Marketing: what is not taught in school
My studies at the University of Oregon turned out to be absolutely invaluable for what I do now. It seems that I am one of the few who actually studied what I would do in the future. I decided what I wanted to be, still in high school, and chose Oregon university for its advertising faculty. Of course, there I learned a lot about advertising, marketing, psychology, consumer behavior and grammar. But there are a few things that I realized only through practical experience and now, 15 years after graduation, I will try to formulate them. I hope they will help you in your work and save you from time-consuming mistakes.
Most marketers, and I - is no exception, the last lesson of mathematics was in high school. Usually, if marketing students decide to take math electives in college, they start by carefully studying the class schedule to understand: “What does all this look like is not too difficult and can be formally called“ studying mathematics ”?
The reality is that today's marketing is completely different than marketing fifteen years ago. Mathematics today means more than ever. Statistics and performance evaluation indicators (KPI) are now the main weapon in marketing. Business analyst has firmly entered our professional life and, ultimately, scrupulously calculated efficiency is of paramount importance for the client. The difference between the project budget and its result will always be dollars and cents, which are known to love the bill.
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I want to say that marketing is not just a collection of various tools at your disposal. Today, universities want to be in trend and start teaching tools. There is a specialization, for example, in social media or in CRM. When I started, Twitter and Facebook did not exist yet, as well as - theatrical pause - Google. So the correct science is not about individual tools, but about the basic principles that have been working for centuries, as well as their current applications. In college, we must develop a knowledge base, learn to learn, try to figure out how to apply all this in real life. And after graduating from college, we will be able to adapt to the environment, using our knowledge and innate observation (which we definitely have, since we went to marketing).
Those cases that we considered in the classroom, for the most part have little to do with this daily work. Fortunately, in many schools of marketing people from the real world gather to share their experiences honestly. If you are lucky to meet them, consider yourself lucky. If not, your understanding of how companies “shoot out” or, on the contrary, fail, may be too embellished. It’s rare when there is a chance to bring a new cola to the market or to take part in launching a low-cost airline (but if you get a chance, hold on to it and work like a goddamned one - it may be decisive for your career). Be prepared for the fact that most of your work will be more routine tasks, which, nevertheless, will allow you to hone your skills in working with communication channels, learn from non-critical errors, creating your corporate toolkit, which will gradually bring all the best results.
Contrary to the title of the article, I will mention one piece of advice that I received in my marketing class. It was presented as “a council that you will not understand normally until you start to work”, so I thought that it would be appropriate to insert it into the article, considering that it still seems invaluable to me. Most people are afraid to make important decisions, hoping for someone else. Do not be afraid to take responsibility for yourself, and sooner or later you yourself will become those who are called the decision maker (the person making the decision).
The main thing is to have a good reason to decide one way or another. Take a risk if the situation requires it, learn from mistakes, be honest with yourself. Your boss, most likely, also does not know all the answers. But sometimes just decide and do it - this is exactly what you need. One thing is certain: sitting in one place and doing nothing, you will not achieve the result.
When you start making decisions, you will very soon realize that there is nothing wrong with failure. It’s bad if you missed a typo in the headline, but even worse if it didn’t teach you anything. If something happens, admit the mistake, correct it, understand how it became possible at all and how to avoid it in the future. Share your experience with your colleagues and get bonus points and respect :). Now you are an experienced fighter.
I remember when I got my first job at an advertising agency after graduating from college, I was given the task of conducting a marketing research. Just a month earlier in college, I was allotted the same task for three months, and now I only had five days. But I was lucky; in the asset I had a ready structure for similar research and the support of several experienced agency staff. In the end, the project was implemented and disaster prevented.
The reality is that marketers and marketing professionals generally do not usually work in one place for too long. So try to expand your circle of dating. Advertising agencies in general and marketing departments of companies in particular provide many opportunities for making useful contacts - use them to the maximum. Thanks to acquaintances, it is possible to find a project more interesting, share useful experience, learn about new trends and request, if necessary, the “special opinion” of a colleague from outside.
Yes, formally, you probably know what priorities are. However, in the context of marketing, a lot of people spend a lot of time on individual tools, but at the same time they cannot determine which of them really work well and concentrate their efforts on them. Too often I see marketers continuing to add new tools and activities to the campaign without getting the most out of what has already been paid. I have not yet met a marketer who would have enough available resources, time and budget. To solve this dilemma, you just have to be able to prioritize.
