In his career, Rogers worked in marketing and management for American Airlines, TWA, Pan American, and KLM, Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Eli Lilly, Kraft (known as General Foods at the time), Kroger, The Home Depot, Honeywell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and many more. 

In 1984, Rogers spoke for a consumer behavior course at Georgia Tech, which led to an invitation to teach a new marketing course, Strategic Retail Marketing. In 1998, he wrote an Op-Ed for the Atlanta Business Chronicle concerning marketing Atlanta’s Underground, and Thomas Galloway, former dean for the College of Architecture (now the College of Design) at Georgia Tech, asked Rogers to develop a course titled Marketing Architecture and Engineering Services, which was the first of its kind in A/E/C education.

Using the knowledge he acquired while creating his marketing course for architecture students, Rogers wrote the textbook DIRECTIONS—Strategic Marketing for Business Development.  

"Richard spent a career in marketing, and toward the end of that career he was with The Coca-Cola Company, which we all know is a marketing behemoth," Niles Bolton Professor of Practice Walter Ennis Parker said.  "Perhaps it was that company’s proximity to Tech that inspired him to offer to teach the subject to our students.  His approach was to bring senior principals of firms from this region to the campus to talk with students directly about real experiences. They loved it and he adored his students."