Success Built on Foundation of Basic Skills

At a time when marketers need to shape their brand’s offering, training providers are shifting their focus towards courses that teach basic skills, such as digital strategy, planning and finance.

By Steve Hemsley

It has always been the case that training and qualifications differentiate individuals and businesses when times are hard and Hugh Burkitt, chief executive of The Marketing Society, believes the brands that invested in recruiting talented marketers during the good times will come out on top during the recession.

He cites Tesco as a prime example of how investment in the marketing department has a positive effect on the bottom line when the economy slumps. Burkitt adds that marketers need training that will help them keep up to speed with trends in their particular sector and changes in consumer behaviour.

“Marketers need to become the customer champions within their organisations,” he says. “They must be the ones driving business growth through innovation.”

In response, the society has endorsed international training specialist Brand Learning’s training academy, which comprises six modules each based on a different core marketing skill. These are: insight, strategic brand development, innovation, marketing planning, activity generation and campaign development.

The courses are run in-house for clients. Brand Learning co-founder Mhairi McEwan says there was a gap for ready-to-go programmes that were accessible for clients who want something quickly or cannot afford tailored courses. “We are taking best practice marketing training that we do around the world and distilling it into a series of modules. There is a need for courses that help people with the real marketing building blocks,” she says.

McEwan believes that in a recession everyone must be a brand manager and understand the role of marketing within their organisation’s wider business strategy. “Marketers need the skills to shape what a business should be offering its customers,” she says.

Brand Learning has also noticed a change in the kind of courses employers and individual marketers want. In the past year the number of conferences, workshops and coaching sessions it has run on marketing strategy and planning has more than doubled.

In a time when businesses are “resetting” their way of thinking, it seems going back to basics is benefiting everyone.

Extract from: Marketing Week

http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/success-built-on-foundation-of-basic-skills/3002244.article