Free Essay: An Analysis of the Marketing and Public Relations Sectors

Marketing and Public Relations are two fast-changing sectors that are affected by a variety of macro environmental factors and encompass several areas, including advertising, brand management, event planning / management and sales (TotalProfessions.com, 2015). As a result of that, it is crucial that anyone who wishes to operate and succeed within the marketing and Public Relations industry should be aware of the latest trends in terms of demographic growth / changes, consumers needs and expectations, technological advances, and evolving communication styles / methods, in order to be able to make effective decisions (Rugimban & Nwankwo, 2003). As, about 3% of the UK workforce are in marketing , approximately 50,000 people working in PR and almost 18,000 people are known to be working in advertising( Total professions,2015). The chart down shows the numbers of vacancies which had great growth recently.-14732028229

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(The Graduate market,2015).

Digitalization as the future of the marketing sector

As reported by Dan (2014), the future of the marketing sector is going to be shaped by a number of factors, such as the growing prominence of transparency, simplicity, technology, media integration, personalisation, cultural diversity and internal communication. Specifically, available data suggest that transparent brands tend to outperform the ones that do not provide sufficient, accurate information about their activities; moreover, during the past few years firms functions, operations and strategies have become remarkably complex, which is why more emphasis will have to be placed on simplicity in order to allow individuals to come up with creative and innovative ideas. As for technology, the marketing and Public Relations sector can no longer ignore the significant impact that digitalisation has had on the way people obtain information and make their buying decisions (Persuit, 2013). Moreover, the above mentioned factors which are technology, simplicity and personalization have a significant impact in marketing and public relation sectors hence leading to their rapid growth. For instance, a research study reported by Holmes shows that digitalization continues to be influence and propels a positive impact in most of the public relation firms in the world. Furthermore, spending on digital and social media activities continues to increase their benefits in the industry. The research conducted reported that utilization of digital was considered to be the growth driver of public relation sector in every region in the world. UK set a record of 70.4% growth rate last year and an interestingly increase of 80.3 % this year. Social media community is the major growth driver of digitalization as it facilitates a platform of integration of people globally. In addition, research shows that a marketing and PR firm that develops the best strategic insight in digitalization therefore, it will eventually propel in achieving its target goals. (Holmesreport.com, 2015)

On the other hand, technology has been considered as the major growth driver in developing marketing strategies in the UK. Internet which is the major technological facility has been implemented as an e-commerce platform which facilitates selling and buying of goods online therefore leading to enormous growth of this platform. Research reports that consumers in UK have tremendous spending habit whereby they spend over one billion pounds online. Furthermore, marketing and PR firms in UK have an opportunity to exploit the consumers spending habit portrayed by outlining their best strategies that will eventually attract consumers attention and persuade them to buy their goods and services sold outline. Further research reports that Rapid Racking which is a company based in UK and a leading supplier of storage, racking and shelving for business implemented technology as a tool to market and sells its goods and products. Furthermore, they launched a website with remarkable online marketing strategies which led to enormous sales. Consequently, internet has no doubt of being a growth driver of marketing and public sector, it is evident that email has been frequently used as the marketing tools whereby the provide customers with links of purchasing a particular good or service and also communicate their views or grievances. It is noted that half of the UKs pollution has a mail account. (Schmid, 2015)

consequently, research furthers shows that personalization is essential in online marketing where by company marketers suggest that abilty to personalize content in online website experience is fundamental as an online marketing strategy. A consequent reaserch conducted that was based in UK that consisted of 52% respondents reported that there are common data types mostly used to personalized website experience and has consequences on ROI which is positive. Some of these data types involves personal data(name, gender and location) , user preference, purchase history and behaviour on web propertis. Basically they were considered as the driving force towards the growth of online marketing. (MarketingCharts, 2014)

Moreover, complexicity has been considered as a limiting factor in increasing the speed rate of marketing goods and services. Technology has been used by consumer marketers as tool to that enhance simplicity and reduce complexity. For instance the use call centeres and social media customer-care group has been used by many organizations to get in touch with their customers. However, simplicity has been extended in working relationships with advertising and other media agencies therefore leading to a significant progress in marketing. (Gordon and Perrey, 2015)

