An open letter to conflicted Marketing Communications Specialists
Marketing Communications Specialist. A fancy job title, isn’t it? But what happens when your job title becomes a bottleneck to career growth?
Recently, I mentored a Marketing Communications Specialist who felt like a master-of-no-trade. He had worked at the regional office of his organisation for years and was essentially tasked with providing branding support to distributors in his region as well as for field marketing — what Nigerians like to refer to as “activations.” He spent time writing reports and before he knew it, a decade flew by. No promotion. No growth. He tried to apply for jobs but realised that whilst he had experience on paper, he had no real experience because he was not grounded in strategy.
I could relate to my mentee’s dilemma because a lot of organisation that create marketing communication roles do not understand the meaning of marketing communication. Most misconceive it as advertising but it is much more. In other instances, the organisation requires a marketing manager but advertises the job spec of a marketing communications manager. In this instance, candidates who cannot tell marketing and marketing communication apart are doomed to fail, or DOA — dead on arrival. But I digress.
Yet, I told my mentee that he did not have the right mindset.
Having the right mindset is key
I discovered that my mentee’s first problem was that of a poor mindset. He saw himself as the guy who puts up banners at events, so he couldn’t be more. If only he had seen himself as the ‘Janitor at NASA.’ If you are unfamiliar with this story, here’s a quick summary.
In 1962, the United States president, John F. Kennedy went on a tour of the NASA facility. He saw a janitor and asked him what he did for NASA, and the janitor replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.”
Pitch yourself as a brand manager
If you have the right mindset, then you’ll recognise that as a Marketing Communications Specialist, you are a brand manager.
Going by Chris Fill’s DRIP model, marketing communications specialist essentially utilise the elements of the marketing communication mix — advertising, sales promotions, marketing PR, direct marketing and personal selling — to differentiate a brand, inform the brand’s audience, reinforce its message, and persuade them to act. But my mentee did not realise this, hence the time wasted.
Once you realise that you are a brand manager, you must understand your brand strategy — whether or not you sit at the head office or branch. Learn about the subject, read books and sign-up for courses. If you do, writing a compelling CV which articulates contributions and achievements will certainly not be a challenge. And you will not be found wanting at an interview because recruiters don’t expect a perfect hire but they expect a knowledgeable one.
I say this because from experience no matter how knowledgeable you are, there’s so much you can know about an organisation looking from the outside. As such, what a recruiter wants to see is someone who has an understanding of the job, is open to and quick to learn, and hasn’t got a chip on his or her shoulder. Get these right and you’ll be fine.
