Just a few years ago, I remember reading an article which listed Marketing as one of the ten fastest growing fields in America. Boy, was I impressed with myself! I was in that field and quickly, I instilled in my psyche a great sense of security and well-being. What could possibly happen to change that?

The future was bright in our industry at that time. And, with the proper skills and education, a marketer could find a great job with good pay at a variety of very successful companies.

Boy what a few years and a slumping economy will do!

Layoffs and budget cuts are happening company wide with most brands. Marketing, however, is many times the knee-jerk reaction of company leadership to trim what they may perceive as ‘fat.’

Many studies show that companies should in fact invest more into marketing and advertising during tough times. Expanding marketing efforts during in a struggling economy can help brands build market share and can give a long-term advantage to companies against their competition.

Real life tells us that many companies don’t follow this belief, though. When revenue is down, expenses must be cut. CEOs examine all areas of a company with the same focus in mind: cut the areas that have the lowest return on investment. Unfortunately, marketing departments are oftentimes viewed as less valuable than others or more of a cost than a revenue generating area. In a study by University of Warwick, 23% of the CEOs interviewed admitted that they would make cuts to marketing departments during tough times; above human resources training, IT and others.

In a quick scan of some well-known job sites, there seems to be a decent amount of marketing positions available. I don’t want to say that there is a great selection, but there are at least a few different positions open at a variety of levels. I’m sure that the competition is very different today for those few positions than what is was a few years ago. Many of the marketing jobs I saw went hand in hand with the areas which studies say are recession proof: health care, internet based careers, accounting, security focused careers and jobs in engineering or science related fields.

Ideally, I hope that we can all weather this storm. And, I hope that recent college graduates are able to find jobs in this field. We should all be proud that despite our current security or lack thereof at our jobs, that we’re all involved in a program like IMC which will only help to sustain our careers in the future.

I would love to hear your thoughts on the marketing field in this sluggish economy – good or bad!
Mo