Prompt 1: What is Marketing?

     By: Shannon Crilley 
      
      Most pople today think of marketing as the "advertising" part of business. It's generally considered to be the branch of business that connects the product with the costumers and it allows the consumers to have knowledge about the product they are buying. Whether that knowledge be information about the latest and greatest technology that has just come out, or watching that obnoxious commercial about that one product that you don't need, but you want over and over again. Marketing is the process through which the goods and services make their way to the consumers.

      Personally, when I think of marketing I think of commercials, social media, advertising, and publicizing a product. A person that works in a marketing field must be tech savvy, creative, aware of the market, and interesting. No consumer wants to buy a boring product or watch a boring commercial. The marketing field has the power to "hype up" their product as much as they want, thereby creating better sales. In today's modern era, I think marketing positions definitely appreciate and rely on mass media and how easily they can now connect with the entire world in a few clicks of a button.

      Aside from my own personal opinion, there's professionals that know and understand marketing and what that job entitles much better than I do. Michigan State's very own professor, Gilbert Harrell is the author of his own marketing textbook used here on campus, Marketing Foundations. This book describes basic-level marketing and what exactly marketing a product can do for a company. Harrell talks about how marketing is the most important way for a company to connect with it's customers. I also found that I had a fairly good idea of what a job in marketing entails. The employees with positions in marketing must be smart, creative, interesting, and able to think ahead of the current trend and plan for what's coming next. Harrell explains that marketing is the key source to connecting the product with the consumer.

      As a college student interested in marketing I am excited to start learning more about this amazing field and what exactly it takes to make it in marketing!

Harrell, Gilbert. Marketing Foundations. Chicago, IL: Chicago Education Press/Pearson, 2010. Print.