A Comparative Study of Important Knowledge and Skills of Marketing Professionals

The marketing discipline has in recent years greatly transformed. The marketing concept has been extended, deepened, the redefined and repositioned. In the last fifteen years, many authors point out that the marketing of a variety of factors occurred in the mature phase that is in crisis and that the marketing concept should be reviewed, evaluated and updated to reflect developments can be put into practice. Reasons for the changes are mostly changes in the business and the broader macroeconomic environment. Consumers are increasingly informed; they want customized products and services. Provide the necessary knowledge and skills in a time of change and seize the opportunities posed by climate change for the organization and marketing time is a major challenge. Marketing is not only based on talent, but mainly on knowledge and skills. This paper sets out to identify the knowledge and skills that marketing professionals need to possess and use, to improve marketing management and firm performance. The data from a survey, where marketing managers, academics and senior students in Slovenia took part, relating to the essential skills for working as a marketing manager, were analyzed by the analysis of variance in order to assess the extent of convergences or divergence among the responses of the three groups. In general we can say that marketing professionals appreciate the Slovenian and widely used marketing knowledge and skills. However, the academic marketing knowledge only is not enough for a successful work in the marketing department. For a successful transfer of knowledge into practice it is necessary to gain more skills.