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Shaping Tomorrow's Icons: Careers in Marketing and Advertising

From the curve of a Coke bottle to McDonalds's golden arches, advertisements are the icons of today's consumer world. As new technologies and products offer new advertising challenges, marketing career opportunities abound for college graduates.

Careers in Icons

There are a number of exciting careers available for those who wish to go into advertising. Graphic designers, for example, may earn up to $65,000 a year creating logos, signage, brochures, and packaging for businesses. Other positions--advertising manager, promotions manager, and public relations agent--specialize in designing and implementing advertising campaigns. In the field, management positions net the highest incomes, with median annual earnings of advertising managers approaching $64,000 in 2004.

An Evolving Business

While experts disagree on the number of advertisements seen daily by the average American (the highest figure estimates 3,000; the lowest, 394), one thing remains clear: the age of information calls for new and innovative ways of marketing products. Here are some examples from the news:

In fall 2006, CBS advertised their program, Jericho by writing the name in a Kansas cornfield.
In 2002, Sony Ericsson released 60 actors onto the streets of New York and Seattle in order to have passersby take their pictures with a new camera phone.
Safeway and Walgreens advertise in-store with hypersonic technology. The gimmick? Only consumers passing by certain products can hear the ads.

With advertisers scrambling to present new products in new ways, you're time has arrived to seek out a marketing career.

What Kind of Education Will I Need?

Employers in advertising tend to favor applicants with college degrees. For a position in graphic design or public relations, you may need an associate's or bachelor's degree in the liberal arts--journalism, literature, psychology, or philosophy. If you're looking for a management position, a business degree may be more your speed. Community colleges and universities offer degrees at the associate's, bachelor's, and master's levels. If you're already working full-time, you can earn an online degree through many distance-learning programs. So what are you waiting for? Your chance to shape the icons of tomorrow is just a click away!