Know-How Exchange : Career/Training

Dear Anand,

Yes, companies with brand managers recruit junior brand managers: a Google search for the phrase "junior brand manager jobs" offers 369,000 pages of results.

You mention that you feel that brand management is most attractive for you. Good. But from the point of view of prospective employers the bigger question is, with no work experience, what do you offer the world of brand management?

You might also want to give serious thought to the following questions (and come up with some answers):

Why do you want to be a brand manager?

What is a brand and what is your current understanding of brands and the management of those brands?

Where do brands work the hardest, for both the consumer, and the company that owns the brand?

Why do you think brands need to be managed and what qualities do you offer the world of brand management?

Are all brands the same?

How many skills do you think a brand manager needs?

And those are just for starters.

You might also want to give some thought to the MBA you mentioned. Why do you think you need it, why now, what will you do with it, how will it make your life easier, how will it really help your career, where will you study, will you study full time or part time, and how will you having an MBA make the life of your employer easier or more profitable?

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA

It's time for you to leave the school grounds and start talking to business people in your community. Find out what local people are doing on a daily basis, why they got into the field, what they see on the horizon, etc. If you don't have contacts, ask your career counselor to help put you in touch for informational interviews. Don't bother applying for a job until you're 100% sure you like the company, its offering, opportunities for growth, and the team you'll be working with.

With an engineering degree and a mba, you could be a fast tracker to management if you got the right kind of sales job. Contrary to popular belief many of the sales opportunities available in the high-tech world are actually very enjoyable (and quite lucrative).

If you would like to talk off line about the options, contact me via my profile.

If you are really sure you want brand management, sales is probably not a great place to start. A short stint in sales as part of a training program is highly recommended, but a full-time, long-term sales job rarely leads to a brand management position.

The very first thing you should do is take Gary's questions seriously. Take a shot at your answers to the questions, and put them in writing. That will force you to think through the issues and not dismiss them with "I know that answer in my head."

Then you need to talk with some relatively new brand managers to ask them about what they do, how they prepared, what they like/dislike about the work they do, where they see themselves in 5 years, etc. You don't have enough information yet to settle on brand management. It's a serious decision that will shape your future, and you owe it to yourself to research it thoroughly.

Finally, I would observe that "brand management" covers a pretty broad spectrum of jobs. In consumer packaged goods it's one thing, in not-for-profits it's another, and there are several B2B flavors of brand management. You might want to narrow your own thinking somewhat so you can focus on the areas that will be most satisfying and rewarding for you.

As someone who is trained as an engineer and has built a career in marketing and brand management, I understand the fundamental question you're asking. The real answer is something only you can determine. We can offer input, but in the final analysis it all depends on what YOU want.

Another reason to take Gary's questions serious, and maybe add a few more, is that there is no one definition of band manager out there. Each company that has someone with this title will have them doing different things. You need to know your definition of brand manager well enough that you can easily articulate it when you talk to prospective companies, and also understand the other definitions and know what parts of them you don't want. It may be worth your while to meet as many brand managers as you can meet to find out what they do, how they got there, etc.

If you did go the MBA route (and an MBA with an engineering degree is a strong combo), I would make sure that you go to a school that has a decent number of large consumer goods companies (who I think would be the ones to most likely have brand manager positions) or other companies who hire there entry level positions leading to brand manager.

Dear Anand,

You asked for clarification on my question "Where do brands work the hardest, for both the consumer, and the company that owns the brand?"

What I mean by this is any brand serves to masters: the company that owns the brand and the customer. They both have differing needs, wants, desires, and aspirations.

So, in which areas and for which master does any specific brand work hardest to meet the needs of that specific master? In the store? In the board room? On the balance sheet? In sales? In solving the problem of the customer?

And so on.

Think literally and laterally.

Of the responses you've given, one sounds as if it's been pulled straight from a text book:

"Brand management : work related to development and implementation of strategies to improve brands value in the market / managing brand equity."

And one sounds a little too focused on you:

How does your "total fascination with brand auras" help me if I'm your employer? How does this help me if I'm your customer?

I'm not saying this to give you a hard time: I'm telling you this to get you thinking.

It's your ability to innovate and be different that will make you of most use to your eventual employer and to his or her clients and customers, not your ability to quote a text book or say something deep and meaningful.

I hope this helps. Good luck to you.

Gary Bloomer
Wilmington, DE, USA