What does it take to be a Brand Manager?

Brand management is difficult to define because the actual job description varies widely across the vast universe of consumer products companies.

Brand management is considered part of the marketing function, and most aspiring brand managers have had some experience in advertising, promotions, or sales. However, consumer packaged goods companies are very interested in candidates who have honed their analytical and leadership skills in other disciplines, including consulting, investment banking, or strategic planning. If you have no previous experience in marketing, a summer internship can be enormously helpful. Many companies offer summer internships, which often result in a job offer after graduation.

Recruiters look for leadership, analytical skills, problem solving ability, teamwork, and creativity.

I am looking at joining an agency to learn more skills in order for me to expand my skills and more experience.

Typical Responsibilities:

• Lead cross-functional teams that carry out the daily work on the business
• Manage marketing analysts and administrative assistants
• Develop marketing plan to review brand performance and meet volume and profit projections
• Participate in the life of the company by interviewing prospective candidates, attending recruiting functions, sitting on planning committees, and volunteering in corporate outreach programs
• Demonstrate leadership and analytical skills to senior management
• Manage qualitative and quantitative market research projects

"Mental Block"

Do you recognize these 10 Mental Blocks to creative thinking?

Whether you're trying to solve a tough problem, start a business, get attention for that business or write an interesting article, creative thinking is crucial. The process boils down to changing your perspective and seeing things differently than you currently do. 

Austin Kleon ''Steal like an Artist"

Austin Kleon has brilliantly reminded the ways of staying in tune.

People like to call this "thinking outside of the box" which is the wrong way to look at it as a creative. Austin Kleon has once again written a awesome book to remind us that mental block can be dealt with in so many ways as we constantly change our perspectives.

''Show your work"

1. Don't try to write a book while taking care of a newborn baby.
2. Write outside of the house.
3. Stop researching, start writing.
4. Once you're in the middle of writing the book, talk about the book as little as possible.
5. Stick to an outline until you're between drafts.
6. A book can be a pain-in-the ass to write as long as it ins't a pain-in-the-ass to read.
7. Your partner or spouse is so, so sick of you.
8. Don't use childbirth as a metaphor.
9. Don't squander your momentum.
10. Know what you are getting into.

Product Launch

"'Fake it till you make it"

I am a student and a business woman who runs a company specializing in product launches, promotions and events. We had our ups and downs during 8 years we've been in business. We learned many lessons from our mistakes and late last year i made a decision to polish my skills by attending Vega School of Brand Leadership, which i consider to be the best school in its field in the country.

"Raisin Bread"

I have had two assignments  (numbers 3 and 4) from the creative development class relating to product launches. 

Assignment #3 in the class - 'Fake it till you make" - challenged me to take a product that already existed and make it my own. I came up with a Raisin bread as a new product for a big bread supplier to launch with my own twist to it. I presented a roll out plan for the product launch using what I already have. My chosen craft was for one of the brand that everybody knows, buy and eat everyday. Blue Ribbon was a chosen brand that has a new “’raisin bread” and the benefits it will have for customers.

6 Secrets to a Winning Product Launch

• Matching product capabilities to market needs
• Clear positioning and Messaging
• Setting clear launch goals
• Priming the pump
• Timing the launch to maximize sales
• The power of leverage

In assignment 4 I had to focus on executing a promotion designed to create a Sales momentum enabling the brand and company to grow and prosper. The aim was to add more customers, expand influence, hire more people and grow even more momentum. 

Presentation

Promoters

Bread tasting

Competition

 "Raisin Bread Promotion"

''Design Thinking''

I would like to take a moment of silence for the brilliance of Japanese industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa's who is one of the world's most influential designers. He believes that successful designs are things we interact with naturally and inevitably. He defines aesthetics as ''the beauty of relation''. His work is unobtrusive and familiar. Fukasawa is gifted and has really discovered his talent. He comes up with something that's new and fresh without fail. He is widely known for his design philosophy "Without Thought"

These slippers are made of paper produced by the centuries old Japanese process of washi-suki. The slippers are made of RPF NAORON (special paper, to which recycled polyester fibers have been added) and the SOFT NAORON which is contains wood pulp and polyolefin fibers (neither of these papers emit noxious fumes when burned).

SIWA Slippers

The footbed is filled with high quality felt and the sole is covered with artificial leather. The slippers are flexible, water resistant as well as surprisingly strong and comfortable. The SIWA series is a creation of the Japanese paper (washi) maker ONAO and industrial designer Naoto Fukasawa.

Design the necessity

Fukasawa is convinced that a design should focus on function. The designer should seek to craft a better relationship between objects and people rather than just create one object after another endlessly. In the process of designing, a designer should decide which factor is most significant to the final product and stay focused on it. He or she must not let himself or herself be overtaken by excessive elements. Putting something irrelevant in just to express oneself would not complement the product but spoil it.

Sabbia

Anyo Chair

"Humans are at the centre - that's why objects shouldn't stand out too much".

Other Worldly

Kepler's Dream - Mixing digital aesthetics and otherworldly

This art work gives a light and airy vision which encourages an image of a region as an other-worldly sort of place.

The subconscious mind is a deep pool full of every experience a person has ever had. Ideas from nowhere happen when something decent surfaces. Too often these are forgotten and lost forever.

Elizabeth Gilbert "Muse"

This is great, inspiring, and brought me a lot of clarity when i watched the clip. I see her perspective and it resonates well with me, for I have similar experiences to hers that leave me elated until I fall off and into depression. It is not a conscious effort, but an inspiration from afar. ''Select your thoughts like you select your clothes everyday'' - ''Elizabeth Gilbert" which is a power I'm learning to cultivate.

What causes creativity?

“There is always room, if only in one’s own soul, to create a spot of Paradise, crazy though it may sound.”

–Henry Miller, Preface to Stand Still Like the Hummingbird

What is Creativity?

Creativity is a relative sense, it varies from one person to another, but in the end everyone has the ability to be creative. Inventing, imaging, innovating something amazing that would change YOU as an individual and people's lives forever. It is the originality from an individual which requires artistry, inspiration and vision. It is taking initiatives and risk whilst being resourceful and employing enterprise skills.

Creativity is born from fun, pain, joy and the experiences of others.  That moment comes to you whether prepared or not. New ideas. Creating something out of nothing, Without love it is impossible, with love it is immovable.

Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes.