Hello again, in this presentation, we'll begin reviewing the marketing side of self marketing. According to the American Marketing Association, Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large. This is a very broad definition, and marketing of the skilled self, seems to well fit into it. Let's see what career developers can learn from the marketing theory. Today, marketing is a well established professional occupation, and the set of academics sub disciplines, and qualifications. Some of the sub disciplines, are consumer behavior, marketing research, marketing communications, marketing channels, cross-cultural, and international marketing, marketing strategy, and many others. There's plenty of relevant information, and techniques that a career developer can learn from studying each of the sub disciplines, in this course our goal is to provide you with some general direction, and focus on the key points for further reading. At the same time, and we too, will provide you with a tangible outcome by helping you to develop a meaningful marketing plan. Many people think that marketing mostly deals with selling, and advertising. This is probably because we see lots of TV commercials, online ads, and direct mail offers on a daily basis. However, marketing activities include much more, and in a large part, they are invisible for non professionals. To understand marketing, it is important to make a distinction between the selling concept, and the marketing orientation concept. The selling concept, or approach works well, in an unsatisfied market where desperate customers chase few sellers. In this case, sellers offer customers existing products with no modifications, and are mostly concerned with setting the correct, meaning the highest possible, price. When the market saturates, sellers must push harder by using annoying ads, and employing assertive sells reps. The marketing orientation approach, takes place when markets become saturated, and customers have a choice between similar products, or may switch to different way of satisfying their needs. In this situation, businesses adopt the, so called marketing philosophy that requires them to focus on target customers needs before their productions takes place. So their products are better suited to meet demand, in the production of consumer goods, the shift from the selling approach to the marketing orientation took place in the 1960s through 70s. This was the time when the discipline of marketing was born, and became popular in business schools. In the services, the shift to the marketing orientation took place in the 1980s to 1990s. This was the time when the disciplines of services marketing was created, we live in a time when marketing philosophy is taking over the area of career development, but this process is still in it's infancy, and far from completion. If you are currently looking for a job, or a promotion within your organization, which of the two approaches are you using, the selling approach, or marketing orientation approach? If you consider your qualifications, experience, and the skills set, as the given sum, and are trying to push harder to sell it, you are using the selling approach. If you consider your credentials, skills, and capabilities, as variables, if you are engaged in researching job market trends, and trying to enhance your career brand then you are implementing the marketing orientation approach. According to Phillip Cottler, the father of contemporary marketing, there are four major steps in implementing the marketing orientation approach. Step on is to understand the market place, and the customer's needs, and behaviors. Step two is to design a customer driven marketing strategy. Step three to prepare an integrated marketing plan. Step four is the implement the plan, and build customer relationships. In addition, a thorough marketing audit, is recommended after all four steps are taken. All of the above activities can be applied to self marketing purposes, let's see how. Step one, understand the marketplace, identify customers needs, and behaviors. This is your analytical work, developing your future work self, analyzing job opportunities, job descriptions, and requirements. We covered this step in detail in courses one and two, and we'll continue doing so in course four. The most important thing here, is to stick to the marketing philosophy, and try not to limit your search for good jobs by using only your current skills. There is much more sense in looking for new opportunities by acquiring new skills, to illustrate this idea, we can use, so called Ansoff Matrix. Using it, one can match old, and new skill sets against old, and new occupational areas. With the old skill set, one can dig deeper, and push harder to achieve a higher position, but if the area is shrinking, the person's investment in his, or her career growth can be lost. With the same old skill set, the person can try to move into a new field, but his, or her preparation may be insufficient for success. An updated skill set can be useful for a long term success in the old area, but it may be even better to try the new skill set in a totally new area. Step two, is to develop marketing strategy, it may sound scientific, and there is a lot of specialized vocabulary used, such as, segmentation, positioning, and product, and brand development. But in reality, this is about how you create a desired professional image, select target audiences, formulate, and deliver your message to them. Marketing strategy sets objectives, and specifies ways to achieve them, for example, you may set up the following objective. Efficiently use social media for job-related activities, to get it done, you may use the following strategies. Set up or update a LinkedIn account, and learn how to increase its efficient use for networking. Set up, or update a personal website, or a blog, and learn how to use search engine optimization. You may also specify some metrics, that you'd like to use, to measure your success. Usually, specific marketable strategies can be combined in a so-called marketing mix, that consists of four variables known as, 4P product, price, promotion, and place. The product here is your skilled self, we already discussed it in previous lectures, and will soon continue focusing on the brand. The price component in the job related area, also includes fringe benefits, opportunities for professional development, and other negotiable conditions of employment. Promotion in the marketing strategy context, means selecting best possible ways for communicating your skills to prospective employers, place deals with selecting, or arranging channels for meeting with potential employers, or using intermediaries. Step 4 is to combine all marketing strategies, you are going to use in one document that you can use for planning, executing, and monitoring your self-marketing activities, and evaluating the results. In week two, you'll get a chance to work on your self-marketing plan, at any point, you can conduct a marketing audit, which is simply an exercise in answering some key questions about your self-marketing strategy. Here's a tentative list of questions that you may ask yourself, you can modify it for your own needs, as you feel appropriate. Marketplace understanding, I understand how the marketplace is evolving? What are the areas of growth where my skills, and abilities can be best utilized? Customer needs, what are the most desirable positions in the new areas? What qualifications, experience, skills, are required? What are typical job descriptions in that area? What are the characteristics of successful applicants? Product, or brand development, what is required of the skills portfolio? How can I develop it? How can I design, or adjust my future work self? My desired professional image, promotion, or communication. What communication strategy should I choose? How should I design my digital identity? Do I use social media, social networking? Place, what channels should I use for meeting with prospective employers? Marketing strategy and plan. Are those clearly formulated, executable, integrated? How can I get assistance and advice? In the end, we would like to mention that a career developer, interested in self marketing will almost certainly find something of interest, in virtually any marketing discipline. For example, consumer behavior, can teach a lot about employers decision making. Marketing communications, is a must for learning to use advertising, personal selling, and public relations. Internet marketing can provide with valuable, insights to search engine optimization. In the following presentation, we'll talk more about the lessons that can be derived from browsing, through services marketing, we'll see you soon.
