The essential role of the marketing or communication department is outlined in the flowchart image below. While this is a simplistic view of the demands of the marketing department, it does describe the goals and functions of the team.
What does someone in a marketing job do?
- Take a product
- Create pricing and promotional strategies
- Figure out the best placement in consumer market and the best way to make them happy while expanding your product's reach
Marketing skills are highly valuable and will remain so. There will always be a need for marketing across all businesses as products and services will always need to be marketed to the world. The rise of brand management and the personalisation of brand communication to consumers will only increase the need for marketing and communications skills. Career opportunities in marketing can include:
- Advertising
- Brand management
- Customer relationship management
- Product management
- Business consulting
- Account management
- Personal selling
- Retail
- Sales management
- Transportation
- Information technology
- Market research
- Wholesale.
Common Roles in the Marketing Department
The roles within the communications and marketing department may differ slightly between organisations. However, the 13 main most common roles in marketing include:
Marketing manager
Manage your team’s output while making sure each campaign is as successful as possible
Events manager
Responsible for the production of events from creation to completion including the venue management and media involvement
Market research analyst
Collect and interpret data to analyse the success of campaigns.
Product or Brand manager
Oversee market trends and all campaigns to ensure a consistent narrative is being produced
Social media manager
Create and implement social media campaigns across all relevant platforms
Business development manager
Generate new sales leads and business relationship
Web analyst
Gather and analyse in-depth data gathered from the client’s website to develop strategies to improve performance
Marketing assistant
Provide direct support for the marketing manager
SEO specialist
Identify keywords and phrases to utilise Search Engine Optimisation, and implement necessary changes to improve search engine results to drive traffic
PR Manager
Use all forms of media to build awareness and visibility of the client’s brand.18
Marketing specialist
Responsible for creating advertising campaigns, pricing strategies and targeting the demographic data of their target audience. A marketing specialist will often liaise with others to help in collaborating to a marketing and communication deliverable.
SEM specialist
SEM specialists are often external resources that are hired to assist as a part of the campaign. They are responsible for executing, tracking, reporting and analysing website analytics, pay-per-click (PPC) initiatives and paid search campaigns.
Designer/Graphic Designer
A graphic designer uses visual media, typography and design techniques to create print and digital assets, design layouts, logos, icons and infographics. They often assist in developing advertising collateral such as creating a landing page for a deliverable that is consistent with brand guidelines and creative strategy objectives.
Procuring marketing staff, from designers to SEM specialists or social media experts for specific time-based projects is a reality for more small and medium size businesses that may not want to hire a full-time employee. The following are some of the marketplaces available to source external marketing staff to assist in marketing and communication deliverables.
Depending on the size of the organisation, the marketing department will be grouped differently, with more or less internal marketing-related positions included within the structure. Some workplaces may outsource their marketing activities completely by using an external client-based marketing, social media and PR service, rather than have these operations in-house.
The organisational structure for marketing teams has changed over the past decades. The traditional model included a department separate from the rest of the company that focused on print marketing operations as the primary means of reaching customers. The increased use of television and radio spearheaded a change to incorporate equal resources for these mediums of communication. More recently, the advent of digital marketing has forced more changes including the development of very specific skillsets and further adjustments to the organisation of the marketing department.
Today’s marketing departments are moving away from medium-specific teams, and focusing on the customer, creating a relationship-focused model.
Department Structures
There are six defined department structures that are being utilised in communications or marketing departments. The choice of structure will depend on the views of the individual organisations, including how much emphasis they put on being customer-focused. The six structures are:
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CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MODEL
Most often used in service-based industries (but product-based brand sees good outcomes as well), this model will focus on brand management and awareness methods tied to customer interaction. This requires a strong emphasis on the customer experience and often focuses on social media to create an online brand with a positive message.
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SEGMENT-FOCUSED STRUCTURE
By segmenting or dividing customers into groups, segment-focused marketing can adapt the customer experience based on their previous purchases, traits, and tastes. This structure focuses on certain groups, rather than the individual.
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OPERATIONAL TEAMS’ MODEL
In an operational teams’ model, the department is divided into teams that focus on specific goals or functionalities. For example, a department can have separate teams for advertising, social media, and research. Each team excels in its area and does not overlap with the others.
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GEOGRAPHY-FOCUSED MODEL
Since marketing needs can differ based on location or country. Due to this, marketing teams for major, national, and international companies may need to be divided into functional teams that focus on a specific geographical area of operations.
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CHANNEL-SPECIFIC TEAMS’ MODEL
With the rise of different digital communication channels, it can become difficult to build multi-functional teams. In the channel-specific model, each team can focus on individual channels of communication. For example, a company can have a social media team, a print team, and a video content team. This can be broken down even smaller by creating teams for different platforms like Instagram and YouTube.
