|
So You Want To Be A Marketing Executive?
By Suma CM
From the moment we wake up and stumble into the bathroom to our last blurry thoughts upon hitting the pillow at night, we are surrounded by countless products bearing well-known (and notso-well-known) brand names. From toothpaste to cell phones to soft drinks, we are the recipients of marketing messages and strategies all day long.
Most of those messages come from companies that employ
well-compensated specialists in marketing to influence our choices.
Depending on the size and type of firm, the top marketing executive (an
executive vice president, vice president or chief marketing officer) may
oversee everything from sales to public relations to P&Ls. Just about
all of them, however, share a combination of analytical skill and
creative talent—a balancing act that savvy marketing professionals
perform almost instinctively. To get some inside perspective on what it
takes to rise to the top in this unique field, we asked McCombs alumni
to describe their career paths and share their insights.
Need… More… Data!
Marketing executives aren’t touchy-feely types who sit around
orchestrating counterintuitive strategies for phenomenal product growth.
The reality is far more mundane, especially in today’s business world.
“Contrary to popular perception, marketing is very disciplined,” says
Sanjay Gupta, MBA ’92 and consumer and small business e-commerce and ATM
executive at Bank of America and former managing director for
interactive marketing at FedEx. “You have to start with key business
objectives and then be very purposeful in executing the game plan. It’s
not just about crunching numbers, to be sure; it’s about blending
creativity and analysis.”
Part of the reason for this emphasis on discipline is the recent
explosion in the amount of available data. “The information resources we
have at our disposal
have dramatically increased,” notes Gupta. “For instance, we have the
ability to monitor online traffic to see exactly where we lose
customers. We no longer need focus groups of 12 people when we have
thousands of Internet users
whose activity we can measure. We can see the value derived from
marketing dollars when we target a message on cable television, online
or in other media. As a marketer, you are expected to understand and
leverage this information.”
Being a successful marketing executive requires a mix of both left-brain
and right-brain skills, Gupta explains. “If you have the data, you use
it—but that doesn’t mean you stop making decisions if you don’t have
data. You’re allowed to be creative, but creativity and data go hand in
hand.” Using the data will ensure that your creativity is paying
dividends, he says.
“It’s a fun line of work, but you’re really performing a general
management role in this business,” agrees Regan Ebert, MBA ’92 and vice
president and chief marketing officer for PepsiCo’s Quaker Foods
division. “You’re running a business, developing products, dealing with
the supply chain. At top consumer packaged goods companies, you will be
driving the results. We spend a lot of time making sure we feel good
about our strategy and about the direction in which we’re taking the
business. And the results matter.”
Staying Relevant
The holy grail for most marketing executives is to get as close to their
customers as possible—understanding their needs and desires. Doing this
in a hypercompetitive climate where customers are bombarded with
messages is no small task. “They’re harder to reach than ever before,”
says Thomas Ennis, MBA ’96 and vice president of marketing for Brinker
International, parent company of Chili’s and other casual dining
restaurant concepts. Ennis started his career as a traditional consumer
brand manager, moving through several product categories at Unilever and
the Dial Corporation, before accepting his current position.
Unlike traditional consumer goods firms, notes Ennis, “The restaurant
business is different because people are literally entering your brand.
They’re very emotionally involved in the experience.” To reach them, he
says, a business must “create space in consumers’ lives.” Putting out a
television spot simply isn’t enough.
Ennis says his biggest challenge is keeping the brand fresh in the eyes
of the consumer. “I cannot overstate the importance of continual
innovation. We have to constantly find new ways to get customers
involved in our brand. We can’t let the brand stagnate.”
Getting close to customers is even harder for consumer goods companies,
which often need to persuade people to choose one product over another
that’s literally on the same shelf. “So many products are already out
there that merely introducing the next new flavor of a chip isn’t going
to cut it,” says Ebert. “You have to
go the extra mile—consumers need to want your product.”
Path to the Top
If you aspire to a high-level marketing career, says Gupta, make an
effort to get experience at a top-notch company. “Try to go to a place
that’s well known for marketing so you can pick up good practices,” he
says. “Not only will you be influenced correctly, but you can use that
as an asset when you move on to other industries. The skills within this
field are fairly transferable.” That said, Gupta adds, be aware of what
you’re marketing and to whom—“Don’t assume that what worked in one place
will automatically work in another.”
Gupta himself chose a brand-name company to launch his career: He
started out in a pricing position at FedEx right out of business school.
“It was a leader in database marketing, so I learned how to analyze
customer segments and price product offerings,” he says. He went on to
fill acquisition-marketing and e-commerce marketing roles at the
company, and then left to become chief marketing officer at SciQuest, an
online venture specializing in pharmaceutical supplies procurement,
before landing at Bank of America. Working at a small start-up company
taught him a good deal, Gupta says. “I realized how much one takes for
granted at a bigger firm, because I had to be responsible for managing
the perception of the company in the marketplace as well as the messages
we communicated to shareholders, investors and customers.”
Trying out nontraditional roles is valuable even within large companies.
Ennis advises aspiring marketing executives to take on projects that
might be risky or unpopular—on brands that aren’t doing so well, for
instance. “Take the tough tasks. Say yes to the brand assignments that
no one else wants. That’s where you can make an impact,” he says.
Ebert agrees. “If you love marketing, you can get something out of any
opportunity you’re given. People often think, ‘I need to work on the
biggest brand,’ but sometimes the best opportunities arise when you work
on the smaller areas that no one else is thinking about,” she notes.
In fact, Ebert did just that at the outset of her own career. While she
was always interested in marketing, she had a CPA background and had to
take a finance job after business school because she was unable to get
marketing internships. A few years later, she snagged an interview at
General Mills through an acquaintance. She happily left her gig at
NationsBank to sign on as an assistant marketing manager in GM’s snacks
division—even though this meant starting over in a lower position with
much younger colleagues fresh out of school. But that didn’t stop
her—she hung on and went from one product to another, eventually
becoming vice president of potato chips for PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay
division.
Rising up in this field takes more than individual effort and chutzpah,
however. At the top levels, says Ennis, you will be delivering more and
more through other people. That’s where teamwork and people skills—from
those long-forgotten organizational behavior classes in B-school—come in
handy. “Can you develop a solid strategy that people can understand, and
can you lead them there? Can you motivate and inspire people to achieve
great results? That’s how you will be successful,” says Ennis.
As these experiences indicate, there are many paths to success in the
field of marketing. To distinguish oneself at the highest levels,
however, our alumni have found this requires qualities common to other
C-level executives—clear strategic vision, analytical proficiency and
leadership savvy—in addition to creativity and communication skills.
Snag a coveted chief marketing officer job, and who knows? In time, you
may even find yourself in the CEO’s chair._
Suma CM is a vice president and executive editor at Jungle Media Group
in New York City.
