A Marketing Specialist

1. A marketing specialist is a professional who engages in the task of analyzing the promotional potential of a given company and oversees the creation of programs and other tools that will help the company become a success. Marketing specialists can work within several different roles as part of this process. One of the most common tasks of them is serving as a marketing coordinator. Within the scope of this position, the specialist will be responsible for supervising various components of an existing marketing plan. This responsibility often involves supervising and mentoring members of a marketing team. Among other qualities of a marketing specialist are: purposefulness, sociability, zeal, creativity, ability to analytics and others.

2. Generally, marketing managers have a lot of duties. They develop detailed profiles of customer segments, focusing on any number of variables that may differ among the segments: demographic, psychographic, geographic, behavioral and other factors may all be examined. Also marketing specialists focus on understanding the company's cost structure and cost position relative to competitors, as well as working to identify the firm's core competencies and other competitively distinct company resources. They may also work with the accounting department to analyze the profits the firm is generating from various product lines and customer accounts.

Marketing managers build detailed profiles of each competitor in the market, focusing especially on their relative competitive strengths and weaknesses. Marketing specialists will examine each competitor's cost structure, sources of profits, resources and competencies, competitive positioning and product differentiation, degree of vertical integration and other factors. They also employ a variety of techniques to conduct market research, but some of the more common include: qualitative marketing research, such as focus groups; quantitative marketing research, such as statistical surveys; experimental techniques, such as test markets; observational techniques, such as ethnographic (on-site) observation. Marketing managers may also design and oversee various environmental scanning and competitive intelligence processes to help identify trends and inform the company's marketing analysis.

17. Answer the following questions.

1. What are main tasks of a marketing specialist? 2. What qualities should a marketing specialist have to become a real professional? 3. What duties does a marketing specialist perform?

18. On the basis of the chart speak about a marketing specialist.

PRACTICE IN SPEAKING

19. Answer the possible questions that can be asked during the job-interview.

1. Why did you choose our company? 2. What kind of work interests you most?

3. What working experience have you got? 4. What is the toughest communication problem you faced? 5. Are you entrepreneurial? 6. Will you be able to function under pressure? 7. Do you have good interpersonal skills?