Crashing Economies and Job Clarification

Ever since I decided to come to the Kelley School of Business, I knew I wanted to do something along the lines of Marketing and more geared toward advertising. I have always been attracted to the creative aspects of life, and while Business as a whole interests me, it is no different. When asked what I want to do with my degree, I'll often joke around and say "Oh, I was thinking I'd like to be Chief Marketing Officer for Absolut Vodka." Why wouldn't this sound like a good idea to any student at one of the best Business Schools in America that also happens to serve as one of the top party schools?

Why would this job be appealing? It has nothing to do with consumption of alcohol by any means. Let's be frank: one would generally get the impression that working for an ALCOHOL company would not be quite as uptight and restricted as many typical "desk jobs" in the business world. The thing that really attracted me to this idea was the presentation of the advertising done by Absolut itself. Anyone who has ever seen a People or Cosmopolitan magazine has seen an ad for Absolut... the sleek black background, a single bottle of the particular flavor of vodka being advertised, and some other element representing the flavor: a long green snake which appears to have swallowed a Pear, Spotlights for the Absolut LA flavor featuring Acai berries, pomegranites, and other fruit. They market themselves as a very sophisticated, sleek, and elegant vodka. Not something that is going to cause an immediate party to burst out around you and send hoards of beautiful women or attractive men home with you that night. Their entire campaign is very tasteful.

Now why would this ACTUALLY make a logical choice for employment? We are currently living in an economy that seems to be crumbling around us. Many people are facing retirement delays, 401k cuts, lay offs, drops in prices of stock, and SO much more. With all of this steps in the concept of elasticity of demand. Your company has a bad year, your bonus is not as big... you may not be able to take that extra vacation to Florida you have been planning for your family, or you may have to cut back on your previously allocated budget for the new family car you had planned to purchase. These things are all largely elastic, things that you can give up when money gets tight. However, plenty of things have an inelastic demand, things that you just can't quite give up, things that may not have available substitutes. Examples? Gasoline, and as history has proven, Liquor and Tobacco. When times get hard, when the economy falls, not only do the sales of these goods not face a reduction, but they may even rise.

So while many people my age, particularly those in the Finance sector, are facing the realization that the job market is inevitably not at its best right now, where do I stand? My prospective career seems to be thriving. Surely a nice thought to get through the day.