In conducting your job search, consider the following facts and trends that are changing the world of marketing:

• Focus on customers. More and more, companies are realizing that they win in the marketplace only by creating superior value for customers. To capture value from customers, they must first find new and better ways to engage customers, solve customer problems, and improve customer brand experiences. This increasing focus on the customer puts marketers at the forefront in many of today’s companies. As the primary customer-facing function, marketing’s mission is to get all company departments to “think customer.”

• Technology. Technology is changing the way marketers work. For example, internet, social media, mobile, and other digital technologies are rapidly changing the ways marketers interact with and service customers. They are also changing everything from the ways marketers create new products and advertise them to how marketers access information and recruit personnel. Whereas advertising firms have traditionally recruited “generalists” in account management, generalist has now taken on a whole new meaning—advertising account executives must now have both broad and specialized knowledge.

• Diversity. The number of women and minorities in marketing continues to grow, and women and minorities also are advancing rapidly into marketing management. For example, women now outnumber men by nearly two to one as advertising account executives. As marketing becomes more global, the need for diversity in marketing positions will continue to increase, opening new opportunities.

• Global. Companies such as Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Google, IBM, Facebook, Walmart, and Procter & Gamble have become multinational, with manufacturing and marketing operations in hundreds of countries. Indeed, such companies often make more profit from sales outside the United States than from within. And it’s not just the big companies that are involved in international marketing. Organizations of all sizes have moved into the global arena. Many new marketing opportunities and careers will be directly linked to the expanding global marketplace. The globalization of business also means that you will need more cultural, language, and people skills in the marketing world of the twenty-first century.

• Not-for-profit organizations. Increasingly, colleges, arts organizations, libraries, hospitals, and other not-for-profit organizations are recognizing the need for effectively marketing their “products” and services to various publics. This awareness has led to new marketing positions—with these organizations hiring their own marketing directors and marketing vice presidents or using outside marketing specialists.