Possessing a flair and interest towards brands

Possessing a flair and interest towards brands

Possessing a flair and interest towards brands, wanting to learn more about marketing, is a natural next step for me. For the last five to six years of my life, I have been involved in the area of digital marketing and content creation. Whether it is with my Media and Communication Honours Undergrad course where I studied modules like Advertising, Public relations, and Brand studies, or working with real-time clients during my employment years in a creative digital agency, I have since been fascinated by the ‘Marketing’ aspect of businesses.

In the final year of my college, I was mentored by an Advertising and Marketing professional for my final project. It was under his constant guidance and support when my point of view about Marketing evolved. He helped me further understand the nuances of the field in business. We worked through my project, which was initially dominated by an extremely creative idea, with an insufficient business angle. With his mentoring and after various discussions did I realise the value of Marketing and Branding, and what it brought to the table. Post which my viewpoint broadened and my interest multiplied emerging as a key factor that led me to work in a digital agency after that. While at work, there were many opportunities and projects that solidified my liking for the subject. An example of this would be a brand campaign for a leading shopping mall that I created along with my other teammates, which led on to becoming the mall’s brand campaign for an entire year – across offline and online mediums.

Having worked for almost 2.5 years in a boutique digital agency, I managed to learn a bit of everything, such as formulating effective brand messaging, understanding client servicing and figuring out the target audience. During my tenure as a writer, I worked closely with the design, brand, and PR teams to come up with effective digital solutions and campaigns for several large and medium/small lifestyle brands. Our teams tried to understand the brands and the value proposition offered. We undertook a deeper analysis of their customer base and the competitive landscape to formulate a strategy that was tailored to our clients and was unique. In the process, I have sharpened a few crucial soft skills, such as working with various clients and teams, time management, people skills, collaboration, and communication skills. I firmly believe that working in a smaller set-up at the initial years of my career gave me invaluable experience and exposure to the industry and the opportunity of taking end-to-end ownership of my work, something that I may have missed out on, in a larger company with a set hierarchy.

Pertaining to the scenario of globalization, expansion of business organization requires finding the opportunities outside the national markets, and it involves establishing customer relationships across boundaries and engaging with people from different cultures. In light of this changing situation, the need for marketing professionals with global mind-set is escalating and hence, to gain transition to a senior managerial position and to improve my relative standing in the ever-competitive and extremely challenging employment sector, I desire to pursue my master’s in the UK. After going through the curriculum of MSc Marketing and Brand Management at the University of Essex, I found the modules in the course to go really well with my skill set. In the past years, I learnt the importance of art and copy, communication mix, client servicing, and research. But there are still a few things that I want to learn more about – consumer behaviour, data analysis, managing negotiations, and the intangible aspects such as value, message, and recall of a brand. I also look forward to learning more about marketing in the corporate sector, which I believe the course will help me appreciate better. While the list of things I want to learn is a long one, I am confident that my strong research skills would make me a quick learner.

From just the top of my head, I believe UK universities have an excellent reputation across the world for their pragmatic excellence and academic research. The country is a melting pot of different cultures where universities offer an extremely relevant curriculum every year. It is one of the world’s leading destinations for international students considering the high-quality education, QAA approved curriculum, industry-informed modules, experienced faculty, and cutting-edge facilities within the university campuses offering an opportunity to mingle with the cosmopolitan crowd. In addition to that, UK degrees are also highly sought after by employers worldwide. Studying in your world-class research university administers a unique chance to take advantage of fantastic resources and earn a global degree that will add to my credibility and gain recognition. Lastly, the experience of living in a different country, meeting interesting people from across the world, and savouring various cultures appeals to me very much.

As for my goals, I am positive that Masters from the University of Essex would open various doors for me professionally. While I see the beauty of being the Jack of all trades, I do wish to be able to master one. With that, I also hope to incorporate creativity and innovation into every task at hand. My goal would be to marry my creative skills with the technical and analytical knowledge that I hope to possess after graduating.