Marketers are the heartbeat of companies - Franklin Sowa
A marketer is one who is able to identify a problem and devise a solution for it or put strategic measures in place to address it.
He also monitors what is trending on the market and creates advertising campaigns.
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A marketer is always on his guard to look for opportunities which he can tap into to position and promote his company's brand, products and services.
The Director of Sales and Marketing of the Graphic Communications Group Limited (GCGL), Mr Franklin Sowa, takes you through his daily routine.
Typical day in the life of a marketer
Mr Sowa explained that depending on the organisation, a marketer's daily activities might vary.
Everyday work schedule is fun and comes with exciting challenges.
For him, he begins the day going through his checklist to find out what he has to do during the entire day.
A checklist is a list of items required, things to be done or points to be considered.
It's mostly used as a reminder.
He checks on the teams he manages and prepares thoroughly for meetings he has for the day.
He also checks on the projections for the week to be well-informed on their projects and plans.
All projects are expected to generate an amount of revenue.
According to him, he usually reports to work very early to enable him to have ample time and a serene atmosphere to come up with new ideas, write proposals, reports, assess and have a fore knowledge of all projects to be able to restrategise those which were not working.
As a marketer, he explained that he did not have a fixed scheme of work; he took on different activities as the days went by.
Generating revenue for the Brands
As a marketer at GCGL, Mr Sowa plays a very vital role in the success of the company.
Aside from placing adverts in the various brands to generate revenue for the company, Mr Sowa works with his team to develop concepts and strategies for each of
the brands to ensure their growth and sustainability.
"At Graphic, we sell adverts in the newspapers. We also have concepts that we pitch to brands to seek sponsorships," he stated.
He noted that relevant examples included the Junior Graphic essay competitions to engage primary and Junior High School (JHS) students across Ghana to learn and improve on their writing capabilities and the Tertiary Business Sense Challenge for businesses and entrepreneurs to appreciate some basic business principles.
Others include The Mirror Mother's Day buffet lunch and the Showbiz Forum which help boost The Mirror and the Graphic Showbiz.
"All these endear our brands to the hearts of our target market (potential customers for products) and also improve our papers, he explained.
He added that their in-depth knowledge of their customers helped them develop relevant products and services that would appeal to target market.
What programme should you pursue?
Right from the secondary school, the marketing strategist stated that a young person seeking to become a marketer could take courses in Business Administration, Finance, Marketing, Mathematics and any courses relating to business.
He indicated that whatever one was able to do effortlessly gave an indication of what one's career should be.
To become a successful marketer, Mr Sowa added that it was important to uphold high levels of professionalism and integrity.
"Integrity breeds trust, confidence and loyalty. Whatever you say, you must stand by it. You cannot promise clients one thing and deliver otherwise" he stated.
"Marketing is more relational than just a transaction," he said, adding that as a marketer, there was the need for one to always look out for feedback from customers and clients in order to serve them better.
"Whatever decisions you take must be insight-based. Conditions must inform the decisions that you take," he said.
An interesting experience
Mr Sowa explained that a lot of marketers entered the sector without understanding what it entailed. "It is best for a marketer to understand what marketing is about, then he/ she can offer the best solutions to clients", he added.
In his career, offering counsel marketing that could give value to clients and make their businesses successful were the most interesting experiences he
recalled.
"For instance, if some clients want advertising campaign packages, based on the information provided, a marketer could suggest that instead of advertisements, they
would need to educate customers on certain attributes about the product to attain the best results.
He said some clients did not understand their reasons for choosing certain marketing tools and strategies, yet those strategies were able to realise set goals and
objectives.
"Whatever you deliver as a solution to an identified problem must be commercially viable and profitable to the business," he indicated.
"As a marketing person, you must have a positive attitude towards life and work; you must be relentless and avoid complacency.
The mantra must always be "still achieving, still pursuing" " as my former boss and mentor, the late Mr Torgbor Mensah, taught me very early in my career life," he
said.