What do you think it looks like
When you talk about what a Brand Manager's day looks like, you might assume a couple of things listed down below:
1. You often create commercials is the essence of marketing
2. Occasionally, you introduce a new product.
3. You run across famous names and stay in a pretty glitzy environment.
4. Kotler has taught us everything there is to know about marketing.
5. The four Ps are the foundation of marketing.
6. Being a good marketer requires using your head and thinking creatively.
7. The job involves creating attractive presentations.
8. Marketing is a superior function and the centre of an organisation.
9. Numbers are a sales thing, and your job is more on the relaxed and surreal side
This is a true "reality bites" moment because less than 10% of the marketing is about all of the aforementioned. You won't devote 90% of your time, effort, or resources to any of the things on the list.
Let me now outline the tasks you will perform as a marketer, not just when you first start but throughout the course of a very long time.
What it actually looks like
Keep in mind that these are the views that I have penned down from my own experience and also after talking to and understanding a lot of Brand Managers:
1. You are primarily a coordinator; your day begins and ends with follow-ups with the agency, the supply chain, the suppliers, the ASMs, the regulators, the research team, and a lengthy list of other parties
2. You are the go-to person for everyone, and it seems like you control all timeframes. So if someone's task is still pending, you can expect more than half a day in following up.
3. As a marketer, numbers must become your one and only passion. A smart marketer would have to complete the Herculean task of synthesising all data into concrete statistics and fusing countless data sources. Additionally, it is a continuous process that takes up half of your working hours.
4. You are a factory that produces reports. The first report of the month is always followed by a secondary report, a shared update, a creative update, a stock update, etc. Before you know it, it's the 30th and you're looking forward to the first so you can begin the cycle all over again.
5. The majority of marketers haven't created a TV commercial more than twice every two years, and they've only launched a new product a handful of times. As a result, the 4 Ps notion is completely invalid because most of the time, you can't control the majority of it.
6. More than even sales, marketing involves rolling up your sleeves and getting your hands filthy. You wind up checking things every morning like which warehouses have goods and which don't, whether the creatives or stock have arrived at these warehouses, package artwork where a misplaced comma or a misspelt word may be catastrophic, raising estimates, releasing advances, clearing cheques, etc.
7. Business schools hardly teach anything about marketing. You simply acquire a propensity toward the role and a sense of whether or not your own attitude fits with it.
Otherwise, marketing is a skill that must be learned.
It has a learning curve that is almost uniform and is learned 99 per cent on the job. If you are exceptionally smart, you will finish the learning curve in 3 months less time; if not, it will take you 4 months longer.
But if your mindset doesn't match the job, you could never pick it up at all. The truth is that everyone on here, whether they win a gold medal or finish last in their class, starts at ground zero!
But all that's said, it's a thrilling profession, for sure!
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