8:30 am. After waking up at 6 am, I just brush my teeth and head for the gym to do 30 minutes on the treadmill and another 20 minutes on the ellipticals. By 8:15 I make my way to the office. I check emails as soon as my laptop boots up, and I get spammed about viagra, and request tracker from stores brings in about 30 concerns about my categories. I get emails from the US HQ about a strategy on drinks,then from our president about our other cagory strategies, and I begin sending out correspondence.
10 am: On my table are 2 printouts from our category managers, one is the project plan of our secret weapon strategy for the year, the other, reviewing the strategy for last year's miserably failing categories. It's like this for the strategic categories I handle; it means working with a lot of new and really exciting concepts which also means treading a pioneering path, which takes more work because it involves convincing,influencing others to prod on, to buy into the idea. Some ideas work, some do not, but the right move is to do an assessment and just move forward or to try another concept, to never stop innovating. Before a product is launched, a marketing strategist needs to use the left brain to map out the plan and execution of the program, and the right brain to creatively communicate the concept to the users, to generate excitement and sell the idea. I think about this as I look at the last 10% of our Next Big Thing's work breakdown structure, and it both delights and excites me. Today is a good day, sometimes, I get no ideas, so I get up and go outside to get inspiration- a new TVC, a newly-launched product in the mall, a new shop. I head out and observe people. Not today, though, as I prepare myself to review the hard task.
By 12 noon, I hear somebody from marketing say "Guys, for once, let's have lunch on time!", and I respond by egging my team to head up to the cafeteria (we end up checking out their meal and prices in comparison to ours). Before I can brush my teeth, a staff approaches me to review his dashboard design for the information system I wanted set-up. I tell him to simplify, and reduce too much information which may clutter the catman's job and make them lose focus. I also tell him to lighten up and get to know others in the team.
1:30 pm I prepare for an interview with a potential team member and review the resume, and my list of questions. Over the years, I have learned it's best to ask key questions to get an insight to how an applicant's mind works.
By 2:30 I'm done and I get a sample coffee cup from our product review panel. Coffee cup on my hand means I need full concentration on the task at hand. But before I can start, the marketing director approached me and asked me to do a presentation which has been running in my head for a week, but is not yet fully cooked.I don't think he has an idea how to do it at this time, and told me he is relying on me. I take this chance to tell him I cannot be held accountable, but not responsible for a section, and responsible but not accountable for another. His "matrix move" on praising me about being really good lands hollowly and he finally admits I'm right. (Sometimes, eventhough I don't like it, you just have to kick butt. It helps that there is teamwork and we trust each other enough to be able to say what's on our minds.) I go back and review the presentation for our declining categories and I comment with a long list of points that need to be stressed to show previous work done; I also raise questions that need deeper digging. We'd better be certain when we make a presentation to the president. We don't, after all, want to hear him say again, " Are you guessing?" Sometimes, when we don't have data, we use feedback, anecdotes from stores, but it is best to arm the category managers on anticipating his thinking process so they don't get shot down.
4:00 pm I go back to my emails, setting up 2 meetings for next week with operations and engineering. I've learned the art of conducting meetings, and sometimes i don't like going to one if it drags for more than an hour, so i ask my team to prepare their ideas and our stance prior to next week. Goodness, no, it's not another meeting for that meeting, it's more of a consult.
5:30 pm I finally put into writing the company's review of category plans, at least, the outline of it. I complete the draft, and delegated tasks to a team member. I pass by the product panel review and they are reviewing new hotdogs and condiments. I take my seat, banter with our supplier partners, and introduce the new catman to the group, then we eat our way into 6 hotdog samples. My instinct liked one in particular, and the reformulated one, I asked them to revert to the original, which was more flavorful. A friend texted me today; he thought our firedog hotdog was a winner because it removed his hangover-that's a real spicy one, after all. He is our target market, and that hit the spot. In the end, that's why this work matters, when we get satisfied customers, it gets inspiring to do better and better.
A MARKETING MANAGER NEEDS TO: (From CSNews- US)
1. Have integrity. With all the contracts one signs with a wide variety of companies, honesty is probably the number one prerequisite for the job.
2. Communicate well. Good communication skills are a must since you need to have interactions with everyone, from vendors, to the president or the night-shift store clerks, to a large assembly of store, franchisees, area and district managers.
3. Multi-task: You have to be able to handle multiple projects at the same time, and keep track of them. From planning a store layout to improving processes, the marketing manager touches all aspects of the company.
4. Multi- talented. From negotiating contracts with food service vendors to planning food service menu offerings to allocating advertising dollars, the marketing director is the true Renaissance man of the retail organization.
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