1. Graham Robertson | President of Beloved Brands Inc.
WHITE
PAPER
HELPING YOUR TEAM HAVE A SUCCESSFUL
CAREER IN MARKETING

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Having a Successful Career in Marketing
At every level you have to adjust to the new role. Brand Managers fail when they keep acting like ABMs and
Directors fail when they keep acting like Brand Managers and VPs fail when they don’t know what to do. In
a classic marketing team, the four key roles are Assistant Brand Manager
up to Brand Manager then up to Marketing Director and on to the VP
Marketing role.
In simple terms of the roles:
Assistant Brand Manager:It’s about doing; analyzing and sending
signals you have leadership skills for the future. It’s not an easy job
and only 50% get promoted to Brand Manager.
Brand Manager:It becomes about ownership and strategic
thinking within your brand plan. Most Brand Managers are honestly
a disaster with their first direct report, and get better around the fifth
report. The good ones let the ABM do theirjob; the bad ones jump
in too much, frustrated and impatient rather than acting as a
teacher.
Marketing Director:It’s more about managing and leading than it
does about thinking and doing. Your role is to set the standard and
then hold everyone to that standard. To be great, you need to
motivate the greatness from your team and let your best players to
do their absolute best. Let your best people shine, grow and push you.
VP Marketing:It’s about leadership, vision and getting the most from people. If you are good at it, you
won’t need to do any marketing, other than challenging and guiding your people to do their best work.
You have to deliver the results, and very few figure out the equation that the better the people means
the better the work and in the end the better the results. Invest in training as a way to motivate your
team and keep them engaged. Use teaching moments to share your wisdom.
One thing to keep in mind is the Idiot Curve which shows up at every level. The basic rule of the Idiot Curve
is: You get dumber before you get smarter. When you first land the ABM job, there's just so much to
learn, it's like drinking from a fire hose. I find it takes 3
months to get back to being just as smart as you were on the
first day. It's over-whelming at first, and yet you see all these
other ABMs doing it so that's even more intimidating. But the
idiot curve is inevitable. It just shows up differently for each
person. No matter how hard you fight it, you have to ride the
curve. (But, please fight through the curve; you have to for
your survival) The Idiot Curve normally lasts up to 3 months,
and then things just start to click. And you’ll experience it in
a new and exciting way you can’t even predict.
But the Idiot Curve shows up again in the first few months of
each level. In the first few months as a Brand Manager, they
keep doing the ABM role because that’s what they know.
They frustrate the hell out of their ABM. They keep

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recommending and acting small rather than start deciding and stepping up to the leadership role. At the
Director role, they continue to be the Brand Manager. They get nervous where they shouldn’t, whether it’s with
senior people in other functions or even within marketing. They prefer to keep doing, and in those moment
there is nothing ―to do‖, they walk around and start doing other people’s jobs. At the VP level,the first few
months are lonely as you no longer have peers you can bounce ideas off. Your peers assume you can do the
job, and they don`t want to hear your problems. At each level, you secretly feel like an Idiot. You don’t want it
to show, but in a way, you should use it to your advantage.
There are core marketing values you should instill and use throughout your career:
1. Be Consumer Focused: Everything Starts and Ends With the Consumer in Mind. Put yourself in the
shoes of the consumer and think like them. Steve Jobs said he never needed research, but he must have
been amazing at listening, observing and anticipating how the consumer would react. I'd still recommend
you do research, but go beyond the statistics of the research and learn how your consumer thinks.
Whenever I go to focus groups, I watch their faces. And when the research results come back you always
have to ask "so now what do we do". The research helps you, but never gives you the exact answer.Match
up the needs of the consumer to your brand assets to figure out your ideal brand positioning. The best
marketers represent the consumer to the brand, NOT the brand to the consumer. I always believe that
consumers are selfish and deservedly so because they have money to spend. As a consumer, I don't care
what you do until you care about what I need. Focus on them, not on you.
2. Follow Your Instincts: Gut Feel of Marketing:Listen to your inner thoughts, they are in there. Too
many times people fail because ―they went along with it even though they didn't like it‖. The problem is that
sometimes your instincts are hidden away. You get confused, you feel the pressure to get things done and
you've got everyone telling you to go for it. You get scared because you're worried about getting promoted
and want to do the 'right thing'. But your gut is telling you it's just not right. My rule is simple: if you don't
love the work, how do you expect the consumer to love your brand. The worst type of marketer is
someone who says "I never liked the brief" or "I never liked the ad". If you blame your agency or team after
the fact, I have a word for people like you: "useless".
3. Revel in Ambiguity: Be Patient with Ideas. Never be afraid of an idea and never kill it quickly. Watch
the signals you send that make suck the creativity out of your team. If you become too predictable to your
team, then your work in the market will also become predictable. Ambiguity and time pressure usually
work against each other. Don't ever settle for "ok" just because of a deadline. Always push for great.
