With the debate on useless degrees raging, one of the degrees under discussion is marketing. Is it a useless degree? Does this degree add any value to the economy?
Here is answer
Marketing is the most important degree in business. Without marketing there is no business! Marketers help improve shareholders wealth through business generation…they bring the mula.
For most top students studying A level, getting 15 points and above means automatic entry to programs such as Actuarial Science, Accounting, Finance and Banking. Those with lower points opt for admin degrees.
Its rare to find a student with 25 points in commerce going for marketing. The profession is looked down upon but what is the true position in business?
If you do not generate wealth for shareholders, then you have secondary value to most shareholders. When it comes to choosing who to appoint as CEO, they look at a range of skills such as leadership, networking, project management and above all-the ability to generate wealth. Your skills and experience in generating wealth for the company (entrepreneurship). Does it now make sense why this profession has an advantage over others?
Do human resources managers add business value? Yes and Yes, they play a crucial role in managing the recruitment and utilisation of the greatest assets-employees. However its role is mostly support and therefore a company like Econet or Netone is unlikely to appoint an HR Manager as its CEO. The person should have a range of skills and experience and the most important one is ability to generate and sustain business growth…your ability, skills and experience in generating business.
Food for thought for support functions…excelling in your field of study is no longer enough…upskill and establish what qualities they look for in CEO positions.
How about entrepreneurship? Without a market there is no business. You can have all the capital but if no market exists then there is no growth. Your number one skill in business is identifying opportunities(markets), arranging resources to exploit them and generating business.
On your business plan, the section with the highest weighting is market. Do you have a market, do you have knowledge and experience in managing the market? Profits come from markets….they do not come from capital.
So do not venture into any business without full appreciation of the market. Assess your marketing skills and where you have gaps-plug them by going back to school, getting online marketing courses, hiring marketing experts or getting mentorship.
Pasina market…Paribe Business.
Pasina marketing skills…Paribe Business.
You may have witnessed a trending video of a tobacco farmer who is complaining about low tobacco prices and is demanding to be paid in forex. Who is doing all the sweat in tobacco farming? It’s the farmers and who is getting the lion’s share of tobacco proceeds? It’s the merchants….the marketers!
Marketing is the biggest business on earth and provides plenty of opportunities for graduates. The only challenge the country faces is that marketing is not tailor made for the informal sector. There are no brand names helping more than 5.7million informal sector players.
With the field of marketing going digital, there is no local college offering diplomas or degrees in digital marketing. Only Bindura University of Science and Technology is offering an online certificate in digital marketing. We hope they will expand and introduce degree programs in the field.
Most of the marketing graduates also do not possess digital marketing skills….room for improvement for our local colleges. Our forum made a regional digital record when one of our programs attracted more than 50.000 responses from across the region in a week. These were not paid adverts and resulted in us providing training and generating business in Malawi, Swaziland, Lesotho, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and South Africa. We have travelled to most provinces in South Africa and even hosted entrepreneurs paying own transport and accommodation fees coming to our offices from across the region. We remain a regional success on digital marketing.
Marketing useless? No you need your head re –examined. Marketing is business; digital marketing is the future of business. Some professions realising the weakness they have when it comes to business generation, are now adding marketing to their programs. They are adding entrepreneurship skills too. They are realising that they will never be considered for CEO positions. They are realising too that their graduates will struggle if they join entrepreneurship field if they don’t know where to start when it comes to marketing.
Who says marketing is useless?
