All organizations need people to perform marketing activities, from the U.S. Postal Service and religious organizations to the corner grocery store and Fortune 500 companies. Marketers must possess certain skills such as the ability to execute marketing plans and the technical competence to recognize customer's needs and satisfy them with their firms' products. Marketing provides one of the brightest career paths for rapid advancement in business.

Whether in manufacturing industries, financial services, health care, or professional services, companies frequently pay high salaries to people who can develop new products, use marketing research to stay abreast of emerging trends, and overall, create sales. Broad areas of opportunity in marketing include marketing research, sales, purchasing, advertising, distribution, retailing, and direct marketing.