The work

Brand Managers oversee the design, implementation and maintenance of advertising, promotion and sales-force-driven campaigns to develop creative and effective marketing plans for products, services and corporate consumer profiles. Market research and analysis, product launching, packaging considerations, and promotional strategizing comprise much of a Brand Manager's daily activities.

Brand managers craft elegant business plans and submit them to senior management. Then, when the price of the key ingredient in their product goes through the roof because of locust plagues, they rewrite the business plan from scratch with many more contingencies. They focus on the minutiae of a daily sales volume report, and they dream big dreams when it's time to update the vision for the brand. They approach upper-level management for capital to fund a new product launch or a line extension in much the same way that small business owners go to venture capitalists or banks to fund expansion.

Hours and Environment

Working hours can be long and irregular, and may include evening work, for example, to do administrative work.

Skills and Interests

Common traits of Product Managers include them being results oriented and creative; possess strong interpersonal, communication, and analytical skills; and have entrepreneurial leanings.

Entry

A Bachelors degree and 4 years of field experience.

Training

Brand management is considered part of the marketing function, and most aspiring brand managers have had some experience in advertising, promotions, or sales. However, consumer packaged goods companies are very interested in candidates who have honed their analytical and leadership skills in other disciplines, including consulting, investment banking, or strategic planning. If you have no previous experience in marketing, a summer internship can be enormously helpful.

Opportunities

The career tracks at most companies feature plenty of opportunities for cross-functional experience and varied work assignments. At some companies, experience in functions other than marketing has become a prerequisite for advancement.

Despite the flexibility in career path development, there are clearly defined entry-level positions: marketing analyst, or sales representative, or assistant brand manager (MBAs).

The path from marketing analyst to assistant brand manager to brand manager is a progression from executing to developing strategy. Continuing along the path involves a shift from participating in cross-functional teams to leading them and from monitoring a business budget to assuming profit-and-loss responsibility. At some point along this path, most companies send aspiring managers out into the field for extensive sales training, aka "the reality check."

Marketing Assistant/Analyst
Supporting a few brand managers or assistant brand managers, a marketing analyst must balance tasks to keep everybody smiling. Most analysts spend two to three years honing their skills, then accept a promotion to assistant brand manager or head off to business school. You may work on one major brand (say, BAT or Coca Cola) or a group of smaller brands. Most of your work will involve poring through reams of data. Yes, you will have the opportunity to sit in on divisional meetings and strategy sessions, but the bulk of your work will be more "tactical," a euphemism for number crunching. You'll be balancing budgets, constructing competitive analyses, tracking consumer premium orders, and other such duties. Successful marketing analysts execute assignments efficiently and accurately.

Assistant Brand Manager
As an assistant brand manager, it is your job to coordinate the various marketing functions, including packaging, advertising, promotions, and public relations, in order to execute the marketing plan.

In the course of executing the plan, you will head up a number of cross-functional teams that work on various parts of your business. For example, a product improvement project may bring together R&D, marketing research, packaging, finance, and operations. A change in your consumer promotion plan might require a coordinated effort between representatives from promotions and operations.

Assistant brand managers shift gears all day long. One minute they're brainstorming new promotion ideas, the next they're wading through monthly volume projections.

Annual Income

Further information