How to Develop a Brand When Utilising Lifestyle Marketing - Assignment Example

? DPP BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE DPP Personal reflection As a future marketing manager, there are many implications associated with achieving the Master’s Degree. The Master’s curriculum is more advanced than undergraduate, exploring sophisticated concepts related to marketing. This has consequences for improving my study skills and ability to work independently. For instance, the Master’s curriculum will require exploration of qualitative and quantitative research studies on consumer behaviour, which will require me to develop more advanced knowledge in psychology and sociology. I will need to be more diligent in consulting with various sources of literature on marketing and consumer-related phenomenon which will require more focus on independent study. The curriculum will also require understanding of statistical data that is highly valuable in a marketing career which will require gaining more practical knowledge of software systems that assist in data analysis. In virtually every job today, there is a requirement for the employee to be able to organise and evaluate data utilising various technologies (Cordes 2009). In order to become an effective marketing manager, I will require experiential learning on such applications as SPSS to familiarise myself with research data analyses as this will be a crucial skill in the marketing industry to gain important knowledge of consumer characteristics. Current skills gap include presentation skills, something that can be more effectively developed through experiential learning. Via practice, utilising Microsoft Powerpoint, peer network resources and tutors, I will be able to develop better public speaking skills. I also require sharpening of my business English skills, something crucial for relationship development in business-to-business marketing. Through registration with online language courses and reading of business theory literature, I will develop the appropriate professionalism required in businesses. I also require improvement of my marketing management skills, which can be developed through attentive attendance of course lectures and through consultation with primary research studies on a plethora of phenomenon in marketing theory. Career moves Key Skill Relevance to Marketing Management Quality communications skills Face-to-face meetings and relationship development (Simply Hired 2013). Ability to analyse financial data Budget analyses and strategy development (Simply Hired 2013). Creative thinking skills Advertising development and promotion (Brassring 2013). Problem solving skills Brand redevelopment and repositioning Providing evidence that communications skills are well-developed will require expressing competency in providing explanations, during the self-description process, and ensuring that the interviewer understands that I am detail-oriented when working with others, paying close attention to the sender before providing responses. Carr (1992) offers that in team environments where group consultations occur regularly, a leader must be like a coach, one who inspires others, builds their confidence, and opens effective lines of mutual discussion. It will be possible to illustrate to the potential employer that I have quality communications skills by focusing on my understanding and values related to team development and being able to provide personal experiences about participative leadership. This will clearly show that I am focused on opening dialogue between organisational members and strongly value consensus-based team operation. The ability to analyse financial data would not be exceedingly difficult. I can express to the potential employer that I am well-versed in understanding balance sheets, cash flow forecasts, and income statements to show the diversity of knowledge I hold about reading and assessing financial information. Mentioning the relationship between profit and loss and the administrative costs of marketing strategies and special marketing projects will show that I am competent in understanding the linkages between operations and costs. Creative thinking skills will be a more difficult concept to express to the interviewer. I can talk about personal experiences such as dealing with previous customer service failures. Marketing theory teaches the business world that when there are service problems, it leads to diminished word of mouth advertising and intention for consumers to make repeat purchases (Bitner, Brown and Meuter 2000; Gooding and Kinicki 1995). When the interviewer asks questions about professional experiences, I can talk about how I previously engaged unsatisfied customers in an effort to build trust in the integrity of the service and of representatives of the company. Various case studies in my own professional experience dealing with how to rebuild customer satisfaction will illustrate to the employer that I not only understand consumer behaviour, but also competency in protecting the interests of the company and its liabilities. I believe that by using real-world situations and how I found unique and creative solutions to improve the scenario, it will show that I have the skills required for innovation. Problem solving skills can be illustrated to the potential employer by utilising marketing terminology during the interview process and then applying them to real-life situations that occurred in my professional experience. What I would need to do is clearly define the problem from a marketing context and further discuss how I analysed potential solutions. Clearly showing to the employer how the situation was resolved along with a discussion of lessons that were learned will show that I retain knowledge and am able to formulate a new set of best practice behaviours that will improve business strategy and my own personal competencies in business relationship development. It will show my ingenuity in thinking outside of the proverbial box whilst also complying with business policies to show how balanced I am in the professional environment. Leadership style would be one key skills that the interviewer would not be able to glean from the resume or the CV. Fairholm (2009) states that in order to build trust between manager and employee, they must be