Benefits of Business and Marketing Course - Admission/Application Essay Example

Personal ment Introduction In an international context, cultural awareness plays a critical role in understanding people from different culturesand being aware of what to do and say and how to act at given times. According to Burton (2009), failing to adopt culture-specific approaches among international marketers leads to cultural imperialism. To mitigate this, the Protection and Promotion of Diversity of Cultural Expressions was passed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in 2005 which mandates countries to embrace, maintain and promote measures and policies that would protect and promote, art, language, music and cultural goods, services and activities (Czinkota & Ronkainen, 2012). Therefore, I seek to develop my career in marketing, specifically aiming at educating on and promoting different cultures across the international arena. This informs my choice to major in Business and Marketing. Reasons for my Career Choice I am an international student in my second year in college. I have been actively involved in entertainment outside of my class work. More specifically, I have been involved in cultural activities that encompass the interaction of people from diverse cultures. I have been majorly involved with showcasing the Japanese culture in various events. This passion for cultural events saw me volunteer to be part of the team organizing global cultural festivals in school. The aim of such festivals would usually be to bring together people from diverse backgrounds to exhibit various wares from their cultures and even engage in activities that educate on such cultures. This promotes cultural awareness and thus ensures that the school community understands the culture of different people and become sensitive to their diverse cultures so as to instill harmony and peace. I have also participated as an exhibitor in these events, explaining several cultures to the attendants. This includes performing arts such as dancing that educate more on the Japanese culture. Having grown up in a family with many businesspeople, I am motivated to acquire knowledge in business operations. I have been particularly interested in how to appeal to a potential customer to purchase the goods or services being sold. Observing my cousins who were business people in the finance industry, appealing to someone to buy a service, intangible by nature, is a challenging task. In essence, it is selling a promise which the prospective buyer cannot see, taste or feel. With my interest in cultural marketing, I could also face a similar challenge. I therefore consider a course in marketing as being useful in understanding the appropriate strategies to ensure that I appeal to my target market and convert them into my customers. My experience in organizing and attending these cultural festivals and exhibitions has made me appreciate the ignorance among many people on the culture of other people. Despite Brady (2011) observing the intense globalization in the modern world, a majority of professionals and students do not bother to understand cultures of other people. They do not understand the cultural universals, a term used by Czinkota and Ronkainen (2012) to describe manifestations of a group of people’s way of life, including body adornments, personal names, trade, jokes, mealtimes and even music among others. These cultures do not just entail races and ethnic groups but also special groups such as the youth, the affluent and the elderly among other groupings. This ignorance curtails the availability of certain products in given marketplaces. It has also led to misunderstanding, especially when dealing with the international community, thus missing out on business opportunities. Benefits of Business and Marketing Course in Advancing my Career Goals By pursuing this course in business marketing, I would acquire the requisite skills to market cultural events, goods and services as a way of promoting cultural awareness. Important to note is that cultural awareness does not only involve the knowledge of other cultures, but also being sensitive to such cultures. Business marketing provides a solid understanding of activities involving identifying and selecting the target market, developing pricing, placing and promoting goods and services and managing relationships with customers and among business partners (Burton, 2009). These are the skills I seek to apply in my pursuance of a culture marketing career. To be a successful marketer, I should aim my efforts towards the rightful audience. Various factors would be considered for me to determine the appropriate market. The strategy of segmenting markets and adopting various strategies to various target groups would help in meeting my objectives. Choosing the right target for advertising and even sales would increase responsiveness of the market (Brady, 2011). This knowledge would further benefit in determining the type and timing of promotional activities in the identified markets. For instance, there are cultures that are rigid and even getting the persons involved to share their practices with the rest of the world could be difficult. On the other hand, some cultures are free to share their practices. There are cultures that are also popular whereas others have limited information available in the public domain. As such, different strategies would have to be used when approaching different cultures so as to have all cultures on board. With profitability being the aim of a business venture, pricing critically informs the selected strategy. There are many factors that would determine pricing, including the magnitude of the organized events, interest aroused, location and the economic capabilities of the various participants in the events. Marketing course educates on effective ways of determining the appropriate pricing strategy to arrive at the price to be charged. According to Brady (2011), some of these strategies include penetration pricing, skimming pricing, value pricing, premium pricing and competition pricing among others. Thus, this course would provide me with appropriate pricing knowledge to ensure the profitability of my venture. Of importance would be to learn about management of relationships. This business of events planning requires building of solid relationships. Future business success depends on the ability to build and foster long term relationships. The people providing business in a cultural event could be the same people who would provide business for subsequent events. Therefore, managing such relationships would motivate such people to continuously support the business. Another relationship that would have to be managed would be that of partners. Promoting harmony among business partners and stakeholders would promote cooperation. Such cooperation would be important in ensuring that business objectives are met accordingly. The business of marketing cultural events, goods and services largely appeals to an international market base. To be competitive and more valuable, I would focus on attracting cultures from across the world. Thus, the challenges that face international marketing would also apply in this context. Brady (2011) observes that international marketing greatly suffers fear, misunderstanding and mystery. This results from having inaccurate information on specific issues and a negative bias. The strategies that this course gives with regards to dealing with such challenges would be beneficial as I seek to venture into the field. Furthermore, it would be an opportunity to be enlightened on the opportunities available in foreign markets by determining the demand for my products, in this case, cultural awareness. Importantly, I will gain knowledge on the influence of the government in various aspects that I have to consider in international marketing. Conclusion Therefore, Business and Marketing would be a beneficial course in equipping me with knowledge on marketing. Among the specific skills I look forward to gain from this course include pricing, sales and promotion, marketing segmentation and targeting and relationship management. From my experience in organizing cultural events, I observed a gap of a majority of people being culturally unaware thus causing misunderstandings. These skills acquired from the marketing course would enable me fill in this gap through making business sense from marketing cultural events, goods and services across the world. References Brady, D. L. (2011). Essentials of international marketing. New York, NY: M. E. Sharpe. Burton, D. (2009). Cross-cultural marketing: Theory, practice and relevance. Oxon, OX: Routledge. Czinkota, M. & Ronkainen, I. (2012). International marketing (10th ed.). New York, NY: Cengage Learning. Read More