THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE MARKETING PROFESSIONAL IN A COMPETITIVE CAREER DRIVEN MARKET

A research report presented to IMM Graduate School of Marketing In partial fulfilment of the Postgraduate Diploma

By Gerhardus Francois Nel Student Number: N67513

July 2012 Supervisor: Dr Sidney Shipham

Executive Summary The marketing profession worldwide has for the last decade been under pressure to show its worth. Marketers are finding it harder to show value and at an executive level, this is even more pronounced. The lack of being able to show clear return on investment in their activities has meant that many marketers and indeed marketing departments are being questioned as to their role in the fulfilment of the business strategy. In the light of all this negative attention, marketers themselves have not branded themselves as strategically important and through the ever increasingly complex role of a marketer today, the gap between how marketers are viewed by their counterparts and how they view themselves, has begun to show. In an effort to establish how marketers view themselves, their perceptions of their value and how that impacts on their career advancement and acceptance at an executive level, the research aims to highlight the need for a professional marketing standard in which marketers can gain a positive impression of themselves and the profession in general. Simply having a recognised qualification will obviously not be the only solution but the subsequent understanding of the value of marketing at a strategic level for the business and the explicit application of that marketing strategy, will allow the executive team to embrace the role and give it the relevant attention it deserves. Through questioning various marketing professionals in their current roles in a wide spectrum of industries, and through researching other similar studies in the areas of