Multiple Skills of a Successful Marketing Manager

Marketing Manager

The Dream Position of many Students of a PGDM Programme

So, what is marketing? It’s exactly that. It, most importantly knowing and loving the product or service that your company provides. You also have to be agile to adapt & respond very quickly to the changing needs of your customers or clients. Markets are volatile, changing every day with new products and services being offered to lure new customers and clients. So, that’s marketing…steering your product and company to achieve greater success.

Multiple Skills of a Successful Marketing Manager

As we’ve already discussed, ensuring the success of one’s product and company are the principal targets. One could start off being in charge of a single product and later become a General Manager with the responsibility of a wide array of products and services.

The very nature of this job makes it necessary for this person to be able to communicate, understand and collaborate with those on other teams who help him achieve his goals. A Marketing Manager must appreciate that others such as those in Product Marketing, Digital Specialist, Content and Creative, Finance teams, etc. contribute hugely to achieving success.

Communication today has come a long way from the times that these were print ads in newspapers and magazines or jingles on the radio. Though these continue, communication has taken a great leap forward with the advent of newer more effective methods such as digital advertising and extensive use of social platforms. Since the Marketing Manager is in ultimate control of communication between the company and its customers or clients, working knowledge of these mediums of communication would be necessary.

Fortunately, for all Marketing aspirants, all companies in every vertical of industry and business require those who are adept in Marketing. How else could they inform their customers and clients…that’s the job of a Marketing Manager. It is one of the most rewarding and interesting careers that one could choose. There are myriad facets to it, each fascinating and interesting. Of course, it does take smart work & the enthusiasm and desire to learn and grow which will make you a successful one, respected by peers, seniors, and industry.

What makes this position so exciting, challenging, and interesting?

Because of the variety of responsibilities & skills needed to be good at it. Let’s look at some of these responsibilities but do remember that the ability to communicate and understand, the ability to be agile and empathetic will allow one to deliver, BETTER.

The responsibilities can broadly be divided into seven parts

• Your first loyalty/ priority is to the product/ service and the company so that both become market leaders. There will always be a company that is seeking to be No. 1. Ensure that it is yours
• Secondly, developing marketing strategies.
• Thirdly, the management of budgets would be extremely important.
• The next place would go to informing old customers and attracting new ones with the skillful use of all media available to spread your message.
• Also, you need to be analytical, creative, and one step ahead of the rest so that you can firstly, identify new opportunities, and secondly, identify the underperformers and turn them around.
• Technical skills and being able to keep up with the rapid evolution of these
• Successful people skills, though mentioned last, is perhaps the most important. Your interpersonal skills need to be highly developed to manage, understand and interact successfully with your team members, senior or junior to you, as well as those who are your vendors. What and, importantly, how, will make communication more effective when you need to inform, persuade, enable skill enhancement, brainstorm, organize, to mention just a few instances. Handling customer feedback, good or bad, must be understood and acted upon swiftly…empathy is required here, a quality of a good communicator.

Interesting work but how does one get there? Simple. The knowledge that this is the career you want and a strong desire and determination to excel will get you there. But there are some requirements for admission into a good PGDM program.

Graduation is a must since the PGDM is the equivalent of a Master’s. Your stream does not matter. There are engineers, students of hotel & hospital management, media, Arts and Science, Biochemistry & law, all who find this program necessary to their future success. Though it would be good if you had some work experience this is not really necessary since the opportunities provided to graduates are few and far between and unlikely to provide you with relevant industry experience.

With your graduation degree in hand, appear for the CAT exam as soon as possible. First Class marks in school, good marks in college coupled with a strong percentile in CAT would definitely get you admission into your dream college.

Salaries are something that always comes to mind. It cannot be impressed on enough that it is a performance that matters…there are no deadweights or laggards that achieve success. A healthy starting salary would be near about 50,000 a month, growing rapidly by larger percentages with each promotion going up to the wonderful sum of more than 90,000.

How rapidly this growth is achieved will depend entirely upon the person’s performance in the successful achievement of his responsibilities.

For those looking for a professional degree, admission into the International School of Business and Media, Kolkata, would be a dream come true.

A healthy environment of learning, both classroom and experiential, excellent members of the faculty in all specializations who combine industry experience with academic careers, and, who follow an open door policy, rewarding internships and placements, many opportunities to hone your organizational skills, and, of course, a beautiful riverside campus.