Personal Marketing: Promotion

The final post of the semester completes the 4-p approach to personal marketing by looking at the 'P' many regard as the most glamorous -- promotion. This is the component of the marketing mix which addresses what message you are conveying about yourself and where/how you will communicate that message. 

There are some logical steps you can take to develop a promotional 'campaign' for yourself in your career search. First, you must define the message you wish to communicate -- that is, what is the most important thing about you that you want employers to remember about you? This could be used in developing your objective on your resume. 

Once your message is clearly defined, then you can begin creating some promotional materials for yourself, such as a new resume, website, business card, etc.  Make all of these materials consistent; just like a commercial product, all promotional materials should reflect the brand in a uniform way. 

A good next step is to determine a 'media plan' for yourself. Where will you advertise yourself? How will you spread the message you are trying to communicate? Some obvious answers would be on networking sites such as Linked In, appearances at career fairs, and responding to specific job postings with a resume. But try to think of creative ways to get your brand out there -- perhaps you can utilize a PR strategy by participating in some impressive community service project, or by winning a professional award of some sort. We face the same problem that all brands face: how to break through all of the clutter (other eager job-seekers) and reach consumers (employers)? A creative promotional plan could help get you into your dream job. 

Personal Marketing: Place

To continue with the pre-graduation, job-prospecting, personal marketing theme of my last few blogs, today we'll look at how one might use "Place" in order to stand out among others when searching for "The Dream Job." So how does place relate to personal marketing? A recent article featured on Mashable provides some useful tips on how to apply the marketing mix to your personal brand. Check it out! 

At a very basic level, you can ask yourself where you want to work. Is there a specific geographic location at which you're determined to work? Personally, I want to work internationally, so I use this as a motivating factor in my job search, and I also try to emphasize this when interacting with potential employers. It's also important to know whether or not you are willing to travel in your job, and how much of your job you are willing to travel -- less than half, more, all? These are very important to know about yourself, and can help you narrow down types of positions you're willing to apply for.

Another way to apply place to your personal marketing is determining through which channels you will make yourself available to potential employers. That is, how will recruiters be able to find you -- word of mouth, professional organizations, university alumni associations, LinkedIn, dumb luck? If you have an ideal career in mind, or a specific company you're just dying to work for, you can use this part of the marketing mix to gain a competitive edge. Find out which "distribution channels" are most relevant and utilized by your employer of choice and then make yourself available on that platform. Join different organizations, use the connections you make here at MSU, add people on LinkedIn. Make yourself available through as many relevant channels as possible. At the same time, be careful not to waste your time gaining a presence on channels that will not be utilized by your target employer.

Use this in conjunction with the rest of the marketing mix in order to successfully reach your target market. Many people may consider how to promote themselves, but the wise job seeker will consider all four P's!

Personal Marketing: Price

The next 'P' in the marketing mix I'll be addressing is Price. This one is a bit more difficult to apply to personal marketing than others. It is extremely important, nonetheless. How can we use price as a way to market ourselves as the best candidate for a job?

The first thing you can do is stay informed. Know the industry standards for salaries of jobs you are interested
in. There are lots of resources on the web you can use to research different salaries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics has a good list of median salaries for most industries in the U.S. Another important consideration when determining a good price to set for yourself is cost of living differences, depending on where you plan to apply.

Another way to help ensure you are pricing yourself accurately is by spending a lot of time on your resume. Be sure it communicates how much experience you have in the field you hope to enter. Include relevant courses, volunteer activities, and club participation. In addition, seek out ways in which you can improve on your experience level - certifications, professional licenses, etc.

What's more, you must ensure that the price you're willing to accept is reasonable and competitive. How can this be done? An article on Forbes provides some very helpful tips in how one might accomplish a high starting salary. This could help to communicate a perception of your high value to the firm. Another way to go about this is to be very open to non-monetary forms of compensation. Be creative; think of something that wouldn't cost as much to employers than would a permanent pay raise but would have significant value to you.

Price is something that could distinguish you in the job market, so don't ignore it! Think of ways in which you could utilize this to market yourself as the best possible person for that dream job.