On contrary to the context, it is expected that more and more agencies will integrate technology experts into their marketing and Public Relations teams in order to update and modernise their communication channels (Robert Walters, 2015). With regards to personalisation, while the erosion of cultural barriers and the emergence of new technologies have made it easy for companies to reach consumers all over the world, their standardised promotional messages are quickly becoming obsolete as they do not take into consideration different market segments desires, cultural background and buying behaviour.While the above factors have contributed to shaping the public relations and marketing sectors in such a way to extend the scope of their operations, recent statistics indicate that following the 2008 Financial Crisis, PR and marketing firms have been growing at a remarkable rate. Specifically, data suggest that the revenues of U.S. PR businesses went from $9,6 billion in 2008 to $11 billion in 2011 and that the value of PR expenditure across Europe rose from $2,3 billion in 2009 to $2,5 billion in 2013 (Statista, 2015a; 2015b). As for the United Kingdom, the value of advertising and marketing services rose from 6,8 billion in 2010 to 10,2 billion in 2013, which says a lot about the increasingly prominent role that the advertising and marketing sectors are playing in the British market (Statista, 2015c). In this regard, Cookson (2015) has recently reported that the growing popularity of technology-based forms of advertising e.g. mobile and online advertising is one of the main reasons why the British advertising market has been expanding at a remarkably fast pace since 2010.

Job opportunities

With regards to the job opportunities offered by these sectors, from an analysis of various job adverts it emerged that a high number of marketing, PR and advertising agencies are looking to hire people with a strong knowledge of digital marketing so as to be able to exploit the numerous advantages associated with social media marketing, online advertising and the growing mobile market, to name but a few (Monster, 2015). The Times Top 100 graduate employers rose by 7.9% in 2014, compared with recruitment in 2013(The Graduate market, 2015). In addition to the largest growth in vacancies expectations in the PR sector, accounting and professional services firms, banking and finance employers, retailers and the armed forces, which together intend to recruit over 1,200 extra graduates in 2015 (The Graduate market,2015). As in this sector number of job opportunities has extensive and varied roles and tasks needed which took my interest to be recruited in this sector in the future. For example, Marketing executives are involved in developing marketing campaigns to promote a product or service or idea. That includes planning, advertising, Public relations, distribution, sponsorship, research and more other roles (Prospects.comm2015). In order to fit in these roles , liaising and networking with orange of stakeholders including customers, colleagues, suppliers and partner organization , thus communication with target audience and managing customer relationship is needed to be able to achieve success in this sector (Prospects.comm2015). As a person with a keen interest in technology and the impact of digitalisation on communication, I am certain that a digital marketing position would be an excellent match for my personality and aspirations.

(The Graduate market, 2015).

In view of the above considerations, it is my intention to improve my knowledge of digital marketing, as well as my understanding of the trends that are likely to shape the future of the marketing and Public Relations sector in order to enhance my employability. Specifically, considering the impact that geolocation technologies, social media and the growing mobile sector are having on consumers buying behaviour, I intend to spend at least four hours a week reading books, blogs and news websites concerning these particular topics (Office for National Statistics, 2013). Moreover, I will familiarise myself with theories and notions related to the relationship between cultural factors and communication, so as to strengthen my cross-cultural communication skills and learn how to adapt my communication style to different contexts and groups.

The table below shows an action plan that I have developed in order to maximise my chances of accomplishing the aforementioned tasks within a specific timeframe.

Task Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun

Reading books and news websites related to technology and marketing (1 hour). Identifying large marketing and PR companies websites and finding information about their activities, plans, clients needs and observations about the marketing and PR industry (40 minutes). Reading books and journal articles concerning cultural factors and communication. Interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds to improve my cross-cultural communication skills. Obtaining information about my career prospects from recruitment agencies like High Fliers (2015). Table 1. Action Plan

References

Cookson, R. (2015). UK advertising market grows at fastest pace for four years. [Online] 21 April. Available at: <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3860e182-e758-11e4-8e3f-00144feab7de.html#axzz3prKDQO6Q> [Accessed 27 October 2015].

Dan, A. (2014). 11 Marketing Trends To Watch For In 2015. [Online] 9 November. Available at: <http://www.forbes.com/sites/avidan/2014/11/09/11-marketing-trends-to-watch-for-in-2015/> [Accessed 9 October 2015].

High Fliers (2015). Welcome to High Fliers Research. [Online] Available at: <http://www.highfliers.co.uk/> [Accessed 9 October 2015].