A standing room only crowd filled Aldrich 7 last Tuesday to hear fran kelly (HBS ’83), President and COO of arnold worldwide, and two of his colleagues present their views on the topic of modern branding. And no, the lack of capitalization is not sloppy editing on the part of The Harbus, it is straight from Kelly’s business card. A style that he may have adopted while typing the headers on his first HBS resume at the old IBM Electric typewriter lab in Kresge during those crazy days of Reaganomics.
You may recall Arnold’s name from the New Beetle case in first-year marketing. The “Drivers Wanted” campaign has earned the Boston headquartered Arnold numerous awards over the years and helped propel them from 131st to 15th spot in the U.S, with over 2 billion in annual revenues replica watches. Not to mention the 400% increase in U.S Volkswagen sales.
During the 75-minute presentation, the folks from Arnold spoke about modern branding, the role of the account planner, presented two case studies and entertained the crowd with spots from several campaigns. For those of you keeping score, the “flight quotient” was a minuscule 15% (i.e. the number of people who fled the room before the end of the presentation).
Why did people stay? Sure it was more entertaining that most presentations I’ve been to. The answer became obvious at the end of the presentation, as eager MBA’s posed intriguing questions to the three presenters in exchange for business cards. In these tough times, MBA’s are exploring non-traditional careers //www.replicaforbest.co.uk/replica-breitling-watches-sale-for-uk.html.
A typical role for an MBA in this industry is the account planners. Bob Silagi described Account Planning as the integration of strategy, marketing, human behavior, and creativity. The planner uses various marketing tools and judgment to define the essence of the brand and inspire creative teams to produce visionary marketing campaigns that will lead consumers in new directions.
Pluses about the job include the chance to work across multiple categories, being involved in the front-end of strategy setting, and the need to be very forward thinking. Kelly contrasted planning to consulting using the VW campaign as an example. “McKinsey could spend two months talking about the positioning of VW but if you don’t get it down to two words (‘Drivers Wanted’)-you’re dead!”
If you answer yes to most of the following questions, a career in Account Planning may be right for you:
1. Are you still looking for a job? If no, then proceed to line 8.
2. Can you simultaneously use the right and left part of your brains?
3. Are you friendly, smart, and curious?
4. Can you be assertive without being obnoxious? (Be honest)
5. Are you passionate about creativity?
6. Do you have good written, verbal, and visual communication skills?
7. Can you multi-task and work in a collaborative environment?
8. Shame on you for reading about new careers when you already have a job!
The presentation should be available for viewing soon on-line if you are interested in the principles of modern branding. While there was no mention of any current job openings, opportunities are always opening up. Additionally, if Arnold is the 15th largest, firm in the U.S, logic would indicate that there must be at least 14 other firms in the U.S alone to target. More information about Arnold Worldwide can be found at www.arn.com.
