What Are The Key Skills Required In Branding And Advertising Profession?
The invention of social media platforms has taken the marketing of products and services digital. One of the ways a product or service is marketed in digital media today is by harping on creative branding strategies and lucrative advertising tactics.
In advertising, one often comes across the term branding, so what is branding? Let's answer this question by taking a holistic approach. Branding is a way a company differentiates its products and services by giving it a unique selling proposition that sets it apart from its competitors.
Some of the critical skills in branding required to make a product or service successful in the market are-
1. Effective Communication
One of the critical skills to convey your message is to have a transparent form of communication, whether it's with your teammates or a particular audience you're trying to reach out to with your brand or product. Communication plays a crucial role in branding as your product or service reflects your thought process intertwined with your organization's goals. You have to communicate what your brand stands for, layout its features, and what it has to offer, among other things, to advertise it effectively. As the medium of communication is a two-way process, you also need to be an active listener. In the field of advertising, you'll come across people who will become your prospective clients, and to cater to their needs will require an open mind to hear out their requirements and fulfill them accordingly.
2. Creative Aptitude
One cannot purchase creativity but is either born with it or can acquire it through rigorous thinking and observation. If one wants to make it big in the advertising industry, then having a creative aptitude will boost your chances of making it to the top. Everything in an advertising world circulates around creative inputs and insights contributed by individuals and relevant teams to make the product or service being provided a highlight in the market. Being creative with your product makes your brand stand out from your competitors and creates its name and place in the market. When you have a creative aptitude, you can write content or brainstorm ideas that can grab the attention of the audience, which results in a positive growth of the organization.
3. An Imaginative takeÂ
One can view the world through an analytical and creative lens but has to have an imaginative perspective on things too. An innovative take on things can broaden your intellect on the subject being studied, and you can come up with thought-provoking and exciting ideas. Advertising a product or service requires brand management skills where you can promote the organization's views through your product and make relevant contributions in the marketplace. Having an imaginative mind makes you think out of the box and inculcate ideas that serve your brand well in the long run, as you always have a different way of presenting and going about advertising your brand.
4. Be a team player
Whether you're part of an advertising campaign or nearing a product launch, working together with a team is your best bet to have the work done effectively and efficiently. Various participants from different departments putting their heads together and navigating ways to find the best possible solution for a given problem is a primary way an organization creatively functions. To be successful with branding and advertising, it's imminent that participants work in teams as the best results come out when different ideas and thought processes come together, some of which are accepted and some criticized.
5. Social Media and Marketing
With the advent of social media, the way a product or service is marketed has changed significantly. Today, to grab the consumer's attention, one has to be highly active on social media platforms and be accustomed to digital marketing techniques and brand marketing skills to make its way to the targeted demographic. In the digital age, most marketing happens online as that's where the consumers spend their time. All social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, etc are advertisement-supported, and it is with this strategy businesses are catering to their target audience with their products and services.
6. Market awareness
Both branding and advertising run along with market trends and consumer behavior. If one has a good understanding of these patterns, then a suitable marketing strategy can be implemented. These market patterns keep changing according to the consumer's tastes and preferences, and one has to constantly check on the latest buzz going around.Â
Let's understand the entire structure of branding and advertising in the ed-tech setup. If you're working in the education domain and are keen on advertising and marketing for a UG specific program, let's say Bachelor's of Business Administration (BBA), you need to be aware of what steers students towards pursuing the course, what does graduating in it entails for the students, what are the prospects of getting the degree and what does the career graph of a BBA aspiring student looks like and create branding and advertising content accordingly. The process is the same if you are branding or advertising for an Online Masters of Business Administration (MBA) or any other program where you and your team need to develop competitive strategies so that your brand, along with the creatives, stand out in the market. The purpose of marketing is to take your product to the desired demographic by making it different and unique using branding and advertising as the medium through which the product or service is highlighted.
