What other skills or education could help me with marketing?

What other skills or education could help me with marketing?

Hi, I’m Janet Granger, answering your question: what other skills or education can help me with marketing? 

You don’t have to get an undergraduate degree in marketing – or even an MBA – to work in marketing. There are many many things that you can do and I’m going to name just a few that are thought of as more “liberal arts courses” – and they may surprise you. 

The first one I want to talk about is anthropology. Yes, anthropology. Anthropology is about how human beings have lived in various cultures around the world – and what traits are found in particular cultures or across cultures. 

I say that it’s a really good background to understand how people think and how they live and –  just to give you an example of how a background in anthropology probably was helpful years ago – there’s something called the theory of reciprocity that goes across all cultures. 

That is, if someone gives you something – especially if it’s free – as a human being, you feel obligated, in some way, to that person, to return the favor or to give back. 

That’s, in fact, what nonprofits do when they send you those free stickers and calendars or something else. They send you something for free and, as a person, you feel obligated to give something back. So think about anthropology as studying people’s cultures around the world as something that – if it’s of interest to you – would be a good thing to know about. 

Another thing you can do is, if you’re talented in a creative way, think about design. Design is needed in so many different areas, you could easily work in marketing. That includes areas like graphic design, website design, product design, display design, signage, etc. Everything in marketing, really, needs good design. So that would be a great area for you to study.

Believe it or not, economics comes in handy when it comes to thinking about marketing. Why? Because there’s something called “price elasticity” and pricing decisions, where you think about pricing from a micro economic perspective. How will pricing changes affect sales? And how well a product or service will perform. So having a really good understanding of pricing models can be very handy for you, especially in larger organizations. 

Something else you might do, if you are so inclined, is to learn programming. Programming for websites and software and apps is huge. Just a couple of examples that come to mind are things like Hubspot and Salesforce. These are huge platforms that are used by major corporations worldwide and they need a lot of programming support – so if you have any background in programming that’s something that could be really useful. 

It’s also useful if you know something about human psychology. It can be really helpful to know and understand how people make decisions. What influences them, when it comes to purchase decisions. What sways people –  how they react emotionally – because a lot of decision-making happens in the emotional part of the brain. Understanding human emotions and how that motivates (or demotivates) people can be really important when it comes to thinking about marketing. 

And finally, one thing I want to pitch is writing. You can be a content writer, or an editor – that’s always very needed, when it comes to marketing. That’s my background, and how something that I find useful every day. I wrote all the content that i’m talking to you about – on this Marketing Career Mentor platform. I’ve written books, and I have a very easy time writing. Having that talent – or skill – can be used in many different areas, when it comes to marketing. 

I’m sure there are probably areas I didn’t think of, or I haven’t mentioned here, but that’s just to give you some idea of the of the fact that you don’t have to major in marketing – or have an undergraduate or graduate degree in marketing – to start off in marketing and get your first job. 

I’m Janet Granger, answering your question: what other skills or education can help me work in marketing?