Introduction
The following is a report on human resource development portfolio for a marketing manager. The paper looks into the job description of a marketing manager in terms of the key competencies needed for one to perform the task appropriately. The other aspect of this report looks in the competencies learned in the classroom.
The report also checks whether the competencies match the role of a marketing manager. It will also discuss aspects learned outside classroom through job training.
Job description
The main responsibility of a marketing manager is to maintain the market in terms of developing competitive strategies for the company. It also involves ensuring that the company has first hand information on the market trends. The marketing manager has the responsibility of branding the company in order to promote the products in the market.
In addition, the marketing manager is responsible for coordination of the marketing staff to ensure that there is teamwork. Teamwork is very important because when the staffs work together they exchange ideas, which results to success due to high quality work. This is because among the staff are those who are experienced and hence can share their skills with newly employed members.
The marketing manager leads these teams to ensure that each member participate actively (Drucker, 1974). The marketing manager must conduct market and consumer research activities, analyse the research and make recommendation based on the findings of the research to instigate activities and decisions that are informed especially in product and brand development.
As part of the job, the marketing manager will have to create marketing activities that will fall within the stipulated budget. The marketing manager is responsible for the development of the pricing strategy of the company to ensure that the prices of the product are competitive in the market (Bradley, 2010).
The following key competencies ensure that the marketing manager performs the responsibilities appropriately. The first competency is that the marketing manager must have leadership competency, as the marketing manager must lead the marketing team by example.
The manager must lead promotion teams, consumer research team and branding team to ensure that they are effective. He or she must therefore have good interpersonal and leadership skills to lead the team (Bond, 2006).
The other key competency will involve carrying out market research. The marketing manager must be competent in gathering data from the market, analysing the data and using it to make decisions that will influence the pricing of the products as well as the marketing strategy that the company has to adopt (Csíkszentmihalyi, 2000).
The other competency that the marketing manager must have is good financial accounting skills to prepare the marketing budget and ensure that it falls within the budget of the company. The marketing manager must be capable of accounting for the department’s expenditure when needed. This may involve preparing the departments books of account and financial statements (Hilgard, 1966).
The marketing manager must have good media liaison skills where he or she has media contacts such that if there is any promotion or advertising media contacts may be used. This media contacts ensure that the organisation creates a positive campaign that is well publicised in the media (Marder, 2007).
The manager must have branding knowledge especially on how to create advertising copies that will place the company in the mind of consumers. The marketing manager must be creative in order to come up with new strategies that will help the company develop competitive products for the company to remain ahead in its sales (Marder, 2007).
The marketing manager must also have knowledge of the industry especially concerning the new marketing platforms. The managers must be informed about the new developments in marketing both locally and globally. This helps the manager to make informed decisions. Information on the trends enables the manager to make the company ahead of competition regarding strategy such as pricing, advertising, and promotion activities (Mayo, 2001).
The manager must also be knowledgeable in technology matters about software that simplify their work (McDonald, 2007). The manager needs to be well versed with social media, email marketing and other forms of new media marketing. The manager must have knowledge in the use of enterprise resource planning software that helps managers in the execution of their responsibilities.
This software enables the manager to communicate with the advertisers, make and analyse advertising designs presented for approval. The manager must know how to create advertising copy and branding strategies (McDonald, 2007).
The marketing manager must be a good organiser and planner of effective strategies on how to keep the company’s product at the top in the competition. The manager must plan on the budget to determine who will play different roles in the achievement of the set goals. The marketing manager must review the marketing plans of the company especially in creating appropriate strategies (Thorndike, 2002).
Competencies acquired in class
The following are some of the competencies learned in class. The first one is financial accounting, which relates to the creation of marketing budget. The marketing budget ensures that there are adequate resources to maintain and sustain the marketing and promotion activities.
The promotional activities may involve use of flyers, logos, and T- shirts. This budget must take into consideration advertising and market research activities. The classroom provides a platform for acquiring these skills (Schein, 1992).
The other skill acquired from the classroom in creating the marketing campaign is the development of market research tools. The class project exercises enable the student to conduct market research project. One learns to create and design a market research program (Mayo, 2001).
One also learns to gather information from the market using different market research techniques such as market intelligence, market surveillance and consumer behaviour research. From the class, one also learns how to analyse the market research results as well as ensure that the findings of the research are of help to the target company (Mayo, 2001).
The market research skills that are acquired in class make a key competency. However, to harness such a skill it is imperative to have experience in such a department by having a firsthand experience in real company market survey and consumer insight research (Thorndike, 2002).
The other key competency learned in the classroom involves the creation of the advertising copy, for a marketing manager to be competent and deliver advertising messages that achieve the intended results he or she must have knowledge on how to design effective advertising that will brand the company positively as well as increase the sales volume of the company.
From class one the manager learns to develop advertising by creating adverting copies. One also learns how to use various graphical software, how to design images for posters and other promotional materials.
There is learning on how to make an advertising campaign achieve the intended purpose by mixing the advertising messages together with the promotional messages that help the company have a positive response in the market.
The other key competency learned in class involves the creation of advertising and promotional messages that keep the company busy and ensures that the company has the needed resources that keep it on the winning edge.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills are another key skill learned in class through the essays and presentations done in classroom as part of the training. This skill is imperative as it prepares one to write persuasive messages for the consumers and ensures retention of the old consumers thus creating goodwill for the company.
