Marketing Interview
Explore the marketing communications function and structure within the organization or business where you are employed. If not employed, choose an employer you may aspire to work for. Learn how marketing content is creatively developed and produced for your organization. Oral presentation will be given during week 5, no more than 5 minutes in length.
• This can be a for-profit company or a non-for-profit organization. Examine the business/organization at the local regional and national levels.
- Utilize its website and Internet for foundational research.
• Use any internal resources at your disposal to learn as much as possible about the marketing function of the business or organization.
- Set up an interview by phone, in person or by email. Prepare at least 8-10 questions.
- Try to reach the marketing leader about their role of integrated marketing in the organization or business.
• Prepare your finding in a creative presentation by using visual elements to illustrate your points and findings. Presentation should not be longer than 5 minutes.
Plan to use your time with the strategic insight and not an explanation about the product or business
instructure's sample
How is the department structured? Highmark is a very large company, with 37,000 employees. Marketing and communications are split under three main areas and Senior Vice Presidents (SVPs). Marketing Communications and Advertising fall under Marketing/Sales, Community Affairs is under Government Relations and Community Affairs, and Public Relations, Internal Communications, Creative Services, Web and Social Media are under Corporate Communications. Each of those areas has individual management, and depending on the type of work, writers, designers, and production coordinators.
Who is responsible for creatively developing content? Content is created collaboratively between the business owner, assigned writer and assigned graphic designer. All three are kept "on task" by a traffic coordinator. Pieces are printed and mailed with the assistance of a production coordinator.
What visual elements are used? Highmark has a (large) brand guide that provides the visual rules that all materials must follow to present a unified look. This brand guide includes acceptable colors, fonts, layouts etc. Actual elements used include: stock photography, custom photography, and icons (Highmark has an entire library of custom-designed icons)
What channels do you use to share this content? Channels include social media, websites, text messages, direct mail, advertising, emails, letters, brochures, other collateral material, press releases.
What is the role of this content within your Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) plan? This role is an essential component of our sales and retention goals within our annual plans, as well as member wellness, customer satisfaction, etc. All written communications play a key role in showing a unified, clear, concise, understandable product, which helps fulfill our corporate mission.
How do you measure results? Depends on the project type, but we can measure based on: email click through rates, web traffic, social media positive/neutral/negative mentions of company, applications/retention rate, stakeholder satisfaction surveys, brand awareness/perception surveys, etc.
Additional Information
The Walk "project" is cross functional and is owned by Community Affairs, managed by PR/Corp Comm (In Delaware, because as an affiliate we are a hybrid PR/Community Affairs department), and materials are written by me/Community Affairs and designed by Creative Services.
The function of the Walk is two-pronged. It helps promote our corporate social responsibility and involvement in the community (by helping nonprofits raise money for their individual missions), and it helps promote health and wellness by encouraging people to get outside and join us for the walk. So it enhances our brand, our community involvement perception, and assists our health and wellness goals.