Many marketers, to whom management aims to increase sales and attract new customers, understand it as the need to expand the target audience of the product. The problem is that with such an extension you risk losing the loyalty of your existing customers. When thinking about increasing sales, first of all, think about how to make your product or service more attractive to those who already know you.
Your culture, people, product, strategy and marketing efforts must be connected. You must learn to sensitively track and understand the processes in the company and build your communication around real-life values. If what is claimed in your marketing message contradicts what your client actually receives, it only hurts the business.
Together with experience, career specialization will surely knock on your door. What kind of work do you prefer to do at your current post? What categories of customers prefer? Whether you like it or not, but if at an agency, for example, you have to work with car brands for several years in a row, in less than five years you will become a “boyfriend / girlfriend in cars” in the eyes of a potential employer. Obviously, this can be both good and bad - depending on what you personally want. Anyway, you have a maximum of five years to decide on a niche / specialization. There will be more room for maneuver if you like to make connections and can trump in a resume by working or partnering with someone outside the familiar niche, but somehow you need to think about your career “history” as early as possible - people who will accept you tomorrow to work, will inevitably be interested in which accounts and for how long you have been connected in the past.
This moment is obvious to salmon, but not always realized by marketers. If you work for some time in a large agency or in collaboration with a large brand, you will receive a lot of job offers from new agencies, young and ambitious, as a bonus. Having exchanged a pathetic brand for a small agency, you will get more attention, respect, maybe even a big salary, and, most importantly, a loud inscription under the name on the business card. Sometimes a short game is worth the candle.
Small agencies allow each employee to play a more important role than working in a large company. In a small agency you will see how others work, you will literally watch how a project is born, how each link of a team works. In a large agency, where the roles are clearly distributed and painted, and all neatly seated in their offices, this opportunity may not present itself.
I am sure that my experience echoes the experience of many readers. I know that for some the article will serve as a reminder of already well-known lessons, but, I hope, for students and beginners, these tips will be useful. In any case, I urge readers to comment and supplement this list with their thoughts and advice.
Reed Carr, President and CEO Red Door Interactive
Most marketers, and I - is no exception, the last lesson of mathematics was in high school. Usually, if marketing students decide to take math electives in college, they start by carefully studying the class schedule to understand: “What does all this look like is not too difficult and can be formally called“ studying mathematics ”?
The reality is that today's marketing is completely different than marketing fifteen years ago. Mathematics today means more than ever. Statistics and performance evaluation indicators (KPI) are now the main weapon in marketing. Business analyst has firmly entered our professional life and, ultimately, scrupulously calculated efficiency is of paramount importance for the client. The difference between the project budget and its result will always be dollars and cents, which are known to love the bill.
')
I want to say that marketing is not just a collection of various tools at your disposal. Today, universities want to be in trend and start teaching tools. There is a specialization, for example, in social media or in CRM. When I started, Twitter and Facebook did not exist yet, as well as - theatrical pause - Google. So the correct science is not about individual tools, but about the basic principles that have been working for centuries, as well as their current applications. In college, we must develop a knowledge base, learn to learn, try to figure out how to apply all this in real life. And after graduating from college, we will be able to adapt to the environment, using our knowledge and innate observation (which we definitely have, since we went to marketing).
Cases: every hunter wants to know ...
Those cases that we considered in the classroom, for the most part have little to do with this daily work. Fortunately, in many schools of marketing people from the real world gather to share their experiences honestly. If you are lucky to meet them, consider yourself lucky. If not, your understanding of how companies “shoot out” or, on the contrary, fail, may be too embellished. It’s rare when there is a chance to bring a new cola to the market or to take part in launching a low-cost airline (but if you get a chance, hold on to it and work like a goddamned one - it may be decisive for your career). Be prepared for the fact that most of your work will be more routine tasks, which, nevertheless, will allow you to hone your skills in working with communication channels, learn from non-critical errors, creating your corporate toolkit, which will gradually bring all the best results.
