This year I have experienced which I never thought I would so early in my career. We all have issues when it comes to career, some are small nags while some are tragic situation. A demanding boss, poor salary and unfriendly work colleagues are to me the smaller nags of my work life. A tragic situation will be getting fired and unable to meet my own financial needs.
Right now I am somewhere in the middle where a series of small nags demotivated me and a bigger tragic loss led me to be unemployed. Or should I say a self imposed unemployment. Some may call it a sabbatical or a career break and sure it is the same for me. But my reason for imposing self unemployment was something more fundamental in nature.
I value learning over earning and profile over pay. Soon after leaving a globally renowned advertising company, I joined a travel company in the marketing team. Initially, I loved my job. I got to do things that I wanted to and did it pretty well and received recognition from the top bosses of my company. But soon few problems started emerging.
Firstly, the tour operating model in my opinion is dying, and it is a reason why all the tour operators are now struggling to keep the business going. Also from the marketing perspective, the Indian tour operating involves a lot of communication material preparation from season to season with little or no thought in the process. Which leads to stagnation in terms of learning. Secondly, digital, which is the big thing now is surprisingly a very minuscule part of the entire marketing plan. The new lot of travel companies are thriving on the online model, however, the tour operators are still at the nascent stage of online marketing. This offers an opportunity for someone like me to carry on a new initiative in the company.
And I planned a few new initiatives and proposed it to my bosses. Yes they didn't materialize primarily since they do not care about online marketing and secondly they dont expect a new comer to change the dynamics of their trade. But I still liked my job. The fundamental problem came when after a rejig in the management structure a call was made by the top management to divide the teams as per mediums and not as per brands or a divisional team. I was moved to the mainline team (including print & TV) and denied of any exposure to the digital side of things rather leaving me with no choice of my own. I felt like a slave.
In months leading from the change, I realised how true my belief was to marketing. A thought process of marketing person cannot be restricted to mediums. The advertising guru, Lee Clow famously tweeted saying, that never decide a medium and then the creative, create a great creative and then decide the medium. So is true for marketing/branding. How can a manager think about a medium and then decide what should be the strategy (if at all there was any)? Some companies have started to have a dedicated digital marketing team and I understand the need. But they cannot work in silos. Yes they can help better the entire process by generating new leads mechanism and data management, but can really a Marketing person be limited in his thinking to just a medium?
My objective of joining this team was clear, learn as much as I can about marketing/branding. But should I only concentrate on mainline and dont ever think on the digital side? One may argue that you can always be a part of it. But what they lack is that there are egos, people just dont allow you the leeway of learning about their business. I never got to learn a thing about digital after the change. I was restricted to only material creation, as if i was back working in the agency.
And after a political game by my new boss, I realized that this place is not worth it. I was not given the chance of being involved in a TV campaign launch by my immediate boss despite the fact that the head of marketing said point blank that I would be in charge of it. Inspite of me regularly asking him, he dodged me and went on to create a campaign all by himself.
So here I was, a boy with excellent qualifications and experience, working as a nothing man in a dead industry, in a company still at least 10 years behind in marketing. My learning stopped. Frustrations grew and finally I gave up, for a more fundamental reason that anything - I need more holistic learning. This place can't offer me that.
Yes I am sucker for role, good profile, better knowledge and greater exposure. I am not just happy earning the rupees, my career needs exposure and learning, money though a crucial part is only secondary to this.
I am desperate to be where I want to be, who I want to be and so as long as the sun rises everyday, I will get there sooner or later. In professional and in personal life. Luck is not on my side now, but it sure wont last long.
So the thInk point here is can a brand manger/Marketing manager work on basis of mediums alone? Let me know your views.
Right now I am somewhere in the middle where a series of small nags demotivated me and a bigger tragic loss led me to be unemployed. Or should I say a self imposed unemployment. Some may call it a sabbatical or a career break and sure it is the same for me. But my reason for imposing self unemployment was something more fundamental in nature.
I value learning over earning and profile over pay. Soon after leaving a globally renowned advertising company, I joined a travel company in the marketing team. Initially, I loved my job. I got to do things that I wanted to and did it pretty well and received recognition from the top bosses of my company. But soon few problems started emerging.
Firstly, the tour operating model in my opinion is dying, and it is a reason why all the tour operators are now struggling to keep the business going. Also from the marketing perspective, the Indian tour operating involves a lot of communication material preparation from season to season with little or no thought in the process. Which leads to stagnation in terms of learning. Secondly, digital, which is the big thing now is surprisingly a very minuscule part of the entire marketing plan. The new lot of travel companies are thriving on the online model, however, the tour operators are still at the nascent stage of online marketing. This offers an opportunity for someone like me to carry on a new initiative in the company.
And I planned a few new initiatives and proposed it to my bosses. Yes they didn't materialize primarily since they do not care about online marketing and secondly they dont expect a new comer to change the dynamics of their trade. But I still liked my job. The fundamental problem came when after a rejig in the management structure a call was made by the top management to divide the teams as per mediums and not as per brands or a divisional team. I was moved to the mainline team (including print & TV) and denied of any exposure to the digital side of things rather leaving me with no choice of my own. I felt like a slave.
In months leading from the change, I realised how true my belief was to marketing. A thought process of marketing person cannot be restricted to mediums. The advertising guru, Lee Clow famously tweeted saying, that never decide a medium and then the creative, create a great creative and then decide the medium. So is true for marketing/branding. How can a manager think about a medium and then decide what should be the strategy (if at all there was any)? Some companies have started to have a dedicated digital marketing team and I understand the need. But they cannot work in silos. Yes they can help better the entire process by generating new leads mechanism and data management, but can really a Marketing person be limited in his thinking to just a medium?
My objective of joining this team was clear, learn as much as I can about marketing/branding. But should I only concentrate on mainline and dont ever think on the digital side? One may argue that you can always be a part of it. But what they lack is that there are egos, people just dont allow you the leeway of learning about their business. I never got to learn a thing about digital after the change. I was restricted to only material creation, as if i was back working in the agency.
And after a political game by my new boss, I realized that this place is not worth it. I was not given the chance of being involved in a TV campaign launch by my immediate boss despite the fact that the head of marketing said point blank that I would be in charge of it. Inspite of me regularly asking him, he dodged me and went on to create a campaign all by himself.
So here I was, a boy with excellent qualifications and experience, working as a nothing man in a dead industry, in a company still at least 10 years behind in marketing. My learning stopped. Frustrations grew and finally I gave up, for a more fundamental reason that anything - I need more holistic learning. This place can't offer me that.
Yes I am sucker for role, good profile, better knowledge and greater exposure. I am not just happy earning the rupees, my career needs exposure and learning, money though a crucial part is only secondary to this.
I am desperate to be where I want to be, who I want to be and so as long as the sun rises everyday, I will get there sooner or later. In professional and in personal life. Luck is not on my side now, but it sure wont last long.
So the thInk point here is can a brand manger/Marketing manager work on basis of mediums alone? Let me know your views.
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