What I have found is the longer I can stay comfortable in the ―ambiguity zone‖ the better the ideas get
whether it’s the time pressure that forces our thinking to be simpler or whether it’s the performance
pressure forces us to push for our best idea, I always say, the longer I can hold my breath, the better the
work gets.
4. You Run the Brand, Don't Let the Brand Run You: Be thoroughly organized, well planned and know the
pulse of your business. Every six months, I would find a quiet time to answer five key questions that would
help me stay aware: 1) Where are we? 2) Why are we here? 3) Where could we be? 4) How can we get
there? and 5) What do we have to do to get started? In an odd way, the more planning you do, the more
agile you’ll be, because you’ll know when it’s ok to ―go off plan‖Stay in Control: Hit the Deadlines, don't
give the appearance that you're not in control. We have enough to do, that things will just stockpile on each
other. Know Your Business and don't get caught off-guard. Make sure you are asking the questions and
carrying forward the knowledge. Enjoy doing the monthly report because it makes you the most
knowledgeable about the brand. Stay conceptual;avoid getting stuck in the pennies or decimals.Process
should enable us, not hinder us: A good process can force your thinking towards a solution. If it restricts

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your thinking, it’s not a good process. But if it means, you free up your time for strategic thinking, instead
of format thinking, we’ll move much faster.
5. Be the Brand Leader not the Follower: The more you keep your boss informed the more rope they may
give you. If they don't know what you're doing, they may clamp down and micro-manage you. . Ensure a
policy of open communication with no surprises: Make sure you keep your team informed and involved.
Keep senior management informed.You must be the champion of the brand. The best ideas are those that
erupt out from the brand team--not from a top down perspective. You have to be a self-starter that pushes
your idea through the system, in the face of resistance or doubt. And you will meet resistance from so
many people in the system. All the best work I ever did met a large degree of resistance. You have to
anticipate this and work through it.One subtlety to ownership is your tone. When you don’t know
something, speak in an ―asking way‖ and openly seek out the wisdom and advice of your agency, your
manager or your peers. Put your ego aside and listen. But equally, when you do know the answer, speak
in a "telling way" that gets others to follow you, including senior management.
6. Speed, Simplicity and Self Confidence: a) Speed: We don’t do things fast for the sake of it; we do
things fast so we can take advantage of opportunities that have a window. If you recognize an opportunity,
realize that others are also recognizing the same opportunity. So speed to market can enable you to win
before they get there. Also, doing things fast does not mean sloppy.b) Simplicity: I’ve always said, ―If you
have a complex answer to something, odds are you are wrong‖. Keep it simple enough to explain, and so
that the people who need to execute our ideas can really execute them.c)Self Confidence: As the brand
leader, speak your mind. After all, we are all just walking opinions. Find a way within your leadership style
to engage your team, agency or your boss in a debate to get to better answers.
How to be a Successful Assistant Brand Manager
In my 20 years of CPG marketing, I must have interviewed 1,000s of potential Assistant Brand Managers. I
was lucky to have hired some of the best, who have gone on to have very strong marketing careers. I became
notorious for asking some of the toughest questions, some
even bizarre. I always asked an analytical question to see if
they could piece together lots of data and tell a story that
made sense. I'd ask a creative question to see if they had a
certain flare and pride in the output. I'd ask a problem solving
question, some very hard, no real right answer, but I wanted to
see how they actually think. And finally, I wanted to know
that they had done something at a very high level--it didn't
matter what--but I wanted to know they could make it
happen, whatever it was in. Getting that first ABM job is NOT
EASY! I had many failed interviews over the years that I
began to wonder if it would ever happen. I remember one
interview ended after about 8 minutes when she found out I
didn't have any experience. Thank god, I stuck with it.
But even after gruelling interviews, only about 50% of Assistant Brand Managers get promoted to Brand
Manager. So what separates the ok ABM from the great ABM that gets promoted? There are two factors
that I have seen in a consistent manner: #1: They get what they need and #2: What they need is the right
thing to do. Very simply put, great ABMs get both. The rest either fail on #1 or #2.

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The Five Factors that Separate Ok ABMs from the Great ABMs are:
1. A great ABM is able to tell stories, where others just see data: There is tons of data all over—share
results, tracking, test scores, etc. One of the most critical skills an ABM can work on is developing
stories with the data. It’s one thing to have the data point, but another to have thought it through and
know what it means, and what action you will take on this data. When you come across data, the best
thing you can do is look for patterns or data breaks, try to twist the data in different ways to see if you
keep getting the same story, ask questions to find back up, start putting together stories and challenge
the stories. Never give a data point without a story or action. You risk letting someone else take your
data and run with it. Never fear bad data, as long as you have an action plan. Never twist the data to
tell a story, because if it’s challenged, the whole story crumbles with it. This skill is one that you carry
with you as you move upwards in marketing. In fact, the more practice you have, the faster you’ll
become.
