Job hunting and the Marketing Mix

In a few years most of us will be entering the job market and need to come up with a marketing strategy to help us land the ideal job or considering the economic climate practically any job will do. A very helpful tool that can be used in developing one’s marketing strategy is the marketing mix. The marketing mix is the combination of the 4 p’s: product, place, promotion, and price.

Product: You are the product and the things about the product (you) that needs to be considered are: quality, brand name, and packaging. The quality of the product is the skills, education, experience or abilities that you have and it is what makes you marketable. In today’s society, companies are becoming more aware that the public’s perception of them is very important especially in economic times such as these. More and more companies are very interested not only in the skills and level of education but whether their employees are ethnical. Depending on the job the higher the level of expertise that one has increases the probability of landing their dream job. One also has to consider their strengths and weakness in order to discern the environment that is most suitable for them. Brand name could be the school that one attended. Attending Ivy League schools carry some clout and inform potential employers’ that you, the product is of high quality. Packaging: Like they say ‘first impression are lasting ones.’ Therefore it is very important when going to an interview that one dresses appropriately. To different companies this means different things and so one should do their research and be aware beforehand.

Place: Some very important things include location, transport and cost. One has to be able to get to and from work with relative ease. If an employer is uncertain of your ability to get to work, then that may prevent them from offering you the job. It would also be beneficial that future employers know that if needed you can get to work in the case of unforeseen occurrences, especially depending on your type of job. It is imperative that you budget the cost of getting to work and that you can afford it.

Promotion: In any market in order to sell a product one has to promote it. As stated earlier, you are the product and therefore promoting yourself is very important as a way of informing potential employers of an amazing product – you. Sending your application letter and CV is advertising; presenting yourself in a very attractive light and trying to persuade the person reading it that you are the best person for the job. During the interview you will be doing some personal selling – expounding on your strengths, possible connection and how your uniqueness would be an asset to the company. It is unbecoming to seem too full of yourself and advisable to talk about your weaknesses and how the company will help you to improve.

Price: The price of any commodity plays a major role in any buying decisions.  With today's economic climate you are but one of many competing for the same job.  A competitive advantage would be your willingness to accept a lower price. Yet one must be very careful since the price of a product is also used to indicate whether the product is an inferior or superior good. You want to indicate that you are a superior good of excellent quality.

Is a degree from an Ivy League school really worth it?

What is the difference between marketing, advertising and propaganda?

The first step in understanding the differences between each phrase is to knowing what they mean – their definition. Here are some of the definitions according to our marketing text book:

Marketing is defined as the process of creating, distributing, promoting, and pricing goods, services, and ideas to facilitate satisfying exchange relationships with customers and to develop and maintain favorable relationships with stakeholders in a dynamic way.

Advertising is a paid non-personal communication about an organization and its products transmitted to a target audience through mass media

Propaganda: According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, it is the spreading of ideas or information to further or damage a cause.

Marketing:

It becomes obvious that advertising is a part of marketing. Advertising and propaganda are both used to inform the public (target market) about a product or idea or service and used to attract and convince people that they want your product or agree with your ideas.

The difference is that marketing is about educating about a product; stimulating a demand that already exists. Marketing main objective is not convincing consumers to buy a product. Advertising on the other hand, is presenting a product in a very attractive light, convincing consumers that they want to buy it. Advertising is very focused on sales and capturing a large market share. Propaganda on the other hand, although can be considered as a type of advertising, main goal is not only to influence a person but do so by giving partial information while omitting anything that will not further the cause or that is detrimental to it. It involves the deliberate use of misinformation and usually to further a political idea.

Examples of each:
Marketing: First time home buyer credit when the government was trying to stimulate the housing marketing and inturn the economy.

Advertising: Ads seen in magazines, newspapers, billboards, and on television to name a few.
Cool Ads 

Propaganda: Rwanda 1994 - when the Hutu extremist convince Rwandans that the Tutsi were going to kill them and in order to prevent that they had to take action. They used the history of Rwanda (after colonization), twisting it to suit their agenda which lead to the Rwandan Genocide.
RADIO PROPAGANDA AND GENOCIDE

Isn't there a bit of advertising and propaganda in every marketing venture?