The Marketing Team

A marketing campaign is a group effort. It takes an entire team to make them work; teams consisting of a variety of roles and positions within a company, from the lowest of entry level jobs to top executives.

Many students will first learn to work as part of a team while enrolled in marketing degree programs, where group work is an important part of the learning experience. No one person is responsible for the brainstorming, the planning, or the execution behind a group project or in a marketing campaign. These teams are unique in that the opinion of every member is important, and all individuals are not only encouraged to participate in their own area of expertise but on the campaign as a whole.

It is incredibly important that a team be able to work together well. The idea that holds the entire campaign together must be understood by each member of the team so that it can be planned and executed to its fullest extent. All text, art, and services offered by a company must work together toward the same idea.

Assistants in varying roles make up the lowest rung of the team. These are generally entry-level careers for those who have just earned their marketing degree. They offer insight and help the person they assist in fulfilling their roles in the team. A typical team may have only one assistant or may have several, depending on how large the team itself is. An assistant may or may not participate in the major meetings related to the campaign. They may instead participate in smaller meetings related to their own particular department.

Specialists make up the next several roles in the team. These specialists may work in graphic design, management, or as social media experts, and it is their job to help develop that particular avenue of the campaign in order to fit the other parts. Market researchers are another vital part of the team and it is their job to ensure that the campaign itself fits the needs of the company in regards of demographic and appeal. A marketing degree program in market research is a specific area of study within the field, and may be necessary if a student wishes to take part in this kind of marketing career.

There are several types of managers that make up the next few parts of the team, each holding a stronger position of power than the next. The first manager is the campaign director, whose job it is to oversee all aspects of the campaign to be certain that they are all working together in as beneficial a manner as possible.

Above that manager is the marketing manager, whose job it is to be certain that the general focus of the campaign not only fits the ideal that the client had in mind, but that the campaign is adhering to several other important matters such as budget. Many students may choose to participate in a master’s level business or marketing degree program in order to attain these higher level positions.

In any marketing team, absolute veto power rests in the hands of two groups of people –the owner of the marketing company and the client. While they generally do little to actually contribute to the campaign it is important for all marketing professionals to realize that they have absolute power to approve or deny a campaign, no matter how far along in the process they are.