Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Adding to what was said above (particularly related to variety of work):

Copywriter - you will work on one specific area (wording) for many different companies or products.

Brand management - you will work on all areas related to one specific brand or product.

So both give you variety, just one in the products and the other with the duties.

Math is by far my weakest subject and my strengths are creating ideas, negotiating, strategic planning, managerial skills & problem solving.

Copywriter would use the creating ideas skill.

Brand manager more the other skills. Brand manager could require more math, as you will be more involved with metrics.

Either way my goal is to advance into a partner position.
Not sure there is a partner option for brand manager.

Hello,

I've covered both roles and I can confirm that it's truly a personal thing. I generally did not like working for an ad agency because of our clients (change this, change that, hate this, hate that). I am a person who is very proud of her work, and to have it shot down, and quite easily for that matter, was hard to take at times.

I liked working on the marketing side very much. However brand management has alot to do with getting things right (more of a science than an art) and therefore creative people can feel frustrated in that role. There could be lots of budgeting and ROI calculations, so beware. As for me, I actually enjoyed all those excel spreadsheets!

Now I'm starting a little agency and I'm finding more of the same hassles from clients, but I'm more mature I guess and I'm learning that a job is a job. There are always pros and cons.

My advice to you is to find a mentor or, better yet, to get an internship at an agency while you're in school. It could open doors to your new career as well as give you the insights you need to make your decision.

Best of luck.

I've never worked at an advertising agency, so I will speak to the brand management side of your equation.

I've been a brand manager (at Procter & Gamble), director of marketing (at Frito-Lay), and vp-marketing (at International Playtex). To me brand management is more about being analytical than most people realize. You have to be able to look at consumer research, market share and distribution data, sales trends (by SKU, by market), and a bunch of other stuff.

You have to integrate what you learn (from all that data) and use it to spark creative insights that will lead to marketing activities and programs that will move the business ahead. Without a love of the quantitative stuff, I think it would be very difficult to be an outstanding brand manager, no matter how creative you are.

I suppose there are all kinds of companies, with different requirements for their brand managers, but I can't imagine anyone who really understands brand management not requiring a heavy concentration of skills in quantitative analysis.

This topic (analytical skills) is covered pretty well in Rasputin For Hire, where it's listed as one of the requirements suggested by successful consultants as being mandatory. You might want to pick up a copy and read it. (www.rasputinforhire.com)

The biggest "pro" for brand management is that you really get to run a business, and that's a real kick -- especially if you are an entrepreneur at heart. And you get to demonstrate your creative problem-solving ability on a daily basis -- once you master the analysis part.