Breaking into an advertising career is not as easy of a task as most people think. Most advertising jobs require not only a college degree, but also internships and work�related experiences. Aside from these, having experience selling retail is a plus factor in acquiring advertising employment. To help you get started with an advertising job, you must first know the basics of this career.

Advertising Defined

Advertising is the art and science of salesmanship wherein as an advertiser you are responsible for telling and educating the buyers everything about the product that you are selling. It also seeks to persuade them to buy a particular product. Advertising business involves artistic ingenuity and marketing objectives. It makes use of both qualitative and quantitative research, creativity, imagination and analysis, artistic talents, and marketing professionalism. Advertising employs people such as creative artists, writers, producers, and researchers.

How Advertising Is Developed

Before an advertisement appears in public, it should undergo the basic steps such as defining its markets, assessing the competition, determining the target audience, setting the goal and the budget, achieving the goal, determining the type of media that will best reach the target audience, and lastly, creating a message through the use of music, words, or pictures that best appeal and attract the target audience.

Advertising Employment

The advertising industry handles a broad range of tasks related to marketing which require people with specialized skills and overall management. Advertising jobs commonly fall into the following categories:

Account Manager - The job of the account manager is to represent the agency. He or she is responsible for handling the people at the agency, for developing a thorough knowledge of what the client's business is all about, and for handling commercial production, research, media, and other aspects of advertising and the marketplace. Also, account managers should act as the strategists and the team leaders, develop productive and open communication between the agency staff and client, identify and set common goals, and see to it that the final product is effective and profitable both for the agency and the client.

Account Planner - The responsibility of the account planner is to see to it that the perspective of the consumers is fulfilled when advertising is developed. Their primary tool is to research competitive sales, consumer demographics, consumer behavior and psychology, customer information, brand-sales history, and many other things. This information is needed in order for the agency to determine how they can leverage the strength of a brand in a creative and strategic approach.

Market Researcher - The basic responsibility of a market researcher is to understand the customers' concerns, desires, wants, thoughts, ideals, and motivating factors. They also conduct group or one-on-one interviews, research secondary information, study buying trends, track sales volume, advertise agency research, and test the reaction of the people to the new advertising copy.

Media Planner - Media advertisers are responsible for placing the advertisements, making sure that they will reach the target audience in the right place and at the right time. It is their task to figure out how to reach the largest target audience at the lowest possible cost. Sometimes they study and gather data about the reading and viewing habits of the general public, program media vehicles, and evaluate editorial content.

Interactive Marketer - Interactive marketers focus on computer programming, marketing, and areas of design such as websites. Knowledge of the digital realm and computer skills are necessary for one to become and effective interactive marketer.

Creative Advertiser - Advertisers who are assigned to this field are responsible for developing images, words, and ideas that make up ads and commercials. They also contribute to the production, invention, and process of advertising. Assistant or junior copywriters and assistant or junior art directors belong to this category. Junior copywriters are tasked to edit and proofread ad copy, develop sales promotion materials and merchandising, and write body copies for printing campaigns. With the necessary experience and ability they will be given the duty to generate ideas for company names or products and write scripts for radio ads or TV commercials. A bachelor's degree is not required for this position; however, intellectual ability at the job is a must.

A degree in journalism, marketing, advertising, or English is a plus factor for any of these positions. Junior art directors help the art directors in preparing the layouts, rough lettering, and paste-ups for television storyboards and print ads, filming TV commercials, overseeing photo sessions, and developing designs and visual concepts. To be a successful junior art director, one must possess good designing ability, good basic drawing skills, and strong visual concept skills.

Getting Started

Just like any other job, you need to educate yourself first about the necessary details, such as what an advertising agency and business is all about, what it does, what the responsibilities are, and the area in which you want to apply your talents.

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