The marketing manager must also persuade the management to allocate enough resources for marketing. The marketing manager must have presentation skills acquired from the classroom setting where one learns how to make persuasive presentations and answer questions as well as defend the point of argument (Csíkszentmihalyi, 2000).
Problem analysis and problem solving through the essays and the company marketing strategy analysis help to be critical of the competitor and be a good analyser of different skills (Fuchs, 2003).
By having group work exercises, one learns how to develop team-leadership as well as become a team leader. This skill is imperative for marketing manager, as the manager has to deal with the teams. The manager has to coordinate and motivate the team.
From the group work, one learns to be a part of team and work with other people. One must learn to work with people who have different personalities and make them work for a common objective (Fuchs, 2003).
Through the classroom presentation, one learns how to make presentation skills. The marketing manager must present the budget to the management or the board members for approval. This means that the manager must make a persuasive presentation to the board. The presentation exercises conducted in the classroom prepare one before hand on how to make such presentations (Csíkszentmihalyi, 2000).
The other exercises such as creation of marketing strategies and advertising copies prepare one to be innovative. The role of marketing manager involves a lot of creativity, as one must continually invent new products, new brands, and pricing strategy. The exercises done in the classroom prepare one to be innovative and think outside the box (Fuchs, 2003).
The presentation exercise and the critique of various strategies presented in class by fellow students and lecturers prepare one to have good judgment skills on what will succeed, and what will not.
The presentation skills ensure development of good decision making as one is analytical enough to see the potential failures of a given strategy and therefore develop a fall back plan in case the plan does not go as excepted (Thorndike, 2002).
The other key attribute involves the creation in the development, which is well intended to have the resources in developing the attributes that will be of help to the company. The other skill learned from class is using the enterprise software designed for marketing managers (Mayo, 2001).
This software enables the market managers to hold everything with different stakeholders who help the company create a positive way in developing the resources in the company (Fuchs, 2003).
How to increase those competencies
Increasing ones career competencies as a marketing manager is achieved by receiving feedback from the colleagues and bosses and other stakeholders on the areas that one needs to improve. Such competencies may involve skills as communication skills (McDonald, 2007).
Leadership styles as well as teamwork are important and one may continually attend courses and seminars that relate to the career to be up to date with the developments in ones field. One must work towards improving capabilities through online assessment tests and courses to identify areas where one is weak as a manager as well as upgrade one’s competencies (Honey, 2007).
One should also join professional networks, which bring together practitioners in a particular field. The aim of these networks is to provide the members with information on the changing trends in the health care industry as well as provide training opportunities for the members at an affordable cost (McDonald, 2007).
The networking opportunities inform the members on career and job opportunities. They validate and act as a proof that one is competent in their field of operation. They also act as a guide in matters of legal and ethical issues that govern the field marketing and management (Honey, 2007).
Other than networking and informing the members of new opportunities in their field, the professional bodies provide continuing education for their members. These are important to the members to ensure that they are up to date with the dynamic field.
Opportunities of continuing education keep the members abreast with new trends and education requirements of their career. At a time when downsizing due to integration of technology in work places is common, the professional networks provide training opportunities for their members such that they are at par with the technological changes (Fuchs, 2003).
The other way of improving ones competency is by training in the job market. The training will involve working in the marketing department where one learns key competencies to have firsthand experience in the development of marketing strategies, promotional strategies, and development of advertising copies.
It is from the training that one acquires media contacts, which are critical as a marketing manager. From the training, one learns how to collaborate with others and work as part of a team (Fuchs, 2003).
Conclusion
The human resource development plan assists one to develop a good plan that shows where to improve. The career development plan ensures that one is well positioned to take the responsibilities that pertain to a given career. They identify the skills that one has to develop to be suitable for a particular position. They also help one to appreciate the exercises learned in class that will be of help to the students in future.
Having the understanding of the importance, the students feel motivated to perform various tasks and roles given within the classroom setting. The human resource development plan also assists the students to participate in extracurricular activities that will give them the required experience and leadership skills.
The extracurricular activities help the students to discern their personal attributes such as being a team player as well as result-oriented person that are key personal attribute of a marketing manager.
References
Bradley, N. (2010). Marketing research: Tools and techniques. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bond J. (2006). Sociology and health care. London: Churchill Livingstone.
Csíkszentmihalyi, M. (2000). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: Harper Perennial.
Drucker, P. (1974). Management: Tasks, responsibilities, practices. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
Fuchs, A. (2003). Psychology as a science: Handbook of psychology. New York: Wiley.
Hilgard, E. (1966). Theories of learning. New York: Appleton Century-Crofts.
Honey, P. (2007). Continuing personal development. New York: Peter Honey Publications.
Marder, E. (2007). The laws of choice: Predicting customer behaviour. Boston: The Free Press division of Simon and Schuster.
Mayo, A. (2001). Human value of the enterprise: Valuing people as assets, monitoring, measuring, and managing. London: Nicholas Bradley Publishers.
McDonald, M. (2007). Marketing plans. England: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Schein, E. (1992). Organizational culture and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Thorndike, E. (2002). The fundamentals of learning. New York: Teachers College Press.