Contrary to the title of the article, I will mention one piece of advice that I received in my marketing class. It was presented as “a council that you will not understand normally until you start to work”, so I thought that it would be appropriate to insert it into the article, considering that it still seems invaluable to me. Most people are afraid to make important decisions, hoping for someone else. Do not be afraid to take responsibility for yourself, and sooner or later you yourself will become those who are called the decision maker (the person making the decision).
The main thing is to have a good reason to decide one way or another. Take a risk if the situation requires it, learn from mistakes, be honest with yourself. Your boss, most likely, also does not know all the answers. But sometimes just decide and do it - this is exactly what you need. One thing is certain: sitting in one place and doing nothing, you will not achieve the result.
Learn to experience failure
When you start making decisions, you will very soon realize that there is nothing wrong with failure. It’s bad if you missed a typo in the headline, but even worse if it didn’t teach you anything. If something happens, admit the mistake, correct it, understand how it became possible at all and how to avoid it in the future. Share your experience with your colleagues and get bonus points and respect :). Now you are an experienced fighter.
I remember when I got my first job at an advertising agency after graduating from college, I was given the task of conducting a marketing research. Just a month earlier in college, I was allotted the same task for three months, and now I only had five days. But I was lucky; in the asset I had a ready structure for similar research and the support of several experienced agency staff. In the end, the project was implemented and disaster prevented.
Expand your dating
The reality is that marketers and marketing professionals generally do not usually work in one place for too long. So try to expand your circle of dating. Advertising agencies in general and marketing departments of companies in particular provide many opportunities for making useful contacts - use them to the maximum. Thanks to acquaintances, it is possible to find a project more interesting, share useful experience, learn about new trends and request, if necessary, the “special opinion” of a colleague from outside.
Prioritize
Yes, formally, you probably know what priorities are. However, in the context of marketing, a lot of people spend a lot of time on individual tools, but at the same time they cannot determine which of them really work well and concentrate their efforts on them. Too often I see marketers continuing to add new tools and activities to the campaign without getting the most out of what has already been paid. I have not yet met a marketer who would have enough available resources, time and budget. To solve this dilemma, you just have to be able to prioritize.
Focus on
Many marketers, to whom management aims to increase sales and attract new customers, understand it as the need to expand the target audience of the product. The problem is that with such an extension you risk losing the loyalty of your existing customers. When thinking about increasing sales, first of all, think about how to make your product or service more attractive to those who already know you.
Your culture, people, product, strategy and marketing efforts must be connected. You must learn to sensitively track and understand the processes in the company and build your communication around real-life values. If what is claimed in your marketing message contradicts what your client actually receives, it only hurts the business.
Understand who you want to be when you grow up, and turn this image into your personal brand.
Together with experience, career specialization will surely knock on your door. What kind of work do you prefer to do at your current post? What categories of customers prefer? Whether you like it or not, but if at an agency, for example, you have to work with car brands for several years in a row, in less than five years you will become a “boyfriend / girlfriend in cars” in the eyes of a potential employer. Obviously, this can be both good and bad - depending on what you personally want. Anyway, you have a maximum of five years to decide on a niche / specialization. There will be more room for maneuver if you like to make connections and can trump in a resume by working or partnering with someone outside the familiar niche, but somehow you need to think about your career “history” as early as possible - people who will accept you tomorrow to work, will inevitably be interested in which accounts and for how long you have been connected in the past.
Downstream to go easier
This moment is obvious to salmon, but not always realized by marketers. If you work for some time in a large agency or in collaboration with a large brand, you will receive a lot of job offers from new agencies, young and ambitious, as a bonus. Having exchanged a pathetic brand for a small agency, you will get more attention, respect, maybe even a big salary, and, most importantly, a loud inscription under the name on the business card. Sometimes a short game is worth the candle.
The smaller the agency, the more experience
Small agencies allow each employee to play a more important role than working in a large company. In a small agency you will see how others work, you will literally watch how a project is born, how each link of a team works. In a large agency, where the roles are clearly distributed and painted, and all neatly seated in their offices, this opportunity may not present itself.
Conclusion
I am sure that my experience echoes the experience of many readers. I know that for some the article will serve as a reminder of already well-known lessons, but, I hope, for students and beginners, these tips will be useful. In any case, I urge readers to comment and supplement this list with their thoughts and advice.
Reed Carr, President and CEO Red Door Interactive
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/236027/
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