketing customized courses or degrees will open more horizon to the people who want a fair chance to a marketing career even if he or she is from a different discipline. It will open a wider horizon to a better range of individuals and will work as a stepping stone into the fulfilling careers of the brand, marketing, and advertising.
