What is Marketing?

There's a trope in Marketing that everyone thinks they can do marketing.

You'll find jokes in Marketing communities about how Marketing is the only field that everyone feels empowered/entitled to share their thoughts - regardless of whether they have any expertise and especially regardless of whether it was requested or appreciated. Like many tropes or stereotypes, there is a basis of truth to it. That's how it's relatable. That's why it comes up so often. I think part of the problem is that Marketing, as a career field, is the victim of this same "everyone having an opinion" approach.

The title "Marketing" in a job posting, once you get through the meaningless corporate fluff, could be any number of things and is often blurred with other areas of responsibilities, depending on the company and how its leadership views marketing.

It could be:

• Sales

Straight up. These usually take on more of an inside sales/quotes/order processing type of role, but they label it as a Marketing role. The only reason I can think of is to attract a larger pool of applicants, but I feel like that's only setting the candidate and/or company up for failure when they discover it's not a fit for the person's skill set or career ambitions.

• Distributing free samples at Costco

This one is real! I had someone approach me with this "opportunity" shortly after graduation when I was trying to find my first career position while working part-time retail. They never fully revealed it, but I pulled back the layers enough during the first interview to determine that's what this "marketing" position truly was. I don't remember the exact job title they used, but it had nothing to do with the type of Marketing role I was looking for. The reason? The job sucked. If they were upfront about it, they'd never get anyone in. They were praying on the young & na?ve to come in and then squeeze that lemon as long as they could. Rinse & Repeat.

• Administration

Also known as Sales Support. Tasks include sending out samples, booking travel & meetings for sales/executives, and sending out an eNewsletter using a basic template in the free software to the email list of "prospects" that you purchased.

• Social Media

This one is especially if it's an internship and/or you're a fresh college graduate because you're online anyway. The thought process being that you're young so you know about social media, and that social media isn't important enough to be done by the people with "real" work to do.

• The "make it pretty" department

This is an off-shoot of the Administration role, typically minus the travel & meeting planning. It requires basic to intermediate-level formatting skills in Word, PowerPoint, and Excel which salespeople and Executives believe are expert-level skills. Yes, it will be Microsoft Office programs - don't come in here with your Google Sheets or Apple Pages. And don't even THINK about bringing up Adobe Creative Cloud programs. The finished product must still be editable by said salesperson in case they need to make any changes. Which, we all know, as soon as you make a change to a formatted Office file, the formatting is essentially done. This is the land of spending 8 hours a day perfecting a PowerPoint slide for the team to ultimately go with a version from 10 years ago with the wrong branding or they'll get creative and "help" you by making their own template.

• And, more.

There are many other forms that this labeling of Marketing can take, but what they all have in common is that Marketing is an afterthought. It diminishes the value of Marketing and limits the scope of impact that a talented Marketer can have.

What is possibly the second biggest trope in the Marketing community is the out-of-touch job posting.

This is the job that is titled (and pays) as a Marketing Coordinator, but whose job responsibilities encompass the work and specialties of 5+ people from C-suite level strategy down to IC-level expertise in a specific tactic. A portion of the solution would be to get more specific in naming, but that doesn't account for the (I'd argue the majority of) companies who have small marketing departments of 1. Those rock star marketers who try to do it all. The generalist marketer.

And, this hits home for me because that has been my career.

I've been that generalist who has done a little bit of everything. I also am that "unicorn" employee who could manage that vast of a directive - if time would allow.

And yet, I know it's not realistic.

At this stage in my career, my range of skills allows me to successfully lead a team. To provide the high-level strategy and direction, while relying on those under me to have the specific knowledge.? Still on a small team, I still step in and do the tactical IC-type work when needed, but I also have to be able to step back and look at the bigger picture.

And, I believe part of my job is to develop the careers of those under me. There were specific (and differing) skill sets that I looked for while hiring. Skills that allow me to release some of the tasks I had worked on. Skills that cover areas I haven't been able to work on due to time constraints. But, those skills are just the beginning. As the team comes together and continues to learn and grow, those areas of responsibility will shift around. My well-rounded skill set continues to bridge the gaps to ensure that the department overall is getting better and taking on more - for both the benefit of the company and the career development of the team members.

I believe I have a pretty good sense of myself, where my career is, and where I would like it to go, but not everyone is that fortunate.

So, what can we - both inside and outside of the Marketing profession - do to get this career field the respect it deserves?