Personal Marketing

In my final four posts, I would like to focus on personal marketing, in hopes that some of the content will be helpful and applicable to those nearing graduation. So, I'd like to apply the marketing mix to personal marketing. Today's post will focus on "Product."

How do we market ourselves as a product? The resume is a clearly important tool in helping to do this, but what can we do to improve our chances in "driving purchases," which in this case would be getting hired. I came across a great article in Businessweek about how we can better prepare for interviews and what recruiters find to be the most valuable qualities in an employee: read it!

Read this article!

Networking is something that I've heard about many, many times throughout my time at MSU. It is something we all should be thinking about as we prepare to graduate. Start making those connections and solidify them by adding them to your LinkedIn accounts. Rob Irizarry emphasized this when he came and spoke to our class, as did Jeanne Callahan last week.

Another tip listed in the article which I found to be very important is to "Relentlessly Develop your Skills." I know that we are all anxious to wrap up the semester and be done with school, but it's so important to keep finding ways to improve. Someone recently gave me some advice with regard to how to do this: set a professional goal for yourself for the next year, and then determine specific ways to accomplish this. For example, if your goal is just to be promoted in one year of getting hired, determine how you mind differentiate yourself as a viable candidate for that next position. Then identify workshops, extra responsibilities, volunteer committees, etc., that might help you do that. In a recent interview I asked my interviewer what advice he would give himself if he were in my position (that is, just entering the professional workforce), and he said "be the first person to volunteer for the job that no one wants to do." I found that extremely helpful.

There are many articles out there that give great advice on how to distinguish yourself as a candidate for employment or grad school. I challenge all readers to set one specific goal for professional development that extends beyond graduation. Good luck!

Promotions at their Best!

The purpose of this post is mainly to entertain, but also to get the creative juices flowing as we near the end of the semester and (ideally) head out into our new and exciting marketing careers -- or the summer jobs that will lead to those careers. Promotions can exist in all different forms; think about it the next time you're casually strolling down the street: what hasn't been used as advertising space yet? The following are some of my favorite recent examples of creative and innovative brand promotion.

1. Cupcake ATM: No longer only exists in your dreams!



Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like: an ATM machine that dispenses cupcakes. This idea came to fruition in New York City, where it has become the center of news spots on many of the mainstream news sources such as CNN and ABC. David Letterman even featured a bit listing the "Top Ten Things Overheard in Line for the Cupcake ATM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDtxHurxNpw)."

The cupcake ATM could be seen as a new form of distribution for baked goods, but more than that I would classify this as a guerrilla marketing tactic. The point of guerrilla marketing is to generate lots of buzz and create a more authentic brand interaction than other forms of advertising. I'd say this did just that.

2. The McDrive Surprise

In celebration of April Fool's Day, McDonald's implemented an elaborate prank across several countries for visitors of the fast food chain's drive through windows. The video below gives some amusing examples of the pranks. It's rather long, but very entertaining:



Although I think McDonald's has done well in advertising in general, this is the first example I've found where the brand steps a bit outside of its comfort zone. It's interesting to think about which pranks would go over well in certain countries, while in another might be found to be extremely offensive. For example, in one of the pranks a a couple of employees are making out instead of helping the customers at the window; where might this be OK and where might it be considered going too far? I'm sure the company considered this when planning its April Fool's stunt, but it's not hard to see how this could have backfired if less cultural consideration was given to the execution.

3. Selsun Blue Makes the Most of Harsh Winter

We've all heard about how this winter has been one of the most severe in recent memory. In a display of creativity, a Canadian ad agency helped Selsun Blue stand out and make people smile through the winter wonderland by creating outdoor ads that made the snow look like dandruff piled up on people's heads (see photo). This is another great example of creative guerrilla marketing. By simply installing some platforms to collect snow above these billboards, attention paid to the ad increases dramatically. It's much more difficult than it might sound to think of a guerrilla marketing execution that specifically pertains to a given product and attracts attention as this one does.

I'd encourage everyone to think of a creative promotion for their respective final projects. It's becoming an increasingly important component of successful marketing campaigns. As the clutter of ads grows, we as marketers need to continually search for ways to stand out and not only grab the attention of consumers, but also offer some entertainment as a reward for that attention.