Personally, marketing never really sparked an interest for me. Somehow, marketing gave me this impression that its objective was to rip people off their money―fooling consumers to buy products that may be of no use or value to them. Marketing also seemed like it was all about making profit for a company. Once a product gets sold, it’s done―whether or not the customer was satisfied with the product, marketing managers don’t care anymore.
However, I was pleasantly surprised when I had my first class for Comm 296- Introduction to Marketing the other week.
My first marketing class started off with the professor showing us commercials of certain products, which was quickly followed by a class discussion on what marketing is. I was waiting for the first person, or at least someone, who was actively involved in the class discussion to define marketing as an all-for-profit process, but nobody did. All I heard was that marketing was about value for customers and building relationships with them; this gave a whole new meaning of marketing to me.
I never really thought that marketing had more depth into it- that it wasn’t just all about the money. It never crossed my mind that marketing and value for customers could both be in the same equation. Although, I think marketing can still be sly at times, wherein marketing would be focused more on misleading consumers to buy unnecessary products. Nonetheless, it is always good to know that being a marketing manager does not necessarily mean being the villain, figuratively speaking. And truth be told, due to what I have learned from my first marketing class, I am presently considering to major in marketing.
All pictures posted here are © Rachel C. Yu, unless stated otherwise.