Trang Tr.

Creative mind, big interest in business analytics with marketing and hospitality experience

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@ High Park, May 2020

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Toronto, before it all happens.

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Marketing Transformation: The World of Insights

Marketing is an exciting field with a variety of facets and activities. You will find that there are many opportunities in marketing, but market research rarely appears on the search or be sought after. In the Internet era, the common denominator of marketing you usually hear is all about branding, SEO, marketing communication, and customer experience. But what is the missing gap? 

_A famous scooter brand cannot prosper in a country where the car is the dominant means of transport, no matter how much you invested in building your brand to raise people’s awareness. It’s simply because we don’t do that here. It’s against people’s needs as almost no one wants to buy a scooter just to ride it in a few short summer months (as it’s impossible to ride in the cold and snowy winter months) while they can buy a used car for a much better price. This is where market research steps in, to initially understand the needs of customers and the market trends. This marketing role is obviously not a new definition, indeed, it is a traditional marketing role that has been diffused by the Internet of Things and renamed as Digital Marketing.

If you thought a job in market research meant spending hours with the big data or in a call center going through a long list in the phone directory, you will be astonished to learn that it goes way beyond number crunching and cold calling. I had that moment when Julie VanderKloet has dispelled the stigma of market research in our seminar presentation earlier this June.

As a Senior Manager of Consumer Insights at Weston Food, she walked me through the daily life of a Market Researcher. I have always wondered what market researchers actually do. And it all came to light – they collect data about specific markets on customer preferences and behaviors. As the father of management thinking – Peter Drucker once stated, the two basic functions of the business enterprise are marketing and innovation. Neither can exist without a thorough understanding of consumer needs and values, which are evaluated based on data. This type of data is called “insights”. With increasing competition between big companies in the world of the data-rich environment nowadays, marketing research is not just a hunch or gut-felling, it’s a great source of information on how to acquire, retain and nurture relationships with customers. 

As an old adage said, “Data alone means nothing without the system of insights”. It’s hard to imagine the world without insights and how marketers can make sense of the data. Julie provided more details on the value of insights, and she was quick to note that good insights do not necessarily work all the time. As in her example from Country Harvest case, where the company generated insightful ideas to develop a new bread line for snacks, the product eventually failed because they did not spend sufficient budget on advertisements to get to the hands of consumers. With that being said, good insights need to be coupled with a proper strategy and be aligned with the organization’s feasibility. 

Now we can see that the importance of a market research role in any business is undeniable. So, what makes a good market researcher? 

Julie proceeded and constantly repeated during her speech – always be curious and ask the right questions. For anyone who is taking their first steps into the market research field just like me, this is a piece of advice for you: Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Asking is a great way to learn, especially when there is always something people know but you have no knowledge about, and it can prevent you from making costly assumptions.  

 “If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?” -- Albert Einstein

To sum up, marketing is not just advertising and sales or brainstorming a catchy tagline that can go viral. It’s more about selling our products to customers who actually need it. For these reasons, I believe marketing research is a wonderful place to start a marketing career, as it opens up many opportunities for your later career path. Who doesn’t want to hire someone who has quite a lot of experience in the market and consumer? And remember, always be curious and try to become a subject matter expert in developing trends of the market. 

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Marketing - Here, there and everywhere

If you asked me “What is Marketing?” five years ago, I probably could not come up with a proper answer. Likewise, marketing was not something I recognized much at all. All I knew was that companies tried to attract me and persuaded me to buy their products. However, the more I study and engage in the marketing concept, the more I find it interesting – because it literally takes place everywhere! For example, a hotel with high guest traffic not only needs someone to clean and refresh the rooms after the previous guest checking out but also need to make sure the restrooms in the lobby lounge are also neatly cleaned. Because dirty restrooms can link to a negative marketing message at the hotel. And in this way, the cleaning staffs have no idea that they are also involving in “marketing”.

Lesson I: You do not need to start off in Marketing, to pursue your career in Marketing

I did not initially want to be in marketing and indeed, I have built up my experience in hospitality. Therefore, at the beginning of the Strategic Relationship course at George Brown, I have had no idea how I am going to find a Marketing job after graduate. But it is interesting to find that I am not alone. The GBC alumni - Jordan also started off in Hospitality, Natasha had a career in childhood education and Asta was a full-time graphic designer. None of them took Marketing in the first place, but all have become successful young marketers now. That is really inspiring because I am exactly like them a few years ago. And what does it take to turn your initial career path into Marketing? It’s continuous learning and a passion to know about new things. All of the alumni have finished their degree and been working in other fields, but they all came back to GBC to get the certificate in Digital Media Marketing to help pivot their careers.

Lesson II: Networking = Jobs

By participating in the course, I have had tremendous opportunities to expand my network, which will eventually benefit me with a better chance of getting a job in the future. That is the second lesson I learned from the alumni – It’s all about networking. How coincident it is to have a job offer from a mutual friend? That happened to Asta, and could happen to me too. Networking is the best advice for the question “How to increase my chance of getting a job offer?”. And while networking, you are also marketing yourself to potential employers. Once again, marketing does really exists in every aspect of life.

Lesson III: How is it like to work in an agency?

There have been many controversies over the pressure and stress for working in a marketing agency – you have to meet the deadlines from the clients, get flexible and accommodate their ever-changing requirements, or even having to work overtime frequently to be able to finish the projects. However, it really depends on the company and the position that you are in charge of. As for Natasha, she was lucky enough to find a company that she can dedicate all her effort during a regular 9-5 work and she does not necessarily have to stay longer for getting credit. After all, the ultimate goal for any marketer, despite working in a client or an agency company, is the same – that is to “create happy customers”. As happy customers equal to more sales, and more sales mean increased revenue for the company.

Lesson IV: Adapting to “The New Normal”

This term has undoubtfully become popular in the past few months and the words speak for itself. The way we are doing business now isn’t the same as we did several months ago, at least for the rest of the year. The alumni also gave me a sneak into how business is running during this pandemic. From having to be prepared and properly-dressed for virtual team meetings even though you are working from home, to adopt the marketing campaigns to meet with the current situation. The pandemic has severely affected many businesses, and it has changed how brands market themselves. Take a look into how the top brands' response to the pandemic:

Coca-Cola spaced out letters in the Times Squares, USA

DoorDash #OpenForDelivery Campaign

> The campaign was run on multi-platform with the initial purpose to inform customers that restaurants are open and in need of patronage more than ever to survive through the COVID-19. The 30-second video campaign starts with the title sentence “Restaurants have always there for you” is an homage to essential restaurant workers that continue to work for the others staying at home and it triggers a call to action the help them.

People are more engaged in data points and the internet than ever while practicing social distancing, which has made brands pivot away from their previously scheduled campaigns. Apart from grocery stores and cleaning products that are experience a surge in demand without the need for marketing, other brands have to follow the trend of adapting to “the new normal” to weather this pandemic. Jordan revealed an interesting fact that his marketing team has recently get used to Tiktok as the platform has been over popular and opened a new way and opportunity to reach prospective customers.

All in all, marketing can happen in any form of our lives and it is everchanging. Thanks to the sharing of the marketing professionals who were once out-of-the-market, I have broadened my knowledge about marketing and got myself a hint of what to do next with my career. It is always a pleasure to listen to others’ stories to succeed and expand my network.