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PRODUCT-BASED TEAMS’ MODEL
This model can be beneficial to organisations with multiple products, with each individual product (or subgroup) having a team of marketing specialists to promote it.
Industry Associations
There are several associations or groups in the marketing industry you can join. Associations will often provide leadership, training and advice that can be helpful throughout your career in communications. Below are some associations in the marketing industry you might like to review:
- Australian Association of National Advertisers (AANA)
- Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA)
- Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA)
- Australian Interactive Media Industry Association
- Australian Internet Industry Association (IIA)
- Australian Market and Social Research Society (AMSRS)
- Australian Professional Services Marketing Association (APSMA)
- Australasian Writers and Art Directors Association (AWARD)
- Exhibition and Event Association of Australia (EEAA)
- Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)
- International Association of Business Communicators (IABC)
- Media Federation of Australia (MFA)
- The Australian Subscription Television and Radio Association (ASTRA)
- The Centre for Corporate and Public Affairs (CCPA)
Market Structures
Market structures is a concept in the area of economics. It depicts how organisations are differentiated and categorised based on the types of goods and services they sell (homogeneous/heterogeneous) and how their operations are affected by external factors and elements.
Market structure makes it easier to understand the characteristics of diverse markets. The following are the four types of market structures:
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PERFECT COMPETITION
It refers to a type of market where there are many buyers and sellers that feature free barriers to entry, dealing with homogeneous products with no differentiation, where the price is fixed by the market. Individual firms are price taker as the price is set by the industry.
Example: Agricultural products which have many buyers and sellers, selling homogeneous goods where the price is determined by the demand and supply of the market and not individual firms.
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MONOPOLISTIC COMPETITION
A type of imperfect competition where there are many sellers, selling products that are closely related but differentiated from one another (e.g., quality of products may differentiate) and hence they are not perfect substitutes. This market structure exists when there are multiple sellers who attempt to seem different from one another.
Examples: toothpaste, soft drinks, or clothing, as they all are homogeneous products with many buyers and sellers, not too low entry barriers but are different from each other due to quality, taste, and branding. Firms have partial control over the price as they are not price takers (due to differentiated products) or Price Maker (as there are many buyers and sellers).
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OLIGOPOLY
It refers to a market structure where only a small number of firms operate together and control the majority of the market share. Firms are neither price takers nor makers. Firms tend to avoid price wars by following price rigidity. They closely monitor the prices of their competitors and change prices accordingly. Oligopoly firms focus on the quality and efficiency of their products to compete with other firms.
Example: Internet network providers (Entry barriers, a small number of sellers, many buyers, products can be homogeneous or differentiated)
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MONOPOLY
It is where there is only one seller of a product or service which has no substitute. The firm is the price maker as they have control over the industry. There are high barriers to entry, so an incumbent would conduct entry-deterring strategies if keep out entrants from reaping additional profits for the company.19
Regulations and laws affecting marketing in Australia
The following are regulations and laws impact the marketing and communications industry.
- When you sell a product or service, you must comply with fair trading regulations, there is the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 and fair-trading laws per state.
- Australia's Do-Not-Call Register for Telemarketing legislation came into effect in May 2007, The Do-Not-Call register legislation is regulated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority. You can register your number here: Do-Not-Call
- The Copyright Act 1968 (Cth) (Copyright Act) regulates copyright in Australia in relation to original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, and subject matter other than works, it also applies to marketing communications content. Trademarks can be registered with the Australian regulatory agency, IP Australia.
- One of the most important pieces of legislation affecting all marketers is the Privacy Act. From 2001 the Australian Federal Government provided individuals protection under the law of privacy of their information.
- The Spam Act applies to “electronic messaging”, which covers emails, instant messaging, SMS and other mobile phone messaging. The Spam Act prohibits “unsolicited commercial electronic messages”.20
Organisational and client operating environments
Most organisations operate in different categories. Traditionally there are four main categories that fit most companies around the world. These categories include:
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B2C – BUSINESS TO CONSUMER
This is the most common operating environment. In essence, this environment is when a business sells products or services to an end-user. Normally the purchasing process tends to be of low involvement, thus being quicker. This is the case, particularly, when the price is low. In this category it is common to find establishments in a shopping centre.
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B2B – BUSINESS TO BUSINESS
In this operating environment, businesses sell their product or services to other businesses. The purchase cycle in this category tends to be longer but also of higher value, as it is high involvement, the decision-making process is influenced by more information than in B2C.
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C2B – CONSUMER TO BUSINESS
In this operating environment, the consumers are the ones selling products or services to businesses. This category normally is executed digitally where there are marketplaces connecting individuals and companies. For instance, a platform for companies to meet influencers.
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C2C – CONSUMER TO CONSUMER
In this operating environment, consumers exchange goods and/or services with other consumers. This is normally a digital environment. A business in this category will own the platform that monetises on the transaction of their goods and/or services and has a shared economy business such as Airbnb or Uber.
