How to make being a marketing student easier

A couple of posts ago I noted some of the issues that made being a marketing student difficult.

The problems I identified were:

1. Information overload
2. Subject diversity
3. Heirarchy of knowledge

So if these are problems, how to solve them? Alas a real solution isn't possible - rather a marketing student must try to ameliorate them - reduce them to something that is manageable rather than overwhelming.

1. Information overload. In the medium term, you will become used to the volume of information. You can help this process by going to class, reading the materials suggested - as a minimum, doing better will require extra reading and selection of things to read. Try to avoid being left behind by ignoring the reading - it might be impossible to ever catch up.
2. Subject diversity. There will be elements of the subject that you intuitively grasp - either because of the way your brains works or previous experience and/or education. Be glad of these. More importantly, there will be elements that you find difficult or uninteresting. Consumer behaviour might be a good example of the former for many students, market research [maths!] of the latter. Don't ignore these problematic topics - don't label them as boring when what you mean is that you find them difficult. Athletes work hard on their weaknesses - a footballer's weaker foot for example - rather than pretending they don't exist. You should do the same - work out which bits you understand and which bits you don't and manage your study time accordingly.
3. Heirarchy of knowledge. How do you start studying marketing? That is a tough question. From the perspective of those teaching/training rather than learning it isn't obvious either. If you look at a lot of the textbooks, there are groups wrt approach. Some start off with the marketing concept, others with the role of marketing within an organisation. My personal preference though is to begin with looking at consumer behaviour. As someone new to the subject, you might not have much work experience if you are quite young - or have not been involved in marketing issues in your previous professional life. What you will have some experience of is of being a customer and consumer [refer to your favourite glossary!]. My experience is that looking at selected elements of consumer behaviour is something that most peope are able to 'get', and from there we can link to segmentation, branding and many other key topics.

If you have a problem - think how to deal with it and put your plan into action. Don't let small problems grow into big ones.