Author | :Rodney Weidemann |
Published | :Oct 17, 2007 |
A bright future lies ahead for individuals in the marketing sector who are passionate about innovation, creativity and in particular, branding.
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Michael Farr, communication manager, SAB Ltd |
As South Africa begins to move from a knowledge economy to an experience economy, so the marketing sector is realising what a crucial role brand strategy is beginning to play, particularly as more and more of the customer base is becoming accustomed to interacting with the product directly – for example, via the Internet – than through staff or direct experience.
This interactive experience is one of the key differentiators in a highly commoditised market in which a number of very similar players are competing, according to Loren Naish, marketing manager at global brand agency Enterprise IG.
“Branding has moved from being in the ‘pretty picture business’ – which is to a large extent what a brand has previously been perceived to be – to the brand becoming the centre point of business strategy,” she says.
“Another recent development is the recognition of the importance of brand engagement, or recognising the behavioural element of branding, which is in effect that your staff are your primary means of the delivery of your brand and so need to be ‘on brand’ just like your other brand elements. They must be aligned behind brand strategy, purpose and promise.”
What this means in layman’s terms is that if you were planning a career in a traditional advertising agency, you may find yourself disappointed.
“We are beginning to see brand consultancies fulfilling the role of strategic brand building and communications partner, which has led to the mushrooming of more specialised creative and media hot-shops to whom the consultancies then outsource the creative and media planning work,” says Dr Carla Enslin, Cape Town school navigator at Vega The Brand Communications School.
“This shift poses a serious threat to the position of the ‘classic’ advertising agency, since clients are in search of strategic partners, rather than simple service providers.”
Enslin says that the business world is slowly waking up to the role of the brand and branding, since every decision made by a business either adds to or detracts from the value of a brand.
“Building brands is bigger than the classical or perceived act of marketing and advertising. From this point of view the scope of branding and the need for meaningful strategic and creative role players therein is only getting bigger. In tandem the levels of innovation within the world of brand building is escalating as new specialists are born in the shape of – for example – experiential brand agencies and on-line brand building companies.”
Staffing demand
Naish points out that although Enterprise IG is a pure brand design agency, many advertising agencies also have brand strategy divisions.
“Locally, our main competitors are HKLM, Espial, Switch and Ogilvy, which is an ad agency with a brand design wing, for example,” she says.
Asked where she feels the major demand is for new blood in the industry, Naish says that as far as her organisation is concerned, because it has a number of divisions or departments under one roof, it employs a wide range of specialists.
“There are opportunities in what we call the 2D field – namely graphic designers, from junior through middleweight up to senior and creative – and design directors.”
“We also have the 3D field, which includes architects and interior designers, again, ranging from juniors to design directors, while we also look for people who understand strategy. These members of staff have classic brand training and have worked in strategy before. Interns may grow into this role, but these positions are almost always staffed by trained and experienced specialists.”
Naish says they also look for client service staff, with positions ranging from account executives to account managers, and from brand consultants to client directors, which are filled by individuals with marketing backgrounds.
“The account executives are the most junior, and some marketing interns grow into this role with a view to becoming an account or brand manager over time, and then step into an executive management role, based on broad experience,” she says.
“The qualifications for the above obviously depend on the role, but marketing graduates with branding or marketing training, and project management skills have the opportunity to enter the client services department, which handles relationship development, new business and project management.”
Enslin’s advice for would be entrants into the marketing game is to contact the marketing and public relations / communication departments of companies and the relevant departments within advertising / communication agencies.
“Start off by identifying marketing and communication strategies and creative work that you admire, and then identify what companies and agencies are behind the work,” she says.
“As far as qualifications go, it really depends on the position you want, but a degree and ideally a relevant honours qualification would be necessary if you are aiming at strategic planning in an advertising agency, or at brand or marketing management in a company.”
“A relevant three-year diploma or, ideally, a degree is vital if you desire to enter the creative department in an advertising, design or communications agency.”
Big brand players
Marketing has become one of the most exciting arms of the business as SAB continues on a consumer-led journey, and this department specifically concerns itself with understanding the market, and researching what it is that consumers want and are all about, says Michael Farr, communications manager at SAB Ltd.
“Based on this knowledge we build our brands by developing brand campaigns and other marketing tools, and we focus our communication on our target markets using both standard and non-conventional media, as well as extensive in-trade activity.”
“We are very selective in terms of whom we recruit, because we look for particular talents and qualifications in an individual. We are a high performance company and our people are passionate about the business and its brands, so new recruits need to fit with this profile,” says Farr.
He points out that SAB has a graduate programme that looks for specialised people each year and the marketing sector has always been a part of this recruitment, with graduates with sales and marketing qualifications usually starting their employment as trainees or coming into the organisation as sales representatives.
“We tend to find that it is mostly people with undergraduate and post-graduate degrees majoring in sales and marketing that seem to fit into the SAB’s marketing function best, although graduates placed within the sales and marketing function have degrees varying from BCom Economics (Marketing Analyst as a future job) and pure scale BCom Marketing.”
“Typically, we seek people who show drive, the potential to develop and learn, and those that can bring leadership, competence and fun into the organisation and be able to carry this same vibe to our consumers,” Farr continues.
He says that you must be prepared to put in a lot of hard work to advance in the company. SAB does, however, do career-pathing with all individuals. This allows each employee to participate in his or her own development and advancement within the organisation.
“The future is very promising for those marketing graduates who are passionate about innovation, creativity and branding,” claims Enslin.
“In order to succeed in this industry, you need to be something of a big picture maverick with a hunger to explore your creative and strategic conceptual skills. Be an individual who does not believe that success lies in one or the other but rather in an integration of the two – a creative strategic thinker or strategic creative thinker. If you challenge the status quo and show that you can add value to the lives of people, you cannot go wrong,” she concludes.