2. A great ABM takes action and moves before being asked: Most of the projects are already set for an
ABM, so many times; it’s comfortable to wait, ask the right questions and proceed. That’s good for
learning, but a bit too cautious. Some of the best ideas come with a fresh set of eyes. We need a
continual influx of new ideas and even new ways of seeing things. You need to push your ideas into the
system. While it’s still key to communicate to the right stakeholders, you should be pushing your ideas
into the system, which almost creates new projects. Don’t get into the mode of waiting or figuring that’s
not within your job scope.
3. A great ABM can get what they want: It’s obvious that project management is a big part of being an
ABM. But, instead of just functionally managing the steps of the project, you need to make it happen,
faster, bigger and better. In terms of speed, you need to understand what the important milestones that
need to be hit are. Always think in terms of key bottle necks. Bottle necks are simply the task that has
the longest completion time, which then impacts the entire project. If you let this slip, the entire project
slips. This has to be managed in detail, but also many times with an inflexible fist to getting it done.
Bigger means you want to do more than is required. Make the work zing, find the wow factor, and make
it have a bigger impact then was expected. Better means you have to take the same people and get
them to give their best ideas or their best effort or their best work. Guaranteed you will meet many points
of resistance. Every project will. Solving these and still getting the most you can, is the separation of
good from great.
4. A great ABM puts their strategic thoughts forward. All great ideas must flow upwards. Most people
tend to think they are ―strategic‖…and they tell me that all the time. After all these years, I’m still not
even sure what that means. But I do know there is a big difference between thinking strategically, and
contributing strategically. You need to be in the frame to challenge thinking, whether it comes from your
agency, cross functional peers or me. It’s important that you speak up and represent your thinking.
Standing up for your thoughts shows that you are in the game, that you are thinking, and that you believe
in your strategic thoughts. If you don’t stand up for your thoughts, then it doesn’t really matter does it?
Also, it’s so easy to get lost in the daily executions, but you have to be constantly thinking. Keeping
things aligned to the strategic is just as important as being strategic.
5. A great ABM is accountable in the ownership of their work: Accountability is the stepping stone to
ownership. And ownership is what being a Brand Manager is all about. You cannot let things slip or
miss. Many times, the devil is in the details. You have to stay on top of the timelines and lead those on
your project teams. If you have to step in, and work hand in hand with an expert then jump in. You have
to be action oriented, and solution focused. You can never allow your team to get stuck. They will be
looking to you for the ingenuity to help solve the problem. Maintain the composure, ask questions and
learn to revel in the ambiguity. You have to be the hub of communication to all team members, and to
key stakeholders, including upwards.

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If you can do those better than your peers, then you'll get promoted. Conversely, if you're missing any
one of these, you might not get there. I hope your boss gives you a quarterly review because I believe ABMs
can grow so fast that you need those regular check-ins. If you just get an annual review, you won't go as fast.
Ask for feedback, cherish it, and use the next 90 days to build on a strength or eliminate a gap.
Here are the top 10 reasons why ABMs fail:
1. They can't do the analytical story tell. They fail to turn monthly share reports into stories that can
travel up the organization. Their deep dive analysis is either too complicated that no one can follow the
story or too shallow that they only do the "surface cleaning" type analysis that never really finds the real
insight, just what we already know.
2. They struggle to deal with the ambiguity of marketing. The ambiguity boxes them in where they
can't think differently about a problem or it causes them personal stress. They come up with solutions to
get out of ambiguity rather than reveling in the ambiguity to find the best solution. I once asked a
candidate "how do you deal with ambiguity". Her answer was "I try to organize it because no one likes
ambiguity". She asked me how I deal with ambiguity and I said "I revel in it. I love it. I struggle with it.
And let the ambiguity eat away at me until I find that great answer, not just settling for an answer
because it gets me out of the ambiguity faster."
3. They are slow at moving projects through. They struggle to make it happen: could be that they are
indecisive, not productive, disorganized or can't work through others. They are frustratingly slow for
others. They keep missing the small milestones causing the team to miss the deadlines. In some
cases, it's not whether you are slow or fast, but really are you slower than your peers?
4. They selfishly think about themselves. This becomes the leadership derailer. It's about ego, gossip,
over-stepping their role, going above heads politically. Highly political, but not really politically astute.
Not a team player with peers or cross functional players. The system has a way of isolating these
people. This raises a red flag for future leadership roles.
5. They don't work well through others. Conflicts, teamwork issues, communication. The odd thing
about an ABM is you must work through a group of subject matter experts (SME's) who know what they
are doing, and you're relying on these same people to teach you how to be a good ABM. Your supply
manager will teach you about forecasting, packaging approvals and even design tricks. Your finance
manager can teach you about accounting and the key indicators management looks for. Your promo
manager or trade marketers will teach you about customers, sales people etc. If you don't use these
people to enhance your skill, you'll eventually crash and burn. The collection of SME's will likely teach
you more about marketing than your boss will. And if they can't work with you, they'll also be the first to
destroy your career.
