Career Research Report: Marketing Manager Role in Retail Sector

This report presents a career research analysis focused on marketing opportunities within the fashion retail industry. The research explores the industry's growth, the role of a marketing manager, and the skills required for success. The methodology includes both secondary research, drawing on existing literature and online resources, and primary research, involving an interview with a marketing manager at Marks & Spencer. The report evaluates the findings, including a personal skills audit, and concludes with insights into career development and the potential for growth in the retail marketing sector. The report also includes a curriculum vitae and a list of references.

Career Viewpoint

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ANALYSIS & APPLICATIONS....................................................................................................1
Secondary research:- .............................................................................................................2
Primary research :-.................................................................................................................4
Evaluation...............................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES ...............................................................................................................................6
APPENDICES.................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Carer research is defined as the process where people who completed their qualification
started review about the several job opportunities that can be availed to pursue a successful
career path (Stambulova and Ryba, 2014). This help a fresher to determine several segments
where students can enter and select best for their future career. I recently completed my post
graduation in MBA with marketing specialisation as I want to purse my career in marketing.
Hence, by conducting investigation and asking suggestions from my teachers I came to know
that retail industry is one of the most developing sector that provide several growth opportunities
to the students who are searching for starting their career in marketing & sales. In order to
perform this research I have decided to gather information in both manner such as primary as
well as secondary for the position of marketing manager in a fashion retail outlet.
ANALYSIS & APPLICATIONS
Retailing involves sale of product or services from the point of purchase to the end
customer who are the final user of that product (Varley, 2014). This is one of the fastest growing
business where people are continuously working toward opening up their retail outlet either by
offering the product of other brand or offer their own goods. These benefits are the major point
of attraction that are influencing people and letting them regularly entering into the industry by
offering product or services as per the requirement of people. Hence, retail industry is considered
to be one of the fastest growing sector which is contributing toward the economy of country by
offering products or creating new job opportunities. Therefore, it is one of the most greatest
opportunity for freshers who want to pursue their career in marketing field as this sector provide
several new opportunities to keep growing as this industry regularly anticipated with changes
toward enhancement (Oh, Weitz and Lim, 2016). These all contribute toward the overall
development of an individual in term of their skills, capabilities, knowledge etc. For further
evaluation of this information regarding a job role of marketing manager primary and secondary
investigation will be performed which is mentioned below:-
Secondary research:-
In this type of investigation information is collected from the sources where it is already
investigated and published by another person fro their own purpose. It is a second hand
information that help in developing understanding regarding the current area of investigation
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(Walliman, 2017). The secondary information is usually gathered from sources like webpages,
census, articles, internet etc.
General trends that may have impact over chosen profession:-
The marketing interns of fashion retailing company have to work in several manner for
effective practices such as conducting market research to determine the competitors strategies
and expectation of customers toward company in term of their offerings. In addition to this they
are also responsible for helping in formation of promotional strategies and tactics to deal with
competitors by providing the information to manager regarding market scenario (Piotrowicz and
Cuthbertson, 2014). But despite of all this there are some factors which a marketing intern must
consider to improve its practices that includes trends or changes that the industry is continuously
experiencing due to technology and globalisation which can be better understood using following
points:
 The technological industry is continuously developing which regularly bringing new
method or source of performing marketing in more effective manner which provide
access to larger number of customers. The current trend in marketing regarding
technology is use of internet and social media sites for promoting products or services. A
marketing intern must have a through knowledge regarding the use of social media
platform for improving its marketing efforts as it provide easier access to larger market
share at low cost. But the major drawback of social media platform is that it sometimes
leads to negative publicity due to dissatisfied customer's comment.
 Globalisation is now become a major part of every business to get expanded at several
geographical location and target larger number of customers which in turn increases
profitability. The major trend in globalisation is performing promotions by integrating the
culture of two nations which in turn help in adding the value to customers and companies
become able to achieve sustainability at new marketplace (Hornibrook, May and Fearne,
2015). But the disadvantage of this sometimes lack of knowledge about culture of new
country results into miss-communication with customer that leads to dissatisfaction
among them.
Skills / knowledge and experience required :-
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Marketing intern is responsible for performing several activities by assisting in promoting
the brand among target market for attracting larger number of customers toward the purchasing
of particular product or services (Helyer and Lee, 2014). In addition to this marketing intern
must also aware about the effective ways through which they can interacting with customers that
help in building up an image of company (THE SKILLS THAT WILL GET YOU A
GRADUATE JOB IN MARKETING, 2019). These skills are mentioned below:-
Skills:- Communication skill:- Being a marketing intern it is very essential for an individual to
have excel over this skills as the perception of customer toward brand is depend over the
interaction that people have with a marketing person. Leadership skills:- The marketing intern must focuses toward learning the team handling
skills which help in performing sale and promotional activities in effective manner. This
is because in future they have to direct the efforts of team members in right direction
