The Pulse of Higher Ed

Perspectives on Online and Professional Education
from UPCEA’s Research and Consulting Experts

The Obsolescence or Investment of the Marketing and Sales Professional

Just as industry is primarily employing three generations of workers, Boomer, Generation X, and Millennial, it also employs three generations of marketers … the mass marketer, the target marketer, and now the digital marketer. Similarly, as Generation Z is making its presence known in the workforce, so is the analytical or automated marketer.

Over the past few decades, marketing and sales jobs have changed significantly, as higher education marketing, as well as marketing outside of academia, has shifted from broadcast and print and other mass media approaches to relational or target marketing, and now to maturing digital marketing. (Figure 1) Pre-2000 sales and marketing content or mass marketing approaches have become practically obsolete. The relational or target market approaches of sales and marketing degrees from the past decade (pre-2010) are considered foundational, and although not necessarily applied or transactional, they still hold value. If the sales and marketing professional is to keep pace, they will have to adopt today’s tools, such as digital or social media marketing, or they too will soon become obsolete.

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