Did you ever find yourself watching a TV show or movie or browsing a website and suddenly you are motivated to buy the product or service that’s being advertised? That’s the work of a marketing manager. However, effective marketing encompasses simple consumer engagement—it also involves brand building efforts and initiatives to establish customer loyalty. As marketing guru Al Ries wrote, “Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions.”

Whenever a brand succeeds, like Nike or Apple, it always starts with a well-delivered, carefully crafted marketing campaign that involve and engage customers, an effort led by the marketing manager. Let’s delve deeper into this exciting career.

Marketing Manager – What You Need to Know

A professional working in the capacity as a marketing manager means he or she is the one who takes in charge of supervising or creating the various advertising or merchandising sales campaigns for a company. Marketing managers can work with a single product, a product line, a brand, or the entire company. They typically work alongside creative, research, advertising, and sales teams to come up with the most strategic and effective marketing campaigns.

While the marketing manager designates responsibilities to the staff to see a marketing campaign through, he or she typically has the final word on certain decisions and thus to be an effective marketing manager, one must have a good grasp of market research and a great amount of marketing insight to be able to determine which approaches or styles appeal to the target consumer.

Salary

According to PayScale.com, a marketing manager can earn $40,659 – $90,310 per year with potential for bonus, profit sharing, and commission. Marketing managers with at least 12 years of experience in the field can move towards the role of Marketing Director where they will be primary decision-makers for strategic planning, analytics or forecasting, market research, and budgeting.

Skills

If you have your sights set on a marketing manager career, get ready to earn a BA or BS degree in marketing, advertising, or communications. It also pays to have an MBA or other advanced degree. To reach management level, most organizations require at least 10 years or more experience in the marketing field, preferably with background in website, social media, or any digital form of marketing, apart from the traditional print or broadcast experience.

Since a marketing manager is steering the marketing ship, so to speak, it is beneficial to have expert problem-solving skills. Suffice it is to say, a good marketing manager must be an effective leader in bringing out a marketing team’s suite of strengths in implementing integrated, global and national campaigns and programs utilizing the full range of available media to increase brand presence, drive market share, and grow profits and revenue.

Pros and Cons

For many, working as a marketing manager means there is never a dull moment. One is tasked to deal with a variety of products or brands, and that can be incredibly exciting. It is considered to be a fulfilling career in a lot of aspects.

For some, that means a great deal of challenge as it is a fast-paced working environment, and there is barely any time to slow down. Marketing managers can also face the challenge of not being able to close the loop with the sales team, which happens when marketing efforts are producing quality leads or gaining significant public attention but not leading to new clients or customers.

SOURCES:

https://www.payscale.com/research/CA/Job=Marketing_Manager/Salary

https://blog.globalwebindex.com/marketing/10-powerful-examples-of-marketing-that-works/

https://blog.hubspot.com/insiders/problems-marketing-managers-face