Vodafone immediately reminds us of the ZooZoos and the Pug. Similarly, we associate Amul with the image of a girl fondly called The Amul Girl and for McDonald’s, a clown is a mascot. Some brands have successfully created powerful mascots whose presence is enough to recognize the brand. While other brands have worked on things like a campaign or a catchy jingle. All this has been the brainchild of creative heads that exist in every company. These creative minds are none other than the ones who are part of the marketing department and practice the art of marketing.

A good marketer needs to be creative and needs to have a deep understanding of culture, people, society, the way we have progressed and is a great career option for art students. If you believe that you are creative and have a good knowledge of analytics too, you have the becoming of a great marketer. But before we talk about skills, it is important to understand the factors that are extremely crucial for the success of a marketing strategy of a brand.

Understanding the target market

In order to create a good marketing strategy, it is really important for a marketer to understand the audience they are targeting. The strategy should be made keeping in mind the needs and the requirements of the audience. The marketer's aim should be to create an image of the ideal customer in his mind and then start working on the strategy keeping that image in perspective because only then he will be able to get the essence right.

History and culture

Whenever a marketer is creating a marketing strategy for a particular brand, it should keep in mind the history and culture of the market or economy for which the strategy is being created. In addition to this, he should try to draw a contrast between the history and culture of the brand with that of the economy. This will help in grabbing the attention of the audience. Usually, companies in their marketing campaigns specify the number of years they have been serving the customers and the work culture to make it possible for the audience to relate to the brand.

Relatable content

The aim of a marketer is to create content that the audience is able to relate to. A lot of time is usually spent by the marketing teams in getting the sentiment right. Another aim of the team is to give wings to the imaginations of the people and be as creative as possible so as to get maximum engagement. Amul is known for its relatable content wherein in their print ads they present the latest news in a cheeky and satirical way which is loved by all.

Keeping track of competitors

If you are in the market and working towards increasing your market share every single day, you cannot afford to ignore your competitors and the marketing strategies that they are using. The marketing department has to think fast and different to win a larger section of the audience and not lose them to the competitor. So every change in the brand message, quality, and customer feedback should be taken seriously.

Skills

These are certain things that you need to keep a check to create an interesting and relevant marketing strategy and learn the art of marketing. But that’s not all as you need to have certain skills as well so that the decisions you take are correct and prove beneficial for the company. These skills include:

Creativity and Imagination

Creativity and imagination are all about thinking out of the box and giving people something different and interesting that they are able to relate to. Every person is creative but the level of creativity differs. If you engage in stimulating conversations in people, try to analyze other people’s ideas, often doodle and write your ideas in a journal ten your creativity and imagination will improve.

Analytics

Marketing decisions prove more effective when they are backed by data. Therefore it is important to have marketing analytics skills in order to understand the success of a marketing initiative. The art of marketing is not just about being creative but also having good knowledge of data. All the information about a campaign and consumers should be used to create and analyze trends that can further help the company in improving its marketing initiatives.

Digital Marketing

Today the audience is very active on digital media and digital marketing has become an important component of any marketing strategy. So it is important for a marketer to have good knowledge about Digital Marketing which includes paid media, owned media, and earned media. An understanding of how social media works, Search engine optimization, Search engine marketing, advertising on social media, maximized engagement, etc are important to ensure maximum reach of a marketing initiative.

Content Marketing

Today content is the king and it is the duty of a marketer to create content that not only appeals to the audience but also grabs their attention. Content is an essential part of the marketing strategy with a team in the department specifically designed to assess the content that will be put up on various platforms by the company. So a marketer should know how to create engaging content.

No matter what stream you are a part of, you can learn and practise the art of marketing. This field is interest-driven and gives a good picture to your ideas. All you have to do is put in efforts and brush your marketing skills to give the world it’s next biggest marketing initiative.

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