Study: Marketing industry must market itself better to students
By Adnews Staff
The Canadian Marketing Association has released a study linking the difficulties faced by organizations seeking to recruit marketing staff with the failings of the industry to promote marketing to young people as a career choice. According to the study, the academic community and the business community must work together to better prepare young marketers for the realities of the profession. "To compete effectively for marketing talent and new recruits with the aptitude to succeed in marketing, the marketing community needs to do a better job marketing the marketing profession to students and to academia," said Sandra Singer, the association's senior director of industry councils and research. The study also found that undergraduates and MBA students view marketing as a less favourable career than finance or consulting. The study also noted a "disconnect" between what new hires think a role in marketing entails compared to what they believe the role is at a more senior level. The study also says that the marketing industry needs to present a stronger business case to prevent its best talent from moving to higher-paying consulting and finance jobs. The study also found that approximately half of the managers surveyed lack the skills to train new marketing hires, which may be related to a lack of success by organizations at retaining marketing hires for periods of two to five years.