Expert: Peter Gabany - 7/8/2008

Question
Dear Sir,

I have done my MBA specialized in Marketing. I am currently working with India's no 1 online media company as Sr.Executive- Corporate sales with 8 months experience. I was told during my course that any marketing professional should first have a brief stint in Sales and then get into core marketing, so even i followed. However, i would like to get into media planning and branding, for which i was told that the sales experience will not be relevant!

Now the questions:
Q1) Is it true that my sales experience will not count for barnding or media planning job?

Q2) Now, having done an MBA (Marketing), do I again need to do any super specialization in branding or media planning?

Q3)And how good I should I be in numbers for a media planning job?

Sir, I would be highy obliged if you can enlighten me about the above queries.

Eagerly waiting for your reply

Thanks & Regards,

Gajendra

P.S.: SIR, KINDLY ANSWER THIS QUERYWHICH I HAVE SECOND TIME AFTER RECIEVING NO RESPONSE FROM YOU. I AM EAGERLY AWAITING FOR YOUR REPLY, WHICH I BELIEVE WILL PROVIDE ME SOME CLARITY IN REGARDS TO MY CAREER.

Answer
GAJENDRA

I am so sorry. I did answer this question already but for some reason it did not post. I will try again.

Whoever said that your sales experience would not be relevant is sadly mistaken. Sales is business and media planning is business and the underlying principle of media planning is to sell the client - move the customer.

Without the sales experience how can you understand your client's customer? How can you create a convincing rationale for what you have so diligently planned. To create an effective media plan the method relies on number crunching, reach and frequency and some chutzpa. The chutzpa comes from understanding your market and frankly, a lot of that comes from sales experience.

As for branding and the need for sales experience - the same argument applies. Take from the knowledge gained from an effective sales process - the first and front line of client contact (in most businesses) and you have what defines effective branding. Brand experience is witnessed on the front line and remembered by the customer. Bad experience/bad product or service. Not understanding this simple edict will only create a poser of a branding expert.

As for your MBA - move forward. You only need experience. But lust for knowledge regarding branding. Read what you can and attend seminars. Look up branding on thee web and do look at branding agencies such as Landor or www.liquidagency.com . These are not the only ones but good ones, international ones.

As for Q3 - I'm sorry I do not understand the question but it may be a language thing. I believe you are asking if good math skills are necessary for being a great media planner. Math never hurts. And math is so very important to marketing. Can you get by? Probably. I was horrible in math with poor marks plaguing me through school but a professor told us that if we didn't understand logarithms we shouldn't be in the course. It turned out that I actually tutored students in Math in my 1st year. If you want it - you will get it.

Thank you for your questions and best of luck!

Pete