toward business success by adopting effective leadership skills. Conflict management skills:- While performing operations number of issues may arises
among employees, hence it is essential for the marketing intern to know how to deal with
such issues so that work among employees may not get hamper. Hence marketing intern
must know how to manage conflicts. Time management:- The marketing intern should be excel in time management so that
objectives can be achieve on time by effective scheduling of activities as it support them
in further career enhancement.
 Adaptability:- The fashion retailing industry experience changes on continuous bases as
customer's demand changes frequently. Hence marketing intern must be adaptable to
environment so that quick actions can be taken when there is change in policies as per
requirement (Barker, 2014).
Knowledge area and experience:- Information Technology:- The marketing intern must have knowledge regarding
information technology so that promotions can be performed in more innovative and
creative manner which creating much cost (Royle and Laing, 2014).
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 Financing:-The marketing intern must have an understanding regarding the proper
utilisation of financial resources so that proper formulation of budget can be possible that
help in minimizing the cost of company.
Personal Skill Audit:-
1. Bad
2. Not Bad
3. Average
4. Good
5. Very Good
Skills (personal audit questionnaire) 1 2 3 4 5
1). Communication skills *
2). Leadership *
3). Conflict Management Skills *
4). Time managment *
5). Adaptability *
6). Information Technology *
7). Finance *
Primary research :-
Primary data is also known as first hand data as it include fresh information by gathering
data from sources like interview, questionnaire etc. (Hewson and Stewart, 2014). For gathering
primary information an interview has been conducted with marketing manager which is present
above:
Name of contact Mr. John
Company Marks & Spencer
Job tittle Marketing manager
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Date of contact 18/03/19
How did you contact them I went for a seminar in realated with fashion
trends where I met the marketing manager of
M&S Mr. John to whom I asked some question
from him for gethering information regarding
marketing as career path.
Question asked 1). What improvement company has
experienced in last five years?
2). What is the working environment and
culture of organization?
3). Benefits that a marketing manager get?
Summary of response So from this conversation I found that
organisation has experienced higher growth in
last five years with the help of promotional
tactics that only become possible through
technology. In addition to this organizational
culture is also positive where leaders motivate
their subordinates and managers get benefits
like PF, medical benefit, incentives etc.
Evaluation
I have currently completed my post graduation in MBA within marketing specialisation
and now I am searching to start my career in a sector which provide me greatest growth
opportunity. For this I have performed both primary as well as secondary investigation and from
this it has been found that fashion retailing is one of the best area for starting career as it
experience regular changes which results into enhancement of knowledge and skills. In this
investigation I have decided to go for an internship in marketing as a start of my career path
because it will provide me several growth opportunity in term of enhancing my
communicational, technical, critical thinking and situational handling skills which further
contribute toward my overall development that will foster me toward achieving higher success.
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CONCLUSION
From the above performed investigation it can be interpreted that career research is one
of the crucial thing that each individual must perform before selecting a pathway to pursue their
career goals. This investigation support in identifying the benefits as well as challenges that an
individual will experienced so that proper pathway can be selected. In addition to this it also
support in identifying the trends that are prevailing in a particular job role so that proper skill
enhancement can be performed by a person in this regard.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barker, B., 2014. Employability skills: Maintaining relevance in marketing education. The
Marketing Review. 14(1). pp.29-48.
Helyer, R. and Lee, D., 2014. The role of work experience in the future employability of higher
education graduates. Higher Education Quarterly. 68(3). pp.348-372.
Hewson, C. and Stewart, D. W., 2014. Internet research methods. Wiley StatsRef: Statistics
reference online, pp.1-6.
Hornibrook, S., May, C. and Fearne, A., 2015. Sustainable development and the consumer:
Exploring the role of carbon labelling in retail supply chains. Business Strategy and the
Environment. 24(4). pp.266-276.
Oh, H., Weitz, B. and Lim, J., 2016. Retail career attractiveness to college students: Connecting
individual characteristics to the trade-off of job attributes. Journal of Retailing and
Consumer Services. 31. pp.345-354.
Piotrowicz, W. and Cuthbertson, R., 2014. Introduction to the special issue information
technology in retail: Toward omnichannel retailing. International Journal of Electronic
Commerce. 18(4). pp.5-16.
Royle, J. and Laing, A., 2014. The digital marketing skills gap: Developing a Digital Marketer
Model for the communication industries. International Journal of Information
Management. 34(2). pp.65-73.
Stambulova, N. B. and Ryba, T. V., 2014. A critical review of career research and assistance
through the cultural lens: towards cultural praxis of athletes' careers. International
review of sport and exercise psychology. 7(1). pp.1-17.
Varley, R., 2014. Retail product management: buying and merchandising. Routledge.
Walliman, N., 2017. Research methods: The basics. Routledge.
Online
What Is Retail?. 2019. [Online] Available through:<https://erply.com/what-is-retail/>./
THE SKILLS THAT WILL GET YOU A GRADUATE JOB IN MARKETING. 2019. [Online]
Available through:<https://targetjobs.co.uk/career-sectors/marketing-advertising-and-
pr/advice/288243-the-skills-that-will-get-you-a-graduate-job-in-marketing>./
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APPENDICES
CURRICULUM VITAE
Curriculum Vitae
Name: - Shine Thomas
Address: - 88A, 4th floor KP Enclave, Wales, UK.
Phone No: - 546987
Career Aim: To make career among people where I can improve my current skills and get more
opportunities for growth.
Educational Qualification: -
 BBA
 MBA (Sales and Marketing)
Declaration:
I hereby declare that the information presented above are current and true as per my knowledge.
Date:
Place:
JOB DESCRIPTION
Organisation Name: Marks & Spencer
Post: Marketing intern
Roles and Responsibilities
1. Be able to generate lead by performing online promotions
2. Responsible for assisting in meet and greets as well as networking events
3. Provide regular report to the marketing manager regarding the customer feedbacks,
external discussion, online marketing etc.
4. Be able to investigate and present current marketing trends.
5. Assist in creating as well as managing the blog post
Required Qualification
Must be Graduated from affiliates university
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MBA in marketing and finance specialisation
Experience required
At-least one year experience in retailing firm
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