Kennaeco Article Archive

I felt that I knew the doctrine of publicity pretty well, but I knew that my lack of education in the field was holding me back. Fundamentally, even though I was highly educated, I didn't have any experience in the values of merchandising. I had received a classical liberal arts education, one which provided me the expression power and critical thinking to be a great merchandising and advertising professional. Nonetheless, I was a tad bit hazy on some of the finer details. I had never had any merchandising classes, and was ignorant of some of the most important terms and ideas in the field of advertising and merchandising. After a quick bit of soul-searching, I decided to go back to school. Knowing that I now wanted to make a vocation of it, I decided to learn the principles of niche marketing as well as I could.

It may not seem like it from an outsiders view, but niche marketing strategy is one of the most demanding and infinite subjects to learn. You see, with the perfection of market research merchandising, every-thing has gotten much more complex. As our analytical methods get better and the public becomes more cynical and jaded with respect to commercials, merchandising has to wage an ever escalating war for the minds and desires of customers. This may sound dystopian, but in truth it is a straightforward principle of marketing. Make no mistake about it - marketing and advertising firms deal in mind control.

Because of this, the principles of merchandising encompass almost everything in the social sciences and humanities. We need to understand how people's fears, wishes, and loves are created, how to influence them, and how to ultimately channel them toward the products that we sell. This is what makes niche marketing and advertising such a fascinating area. You get to take classes in psychology, anthropology, sociology, and statistics. Essentially, anything that you learn about the way that human beings live and interact can be helpful in mastering the ideals of merchandising. Nothing lies outside of it.

The initial ideas of merchandising textbook was pretty basic, but soon things get more complex. If there is one thing I did not expect my merchandising degree to be, it was challenging, but soon I was truly challenged by the classes that I was taking. I view this as a good thing because it allowed me to develop my brain power to the fullest. Marketing is definitely an arena where intelligence is useful.