transformational: visionary, inspiring, role model positive behaviours, coach employees and establish a mission focus to gain cohesion in work teams. Using my professional experience in restaurant management (from the CV) will assist in showing the employer that I understand the importance of leading others and gaining commitment from work teams. I would express a scenario that occurred where motivations were low and service performance was weak. I would illustrate that I researched many different performance management models and realised that psycho-social literature describes the importance of establishing social belonging and opening dialogue as a means of gaining confidence in the leader. The potential employer would understand that I established many different feedback mechanisms, such as the 360 degree evaluation, which allows many different raters (i.e. peers, managers and customers) to give employees a more fair and balanced performance evaluation. Coupled with the establishment of a mission to provide better service quality that would lead to transactional rewards for achieving these goals not only inspired employees, but made them feel like valued members of the organisation. The main barrier to attaining the role of marketing manager is a personal resistance to change. I like structured and well-established systems and policies that put order to chaos. The marketing management role is one that requires flexibility and adaptability to constantly changing market conditions and consumer attitudes. I believe that I can overcome this barrier by making small-scale changes in my personal life that force me to change some of my complacent habits. New experiences and ways of performing my obligations will give me practical experience with accepting change and alter a rather fundamental behavioural and personality-based trait that could have implications for marketing management. Therefore, two professional goals are to focus on being more elastic in business practice and gaining knowledge about the drivers of change resistance. I will research contemporary, secondary literature on accommodating behaviours and how to build progressive policies that allow for some aspects of risk to be included in the business model. It is through practice and experience in real-life professional environments that I will, over time, begin to be more original rather than demanding compliance-based business structures. Dissertation and employability The eventual career path is to gain a high-profile position as marketing manager at a large corporation. The dissertation is a critical part of this process, which is the final evaluation that the student has understood and retained advanced knowledge provided by the marketing curriculum. I believe that a dissertation topic focusing on quantitative analysis of a primary study related to brand perception and the dynamics of certain target market consumer behaviour would be highly valuable to attaining the knowledge necessary to be competent in this marketing manager position. I anticipate creation of a study that describes the factors that drive consumer brand perception (i.e. social, psychological or style of marketer communications) and how these factors influence repurchase decision-making. In marketing, the loyalty of consumers is vital to gaining higher sales revenues and improving brand visibility. However, if they do not perceive the brand as providing value to their lifestyles or somehow enhancing their social status, they will likely reject the brand for another competitive product or service. By recruiting a moderately-sized sample of random consumers sharing different demographic traits, the study can find correlations with certain target segments that will help to identify how to better position the brand in order to gain consumer attention, interest and improve repurchase intention. This type of dissertation will provide valuable statistical data from a survey that will not only strengthen my ability to analyse marketing metrics, but understand how to develop a brand when utilising lifestyle marketing. It will give me real-world knowledge about what drives consumer attitudes and perceptions of the brand to make me a more effective marketing manager. Sometimes theoretical information is not sufficient and must be applied to real-life business situations. It will give me experience by also improving my presentational skills in the process by opening face-to-face dialogue with many different consumer markets. ? References Brassring. (2013). Regional marketing manager. [online] Available at: https://sjobs.brassring.com/tgwebhost/jobdetails.aspx?jobId=337118&PartnerId=25516&SiteId=5221 (accessed 6 December 2013). Bitner, M.J., Brown, S.W. and Meuter, M.L. (2000). Technology infusion in service encounters, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 28(1), pp.138-149. Carr, C. (1992). Planning priorities for empowered teams, Journal of Business Strategy, 13(5), pp.43-47. Cordes, S. (2009). Adult learners: how IT can support new students, Educause Quarterly, 32(1). Fairholm, M. (2009). Leadership and organisational strategy, The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 14(1), pp.26-27. Gooding, R. and Kinicki, A. (1995). Interpreting event causes: the complementary role of categorisation and attribution processes, Journal of Management Studies, 32(January), pp.1-22. Simply Hired. (2013). Marketing Manager – Lumicor, Inc. [online] Available at: http://maximum.simplyhired.com/a/jbb/job-details/968318?trkap=Y2FtcGFpZ25faWQqKjEwNzQ2IyNhZHZlcnRpc2VyX2lkKioyMzA0NyMjc2l0ZV9wdWJsaXNoZXJfaWQqKjEwMDIjI3B1Ymxpc2hlcl9pZCoqMTAwMiMjcmVmaW5kX2tleSoqNjI1Ni45NjgzNTYjI29yZ19pZCoqNzU0NzM0NTU1IyNzZWFyY2hfb25ldF9jb2RlKio0MS0yMDMxLjAwIyNqb2Jfb25ldF9jb2RlKioxMS0yMDIxLjAwIyNqb2JfY2xhc3NpZmljYXRpb24qKiMjaXNfc3BvbnNvcmVkKiox%3B011db54f6b9efd56ad1a47901197dbcd&cparm=cF9pZD0xMDAyJnpvbmU9NiZpcD03Mi4xNjAuMjkuMTc4JmNvdW50PTEwJnN0YW1wPTIwMTMtMTItMTUgMTA6MzE6NDMmY291bnRyeT11cyZwdWJsaXNoZXJfY2hhbm5lbF9pZHM9NiZhX2lkPTIzMDQ3JmNfaWQ9MTA3NDYmY3BjPTEuMjAmcG9zPTQmaGFzaD1lMjE2ODA0NWExOTI5M2YzYjMzNTg0YTc5NjUyMGY1Ng%3D%3D%3B7153d031dd8709e59f95662506677e65 (accessed 5 December 2013). Simply Hired. (2013). Digital Marketing Manager – Ready Set Rocket. [online] Available at: http://www.simplyhired.com/job-post/12691 (accessed 6 December 2013). Read More