6. They miss answers by not being flexible. They fail to find the balance between what the head thinks,
what your heart feels or even what the gut tells you. When an ABM is questioned, a senior manager can
tell if they have struggled enough with a problem to get to the rich solution or whether they just did
the adequate thinking to get to an "ok" solution. The style of a good senior manager's questions is
not always information gathering but rather designed to poke holes in the story to see that the deep
rich thinking and even the appropriate struggling has gone on.
7. They fall for tactical programs that are off strategy. This becomes a tell-tale sign that they won't
make it to Brand Manager, where you will own the strategy. They deviate from the strategy to choose
the coolest tactic that has nothing to do with the goals or strategy. You become the great executor, but
not the thinker needed. Marketing is a balance of strategy and execution.

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8. They hold back from making contributions to the team strategy. Just a do-er. They don't
proactively provide a point of view on strategy. They don't show the ownership needed to become a
brand manager and people start to wonder if it's in there or not.
9. They settle for "good" rather than pushing for "great". While ABM jobs are executional, if there
becomes a pattern where they just take the "ok" ideas, it begins to look as they don't care enough. If
they aren't passionate enough to push back, will they be able to do so later in their career.
10. They are poor communicators, with manager, senior management or partners. They fail to
adequately warn their boss when there’s a potential problem. They leave their manager in the dark.
They confuse partners because they don't keep them aware of what's going on.
The big question is what you do about it. On day 1, everyone has all ten of these de-railers, some that you
can easily over-come but others will take the full two to three years to really fix. What really separates
"great" from the "ok" is what you're willing to do with these. Those who seek out feedback, welcome it
and act on it will be the successful ones. I hope that your company has a process of giving feedback or that
you get lucky to have a manager that cares about your career and is willing to give you the tough feedback.
But if not, seek it. Be honest with yourself and try to fix one of these per quarter. And grow into the role
of Brand Manager before you get promoted.
How to be a Successful Brand Manager
What separates many Brand Managers is the inability and even refusal of some Brand Managers to actually
rely on their instincts, instead of just the textbook answer. They get stiff and boring. And it would force me to
wonder if I only promoted because they were a really good ABM. At the BM level, you tend to get so busy, so
deadline focused, so scared to make a mistake that you forget to think in a confused state of ambiguity. It's
not easy to sit there without the answer, but sometimes if you just wait a bit longer and keep pushing for an
even better answer, it will come to you. My challenge to you: Revel in ambiguity. Enjoy the uncertainty and
find the answers to the unknown.
The Five Factors that Separate Good from Great are:
1. A great BM takes ownership of the brand. I’ve seen many BMs struggle with the transition from being
a helper to being the owner. As you move into the job, you have to get away from the idea of having
someone hand you a project list.
Not only do you have to make the project list, you have to come up with the strategies from which the
projects fall out of. A good owner talks in ideas in a telling sense, rather than an asking sense. It’s great
to be asking questions as feelers, but realize that most are going to be looking to you for the answers.
They’ll be recommending and you’ll be deciding. When managing upwards be careful of asking
questions—try to stick to solutions. ―I think we should build a big bridge‖ instead of ―any ideas for how
we can get over the water‖. You just gave up your ownership. I’d rather have you tell me what you want
to do, and we debate from there, rather than you ask me what we should do. I’ll be better able to judge
your logic, your passion and your vision. You run the brand, don't let it run you.
2. A great BM provides the vision & strategies to match up to. Vision is sometimes a hard thing to
articulate. It’s sometimes easy to see times when there is a lack of vision. You have to let everyone
know where you want to go. The strategy that matches becomes the road map for how to get there. As
the brand owner, you become the steward of the vision and strategy. Everything that is off strategy has
to be rejected and your role is to find ways to steer them back on track. It’s easy to get side-tracked by
exciting programs or cool ideas, but if they are off-strategy then you've got to park that excitement. The
expression of the strategy through ideas is a key skill--just as important as the strategy itself. Learn to

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talk in strategic stories that can frame your direction. Learn to think in terms of pillars and force your
hand around 3 different areas to help achieve your strategy. Having pillars constantly grounds you back
in your strategy, and is an easy way for communicating with the various functions—the people you're
dealing with may only have 1 strategic pillar that matters to them personally, but seeing the other parts
makes them feel as though their work is worth it.
3. A great BM spends the effort to make their ABM as good as can be. If you make your ABM better,
then it reflects back on you. Too many brand managers struggle to shift from ―do-er‖ to ―coach". They
think they can do it faster than their ABM, so they may as well do it and they do. The ABM really hates
this. But, they think their ABM will learn the hard way, just like they did. They struggle to share the spot
light, so it becomes hard to showcase the ABM. They are too busy trying to prove themselves. Keep in
mind that the work of your ABM reflects 100% of who you are. This challenge forces your hand on
helping to develop your ABM. Sometimes it can feel more motivating to just talk the positive stuff. But if
the ABM job is a learning position, then you have to provide areas for improvement. Intuitively, you’d
think the BM/ABM relationship would be constant ―negative feedback‖, but I see too many BMs afraid of
going ―negative‖. You need the balance. My question is, that if you were coaching a gymnast and their
―toes weren’t straight, wouldn’t they want to know?‖ Then why are you not working on a relationship
where you can get to that point. Share with them better ways for doing things—which you have learned.
Spend some time teaching from your experience.
4. A great BM gets what they need. The organization is filled with groups, layers, external agencies, with
everyone carrying a different set of goals and motivations. Working the system entails taking what you
have learned about ownership one step further. You understand the organizational components, and
then you go get what you need. Again communication becomes key—you can’t let missed
communications cause angst or concerns. Also, it’s crucial that you get the best from everyone. I have
found it useful upfront to ask everyone for their best work. It’s a strange step, but I have found it useful.
But you have to promise them you'll support their best work. If you really have someone that’s good, you
know they’ll respond to this. The good news is that only 0.1% of people ask them, so it’s not like they’ve
heard it that many times. And let them know if they are or aren't there yet.
5. A Great BM Can Handle Pressure. Ambiguity is one of the hardest. This is where patience and
composure come into play as you sort through the issues. The consequence of not remaining
composed is you will likely make a bad decision. If the
Results don’t come in, it can be frustrating. Reach for
your logic as you re-group. Force yourself to course
correct, rather than continuing to repeat and repeat and
repeat. Relationships. Be pro-active in making the first
move. Try to figure out what motivates as well as what
annoys them. Most times, the common ground is not
that far away. Time Pressure. It’s similar to the
ambiguity. Be organized, disciplined and work the system
so it doesn’t get in your way. Be calm, so you continue
to make the right decisions.
Love the Magic of Marketing--let it breathe and let it come
to life.Don't just do the job, do it with all your passion. Love it
please so we can love the work that comes from your passion. Or else just become an actuary and let
someone else take your spot please.

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How to be a Successful Marketing Director
Most people are promoted up to Brand Manager because they are really smart and have a knack for getting
things done. From my experience, they get stuck at the Brand Manager level if they are bad at managing
people, or can’t get along with the sales force. Promoting them up to Marketing Director just becomes too
risky to the organization–they can’t afford to lose key talent, and they can’t afford to lose touch with the sales
team. And most Marketing Directors fail because they can’t stop acting like a Brand Manager: too
hands on, makes all the decisions, smoothers the team and never lets them have their day in the sun.
The five areas that can turn a pretty good marketing director into a great one are:
1. Hold your team to a consistently high standard of work: Rather than being the leader by example,
I’d rather see you establish a standard and hold everyone and yourself to that standard. . For a new
director, this is one of the harder areas—how to balance the freedom you give with the standard you
demand. The key is to be more process orientation than you might have been when you were Brand
Manager. You need to organize the team and build in processes in a way that produces consistent
output, your team hits all deadlines, stays focused and keeps things moving. But it can also show up in
the quality of brand plans, execution and interactions with everyone specifically sales. Be the control
point of the team, and not let slips, errors or delays show beyond the team. Delegate so you motivate
your stars, but never abdicate ownership of how your team shows up.
2. Consistency in Strategic Thinking: Usually a marketing director has many brands, and isn’t
necessarily writing the actual brand plans. But, it will be the director that hears from the VP, the
sales and the agency what each thinks they have the solution to the plan. And yet, your brand manager
has thoughts of how to make this brand better. It’s easy to spin out of control, trying to please
everyone–as the director is caught among everyone. But it is actually the director who has to ground
everyone, establish the brand’s direction, back up the choices it’s making and be the consistent voice of
reason among the many wanting to influence the brand. Learn to challenge the strategy–let them write
it–but make sure it’s put through the test before it moves beyond your desk.
3. Consistent People Leadership and Management: Newly appointed directors have to stop acting like
a ―Senior Senior Brand Manager‖ and take on more leadership roles. You have to let your team breathe
and grow. There are likely future super stars within the ranks. We know you can write a brand plan,
roll out a promotion super-fast and make snap decisions on creative. But can you inspire your team to
do the same? Junior marketers have high ambitions–constantly wanting praise, but equally seeking out
advice for how to get better. Brand Managers are still learning to be brand owners, many times younger
than they should be. It becomes the director’s role to manage the talent–giving equal praise and
challenges for how to get better. A great Marketing Director should be meeting quarterly with each team
member one on one to take them through a quarterly performance review. Waiting for year-end is just
not enough. Be passionate about people’s careers–anything less they’ll see it as merely a duty you are
fulfilling. Find energy in their energy. These young marketers are hungry for improvement–and if you
give them quarterly feedback, they are more able to make the adjustments and grow. While the number
one goal of a director is to make the year, the close #2 goal is to make the great people even better.
Identify the great ones, motivate, challenge and push them. Also, be the step up when some individuals
are not working out. The marketing team relies on this.
4. Consistently Showup to the Sales Team: While it’s not really acceptable for the ABMs and BMs to
struggle with the sales team, it is kind of expected. But at the director level, they have to be seen as one
who is willing to listen. Great sales people challenge marketers to make sure their account wins. I’ve
seen many sales teams destroy the Marketing Director because they don’t listen, and they stubbornly

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put forward their plan without sales input. Great Marketing Directors should informally meet with all key
senior sales people on a quarterly basis, to get to know them and let them know you are listening to their
problems. With this forum, you’ll get more of
the bubbling up of problems–not just waiting for
problems to explode. If a sales people feel
they’ve been heard, they are more apt to follow
the director’s vision and direction. Many times,
the debate can be healthy and help the sales
people frame the story they need to tell with
their accounts. Be the one director that
consistently reaches out and listens. They’ll be
in shock, and stand behind your business.
5. Consistently Deliver: A great Marketing
Director hits the numbers and yet when they
don’t hit them, they are the first to own it and
put forward a recovery plan before being
asked. They have an entrepreneurial spirit of
ownership, rather than just being a corporate
pencil pusher. Proactive communication
upwards and with your own team. Reach out
for help across the organization. Know your
business and let everyone know what you
know. Be the leader that makes everything
perfectly transparent–everyone will follow you.
So what makes a great Marketing Director? You’ll notice one word that I purposefully put in each of
the 5 areas: Stay Consistent. That’s a trait I would encourage every director to take: show up with
consistency in standards for your team, strategy, people management, dealings with sales and owning the
numbers. With a bigger group of people, with a broader array of interactions across the organization and with
a bigger business line on the P&L, anything less than consistent can really rattle the system. Your team will
dread inconsistency and won’t know which leader will show up. They’ll mock your mood swings in the
cafeteria. You’ll become famous but for the wrong reasons. The sales team won’t be able to rely on your
word–and to them, that’s everything. Senior Leaders will struggle with you–won’t want to put you on the big
important business because it just feels risky.
So if you can take all your talent, all the experience you’ve gained and find that consistency in
approach and leadership, and you’ll be a successful Marketing Director.
How to be a Successful VP/CMO of Marketing
Quintessentially, rule #1 is you have to make the Numbers. As the VP, your main role is to create demand
for your brands. What’s expected of you is to gain share and drive sales growth to help drive profit for the
company. The results come from making the right strategic choices, executing at a level beyond the
competitors and motivating your team to do great work. But how you do it, and the balances you place in key
areas are choices you need to make. Making the numbers gives you more freedom on how you wish to
run things. Without the numbers, the rest might not matter.
When I was an ABM, I had to write the
dreaded monthly share and sales report.
Many times, I’d be writing that up to
1am. At that time, I said I can’t wait till I get
promoted so I never have to write this
again. At the Brand Manager level, I edited
my ABM’s report. But when I moved up to
Director, I started to feel out of touch so I
decided I would write my own monthly
report–digging into the sales and share to
tell the story. I kept doing it, even when I
moved up to VP, and really feel I benefited
from this practice. No one asked me to do
it, but it sure helped me to own the results.
Might feel like a small point, but it wasn’t for
me. To me, it was a competitive advantage.

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Here’s my six points of advice on How to be Successful VP of Marketing.
1. While your people run the brands and the execution, you should run the P&L and essentially run
all the marketing processes. You have to run the P&L and make investment choices. Bring an ROI
and ROE (Return on Investment and Effort) mind set to those decisions. These choices will be one of
the essentials to making the numbers and gaining more freedom in how you do the job. In terms of
process, it’s always been my belief that great processes in place—brand planning, advertising, creative
briefs—is not restrictive but rather provides the right freedom to your people. I’d rather my people drive
all their creative energy into great work that gets in the marketplace, not trying to figure out what slide
looks really cool in the brand plan presentation. I’ve worked as a Brand Manager in a marketing team
without process and it was total chaos, not fun at all.
2. Focus on the People and the Results will come: The formula is simple: the better the people, the
better the work and in turn the better the results. You should have a regular review of the talent with
your directors. I’d encourage you to ensure there’s a systemic way to get feedback to everyone on the
team, preferably on a quarterly basis. Waiting for the annual review is way too late and almost negligent
as a leader. Your people have the potential to grow with feedback. But without feedback, they’ll be
confused and even frustrated. You should invest in training and development. Marketing Training is not
just on the job, but also in the classroom to challenge their thinking and give them added skills to be
better in their jobs. Marketing fundamentals matter. And the classic fundamentals are falling, whether
it is strategic thinking, writing a brand plan, writing a creative brief or judging great advertising. People
are NOT getting the same development they did in prior generations. Investing in training, not only
makes them better, but it is also motivating for them to know that you are investing in them. And that
helps drive retention and commitment into producing great work and driving results.
3. Be consistent: People have to know how to act around you. You have to set up an avenue where
they are comfortable enough to approach you, and be able to communicate the good and bad. A scary
leader discourages people from sharing the bad results, leaving you in the dark. On the other hand,
open dialogue helps you be more knowledgeable of what’s really going on, so you can run the business.
Also, they have to be able to challenge you and push forward new thinking into the system. This helps
your brands to stay modern, push new ideas and connect with consumers. If you push your ideas too
far, you could be pushing ideas from a generation too late. Be consistent in how you think, how you act
in meetings and how you approve. Inconsistent behaviour by a leader does not ―keep them on their
toes‖ and create an atmosphere of ―creativity‖. It inhibits creativity, and creates tension that adds no
value to the brands. People forget that leadership assumes ―followership‖ from your team. Creating a
good atmosphere on the team will make people want to go the extra mile for you. Be a good listener and
you’ll be surprised on what people tell you—how honest they’ll be, how much they’ll tell you. Knowledge
makes you a great leader, and it starts with listening.
4. Let them own it and let them Shine: Remember when you were a Brand Manager and the passion
you put into that job—the greatness you sought–drove you even harder. Now it’s time, for you to step
back and let them have that same passion to do amazing work and drive the results. It has to be about
them, not you. At the VP level, I used to walk into every meeting knowing that ―I knew less about the
issue on the table, than anyone in the room‖. I looked for ways to support and encourage great thinking,
while challenging them to reach for even better. It’s not easy to balance giving them to freedom and yet
knowing when to step in and make a decision. When I was a Brand Manager, my VP once said to me
―every time I make a decision, I weaken myself‖. Honestly, I thought he was certifiably crazy, until I was
in the VP role. And then it made sense. By making all the decisions, you bring yourself down a level or
two and you take over their job. They’ll start to look to you to make EVERY decision and that just makes
you the ―Super-Duper Brand Manager‖. Instead, knowing how to ask good questions of your team to

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challenge or push them into a certain direction without them knowing you’re pushing them is more
enlightening than coming up with statements of direction. But on the other hand, when they put their
great work up for approval, and it’s fundamentally sound, approve it. Don’t do the constant spin of
pushing for better, because then you look indecisive.
5. You are the Mayor of Marketing: Bring a vision to the role. I tried to use vision statements to rally the
team, almost like campaign statements. I used: ‖Everything starts and ends with the Consumer in Mind‖
to push my team to be more consumer focused. And I used: ‖If we each get better, we all get better‖ to
bring a re-commitment to training and development. Look at what needs fixing on your team, and create
your own vision statements that relevant to your situation. Bring a human side to the role. Get up, walk
around and engage with everyone on your team. It will make someone’s day. Your role is to motivate
and encourage them to do great work. Challenge them and recognize the great work. It might be my
own thing, but I never said ―thank you‖ because I never thought they were doing it for me. Instead I said
―you should be proud‖ because I knew they were doing it for themselves. Influence behind the scenes to
help clear some of the roadblocks in the way of their success. Know when you need to back them up,
whether it’s an internal struggle they are having, selling the work into your boss or with a conflict with an
agency they are struggling with.
6. It’s a rather lonely job: I remember when I first took the job as VP, I found it surprisingly a bit lonely.
Everyone in marketing tries to be ―on‖ whenever you are around. And you don’t always experience the
―real‖ side of the people on your team. That’s ok. Just be ready for it. Also, the distance from your new
peers (the head of sales, HR, operations or finance) is far greater than you’re used to. And it might feel
daunting at first. Your peers expect you to run marketing and let them run their own functional area.
And the specific problems you face, they might not appreciate or even understand the subtleties of the
role. Your boss also gives you a lot of rope (good and bad) and there’s usually less coaching than you
might be used to. It’s important for you to have a good mentor or even an executive coach to give you
someone to talk with that understands what you’re going through.
As you are coming up through the marketing roles, observe great leaders and equally watch bad leaders. I
learned equally from watching both. It will help frame how you will do the job. Keep a checklist of ―when I’m in
the VP role‖. Bring those into the role, and look to improve upon what your predecessor left for you. I was
lucky in that my predecessor did a great job in turning around the business, giving me freedom to bring energy
and passion into the role.
Performance Reviews
As we come up to the year-end, when we nervously sit down with our bosses and find out how the year went.
For most of us, it’s one of the most dreaded parts of the job, for both those delivering and receiving the news.
But helping to grow our people is one of the most essential parts of the Leader. No matter how good your
strategy or product is, without the greatness of your people you’ll never achieve the results you want. We all
have gaps and we should all be working on closing those gaps. Performance Feedback is an essential role in
the growth of our people. But without pointing those gaps out and coming up with a plan, then the person will
never really improve.
A challenge to you: if there are any surprises during the meeting, then you as a leader are not doing
your job. As the head of Marketing at Johnson and Johnson, I had one-on-one quarterly performance check
ins with all my direct reports. And I made the Quarterly Review process mandatory for everyone on the
marketing team. It’s my belief that marketers can grow faster than we think–but they can only grow with timely
feedback. Those quarterly meetings were honest and informal discussions–which made the year-end review

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very easy. I also emailed out the written review document 48 hours ahead of time, giving people the chance to
digest all the thoughts and to come prepared ready to discuss each point.
As a Marketing Leadership Team, we spent our greatest efforts around managing the people. We talked
people performance in every one of our weekly meetings. The directors were encouraged to bring up people
examples of those who were shining and those who were struggling. If one of the other leaders were not
familiar with those that were shining,
we’d set up a process or special
project where they could become more
aware. We ranked everyone on the
team once a year plus a mid-year
check in on the rankings. You have to
be diligent in managing your team.
Skills, Behaviors and Experiences
Marketing Skills:Brand Leaders
should be measured on the Core
Marketing Skills. Below, I’ve outlined a
Checklist of 30 Core Skills for a
Brand Leader that can be used to
highlight potential gaps that some of
our Brand Leaders may have. These
30 core skills fall under the areas
of:Analytics
Brand Planning
Briefs
Advertising
New Products & Claims
Go-To-Market
Leadership
Management
You can use this checklist in a few
different ways: 1) to see if someone is
meeting the needs of the current job–it
could be used to set someone up for a
performance improvement plan or as a
motivation to push themselves 2) for
someone who is close to ready for promotion, but you want to close on a few specific areas before the
promotion or 3) for your personal assessment to see what you want to work on.
The rating should compare against their peers. It helps to highlight skill gaps where people should focus their
attention. Any scores in the 1 or 2 are concerning and need an action plan. The gap could arise because it’s
outside of their natural skills or it could just be because it’s been outside of their experience they’ve had. It’s
tough to be good at advertising until you’ve worked on a brand with advertising.

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Leadership Skills: Below, I’ve outlined a Checklist of 12 Leader Behaviors of Brand Leaders that can be
used to highlight potential gaps that some of our Brand Leaders may have. These 12 leader behaviors fall
under the areas of:
Accountability to Results
People Leadership
Strategic Thinker
Broad Influence
Authentic Style
In the Leader Behavior space, we all
have blind sides that we just can’t see.
This is where the 360 degree feedback
can help people to see how they are
showing up. I know that as a Director, I
was a Driver-Driver that caused me to
have behavior gaps around Influence
and Style. I had the attitude of ―it’s my
way or the highway‖ and I wasn’t
getting what I needed from the strategy
and accountability I was hoping for.
Once I was able to identify it and work
on it, I was able to see a big
improvement in my performance and
the results started to pay off as well.
Without closing that gap when I was a
director, I would not have been
promoted and would have honestly
been unable to lead the entire
marketing team.
Experience: Many of our gaps as
Brand Leaders comes from not having
the experience. When managing others, expect quite a few mistakes in the first few and you might not get fully
there until your 5th direct report. When sitting in the hot seat of advertising, you’ll start to realize just how
complex it can be–you’ve got to stay on brief, keep the creative team motivated, make judgment calls at every
stage of the process and keep your own management on side. And at every level, you’ll start to notice that the
pressure gets higher–whether it’s push for results, the ambiguity or meeting deadlines through your team.
Each of these takes experience.
With your best people, make sure you identify the experience gaps they have and be fair to them with the next
assignment. It’s far too easy to keep relying on a person’s strengths but it’s more important that you round out
that person’s experience. If they advance too far without covering off those gaps, they may find themselves
struggling later in the job. I’ve known newly promoted directors who had very little advertising experience
coming up that all of a sudden found themselves on a desk with lots of advertising. Their team even had more
experience than they did. Regular people reviews can really help identify the experience gaps that
people might have.

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About Beloved Brands
Graham Robertson is the voice of the modern Brand Leader. He started Beloved
Brands, knowing he could “Make Brands better and Brand Leaders better™”. His
Beloved Brands blog has 2 million views, and his public speaking appearances
inspire Brand Leaders to love what they do.
The idea behind Beloved Brands is the more love you can generate with your
consumers, the more power you have in the market which drives higher growth
and profits for your brand.
As a brand coach, Graham helps to find growth where others couldn’t, creating
Brand ideas consumers love and Brand Plans everyone can follow. For Brand
Leaders wanting to reach their full potential The Brand Leadership Center offers
workshops on strategic thinking, analytics, planning, positioning, creative briefs,
judging advertising and media.
Graham spent 20 years leading some of the world’s most beloved brands at Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer,
General Mills and Coke, rising through the ranks up to VP Marketing. Graham played a major role in helping
Pfizer win Marketing Magazine’s Marketer of the Year award.
Specialties:
Brand Strategy & Planning
Brand Training & Personal Coaching
Advertising Creative Advisor
Marketing Execution, Creativity/Brainstorms
Turnaround Specialist, Change Management
Executive Leadership Team Facilitation
Brand Audits, Analysis, Research
Webinar/Video Training
Motivational Speaking
To contact Beloved Brands
Graham Robertson
416 885 3911
graham@beloved-brands.com