Marketing, Sales and Service

This Career Cluster encompasses careers involved in

Planning, managing, and performing marketing activities to reach organizational objectives.(1)

Career Pathways

Each Career Cluster has distinct Career Pathways, which are like work sub-areas.

In addition, each Career Pathway has a sample Plan of Study that details the courses a student might take, both during and after high school, to work in that sub-area.

This Career Cluster has the following Career Pathways:

Marketing Management

People with careers in marketing management formulate policies and direct the operations of businesses and corporations, nonprofit institutions and other organizations. In small firms, the owner or chief executive officer may assume all advertising, promotions, marketing, sales and public relations responsibilities. In large firms, which may offer numerous products and services nationally or even worldwide, an executive vice president directs overall advertising, promotions, marketing, sales and public relations policies.

Note: This Sample Plan of Study is not an exact match.

---

Professional Sales

Employees in professional sales are involved in the transfer of goods and services in the economy, both to businesses and to individual consumers.

---

Merchandising

Employees in buying and merchandising positions get the product into the hands of the customer. This process includes forecasting, planning, buying, displaying, selling and providing customer service.

---

Marketing Communications

Marketing communications employees plan, coordinate and implement marketing strategies, advertising, promotion and public relations activities. Because of the importance and high visibility of their jobs, these individuals often are prime candidates for advancement.

---

Marketing Research

Employees in marketing research are concerned with understanding people and organizations. They collect and analyze many different types of information to design new products, to predict future sales and to position their own company's strategies against those of its competitors.

Source(1): National Career Clusters™ site (original text and PDF's).