One thing that strikes me when I lecture in B-Schools, apart from million other things that hit me with increasing regularity, is the aura surrounding the life of a marketing job in the minds of the students. Most, if not all, seem to think a marketing job is the next best thing to being a freelance gynecologist!
I don’t intend spoiling their party but I thought I could use this space to introspect a little bit about the life of an average marketer - those hard-working alcoholic workaholics who work 9 to 5 – working from 9 A.M to next day morning 5 A.M! Here is the piece – self-reflection lessons for marketers.
You lecture the paper-delivery boy on ways to improve his marketing skills.
You get all excited when it’s Sunday, so you can wear casual clothes to work.
You find you really need PowerPoint to explain what you do for a living.
You know deep inside yourself when you say ‘the work is happening’ means only one thing – the work hasn’t even started.
You normally eat out of vending machines and at the most expensive restaurant in town within the same week.
You know the people at the airport and hotel better than your next-door neighbours.
You think a ‘half-a-day’ means leaving office at 5 o’clock.
You know but you don't realize it when you promise somebody you would meet him/her ‘first-thing-in-the-morning’ means meeting that person just minutes before lunchtime.
You remember the names of all your high-school classmates but not the guy whom you met just half an hour ago.
You are planning to take the weekend off – only that you planned it three years back!
And all those marketers who are reading this......if you wish to add more to this list based on your experiences, feel free to add them.
That's the whole point about this blog!
1 comment:
Before I begin, I am not a professional marketer myself, but then yea, thanks to some wonderful exposure to the subject in my postgraduation, I like it despite the sweat and fatigue it entices. I have watched a lot of marketers work like crazy and I do have one or two relatives in the field of advertising. If all of us think we are working hard, I guess all of us should think again and have a good look at how a marketer works. Talking to your client in the wee hours of morning because your client is an overseas client, going out of your way to help your client by setting up a meeting on a Sunday, going on work outside your own city thereby staying more outside your city rather than your own :),and if you have a couple of clients making sure you devote equal attention to them, continously researching so that you can help your client, making sure things are moving the way they should be, noting down all the important things in your book and apart from all these spending enough time with your family!!!! But all said and done I am sure this is also a lot of fun!!
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